Big Picture Economics: How to Navigate the New Global Economy

Preface

At times, the economy may seem like a washing machine with economic news sloshing all over the place. Consumer spending is up; the stock market is down. The Federal Reserve is lowering interest rates; Congress is cutting spending. Sometimes it may seem hard to believe anything ties it all together.

In Big Picture Economics: How to Navigate the New Global Economy, we show that there is one thread that holds it all together: context.

Every sector of the economy—the consumer, business, the Federal Reserve, and Congress—all need to look at what's going on around them when they make critical decisions buying new products, building new factories, hiking or lowering interest rates, or setting budget goals.

To help us reach that conclusion, we talked to real people. A truck driver explains how he sees the economy firsthand as he barrels down the highway and how it affects his financial decisions. The manager of a Tex-Mex restaurant chain describes the economics of making tacos and enchiladas in the middle of a recession. An administrative assistant, who had been furloughed, shares her budget-cutting secrets as she watches her paycheck shrink. A former president of the Dallas Fed describes how the central bank makes decisions. And an ex-staffer of a key congressional committee talks about how our politicians make decisions that affect us all.

At the same time as we are talking to real people in Big Picture Economics, we are trying to give a deeper perspective on economics, sometimes ...