Theme One: Boom and Bust
Essential Questions:
- Why are some people rich and other people poor?
- Is the economy fair?
- What role should a government play in its citizens’ economic welfare?
Enduring Understandings:
- The United States’ economy has gone through cycles of growth and contraction.
- The type of economic system that a country develops will affect the results of the citizens.
- In a global economy, similar and different economic systems cooperate and compete.
What Are We Learning?
Skills:
4. Explain what a financial investment is (e.g., a bank deposit, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate); explain why the value of investments fluctuate, and track the gains or losses in value of a financial investment over time (e.g., stocks, bonds, or mutual funds).
6. Explain the role of banks and other financial institutions in the market economy of the United States, and analyze the reasons for banking crises.
9. Analyze the impact of events such as wars and technological developments on business cycles. Examples:
a. the impact of the Civil War
b. the impact of the expansion of canals and railroads in the 19th century and the
invention of space-age technology and the Internet in the 20th century
15. Using primary sources such as campaign literature, news articles/analyses, editorials, and radio/newsreel coverage, analyze the important policies, institutions, trends, and personalities of the Depression era (e.g., Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, Huey Long, Charles Coughlin, Charles Lindbergh). Students may research and complete a case study on any one of the following policies , institutions, or trends:
a. the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
b. the Securities and Exchange Commission
c. the Tennessee Valley Authority
d. the Social Security Act
e. the National Labor Relations Act
f. the Works Progress Administration
g. the Fair Labor Standards Act
h. the American Federation of Labor
i. the Congress of Industrial Organizations
j. the American Communist Party
k. the America First movement and anti-Semitism in the United States
24. Explain the long-term consequences of important domestic events during the war.
a. the War’s stimulus to economic growth
d. large numbers of women in the workforce of munitions industries and serving in non-
combat jobs in the military, including as pilots, clerks, computer scientists, and nurses
26. Explain what communism is as an economic system and analyze the sources of Cold War conflict; on a political map of the world, locate the areas of Cold War conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the 1950s to the 1980s.
40. Analyze the presidency of Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) and the rise of the conservative movement in American politics, (e.g., policies such as tax rate cuts, anti-communist foreign and defense policies, replacement of striking air traffic controllers with non-union personnel.
- Read and interpret data tables, charts, and graphs
4. Explain what a financial investment is (e.g., a bank deposit, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate); explain why the value of investments fluctuate, and track the gains or losses in value of a financial investment over time (e.g., stocks, bonds, or mutual funds).
6. Explain the role of banks and other financial institutions in the market economy of the United States, and analyze the reasons for banking crises.
9. Analyze the impact of events such as wars and technological developments on business cycles. Examples:
a. the impact of the Civil War
b. the impact of the expansion of canals and railroads in the 19th century and the
invention of space-age technology and the Internet in the 20th century
15. Using primary sources such as campaign literature, news articles/analyses, editorials, and radio/newsreel coverage, analyze the important policies, institutions, trends, and personalities of the Depression era (e.g., Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, Huey Long, Charles Coughlin, Charles Lindbergh). Students may research and complete a case study on any one of the following policies , institutions, or trends:
a. the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
b. the Securities and Exchange Commission
c. the Tennessee Valley Authority
d. the Social Security Act
e. the National Labor Relations Act
f. the Works Progress Administration
g. the Fair Labor Standards Act
h. the American Federation of Labor
i. the Congress of Industrial Organizations
j. the American Communist Party
k. the America First movement and anti-Semitism in the United States
24. Explain the long-term consequences of important domestic events during the war.
a. the War’s stimulus to economic growth
d. large numbers of women in the workforce of munitions industries and serving in non-
combat jobs in the military, including as pilots, clerks, computer scientists, and nurses
26. Explain what communism is as an economic system and analyze the sources of Cold War conflict; on a political map of the world, locate the areas of Cold War conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the 1950s to the 1980s.
40. Analyze the presidency of Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) and the rise of the conservative movement in American politics, (e.g., policies such as tax rate cuts, anti-communist foreign and defense policies, replacement of striking air traffic controllers with non-union personnel.