How the Economy Works: 6an Investor's Guide to Tracking the Economy

by Edmund A. Mennis

Book Overview

Revised and expanded, this work explains how the US economy functions and interacts with the financial world, and how international economies relate to the US. It also covers the major economic... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735200769
• ISBN13: 9780735200760
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Press
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

How the Economy Works: An Investor's Guide to Tracking the Economy

This is an excellent book for those beginning a study of real world economics. There are plenty of charts and clear explanations of how the Economy's pieces fit together. I have used it in several courses and can report that my students have found it very helpful.

The High School Opinion

The average person does not know much about the U.S. economy, even though they are connected to it everyday. Mr. Mennis' book, How the Economy Works, takes this complex subject down to the average readers skill, and takes them step by step through each aspect of it. I was galvanised by the way Mennis used graphs and charts to back up his text. It was very refreshing to see this, because in school, they explain, but never show you how it works in life. If you want to major in business this would be a great book for you. Mr. Mennis tells about starting up a new business and how to work the stock market, so it doesn't work you. Mennis believes that the five best ideas for understanding investments are listing specific goals, how to meet these goals, set an absolute rate of return so you can see it your goal is realistic, a time in which to measure your results and to determine the risks involved before getting into a situation you can't get out of. If you still want more info buy the book, it's a great way to learn about the U.S. Economy.

information at your fingertips

this is the handiest book i've found that provides organized historical economic data and information where to find more past and present data. it is a great introduction to understanding what all the data really means that is published on a regular basis.

You will use and re-use this great book

How the Economy Works by Ed Mennis is a refreshingly concise and easy to read guide on one of the most complicated subjects of our era: U.S. and International Economics. Most books I have read on this subject are usually dry, too long and written with so much jargon/slang that I cannot understand what the author is trying to say (and I work professionally in the financial services industry). Mennis breaks down his book into easily digestible, short chapters laden with pictures and graphs that enhance its readability and the reader's content retention.In this book you will find excellent explanations of economic trends and cycles, interest rate and monetary policy, consumer and corporate spending, corporate profit cycles and Federal Reserve activity. It concludes with a wonderful chapter on how individuals can APPLY these principles (which is usually missing from most financial books).In the end, I found How the Economy Works to be a superb economic reference guide. The professional economist and individual investor will not regret buying this book. NOTE: If you are looking for a book that goes into greater detail about economic indicators only, take a look at `The Atlas of Economic Indicators' by Carnes and Slifer.

A mini-encyclopedia of economic understanding

How the Economy Works is Edmund Mennis' successful book on understanding macroeconomic data. The book's subtitle, An Investor's Guide to Tracking the Economy, aptly describes one use of the book. It also provides an excellent source of information for anyone to use in following and anticipating changes in the economy.If a picture is worth a thousand words, this book is a mini-encyclopedia of economic understanding, because of more than eighty time-series graphs plus numerous tables it contains. The graphs are used extensively, with each economic concept being explained within the context of a graphic display of the data. The explanations refer to the graphs and relate current economic conditions to historical patterns. The book is unique in that a beginning investor who wants a deeper understanding of how the economy works can read it. The professional economist also can use it for clear explanations that can be given to non-economists.The first chapter provides an explanation of gross domestic product (GDP). It covers both the input and output methods of calculation, introducing the reader to the differences between nominal and real measures of economic activity. The chapter on measuring price changes not only covers what causes changes in the reported indices but also what aspects are not covered or measured.Three major chapters are devoted to GDP components that can be used to track consumer behavior and changes in the business and government sectors. The coverage is wide in the sense that it covers not only income, spending and employment, but it also covers consumer saving and attitudes as measured by consumer confidence indicies. The chapters on business and government are equally extensive. I found the sections on state and local government, the federal deficit and debt, plus the one on financing Social Security to be most interesting, especially in the context of current events. As one might expect from an economist with extensive banking experience, the chapter on interest rates and monetary policy is extensive and well done. It begins by answering the question, "What are interest rates?" Later, the fractional reserve banking system and bank money creation are also explained. The chapter, like the book, covers much more than just the basics. One example is the section that begins with the basics of watching the Federal Reserve and progresses to bond maturity spreads, bond quality spreads and concludes with the use of federal funds futures to anticipate Federal Reserve actions.There are other chapters on tracking the economy using monthly data to identify economic trends and cycles as well as sections on understanding the pitfalls on blindly using the data presented by the media and the pundits. The book also has a bonus chapter written by Liam Mennis that presents a thorough introduction to using the Internet to track the economy. In the future more people will be using the net for