Understanding Economic Equilibrium

CHAPTER 32

What the Financial Markets Reveal

Show me the charts and I’ll tell you the news.

—Bernard Baruch, financier and economic advisor to Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt

Whenever we buy anything, two things happen: A good or service is flowing in one direction; financial assets are flowing in the other. The assets are typically money, but they could also be debt, such as the instant debt instrument you create when you use a credit card. That new debt instrument is a very small part of the larger set of financial markets, but it is nonetheless critical for the way transactions are conducted around the world, and collectively, consumer debt in its many forms constitutes a notable share of the credit market. Paying attention to what’s ...