Product Review

Real World Macro, 25th edition, is a lively, thought-provoking alternative to mainstream economics textbooks. Real World Macro asks the questions that standard textbooks try to avoid: What's so great about growth? Is unemployment "natural"? Why should inequality matter? Along with covering the basics--monetary and fiscal policy, productivity and investment, inflation and unemployment--Real World Macro includes a chapter on major controversies in macroeconomics, such as the legacy of Keynesianism in the United States and the basics of Marxist economic theory. It also takes a look at international trade and finance, covering such topics as the debt crisis and arguments for and against "free trade." The thoroughly updated and revised 25th edition contains new chapter introductions reviewing the concepts examined in each article, discussion questions relating them to a standard textbook, and new articles addressing the latest real world issues and controversies, including topics like the bursting of the housing bubble, the chaos in the banking industry, Social Security, offshoring, the impact of the declining dollar, and the persistence of the racial and gender gap in jobs and income.