Use this page as an AP Macro unit review, including an AP Macro unit 4 review of the money market and the loanable funds market, or as a checklist of AP Macroeconomics graphs before you practise. If a topic already has a page here, the name is a link. If it does not, the name is plain text, so you still know it belongs on the course. This is a study aid. It is not an official College Board exam, it is not affiliated with the College Board, and it is not investment advice.
How to use the interactive graphs
The interactive graphs on this site are classroom sketches with numbers you can shift. Move one curve at a time, read the new equilibrium, and check the axes so you know whether you are looking at a production possibilities curve (capital goods and consumer goods), a single market (price and quantity), aggregate demand and aggregate supply (price level and real GDP), the money market (nominal interest rate and quantity of money), the loanable funds market (real interest rate and quantity of loanable funds), or the Phillips curve (inflation and unemployment). A change in the variable on the vertical axis slides you along a curve, and a new curve needs some other cause. Practice those moves on the production possibilities curve explainer, the supply and demand calculator, the aggregate demand and aggregate supply explainer, the money market and loanable funds explainer, and the Phillips curve explainer. The figures are for study only and are not a forecast or investment advice.
Unit 1. Basic Economic Concepts
Scarcity means a choice to have more of one thing is a choice to have less of something else, and opportunity cost is what you give up. The production possibilities curve shows the most you can make of two goods when resources are fully used, and a point inside the curve is idle resources. Demand slopes down, supply slopes up, and they meet at one price and one quantity. Comparative advantage says two producers can both gain from trade when each has the lower opportunity cost in a different good.
Key graphs
- Production possibilities curve
- Supply and demand, including a shift, a shortage, and a surplus
On this site
- Production possibilities curve
- Supply and demand
- Supply and demand calculator
- Opportunity cost and comparative advantage calculator
- International trade, including comparative advantage
- Glossary: opportunity cost, comparative advantage, equilibrium
No page on this site yet
- Scarcity
Unit 2. Economic Indicators and the Business Cycle
This unit is how you measure the economy before you model it. Gross domestic product adds up final goods and services produced in a country, a price index such as the CPI tracks what a fixed basket costs over time, and the inflation rate is the percent change in that index. The unemployment rate is the share of the labour force that is out of work and looking. Real GDP holds prices constant so you can see whether output itself grew, and the business cycle is the path of real GDP through expansion, peak, contraction, and trough.
Key graphs
- Business cycle diagram, with expansion, peak, contraction, and trough
- Circular flow of income and spending between households and firms
On this site
- GDP and growth
- Inflation
- Unemployment
- What is a recession?
- CPI versus PCE
- Headline versus core inflation
- BEA versus ONS GDP
- Okun's law
- Natural rate of unemployment
- GDP deflator calculator
- Inflation adjuster
- Okun's law calculator
- How to read CPI data
- Glossary: GDP, inflation, CPI, recession, labour force, participation rate
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- A drawn circular flow diagram
- A drawn business cycle diagram
Unit 3. National Income and Price Determination
This unit is the aggregate demand and aggregate supply model, which sets the price level and real GDP together. Aggregate demand slopes down, short run aggregate supply slopes up while some wages are sticky, and long run aggregate supply is vertical at potential output. A change in government spending or taxes shifts aggregate demand by more than the first round of spending, which is the fiscal multiplier. The output gap is the distance between short run real GDP and potential.
Key graphs
- Aggregate demand, short run aggregate supply, and long run aggregate supply
- Recessionary gap and inflationary gap on that same graph
On this site
- Aggregate demand and aggregate supply
- Fiscal multipliers
- Output gap
- Okun's law
- Fiscal multiplier calculator
- Output gap calculator
- Okun's law calculator
- Monetary and fiscal policy
- Glossary: aggregate demand, aggregate supply, fiscal multiplier, stagflation
No page on this site yet
- Automatic stabilizers
Unit 4. Financial Sector
If you want an AP Macro unit 4 review, start with the two interest rates and the banking arithmetic. The money market puts a vertical money supply against downward sloping money demand and sets the nominal interest rate. The loanable funds market puts saving against borrowing and sets the real interest rate. Banks create deposits when they lend, the simple money multiplier is one divided by the required reserve ratio when banks lend out everything above that requirement, and an open market purchase increases the money supply and lowers the nominal rate.
