Crunch

Contents

Preface

Introduction:So What Is Economics, Anyway?

1 The Big Squeeze

Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?

Econ-Noir

All Is Not As It Appears: Measuring Economic Outcomes

Whatever Happened to the Cleavers?

The Health Care Squeeze

The Medical Industrial Complex

Health Care Reform

Poverty Amid Plenty: The Whats

Poverty Amid Plenty: The Whys

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

The ABCs of Worker Pay

What’s So Bad About Inequality?

All Education, All the Time

2 Don’t Know Much About GDP

Gross Domestic Product

Unemployment: Wall Street vs. Main Street

Underemployment

Making Better Doughnuts

Inflation

What’s a Recession?

Blowing Bubbles

The Night of the Living Wage (and Other Scary Stories)

Your Textbook Got It Wrong

3 Political Economy

Social Insecurity ...