Show all 84 cards (72 more)
Scarcity and choice
Resources and trade
Supply and demand
What shifts demand?
What shifts supply?
Markets and firms
The whole economy
Resources and trade 12
Absolute advantage Turning out more than a rival from the same resources: more wheat from the same field. Barter Swapping one good or service straight for another, with no money changing hands. Capital goods Tools, machines and buildings: things people made earlier that now help make something else. Comparative advantage Yours is the good you give up the least to make, even if a rival can make more of it. Division of labor One job cut into steps, each step with its own worker, as on an assembly line. Entrepreneur A person who takes the risk of combining resources to start a business or a new product. Factors of production The kinds of input all production needs. Many lists add a fourth: entrepreneurship. Human capital What a worker knows and can do, built up through school, training and time on the job. Labor The work people do, with muscle or with mind, to turn out goods and services. Land Gifts of nature that go into production: soil, water, minerals, timber, oil. Productivity The output each worker makes in a set time. Better tools and skills raise it. Specialization Concentrating on the few things you make best, then trading for everything else.
Supply and demand 12
Complements Goods bought to use together, like printers and ink. If one costs more, the other sells less. Demand A whole schedule, not one number: how much buyers would take at each price over a set time. Equilibrium price The price where the two curves cross, so the amount offered matches the amount wanted. Inferior good A good people demand less of when their income rises, such as inter-city bus trips. Law of demand Other things equal, buyers take less at a higher price and more at a lower one. Law of supply Other things equal, sellers offer more at a higher price and less at a lower one. Normal good A good people demand more of when their income rises, and less of when it falls. Quantity demanded One point on the demand curve: how much buyers take at one given price. Shortage Buyers want more than sellers offer at the going price. The price is below equilibrium. Substitutes Goods that do the same job, like tea and coffee. If one costs more, demand for the other rises. Supply A whole schedule, not one number: how much sellers would offer at each price over a set time. Surplus Sellers offer more than buyers want at the going price. The price is above equilibrium.
What shifts demand? 12
A report calls it unhealthy Demand shifts left: tastes have moved away from the good, so buyers want less at every price. Buyers expect a price rise Demand shifts right: buyers stock up today, before the higher price they expect arrives. Complement price falls Demand shifts right: the pair costs less to use together, so buyers want more of this good too. Complement price rises Demand shifts left: the pair costs more to use together, so buyers want less of this good too. The good comes into fashion Demand shifts right: tastes have moved toward the good, so buyers want more at every price. The good's own price falls No shift: its own price moves buyers along the demand curve. Quantity demanded rises. Income falls, inferior good Demand shifts right: with less income, buyers fall back on the cheaper good. Income rises, inferior good Demand shifts left: with more income, buyers move up to goods they like better. Income rises, normal good Demand shifts right: with more income, buyers want more of a normal good at every price. More buyers enter the market Demand shifts right: more people want the good, so more is demanded at every price. Substitute price falls Demand shifts left: buyers switch away to the substitute that now costs less. Substitute price rises Demand shifts right: buyers switch to this good when its substitute costs more.
What shifts supply? 12
A drought ruins the crop Supply shifts left: bad weather leaves farmers less to sell at every price. A new tax on each unit made Supply shifts left: firms treat the tax as a cost, so they offer less at every price. Good weather, a big harvest Supply shifts right: a good season gives farmers more to sell at every price. The good's own price rises No shift: its own price moves sellers along the supply curve. Quantity supplied rises. Input prices fall Supply shifts right: each unit costs less to make, so firms offer more at every price. Input prices rise Supply shifts left: each unit costs more to make, so firms offer less at every price. More sellers enter the market Supply shifts right: more firms are selling, so more is offered at every price. New safety rules raise costs Supply shifts left: meeting the rules adds to the cost of each unit. New technology cuts costs Supply shifts right: a cheaper way to produce lets firms offer more at every price. Producers get a subsidy Supply shifts right: the government payment offsets part of the firm's cost of each unit. Sellers leave the market Supply shifts left: fewer firms are selling, so less is offered at every price. Workers' wages rise Supply shifts left: labor is an input, so higher wages raise the cost of each unit.
Markets and firms 12
Barriers to entry Whatever keeps a newcomer out of a market: huge start-up costs, a patent, a license rule. Competition Sellers trying to win the same buyers with a lower price, better quality or better service. Fixed cost A bill that ignores output: the bakery owes the same rent on 10 loaves or 1,000. Market Any arrangement, a shop or a website, that lets buyers and sellers exchange goods and services. Monopoly One firm is the only source of a product nothing else replaces, and rivals cannot get in. Oligopoly A handful of big firms make most of the sales, so each one watches what the others charge. Perfect competition So many buyers and sellers of one identical product that no one of them can move the price. Price ceiling The highest price the government allows, like rent control. It can cause a shortage. Price floor The lowest price the government allows, like a minimum wage. Set above equilibrium: a surplus. Profit Money from sales minus everything it cost to make and sell the goods. Below zero, it is a loss. Total revenue All the money from sales, before any costs come off: price times the number of units sold. Variable cost A cost that climbs as output climbs: more loaves need more flour.
The whole economy 12
Budget deficit The government spends more than it collects in a year. Deficits add up to the national debt. Business cycle The economy's repeating swing: expansion, peak, recession, trough, then expansion again. Central bank A nation's bank for banks: it issues the currency and sets monetary policy. In the US, the Fed. Deflation Most prices keep dropping, so each dollar buys a little more than it did last year. Economic growth An economy turning out more goods and services year after year, usually tracked as real GDP. Fiscal policy How a national government tries to steer the economy with its own budget: taxes and spending. Gross domestic product (GDP) A year of a country's output priced and added up: new, finished goods and services only. Inflation Most prices keep climbing, so each dollar buys a little less than it did last year. Labor force Everyone with a job, plus everyone without one who is actively looking for work. Monetary policy A central bank moving interest rates and the money supply to hold prices steady and jobs up. Recession A slump across the whole economy that lasts for months: output falls and more people lose jobs. Unemployment rate Of every 100 people in the labor force, how many have no job and are searching for one.
How this list was compiled: 84 economics cards written for this site in our own words: 60 terms, each with a short gist and a one-sentence definition, and 24 events that shift a demand or supply curve, or shift neither. The meaning of each term was read against the Federal Reserve Education glossary, https://www.federalreserveeducation.org/glossary , and on 2026-09-20 every card line was compared with the wording of the glossary's 829 entries and rewritten wherever it followed the glossary's sentence. The glossary files twelve of our terms under another form: Consumers, Producers, Incentives, Marginal benefits, Marginal costs, Entrepreneurs, Substitute, Complements (elementary), Market (marketplace), Fixed costs, Variable costs, and Capital resources for our Capital goods. Normal good and Inferior good have no glossary entry: they were read on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_good and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferior_good (inter-city bus services), and Capital goods also on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_%28economics%29 . The direction of each shift and the price control cards were read against English Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_curve (substitutes shift out, complements shift in, normal and inferior goods, number of consumers, expectations, movement along the curve), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_%28economics%29 (input prices, technology, weather, number of suppliers, regulations), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitute_good (tea and coffee), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_good , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_taxes_and_subsidies_on_price , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidy , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factors_of_production (four factors), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_controls (rent control), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_floor (minimum wage, surplus) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortage (price ceilings). The deck holds definitions only: no rates, prices or figures that change, and no advice about money. Licence: own work