The Economy Today + DiscoverEcon with Paul Solman Videos

Description

Brad Schiller's text, The Economy Today, 10/e, is noted for three great strengths: readability, policy orientation, and pedagogy. His accessible writing style engages students and brings some of the excitement of domestic and global economic news into the classroom. Schiller emphasizes how policymakers must choose between government intervention and market reliance to resolve the core issues of what, how, and for whom to produce. This strategic choice is highlighted throughout the full range of micro, macro, and international issues. Every chapter ends with a policy issue that emphasizes the markets vs. government dilemma. And Schiller packs his chapters with the facts of economic life?real stories and applications, not fables. This is a book that teaches economics in a relevant context with careful pedagogy. It is also the only principles text that presents all macro theory in the single consistent context of the AS/AD framework. Schiller 10e is for students motivated by real-world policy issues who want to become economically literate. This is a book students actually READ. Schiller is also known for its cutting-edge and current coverage of today?s issues.

Key Features

New Topics Added: As in earlier revisions, Schiller 10e has been revised to remain the most current Principles book on the market through the inclusion of new material. This edition includes new discussions of outsourcing and global competitiveness. Also included is a new focus on AD and AS shifts in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Bush tax cuts. The Tenth Edition also discusses the economic effects of music downloads, the proposed `Mission to Mars,? Social Security deficits, the 2003-2004 California Grocery-Workers Strike, and the war against terror.

Student Problem Set: the Student Problem Set has been moved back into the text. Professors and students can find the perforated Student Problem Set pages at the back of their text book. The Student Problems Sets have been heavily revised to include over 65 new math and graphing problems.

Up-to-the-Second New Examples: Schiller 10e has also been revised to include brand-new examples to keep the book fresh as today?s news broadcasts. New examples include the new competition in digital, portable music players (I Pods); China?s legalization of private property; India?s privatization program; the Supreme Court rejection of forced phone network licensing; the cost of war; the impact of job outsourcing; the specter of Social Security deficits; the 2004 ?oil shocks?; trade disputes with the EU, Mexico, and China and the continuing energy crisis.

The economics of athlete and CEO salaries

Revised Treatment of Aggregate Demand/Keynesian Cross: Schiller examines Keynesian theory entirely within the AS/AD framework by moving the Keynesian Cross to an appendix. This appendix has been expanded in the 10th Edition to include a model of the Aggregate Expenditure Curve. This allows instructors to streamline and simplify the Macro discussion without any loss of theoretical rigor or coverage. This way, instructors who teach the Keynesian cross can examine it in a separate discussion, and instructors who do not can easily skip over it without any interruption in the text progression.

DiscoverEcon with Paul Solman Videos: We have created an interactive software shell that houses both DiscoverEcon, the best-selling tutorial software for Principles of Economics, and brand-new videos featuring Paul Solman of the Lehrer NewsHour on PBS. This product includes 240 minutes of video that focuses on explaining introductory economic concepts in a real-world, student-friendly manner. The website portion of the product includes updated graphing applets, interactive exercises, animated tutorials, and hundreds of multiple-choice questions to test student comprehension in each book chapter. The videos are integrated into the website and are available webstreaming or on DVD. The result is an integrated and comprehensive study tool that brings the material alive. Students will learn more, and will be more engaged in the subject.

Schiller's text contains more real-world applications than most Principles texts. THE ECONOMY TODAY uses economic policy to show the student the reality and relevance of economics; every chapter starts and ends with policy issues.

Schiller not only interests students but also teaches them carefully by using extensive pedagogical aids. Graphs and tables are synchronized; i.e., they appear together in a single illustration to help students visualize the transition of tabular data to graphic representation. All tables, graphs, boxes, and cartoons are annotated and referenced in the text. Students can look at the graph, read the annotation, and understand why it?s important. The running glossary in the margins not only defines a term when first introduced but repeats the term in subsequent chapters, thereby reinforcing learning. Every key concept is developed step by step.

Internet Integration. Internet applications pop up everywhere. The updated marginal WebNotes are descriptive enhanced URLs that extend the in-text discussion by directing students to relevant web sites. Many "In the News" and "World View" boxes include related URLs.

Global Coverage: Schiller's Tenth Edition examines how the United States, as well as every nation in the world, is part of a global or ?open? economy. Chapter 2 offers a unique global comparison on economic performance.

Budget Surpluses: Chapter 12, Deficits, Surpluses, and Debt, is expanded to assess the origin and use of budget surpluses. Schiller looks at the Bush tax cuts, the effects of the 2001 slowdown on the budget surplus, and includes an `Economy Tomorrow? the impending reduction of the Social Security surplus.

Deregulation: The botched partial deregulation of the electric utility industry in California serves as an important example of supply and demand, deregulation, and government intervention. Should the government let a privatized market determine how electricity is provided and to whom, or should it act as a police officer in the process?

Schiller focuses on the core questions of economics: WHAT, HOW, and FOR WHOM. (WHAT goods and services does the United States produce? HOW is that output produced? FOR WHOM is the output produced?) The author asks ?Who best answers these questions?the market or the government?? "To intervene or not" is then the central policy question raised in Chapter 1 and revisited in every chapter. This theme underscores the policy emphasis of the text.