You are probably wondering, why study economics? In fact, people do it for countless reasons. Some study economics because they hope to make money. Other worries, that they will be illiterate if they cannot understand the laws of supply and demand. People are also concerned to learn how budget deficits, fiscal policy and inflation affect their future.

All these reasons and many more, make good sense. Still, we have come to realize, there is one overriding reason to learn the basic lessons of economics. All your life from cradle to grave will run up against the brutal truths of economics. As a voter, you will have to make decisions on issues, the budget deficit, taxes, and foreign trade, which cannot be understood until you have mastered the rudiments of this subject.

Choosing your life’s occupation is the most important economic decision you will make. Once you have earned your income, economics will help you to decide how much to spend, save or invest. Of course, studying economics is not guaranteed to make you a genius but without economics the dice of life will simply load against you.

No need to belabor the point. We hope you will find that, in addition to being useful, economics is a fascinating field in its own right. Generations of students, often to their surprise, have discovered how stimulating economics can be.

Economics covers all kinds of topics. Economic can be divided into two parts i.e. Micro-economics and Macro-economics. Micro-economics deals with simple demand and supply curves, elasticities, types of market and factors of production. Macroeconomics on the other hand is all about aggregate demand and supply, fiscal policies and a nation]s economy. At the core, it is devoted to understanding the way business, households, and governments behave; it attempts to figure out the 1001 puzzles of everyday life.

You have undoubtedly asked a multitude of economic questions even before you picked up your first textbook on economics. You might come into your first class with questions like these.

Why is it sometimes hard to find a summer jobs and sometime easy? Why do people worry about the government budget deficit? What are the effects of the deficit on inflation? For the matter, why do people worry about inflation? What is the money supply and why is it important? Why are women often paid less than men? Why are some people rich and others poor? How can foreign countries like Japan or Korea produce goods so much more cheaply than America? What would happen if we kept foreign cars out of the United States to “protect” domestic workers and firms? How much is it really costing me to go to college?

The list could go on for pages, and the answers will fill up your hard drives but believe me economic sciences have all the answers to such questions.

As a scholarly discipline, economics is two centuries old. Adam Smith published his path breaking book “The Wealth of Nations” in 1776, a year also notable for the Declaration of Independence. In the decades that followed, Marx’s, another revolutionary name in the history of economics, predictions seemed borne out. Economic panic and deep depressions in the 1890’s and 1930’s led intellectuals of the twentieth century to question the viability of private enterprises capitalism. In this era of depression, however, appeared John Maynard Keynes “The General Theory of Employment” Interest and Money (1936). This landmark work described a new approach to economics, one that would help government monetary and fiscal management tame the worst ravages of business cycles. Smith, Marx, and Keynes are but three of the many thinkers who have shaped economics and made it the vital science today. Writers like Samuelson, Bernanke and Smith have also done great work for the development of economics as a subject.