Financing American government

Authored by Martina Jasova (Barnard College and Columbia University), and Rajiv Sethi (Barnard College, Columbia University, and Santa Fe Institute).

This CORE Insight explains how the US Department of Treasury finances government spending and how the US Federal Reserve System conducts monetary policy both during times of normalcy and during economic crises.

This Insight includes CORE’s standard student learning activities, for example:

  • interactive questions to test understanding (with feedback on correct and incorrect answers),
  • data exploration and visualization,
  • report writing, and
  • suggestions for further research.

Activities can be selected to meet the needs of audiences with different levels of prior learning in economics. Links to CORE’s ebooks provide guidance for filling in gaps.

The aim of the Insights series is to provide additional teaching and learning resources linked to relevant conceptual treatments in CORE’s ebooks. They cover a growing number of topics supplementing the ebooks; sometimes with a stronger regional orientation than, for example, The Economy. CORE Insights are authored by experts on the topic at hand.