Share This Article
Today we’d like to introduce a new sponsor of Young Americans Center for Financial Education: Eide Bailly LLP. As a supporter of the International Towne program, Eide Bailly helps middle school students understand the 
complexities of international trade.
Eide Bailly is a leading accounting firm with 29 offices throughout Colorado and 12 states. They help companies do business all over the world—a natural partner of International Towne. Because trade is such a vital part of International Towne, Eide Bailly and Young Americans have worked together to produce a video that teaches International Towne students and teachers about trade.
Mirroring the real world, countries in International Towne both import and export products to other countries in Towne. For example, International Towne’s China imports tea from India and exports transportation equipment to Netherlands. (These products are based on the top imports and exports of the real country of China.)
Each country in International Towne has a Finance Minister who is charged with keeping track of the country’s balance of payments—no easy task! Countries earn money by exporting products and must pay for products they import. Each IT country charges a tariff on the sale of imported products, as they might in the real world, to help off-set the cost of importing products from other countries. At the same time, each country must pay tariffs to export products to other countries. The Finance Minister must compute the amount of each of these trades and tariffs, taking into account the currency exchange rate. At the end of the day, the goal is for a country’s revenue to exceed its payments, ending with a positive balance of payments.
By providing students and teachers with a resource to help understand these complex issues, Eide Bailly ensures that International Towne citizens are prepared for their day running the world. As a result, middle school students will be better prepared for a future career in today’s global economy.
