Economics

Start with the questions, not the apparatus.

To make sense of economics, start with the questions it’s actually about. The Big Questions below — government spending, central banks, free trade, what money is — lead with the debate, walk the strongest positions, and bring the formal apparatus in where it earns its keep. Pick the one that pulls you in. The textbook follows for the formal arc.

Macro & Policy

Does government spending help the economy?

A viral TikTok says the government can just print money. A Nobel laureate says that’s insane. The multiplier, crowding out, and the zero lower bound give three different answers.

Why can’t we just print money?
“A government that issues its own currency can never run out of money. It can never be forced to default.”
— Stephanie Kelton Was $787 billion not enough?
“I and others warned from the beginning that the plan was too small.”
— Paul Krugman, The New York Times
4 stages · Intro → Graduate Start walkthrough →

Can central banks control the economy?

The Fed moves one interest rate and the world follows — until it doesn’t. What happens when the most powerful institution in economics hits its limits?

Is the Fed really in control?
“The Fed controls a single short-term interest rate. Can one lever really steer a $25 trillion economy?”
— common critique Was the euro a mistake?
“One monetary policy for Germany and Greece. What could go wrong?”
— eurozone critique
5 stages · Intro → Graduate Start walkthrough →

What causes recessions?

Economists have studied recessions for a century and still can’t agree on what causes them — let alone how to stop them.

Are recessions actually efficient?
“Real Business Cycle theory says recessions are optimal responses to technology shocks. Most people find this... counterintuitive.”
— RBC critique Did the mainstream fail in 2008?
“The models didn’t have a financial sector. The biggest financial crisis in 80 years wasn’t in the model.”
— post-crisis critique
5 stages · Intro → Graduate Start walkthrough →

What is money, actually?

You use it every day. Economists have argued about what it actually is for three centuries. Bitcoin just made it worse.

Is Bitcoin money?
“Bitcoin isn’t money — it’s digital tulips.”
— Peter Schiff on Joe Rogan Is the dollar’s reign ending?
“The dollar backs 60% of global reserves. China and the BRICS want to change that. Can they?”
— de-dollarization debate
3 stages · Intro → Graduate Start walkthrough →

Markets & Choices

Do minimum wages cause unemployment?

The simple model says any price floor kills jobs. Then Card & Krueger actually ran the experiment. The data didn’t cooperate.

$15 minimum wage
“Nobody who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty.”
— Barack Obama Living wage debate
“A minimum wage is not a living wage...”
— David Card
3 stages · Intro → Intermediate Start walkthrough →

Are people rational?

Economics assumes you maximize utility. Kahneman proved you systematically don’t. So why do markets still mostly work?

Should the government nudge you?
“A nudge is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way.”
— Thaler & Sunstein Is the crypto market rational?
“People who can’t define ‘blockchain’ invest their life savings in dog-themed coins. Efficient market hypothesis, meet reality.”
— crypto critique
3 stages · Intro → Applied Start walkthrough →

Do markets allocate resources efficiently?

The most elegant proof in economics says markets are optimal. The conditions it requires have never existed in the real world.

Carbon tax: the textbook answer?
“Every economist agrees: price the externality. Every politician agrees: good luck getting elected on that.”
— carbon tax debate Should healthcare be a market?
“You don’t comparison-shop for ambulances. But if healthcare isn’t a market, what is it?”
— healthcare debate
4 stages · Intro → Graduate Start walkthrough →

Trade, Development & Inequality

Why are some countries rich and others poor?

Norway is 80x richer than Niger. Capital? Ideas? Institutions? Geography? The biggest question in economics has no consensus.

Aid is actively destructive
“Aid has been, and continues to be, an unmitigated political, economic, and humanitarian disaster for most parts of the developing world.”
— Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid Does China break the story?
“No country in history has lifted more people out of poverty faster. But was it markets, or was it the state?”
— China development debate
5 stages · Intro → Applied Start walkthrough →

Is free trade always good?

Comparative advantage promises everyone wins. Tell that to the 2.4 million workers who lost their jobs to the China shock.

Did China kill American jobs?
“Between 1999 and 2011, the China shock destroyed 2.4 million American jobs. Comparative advantage promised everyone would win.”
— Autor, Dorn & Hanson Trade wars are easy to win
“Trade wars are good, and easy to win.”
— Donald Trump, 2018
4 stages · Intro → Applied Start walkthrough →

Is inequality a problem economics can solve?

Every policy debate comes back to this: can you help the poor without hurting the economy? The answer depends entirely on who you ask.

Should billionaires exist?
“Every billionaire is a policy failure.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Just give people money?
“Universal basic income: the idea that left and right both love and hate, for completely different reasons.”
— UBI debate
5 stages · Intro → Applied Start walkthrough →

More in Economics

The textbook builds the apparatus. These put it in motion.

