Real World Macro

Note: If you are a student at UMass-Amherst or Bentley, please order through Collective Copies/Levellers Press (link here). If you order through us, there will likely be significant delays.


Edition:39th

Date of publication:June 2022

ISBN:978-1-939402-61-5

Price:$42.50

• About
• Table of Contents

Real World Macro is a lively, thought-provoking supplement to introductory and intermediate macroeconomics textbooks. In addition to covering the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic consequences, the new 39th edition asks the big 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 also includes new articles on inflation, the Great Resignation, and increasing inequality. Chapter introductions summarize the themes examined in each article, and discussion questions help students relate macroeconomic theories to the latest real-world issues. Real World Macro’s engaging articles are drawn from the pages of Dollars & Sense, the leading magazine of popular economics.

Please click on the "Table of Contents" tab above to see what’s in the new 39th edition.

"The principles of economics books (yes, even mine) tend to be on the dull side and leave aspects of the economy and economics unchallenged. Real World Micro and Macro can spice up your course and lead students to ask the type of questions they should be asking." —DAVID COLANDER, Middlebury College

"Real World Macro’s topical applications of macroeconomic analysis provide the clear, condensed critical perspective lacking in most macroeconomics texts." —RICHARD D. WOLFF, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Note: This is the table of contents for the latest (39th) edition of Real World Macro. If you are ordering a pdf of an earlier edition of this title, please ask your instructor for that edition's table of contents, and make sure you order your pdf using the URL your instructor gave you.

