Easy Economics: A Visual Guide to What You Need to Know

Easy Economics Clarifies the Important Economic Issues of the 2012 Presidential Debate

Book Uses a Collection of Uncomplicated Questions, Answers and Illustrations to Help Explain a Complex Economy

This election year is one that is going to make economics more important than it’s been in any presidential election in two decades. It was in 1992 that candidate Bill Clinton’s advisor James Carville offered this head-clearing advice “It’s the economy, stupid!” Well, it’s the economy again.

How do voters follow the debates among the candidates as they tussle over what makes the economy grow? How can people evaluate their plans for reducing unemployment? How do we separate facts about taxes and spending from nonsense?  There is no better primer for understanding the fundamentals than Easy Economics; A Visual Guide to What You Need to Know (Wiley, Paperback and e-book, 978-1-1181-1806-1; $27.95).

The book, by former colleagues at Fortune magazine Leonard Wolfe and Lee Smith, economics consultant and Vanderbilt University professor Stephen Buckles and illustrator Roy Doty, bring readers entertaining and informative answers to many of the most frequently asked questions on the subject of economics through a collection of easy-to-digest questions and answers and illustrations.

The book clarifies the basics behind the important issues that will be discussed by all candidates this election year, such as:

• What goes into GDP and how fast should it be growing?
• What’s an acceptable unemployment rate?
• How long can a recession last? Who controls tax policy?
• How do the rich get away without paying taxes?
• How much debt is too much?
• Do we need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution? 
• Will Social Security be eliminated?
• And much more including chapters on the history of money; how the Fed works; the sorry tale of the high-flying finance that caused the real estate and financial collapse of 2007-2009; and a handy glossary of all the terms you’re likely to hear in this highly-charged year.

Unlike other economics books, Easy Economics isn't packed with reams of text or stacks of numbers. It informs readers of the things everyone needs and ought to know about economics and does so with easy-to-understand content that makes exploring the subject enjoyable.

For an example of the Q&A format and related illustrations, please see several sample pages from one of the chapters in the book here.