I had the pleasure of teaching for two semesters at Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. I taught two courses designed to introduce business students to basic concepts in economics and the analytical tools to analzye policy decisions. The courses covered markets, economic policy, and macroeconomic indicators as well as some economic history and growth theory.

• SRES 101: Markets and Prosperity I Syllabus

• SRES 102: Markets and Prosperity II Syllabus

On the left is a picture of the course's opening lecture I taught on the marvel of the market. I asked students to brainstorm what items you would need to construct a simple woolen coat (as in Wealth of Nations chapter 1). The entangled web on the board makes obvious to students how difficult economic coordination truly is setting the stage for the puzzles we would answer throughout the course. Without referring to a textbook, the students could realize a startling insight by referring to their own experience and knowledge.

Across the semester I tried to emphasize that each lesson was not a separate fact the students had to memorize, but often a truth integrated into a larger body of economic theory that was often derived from very simple principles. I used integrated examples to build a fantasy world in which trade, war, and taxes occurred between different groups and kingdoms with a pocket economic history developing over the course of the semester. Such a method helped emphasize that each lesson was a continuation of the last, and that many economic forces are working in tandem to shape the world. I don't want any student to walk out of class thinking that I just told them a formula to memorize, but that they had learned a principle to understand the world by.