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Perspectives on Macroeconomic Theory
  • Introduction
  • 1.1 How the Coronavirus Crisis Became an Economic CrisisAlejandro Reuss
  • 1.2 Labor and the Economic Impacts of the Covid-19 CrisisAlejandro Reuss
  • 1.3 What's Wrong with Neoliberalism?Robert Pollin
  • 1.4 Opening Pandora’s Box: The Basics of Marxist EconomicsAlejandro Reuss
  • 1.5 Sharing the Wealth of the CommonsPeter Barnes
• Chapter 2: Macroeconomic Measurement
  • Introduction
  • 2.1 What Does It Mean to Be "Better Off"?Zoe Sherman
  • 2.2 GDP and Its DiscontentsAlejandro Reuss
  • 2.3 Measuring Economic DevelopmentAlejandro Reuss
  • 2.4 A Care Theory of ValueNancy Folbre
  • 2.5 Undercounting the PoorJeannette Wicks-Lim
  • 2.6 Traditional Measures of Unemployment Are Missing the MarkMark Paul
  • 2.7 Corporate Profits Have Contributed Disproportionately to InflationJosh Bivens
• Chapter 3: Economic Growth and Business Cycles
  • Introduction
  • 3.1 Dating the RecessionJohn Miller
  • 3.2 Growth, Growth, Growth: What Will Happen?Arthur MacEwan
  • 3.3 A Future for Growth—If We Choose It?Gerald Friedman
  • 3.4 Growing Together, Flying ApartGerald Friedman
• Chapter 4: Unemployment and Inflation
  • Introduction
  • 4.1 The Great Resignation and the Labor ShortageJohn Miller
  • 4.2 The "Natural Rate" of UnemploymentRobert Pollin
  • 4.3 The Relation of Unemployment to InflationRamaa Vasudevan
  • 4.4 What Would Full Employment Cost?Arthur MacEwan
  • 4.5 The Fight for $20 and a UnionMartin J. Bennett
  • 4.6 Keynes, Wage and Price “Stickiness,” and DeflationAlejandro Reuss
  • 4.7 The Price Increases That Matter for the PoorJayati Ghosh
• Chapter 5: Wealth, Inequality, and Poverty
  • Introduction
  • 5.1 Pundits Claim Fighting Inequality Is Bad for Low-Wage WorkersJohn Miller
  • 5.2 Geese, Golden Eggs, and Traps: Why Inequality is Bad for the EconomyChris Tilly
  • 5.3 Do People Care About Extreme Inequality?Arthur MacEwan
  • 5.4 Fifty Years After the Kerner CommissionJanelle Jones, John Schmitt, and Valerie Wilson
  • 5.8 Inequality, Sunk Costs, and Climate JusticeFrank Ackerman
  • 5.9 Rich Jerks In SpaceDean Baker
  • 5.10 Current Employment and Wage ConditionsEd Ford
• Chapter 6: Fiscal Policy, Deficits, and Austerity
  • Introduction
  • 6.1 The Coronavirus Consensus: "Spend, Spend, Spend"Gerald Epstein
  • 6.2 State and Local AusterityAmanda Page-Hoongrajok
  • 6.3 Fiscal Policy and “Crowding Out”Alejandro Reuss
  • 6.4 Police Violence Is Enabled by “Liberal” Politicians’ Massive SpendingSonali Kolhatkar
  • 6.5 Corporate Taxes: Less, Less, and LessArthur MacEwan
  • 6.6 Reform of Global Taxation Cannot WaitJayati Ghosh
• Chapter 7: Money and Monetary Policy
  • Introduction
  • 7.1 The New Tools of the FedJohn Miller
  • 7.2 The Fed and the Coronavirus CrisisGerald Epstein and John Miller
  • 7.3 The Fed and the Racial Wealth GapJohn Miller
  • 7.4 It's Time to Ditch "Pay-for" PoliticsYeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray
  • 7.5 What Is Money?Doug Orr
  • 7.6 Cryptocurrency Will Not Liberate UsHadas Thier
  • 7.7 Pushing on StringsGerald Friedman
  • 7.8 Keynes and the Limits of Monetary PolicyAlejandro Reuss
  • 7.9 Dollar DominanceArthur MacEwan
• Chapter 8: Finance, Savings, and Investment
  • Introduction
  • 8.1 Financialization: A PrimerRamaa Vasudevan
  • 8.2 From “Boring” Banking to “Roaring” BankingAn Interview with Gerald Epstein
  • 8.3 Corporate Bankers Wary of Public BankingRick Girling
  • 8.4 Concentration of Stock OwnershipEd Ford
  • 8.5 Stock Buybacks: Any Positive Outcome?Arthur MacEwan
  • 8.6 Is "Short-Selling" Bad for the Economy?Arthur MacEwan
  • 8.7 Bubble Bubble, Toil and TroubleAlejandro Reuss
  • 8.8 We’re All Minskyites NowRobert Pollin
  • 8.9 Why Is Student Debt Cancelation Such a Big Deal?Arthur MacEwan
• Chapter 9: The Global Economy
  • Introduction
  • 9.1 The Pandemic and the Global EconomyJayati Ghosh
  • 9.2 Neoliberalism and NeocolonialismJayati Ghosh
  • 9.3 The Gospel of Free Trade: The New EvangelistsArthur MacEwan
  • 9.4 The Globalization ClockThomas Palley
  • 9.5 Does U.S. Prosperity Depend on Exploitation?Arthur MacEwan
  • 9.6 Confronting Neoliberalism at Last: Power vs. Policy in Gabriel Boric's ChileJames M. Cypher
  • 9.7 Stringent, Stingy, and Severe: The Covid-19 Crisis in Modi's IndiaSmriti Rao
• Chapter 10: Resistance and Alternatives
  • Introduction
  • 10.1 Solidarity Beyond the CrisisFrancisco Pérez and Luis Feliz Leon
  • 10.2 Bigger Than Amazon: Why Nonprofit Worker Unionizing MattersRobert Ovetz
  • 10.3 Leveraging Financial Markets for Social JusticeDoug Orr
  • 10.4 Climate Change, Social Justice, and the Green New DealArthur MacEwan
  • 10.5 International Labor StandardsArthur MacEwan
  • 10.6 Land Reform: A Precondition for Sustainable Economic DevelopmentJawied Nawabi
  • 10.7 India’s Farmers’ ProtestsSirisha Naidu
• Contributors