Economics for the Curious

A collection of short readings

Economics for the Curious

Questions, evidence, and arguments to help you make up your own mind

Everyday questions: why prices change, what policies do, and where reasonable people disagree.

How these readings workPodcastsMacro Dashboard

Updated

Evidence

What the data show, with every figure dated and linked to its source.

Fair challenges

The strongest objections, answered in their own terms.

Values

Where evidence stops and judgment begins, named openly.

Eight series, one way of thinking

01

Foundations

Arguments, then replies

The ideas the other readings build on, set out in their strongest form and then answered by serious critics.

  1. Why Isn’t Good Good Enough?9 min
  2. Why Do We Trade?9 min
  3. Who Owns It, and Why Does It Matter?10 min
  4. Where Do Prices Come From?9 min
  5. How Do People Respond to Prices?13 min
  6. When Does a Higher Price Pay Off?18 min
  7. Why Do Profits and Losses Matter?10 min
  8. Who Should Decide?13 min
  9. The Moral Case for Markets6 min
  10. How Did the World Get Rich?13 min
  11. What Makes an Economy Just?9 min

02

Micro Foundations

The model, the evidence, the limits

The tools economists use to study markets: what each model says, how well it holds up against real data, and where it stops working, both for markets and for governments.

  1. What Is a Good Deal Worth?17 min
  2. What Does It Really Cost to Make Something?22 min

03

Markets at Work

Supply and demand beyond goods

The same supply-and-demand tools, applied to markets for work, money, and currencies: who buys, who sells, and what the price tells us.

  1. Why Do Some Jobs Pay More Than Others?23 min
  2. What Sets the Price of Borrowing?18 min

04

Price Check

The Price Detective Checklist

Why did that price go up? The same five questions, applied to a different market each time.

  1. Why Are Gas Prices So High?10 min
  2. Why Are Groceries So Expensive?13 min
  3. Why Is Housing So Expensive?9 min
  4. Why Does College Cost So Much?9 min
  5. Why Is Health Care So Expensive?9 min

05

Policy Trade-offs

The seen and the unseen

Every policy has effects you can see and effects you can't. Thinking like an economist means analyzing the benefits, costs, and unintended consequences.

  1. Should We Bring Manufacturing Home?11 min
  2. Who Pays for Tariffs?12 min
  3. Is the Trade Deficit a Problem?14 min
  4. Does Rent Control Make Housing Affordable?25 min
  5. Who Benefits from Farm Price Supports?23 min
  6. Does the Minimum Wage Help Low-Wage Workers?24 min

06

Macro Foundations

Define it, measure it, explain it

The numbers behind the headlines and the forces behind the numbers: what each measure counts, how it is built, what drives it, and what it leaves out.

  1. Macro Dashboard4 min
  2. How Do We Measure the Economy?14 min
  3. What Makes Economies Grow?14 min
  4. What Does the Unemployment Rate Tell Us?15 min
  5. What Does Labor Force Participation Tell Us?13 min
  6. What Does the Inflation Rate Tell Us?26 min
  7. What Causes Booms and Busts?12 min
  8. Should Government Fight Recessions?15 min
  9. Where Does Money Come From?23 min
  10. What Does the Fed Do?26 min
  11. How Does the Government Tax, Spend, and Borrow?28 min

07

Big Questions

Measure, explain, weigh

Large questions with no single answer. First get the numbers straight, then the causes, then the values.

  1. How Unequal Is America?15 min
  2. Who Really Runs the Economy?14 min
  3. Is the National Debt a Problem?20 min
  4. Will Technology Take Our Jobs?22 min
  5. Markets, Planning, or Something in Between?22 min

08

Minds Behind the Ideas

The person, the idea, the legacy

Meet the minds who explained why we buy, build, and trade, and why whole economies rise and fall.

  1. Beyond the Invisible Hand: Who Was Adam Smith?20 min