August 28, 2009

Guide to Economic Indicators

This guide helps you to understand and interpret economic data so that you can make up your own mind about the way the economy is performing and make informed decisions about your own financial choices. It defines basic indicators such as GDP, trade balances, and retail sales figures, explains their significance, and tells you where you can find them published. It also explains how reliable each figure is, how frequently they are revised, and how you can interpret them to provide you with insight on the economy. The book is organized into three introductory chapters and ten chapters each of which discuss the indicators of a particular sector of the economy. The book is written into short, non-technical paragraphs which define each term and provide a context for it. Numerous charts and graphs are used to help explain the data, particularly illustrating how the U.S. economy compares with other industrialized nations. This book is a helpful, easy to understand introduction to economics.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

Guide to Economic Indicators: Making Sense of Economics
ed. by the Economist
6th ed
HA 29 .E28 2007