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Financial literacy is ideally suited to be integrated into mathematics courses and taught in an interdisciplinary manner. Students learn best and are motivated when tackling real-world meaningful questions. This article shares how elementary mathematics was applied to better understand the debate about raising the minimum wage and the United States National Debt. To serve as a guide for other teachers who wish to incorporate financial literacy into their mathematics courses and take an interdisciplinary approach, this article suggests readings, data sets, and pedagogical practices. Students were engaged and enthusiastic to work on problems that challenged their thinking about financial issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the modern widespread approaches to the nature of external debt and its effects on economic processes, debt financing is among the distinctive features of the liberalization-oriented world of nowadays. Accordingly, unrestricted capital flows signify orientation at macroeconomic balance, since under the conditions when administrative barriers are absent capital distribution is even and symmetric, enabling leveling of factor prices. Associated with these arguments is a claim that prices of goods and services do not indicate nonnegligible fluctuations and a financial system gains economic agents' confidence. This research addresses the issues of the phenomenon of external debt and provides an insight into the U.S. external debt and its effects on both the U.S. and world economy. The findings show that the U.S. external debt is of no considerable threat to the world economy in the short-term, since the peace of the world's economic leader's growth exceeds that of debt servicing expenditures. However, an economic decline may turn the status-quo upside down, since the country may face inability to raise enough funds in time to discharge its financial liabilities, especially to non-residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a recursive empirical model of the real interest rate, GDP growth and the primary government deficit in the United States, I solve for the ergodic distribution of the debt/GDP ratio. If such a distribution exists, the government is satisfying its intertemporal budget constraint. One key finding is that historical fiscal policy would bring the current high-debt ratio back to its normal level of 0.35 over the coming decade. Forecasts of continuing increases in the ratio over the decade make the implicit assumption that fiscal policy has shifted dramatically. In the variant of the model that matches the forecast, the government would not satisfy its intertemporal budget constraint if the policy was permanent. The willingness of investors to hold US government debt implies a belief that the high-deficit policy is transitory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project presents an opportunity for high school social studies teachers to infuse content on the federal budget, national debt, and budget deficit into civics-courses. The federal budget influences countries' decisions about domestic and foreign policy, making the study of the topic a necessity for understanding economic interdependence, as well as active and engaged citizenship. The national debt plays an important role in efforts to balance competing interests concerning taxes, entitlement programs, and government spending. Social studies teachers have the opportunity to create connections between economic and public policies about the federal budget, national debt, budget deficit, and the content commonly taught in high school civics classes across the United States. Our two-day lesson, Examining the role of citizens in the U.S. budgetary process: A case study, can be infused into the civics curriculum to help high school students begin to understand the federal budget, national debt, and budget deficit. We model an inquiry-oriented approach for citizen participation about these topics in high school civics classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study of all fifty state, high school social studies curriculum standards found a lack of attention in the vast majority of state standards to the federal budget, federal debt, and budget deficit, topics of significant concern. These concepts are important to teaching about economics in the United States since they lie at the center of contemporary debates about the health of the nation's economy and its long-term viability. Our research discovered broad variation among states in the degree of specificity about teaching these economic concepts. We discuss specific ways in which some of the economic concepts found in state social studies standards might be used to infuse content about federal budget, federal debt, and budget deficit into high school social studies courses, critical topics in light of contemporary debates about the future of American entitlement programs and the federal government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty-five years ago, the A. Philip Randolph Institute issued 'The Freedom Budget,' in which a program for economic transformation was proposed that included a job guarantee for everyone ready and willing to work, a guaranteed income for those unable to work or those who should not be working, and a living wage to lift the working poor out of poverty. Such policies were supported by a host of scholars, civic leaders, and institutions, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; indeed, they provided the cornerstones for King's 'Poor Peoples' Campaign' and 'economic bill of rights.' This paper proposes a 'New Freedom Budget' for full employment based on the principles of functional finance. To counter a major obstacle to such a policy program, the paper includes a 'primer' on three paradigms for understanding government budget deficits and the national debt: the deficit hawk, deficit dove, and functional finance perspectives. Finally, some of the benefits of the job guarantee are outlined, including the ways in which the program may serve as a vehicle for a variety of social policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explain why, given Keynes's General Theory, worries over the size of the government's national debt per se are foolish. It is more important to educate politicians and the public that government fiscal policy should be designed to make sure that aggregate market demand will produce sufficient profits so that entrepreneurs will hire all domestic workers willing and able to work. Empirical evidence is provided to demonstrate the correctness of this concept of fiscal policy of the balancing wheel for full employment effective demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the United States to hit record numbers of COVID-19 cases: peak unemployment of 14.7%, an increase in $4 trillion in national debt, and an estimated 3.4% GDP decline. The current socio-economic environment the pandemic created is just an earthquake that can create a tsunami that is bound to hit the healthcare system and can be felt around the globe. This tsunami is composed of a post-pandemic increase in healthcare facilities admission of indigent patients, decrease in medical reimbursement, and high operating costs to maintain healthcare workers, which can cause a synergistic effect that can lead to healthcare facilities experiencing significant negative total revenue. Time is of the essence, and it is imperative to make a collective effort from all healthcare professionals and legislatures to shift the nation's attention to the issue at hand that can threaten the closure of many healthcare facilities post-pandemic.