Over the weekend I watched the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and it took me back into those scary days 3 years ago. I started working in the financial services industry in August 2008, 5 weeks before Lehman Brothers failed and our economy spun into a seemingly hopeless downward spiral.
They were dark days, and somehow I was able to keep my fear at bay so that I could actually use the opportunity to learn something. I had a front row seat to the recession, and at any moment I could have been a casualty. There was little I could do about that potential outcome so every day I got up, went to work, and hoped that I could take some lesson away from the situation. Most of the days that strategy worked.
I was lucky to receive a top-notch education as an undergraduate and graduate student. It gave me a base of knowledge to draw from as I read about and listened to economic data. I adjusted my career and savings plans as a result of the recession and years from now I’m confident that I will look back on these years as ones that were tough and made me tougher.
But then I thought about how many people don’t have the education I have, and how daunting it can be to learn about the economy. It’s a mess of acronyms, numbers, and opinions that make it difficult to decipher the truth from fiction. I was also inspired by Occupy Wall Street and wanted to do something to help the protestors and their audience make sense of what’s going on around them. So I went looking for free sources that could help people who have an interest in learning more about the economy though don’t know exactly where to start.
About.com’s page on the U.S. economy – a well-done overview of the U.S. economy. Suitable for beginners and those who want a brush-up lesson.
Investopedia – I used this resource all of the time when I was in business school. They have a great financial dictionary, tutorials, and a well-organized set of top current news stories that relate to business.
Free online economics classes – collection of links to free Economics courses from the world’s leading universities. You can download these audio & video courses straight to your computer or mp3 player.
Christa Avampato 