What is Economics?

Economics is the study of relationships that make up the Economy. Relationships, you say? Seems a little broad? No?. Well yes, Economics is (1) pretty broad and (2) all about relationships and (3) yes, a lot of things are all about relationships. What differentiates Economics is that it’s focused on relationships that relate to the Economy, that’s the key.

Now despite its name, the Sophomore Tutorial typically consists of Juniors and Seniors. By Junior or Senior year, you can typically separate Econ majors into one of three groups. One group really enjoys Economics. Perhaps they’re also applied math or computer science majors (or could be). They really like the order and structure of the courses. A second group isn’t and has never really been that interested in Economics (see Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker). Perhaps they’re in the class because they think it’s a good professional move or they have some pretty strong willed parents. The third group consists of those who initially thought they were into Economics but then grew to enjoy it less and less as the math became more and more.

When I was in college, I found myself in this latter group. Not that I didn’t enjoy math. I do. I just thought that Economic courses focused on how to solve well posed problems. Almost like an advanced multiplication class. There didn’t seem to be much room for thinking about what are the right problems to tackle, or how we might try to frame a problem before “solving” it. There also wasn’t much room for open and free flowing class discussions.

Now if an instructor ever opens a class with, this is the class I wish I had taken when I was in undergrad, that’s a pretty good indicator that the class might be too tailored to their own interests. Might a good time to pick up your books and shuffle off to another class.

But this class isn’t targeted at those in a specific “Econ bin”. I think all of us want to make better sense of the world. We scroll through newspaper, read books, or listen to podcasts, and there’s a variety of topics that get brought up spanning immigration, tariffs, health care, and housing. And if we had time, we’d like to do a deep dive on these topics to better understand them.

In this class, we’ll dive deep by going backward in history. Specifically Presidential history. Why? We’ll for one it’s pretty interesting to learn about lives of people who have shaped US history. You get a sense of how things might have turned out different. Maybe without Madison, Anglican and Presbyterian clergy would be subsidized by the state? Second, we’ll look at the context, consideration and outcomes of some of the key Presidential policies with a focus on how they this understanding can give us greater insight about current economic policies. What does the embargo on international trade under Thomas Jefferson tell us about the potential ramifications of todays 10% tariffs? What does the Kemp-Roth tax under Regan tell us about a possible extension of Trumps 2017 tax cuts?

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To put it simply, we’ll go two steps back to hopefully go one step forward.

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As we start to wade into the material, it can helpful just to look at how factors in the economy have evolved over time.

Motivated by John Cassidy of The New Yorker, we can also look at the number of Federal