Economics: Theory and Practice, 10th Edition

TO THE STUDENT

Dear Student,

Welcome to the study of economics and to the tenth edition of Economics: Theory & Practice. This course may well be among the most valuable you will take for application to and enrichment of your everyday life. We are excited to join you in this learning experience.

What can you expect from this textbook and your course?

• Economic topics are given a great deal of attention in daily news reports. Unemployment numbers, banking issues, health care programs, government bailouts, gasoline price changes, the stability of global economies, and so many more topics are frequently featured. This textbook will provide basic information that helps you to understand economic issues in a knowledge-based context.
• In the first few pages of Chapter 1, you will learn that economics is rooted in scarcity and choice: The scarcity of resources, time, and money forces everyone, including businesses and governments, into making choices, or decisions, about how to use these limited resources, or how to deal with scarcity. Economics introduces us to tools used in decision-making, and to thought processes that are valuable in our own problem solving and in thinking through issues.
• Other than mathematics and parts of the natural sciences, very little in fields of study is indisputable. Instead, in most areas like economics, the subject matter is gray and lends itself to varied points of view. Every chapter in this textbook has an “Up for Debate,” where issues are viewed from ...