This updated edition includes subprime mortgage crisis and other subjects; new “curiosities” (boxed expositions of important topics) have been added, as have “news clips” about recent events; and the most challenging end-of-chapter questions are now separated from the less challenging. Many chapters include a set of numerical exercises (quite different from those found in traditional texts); a sample exam question appears at the end of each section within a chapter; and a test bank of multiple-choice questions (with answers) is available online. Technical material appears in appendices following each chapter. Other appendices offer answers to the sample exam questions and the even-numbered end-of-chapter exercises.

“By setting aside much of the formal apparatus of ‘curve-shifting’ economics, Macroeconomic Essentials focuses attention just where it should be—on understanding key concepts and on thinking. At the center of economics is, after all, the study of human behavior, not the art of mathematical manipulation.”

—LLOYD J. DUMAS, Professor of Economics

University of Texas at Dallas and author of The Peacekeeping Economy

“In the third edition of Macroeconomics Essentials, Peter Kennedy sets himself a difficult task and succeeds beautifully. Kennedy’s textbook marries impressive breadth, simplicity, and rigor. He provides a concise and non-technical overview of the core analytical concepts in macroeconomics who are tethered to bits of relevant empirical evidence. This is a particularly useful textbook for instructors outside of economics departments that want to bring students quickly up to speed on the principles that underlie recent political economic trends and events (including the subprime crisis).”