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AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE: One of three national stock markets in the United States (see National Association of Securities Dealers and New York Stock Exchange) that trade ownership shares in corporations. In terms of daily stock transactions and the number of stocks listed, the American Stock Exchange is the smallest of these three. However, it's composite index of stock prices -- AMEX is considered important enough to be flashed briefly on the nightly news.

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Lesson Contents
Unit 1: The Concept
  • A Definition
  • So What?
  • Unit 1 Summary
  • Unit 2: Resources
  • Factors
  • Working Together
  • Free or Scarce?
  • Comparisons
  • Unit 2 Summary
  • Unit 3: Opportunity Cost
  • The Concept
  • Economic Cost
  • Unit 3 Summary
  • Unit 4: College Cost
  • Out of Pocket
  • What Else?
  • Unit 4 Summary
  • Unit 5: THE Problem
  • No Free Lunch
  • Solutions?
  • Unit 5 Summary
  • Course Home
    Scarcity

    In this lesson you'll see why scarcity tends to make economists grumpy. You'll see that scarcity is a perpetual condition that exists because people have unlimited wants and needs, but limited resources. You'll also see how this scarcity problem underlies the common notion of cost, which is integral to the study of economics. The five units contained in this lesson provide a tour through the economic problem of scarcity.

    • The first unit, A Big Problem, examines the fundamental concept of scarcity -- the combination of limited resources and unlimited wants and needs -- that is virtually synonymous with the study of economics.
    • The second unit, Resources, discusses the four basic categories of limited resources -- labor, capital, land, and entrepreneurship -- which produce the goods that are used to satisfy unlimited wants and needs.
    • In the third unit, Opportunity Cost, we take a look at the notion of opportunity cost and see how it is related to the scarcity problem.
    • We then turn out attention in the fourth unit, College Cost, to a simple example of the explicit and implicit costs of attending college.
    • The fifth and final unit, THE Big Problem, in this lesson then ponders why scarcity is considered THE economic problem and provides a little insight into why economists are grumpy.

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    CREATIVE DESTRUCTION

    A fundamental process of capitalism, popularized by Joseph Schumpeter, in which the benefits of growth and prosperity induced by innovations also result in the costs of disrupting existing means of production. The creation of new activity involves the destruction of existing activity. This notion attributes business-cycle instability to innovations, including both the expansionary rise of prosperity, as well as a contractionary decline. Creative destruction is based on the idea that rather than tending toward equilibrium, the economy is largely in flux. A key question is one of cause and effect. Does innovation cause destruction or does destruction induce innovation?

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    APLS

    GRAY SKITTERY
    [What's This?]

    Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time flipping through mail order catalogs looking to buy either a genuine down-filled comforter or a 200-foot blue garden hose. Be on the lookout for high interest rates.
    Your Complete Scope

    This isn't me! What am I?

    There were no banks in colonial America before the U.S. Revolutionary War. Anyone seeking a loan did so from another individual.
    "Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative. "

    -- Cato, Roman orator

    IRPP
    Institute for Research on Public Policy
    A PEDestrian's Guide
    Xtra Credit
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