"Text has been updated to reflect the most current data"--T.p. verso.

Includes index.

Contents: 1. What is Economics all about? : What is Economics -- The use and misuse of graphs -- The Economic problem -- Supply and demand: an initial look -- 2. Essentials of macroeconomics: aggregate supply and aggregate demand: Macroeconomics and microeconomics -- Unemployment and inflation: the twin evils of macroeconomics -- Income and spending: the powerful customer -- Demand-side equilibrium: unemployment or inflation? -- Changes on the demand side: multiplier analysis -- Supply-side equilibrium: Unemployment and inflation? -- 3. Fiscal and monetary policy: Fiscal policy and supply-side economics -- Banking and the creation of money -- Central banking and monetary policy -- Money and the national economy: the Keynesian-Monetarist debate -- Budget deficits and the national debt: fact and fiction -- The trade-off between inflation and unemployment -- Further controversies over stabilization policy -- 4. Essentials of microeconomics: consumers and firms: The common sense of consumer choice -- Consumer demand and elasticity -- The common sense of business decisions: inputs and costs -- The common sense of business decisions: outputs and prices -- 5. The market system: virtues and vices: Firms in reality: the corporation and the stock market -- The Firm in the marketplace: perfect competition -- The price system and the case for laissez faire -- Pure monopoly and the market mechanism -- Between competition and monopoly -- Shortcomings of the market mechanism and Government attempts to remedy them -- 6. The Government and the economy: Limiting market power: regulation of industry -- Limiting market power: antitrust policy -- Taxation, government spending and resource allocation -- The Economics of environmental protection -- The Economics of energy and natural resources -- 7. The distribution of income: Input prices: interest, rent and profits -- The labor market and wages -- Poverty, inequality and discrimination -- 8. The International economy and economic growth: International trade and comparative advantage -- The International monetary system: order or disorder? -- Productivity problems -- Growth in developed an developing countries -- 9. Alternative economic systems: Marxian economics -- Comparative economic systems: what are the choices? -- Dissenting opinions: conservative, moderate and radical --