Key graphs
- Money market
- Loanable funds market
- Reserve market
- Bank balance sheet (T account)
On this site
- Money market and loanable funds
- Money supply: M1 and M2
- Real interest rates
- Quantitative easing
- Bank balance sheet and T account
- Money multiplier calculator
- Real interest rate calculator
- Monetary and fiscal policy
- Glossary: loanable funds market, M1, M2, real interest rate, bond, quantitative easing
No page on this site yet
- Financial assets as their own lesson (bonds, loans, and stocks)
Unit 5. Long-Run Consequences of Stabilization Policies
A policy that closes a gap in the short run does not always look the same once wages and expectations catch up. The short run Phillips curve slopes down, so lower unemployment comes with higher inflation, and the long run Phillips curve is vertical at the natural rate of unemployment. Faster growth of the money supply raises the price level over time. A government deficit can raise the real interest rate and crowd out private borrowing, while economic growth is a rightward shift of long run aggregate supply, driven by more resources, more capital, and better technology.
Key graphs
- Short run Phillips curve and long run Phillips curve
- Crowding out in the loanable funds market
- Aggregate demand and aggregate supply after a policy change, in the short run and after long run adjustment
- Production possibilities curve shifting outward as the economy grows
On this site
- Phillips curve
- Phillips curve calculator
- Natural rate of unemployment
- Money market and loanable funds, including crowding out
- Reserve market and ample reserves graph
- Output gap
- Fiscal dominance
- Taylor rule
- Taylor rule calculator
- Velocity of money calculator
- Production possibilities curve, including an outward shift when the economy grows
- GDP and growth
- Monetary and fiscal policy
- Glossary: Phillips curve, natural rate of unemployment, crowding out, fiscal deficit
No page on this site yet
- Government deficits and the national debt as a full lesson
- Money growth and inflation as their own lesson
- Public policy and economic growth (human capital, infrastructure, and research)
Unit 6. Open Economy: International Trade and Finance
An open economy trades goods across borders and lends and borrows across borders. The foreign exchange market sets the price of one currency in terms of another, with a demand curve and a supply curve for that currency. A higher real interest rate at home attracts foreign saving, which raises demand for the domestic currency and appreciates it. Appreciation makes exports dearer and imports cheaper, so net exports tend to fall and aggregate demand can shift left, and the balance of payments records the current account and the financial account, which move together.
Key graphs
- Foreign exchange market (supply and demand for a currency)
- Loanable funds market drawn next to the foreign exchange market, to show capital flows
On this site
- International trade
- Foreign exchange market graph
- Balance of payments: current and financial account
- Exchange rates and purchasing power parity
- Purchasing power parity calculator
- Real interest rates
- Loanable funds market (the closed economy version of the saving and borrowing graph)
- Glossary: exchange rate, balance of payments, current account, purchasing power parity
No page on this site yet
- The paired diagram of capital flows and the exchange rate
Source for the unit structure
The six units, their order, and the multiple choice weights on this page follow the College Board AP Macroeconomics Course and Exam Description, Effective Fall 2026 edition, which we checked against the official PDF on 25 October 2026. The College Board updates this description from time to time, so confirm against AP Central before your exam. The course page on AP Central lists the units, and the Course and Exam Description (PDF) is the full outline. The description titles unit 6 as the open economy unit on international trade and finance. This page uses a colon in that title. Names of topics are course context only.
Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security, currency, or derivative, or to choose a tax, a spending bill, or an interest rate. Educational macro literacy is the only goal.