The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Economics Book

Part 1	The Big Picture	1
1	Who Gets What, and How?	3
	What Is Economics and Who Cares?	4
	Will That Be Large or Small?	5
	A Firm Base	7
	Getting Organized: Command, Market, and Mixed Economies	9
	Three Economists and Their Theories	11
	The Dismal Science?	14
2	GDP and the Players Three	17
	All Together Now: C + I + G	18
	GDP Is "The Economy"	19
	Consumers: Buyers, Buyers Everywhere	20
	Investment: Business Buys as Well as Sells	24
	Government: He's Your Uncle, Not Your Dad	27
	Imports and Exports	28
	It All Adds Up	29
3	The Economist's Toolbox	31
	Numbers Please: Economic Data	32
	Watch Out!	43
4	Supply, Demand, and the Invisible Hand	47
	Demand: Wants, Needs, and Red Meat	48
	Demand Change!	50
	Back to the Curve	53
	Supply: You Want It, We Got It	55
	Change Supply!	56
	Equilibrium: Mr. Demand, Meet Mr. Supply	60
	It's Not Just a Good Idea, It's The Law	64
5	Look at These Prices!	67
	Let's Stretch: Elasticity of Demand	68
	What Determines Elasticity?	75
	Tinkering with Markets	77
	The Price You Gotta Pay	83
Part 2	Capitalism at Work	85
6	Buyer Be Where? Consumer Behavior	87
	What's the Use? Demand and Utility	88
	Milk and/or Cookies	95
7	Pluses and Minuses: Income, Outgo, and Investment	103
	Where Income Comes From	104
	Propensity to Save and to Consume	106
	Spend or Save?	107
	Meanwhile, At the National Level	112
	The Importance of Investment	114
	Multiplicity: How Investment Flows Through the Economy	117
8	The Business of Business	119
	Business Realities	120
	What's a Business Person to Do?	124
	Why the Big Get Bigger: Returns to Scale	127
	Monopoly and Oligopoly	130
	Meanwhile, Out in the Marketplace	134
9	Wages, Workers, and the Workplace	135
	Fighting Over the Pie?	136
	The State of the Unions	137
	Discrimination Doesn't Pay	146
	What Works?	147
10	The Ups and Downs of the Business Cycle	149
	What Is the Business Cycle?	150
	The Inflation-Unemployment Tradeoff	152
	Changes in the Cycle	154
	Serious Depression	157
	Booms and Bubbles	159
	Look Out Below: Falling Prices	159
Part 3	The Government and the Economy	163
11	To Have and Have Not: Wealth and Poverty	165
	What Is Poverty?	166
	Who's Got How Much?	167
	Why Incomes Are Becoming More Unequal	171
	What's the Government's Role?	174
	Other Aspects of Wealth and Poverty	175
	The Ultimate Issue: Quality of Life	177
12	Hey, Big Spender! The Federal Budget	179
	Role of Government in a Capitalist Economy	180
	The Government Share of the Economy	182
	Social Security: A Case in Point	188
	Government Agencies That Affect the Economy	190
	Government the Enemy?	193
13	Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth	195
	Government's Unique Situation	196
	Of Deficits and Debt	201
	So, Who's Right About Fiscal Policy?	207
Part 4	Money, the Banking System, and Monetary Policy	209
14	The Colors of Money	211
	What Is Money?	212
	In Circulation: The Velocity of Money	216
	Where We're Going	220
15	The Bank's Bank: The Federal Reserve and the Banking System	221
	A Bank for All Reasons	222
	A Bit of Background on Banking	225
	Monetary Moves	226
	How Money Is Created	230
	A Money Tree?	235
16	Monetary Policy: Stepping on the Gas, Hitting the Brakes	237
	Monetary Policy in Action	238
	Let's Look at the Record	243
	Fed Watching	244
Part 5	The Global Economy	247
17	International Trade: Made in USA, Japan, Mexico, Italy ...	249
	Exports, Imports--Why Bother?	250
	The Argument for Free Trade	252
	Arguments Against Free Trade	253
	Barriers to International Trade	257
	International Trade Agreements	258
	Let's Trade	259
18	International Finance: Pesos, Euros, and Yen	261
	About Foreign Exchange	262
	Effect on Imports, Exports, and GDP	265
	Trade Deficits: Bad or Good?	269
	The International Monetary System	271
	The EU and the Euro	274
	The Dollar and the U.S. Economy	275
19	The Global Market and Developing Nations	277
	A Three Part World?	278
	The World's Economies	278
	Production and Income Classifications	282
	A Worldwide Market?	285
	What Does the Future Hold?	290
Part 6	Everyday Economics	291
20	It's Down! It's Up! Monitoring the Economy's Pulse	293
	The Value of Economic News and Information	294
	Key Economic Indicators and Their Importance	294
	Financial Market Indicators	304
	Economic Forecasting: Fact or Folly?	307
21	Applied Economics in Business and Personal Life	309
	All Economics Is Local	310
	Personal Business and Economics	314
	Economics and Citizenship: Understanding the Issues	320
	Appendix
	Resources for the Economically Inclined	323
	Index	327