With the pervasive news coverage of America's financial turmoil, our children may have questions about what is going on in our economy. Many adults have a difficult time understanding - much less explaining in an age-appropriate way to a child - what is going on in our government and in our financial markets. In addition to our usual classroom curriculum, JA is providing resources to help explain just how we ended up in the current economic situation we find ourselves in. In addition to being represented on the President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, JA is taking a lead in educating young people about the crisis by providing them with timely information that will help them understand the present crisis and, more importantly, how a similar crisis may be averted in the future. Two versions of a study titled, Understanding the Financial Crisis: Origin and Impact have been commissioned by JA Worldwide to provide students and volunteers/educators with a better perspective of the evolution of the present crisis, its impact on the economy, and lessons learned. Read each version here:
Junior Achievement commissioned Dr. Raymond Lambda, Professor of Economics at Pennsylvania State University to write the second paper entitled Understanding Stock Market Fluctuations: The Turmoil at the Heart of the Capitalist System. This paper provides both a primer on how the stock market operates and an analysis of the impact the U.S. economic crisis is having on the Market. Read it here:
The third critical issues paper focusing on the U.S. economy is now available. This paper is designed to provide an additional resource to help increase the relevancy of JA's educational content during these troubling economic times. Junior Achievement again commissioned Dr. Lambda to write this paper entitled The U.S. Financial Crisis: Global Repercussions. This paper provides an explanation of the global impact of the financial crisis. Read it here:
Now that we are starting to emerge from what appears to be the worst of the recession, questions still linger about the health of the economy, especially in regards to the high unemployment rate. As a way to facilitate dialogue and increase awareness about issues surrounding the job market, JA released its fourth position paper entitled High Unemployment: The Recession's Harsh Reality. High Unemployment covers topics such as the unemployment rate and its relation to the global recession, factors that increase unemployment, the significance of education in reducing unemployment rates, and a forecast regarding unemployment rates as the economy begins to recover. Bolstered by financial knowledge and a good grasp of the current state of the economy, this paper outlines how we can emerge from the recession with confidence, courage, and foresight. Read it here:
Plans are underway at JA Worldwide to provide additional resources focusing on financial literacy topics. In the meantime, we hope these papers will provide you with additional tools you can use to reach young people with relevant financial literacy information.
Please feel free to provide us with your feedback regarding these papers, and to share any other ideas you have about resources we can provide to assist you in teaching Chicago youth the importance of financial literacy.
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