In which Jacob Clifford and Adriene Hill launch a brand new Crash Course on Economics! So, what is economics? Good question. It’s not necessarily about money, or stock markets, or trade. It’s about people and choices. What, you may ask, does that mean. We’ll show you. Let’s get started! Crash Course is now on Patreon! You can support us directly by signing up at http://www.patreon.com/crashcourse Thanks to the following Patrons for their generous monthly contributions that help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever: Mark Brouwer, Jan Schmid, Anna-Ester Volozh, Robert Kunz, Jason A Saslow, Christian Ludvigsen, Chris Peters, Brad Wardell, Beatrice Jin, Roger C. Rocha, Eric Knight, Jessica Simmons, Jeffrey…

In which Craig Benzine teaches you about delegation, and informal powers. What are all these federal agencies about? Well, the president has a lot of stuff to do as the chief executive, and as much as Americans like to talk about personal responsibility, the president can’t really do all this stuff alone. Because it’s a huge job! Same deal with Congress. So, they delegate authority. This is where all the government agencies and stuff come from. The Congress creates them to actually get around to enforcing laws. You’ll learn about stuff like OSHA, and the FDA, and maybe even the FCC. Although you hear an occasional complaint about bureaucracies and…

This week Craig continues our conversation on presidential powers by looking at those NOT found in the Constitution – implied or inherent powers. We’ll talk about how the president uses his or her power to negotiate executive agreements, recommend legislative initiatives, instate executive orders, impound funds, and claim executive privilege in order to get things done. Implied powers are kind of tough to tack down, as they aren’t really powers until they’re asserted, but once the they are, most subsequent presidents chose not to give them up. So we’ll try to cover those we’ve seen so far and talk a little bit about reactions to these sometimes controversial actions from…

This week Craig looks at the expressed powers of the President of the United States – that is the ones you can find in the Constitution. From appointing judges and granting pardons, to vetoing laws and acting as the nation’s chief diplomat on foreign policy, the Commander in Chief is a pretty powerful person, but actually not as powerful as you might think. The Constitution also limits presidential powers to maintain balance among the three branches of government. Next week we’ll talk about the president’s powers NOT mentioned in the Constitution – implied powers.  This episode is sponsored by Squarespace: http://www.squarespace.com/crashcourse  Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet? Facebook…

This week Craig breaks out the crystal ball to try and figure out why our congress people do the things that they do. We’ll talk about the three motivating factors of congressional decisions – constituency, interest groups, and political parties – and we’ll break down how each of these factors motivate certain actions like casework, public opinion polls, and logrolling. Craig will even weigh in on which of these factors probably contributes most significantly to the actions and decisions of our congresspersons and he’ll do it without even a touch of cynicism! This episode is sponsored by Squarespace: http://www.squarespace.com/crashcourse Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet? Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/YouTubeCrashC… Twitter…

Oh my, Craig has his work cut out for him this week. The process of how a bill becomes a law can be pretty complex, fraught with potential bill-death at every corner. As if just getting through committee isn’t difficult enough, bills have to navigate a series of amendments and votes in both houses, potentially more committees, further compromise bills, and even more floor votes, just to end up on the chopping block of the president. And then in one fell swoop the president can stop a bill in its tracks with a veto! But then again, a presidential veto isn’t necessarily a bill’s end either.  As you can see…

This week Craig Benzine explores the leadership structure of congress. We’ll break out the clone machine to examine the responsibilities of the speaker of the house, the majority and minority leaders as well as the majority and minority whips in both the Senate and the House. As the leadership heavily influences assignments to committees and acts as the primary point of contact with the media, they wield significant power in influencing the public dialog.  Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios Support is provided by Voqal: http://www.voqal.org Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet? Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/YouTubeCrashC… Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/TheCrashCourse Tumblr – http://thecrashcourse.tumblr.com  Instagram – http://instagram.com/thecrashcourse Guest AuthorAll Guest Author Posts are submitted…

This week Craig Benzine clears up the role of committees in Congress. We’ll talk about standing committees, joint committees, conference committees, and caucuses (and not the candidate-choosing kinds) as well as the staff agencies that help advise these committees and congresspeople. As most bills never even make it to the house and senate floors for a vote, the role of committees, and their respective chairpersons as gatekeeper is pretty important. There’s a lot to demystify here as the legislative process can seem pretty arcane at times, but the model, at least in theory, helps Congress run more efficiently. Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios Support is provided by Voqal: http://www.voqal.org…