Timeline & Graph

History of economic thought

Browse the lineage as a graph. Five views: chronological, lineage, school, debate, chapter.

Open the graph →
Atlases & Maps

Patterns in space and time

Interactive views you can poke at — find the same period or place across multiple lenses.

Takes

Sharp dissections

Opinionated takes on viral economic claims, tagged to the chapter sections they sit on top of.

Read takes tagged #economics →

From Scarcity to DSGE

Twenty chapters of models, proofs, and interactive graphs — the formal toolkit behind every walkthrough.

Part I — Foundations Intro undergrad · Arithmetic & basic algebra
After Part I

You can now evaluate: price controls (rent, wages, tariffs), externality arguments (carbon, healthcare), the basic case for stimulus, and why you can't just print money.

  • BQ #3: Do minimum wages cause unemployment?
  • BQ #7: Do markets allocate resources efficiently?

Coming in Part II: calculus makes everything precise. The intuitions you built are correct — the math lets you say exactly how much.

Part II — Intermediate Intermediate undergrad · Calculus, linear algebra, probability
After Part II

You can now evaluate: whether Big Tech is a monopoly problem, strategic trade arguments, and why some countries are richer than others (the Solow starting point).

  • BQ #4: Are people rational? (now that you know what rationality formally requires)
  • BQ #5: Is free trade always good? (with market power)

Coming in Part III: the models get serious. Graduate-level micro proves the welfare theorems; graduate macro builds DSGE from scratch.

Part III — Advanced Graduate · Real analysis, dynamic optimization, log-linearization
After Part III

You can now evaluate: the welfare theorems (when and why markets work), mechanism design, growth vs cycles debates, whether the Fed is in control, MMT's claims, and Bitcoin's monetary properties.

  • BQ #1: Does government spending help the economy? (fully resolved)
  • BQ #6: Can central banks control the economy? (international constraints)
  • BQ #7: Do markets allocate resources efficiently? (welfare theorems + mechanism design)
  • BQ #8: What causes recessions? (RBC vs NK synthesis)

Coming in Part IV: theory meets the real world — institutions, behavior, and development.

Part IV — Applied Advanced undergrad → Graduate · Theory meets real-world problems
After Part IV

You can now evaluate: whether colonialism caused poverty, the China model, foreign aid effectiveness, nudge policy, and behavioral finance. All 10 Big Questions are fully engageable at their deepest level.

  • BQ #2: Why are some countries rich and others poor? (no single theory explains development)
  • BQ #4: Are people rational? (biases are real — but do they survive markets?)
  • BQ #9: Is inequality a problem economics can solve? (global scale)

Four paths through the same content. Each track is a focused journey from introductory to advanced, covering only the chapters you need. Click a track to see the full chapter list.

Microeconomics
8 chapters · Intro → Graduate · From scarcity to mechanism design
Ch 1→ Ch 2→ Ch 3→ Ch 4→ Ch 5→ Ch 6→ Ch 11→ Ch 12
The complete micro arc: intuition through calculus optimization through welfare theorems and mechanism design. When do markets work? When they don't, can you engineer something better?
Key Big Questions
  • BQ #7: Do markets allocate resources efficiently?
  • BQ #3: Do minimum wages cause unemployment?
  • BQ #4: Are people rational?
  • BQ #5: Is free trade always good?
Featured Takes
Rent control Carbon tax Big Tech monopoly Billionaires
Start track →
Click to see full chapter list ↓
  • Ch 1 Economic Thinking Intro Scarcity, opportunity cost, comparative advantage, the price system
  • Ch 2 Supply and Demand Intro The core model of markets: equilibrium, interventions, surplus
  • Ch 3 Elasticity and Welfare Intro Measure responsiveness and evaluate outcomes quantitatively
  • Ch 4 Market Failures Intro When markets get it wrong: externalities, public goods, information
  • Level jump: algebra → calculus. The intuitions you built become theorems.
  • Ch 5 Consumer and Producer Theory Intermediate Derive demand from utility maximization via Lagrangians
  • Ch 6 Market Structures and Game Theory Intermediate Competition, monopoly, oligopoly, Nash equilibrium
  • Level jump: calculus → real analysis. Where does the toolkit come from?
  • Ch 11 Advanced Microeconomics Graduate Axioms, duality, welfare theorems proved, general equilibrium
  • Ch 12 Mechanism Design Graduate When markets fail, can you build something better?
Macroeconomics
8 chapters · Intro → Graduate · From GDP to open-economy DSGE
Ch 7→ Ch 8→ Ch 9→ Ch 13→ Ch 14→ Ch 15→ Ch 16→ Ch 17
Measurement through workhorse models through micro-founded DSGE. How economies grow, why they have recessions, and what central banks can and can't do.
Key Big Questions
  • BQ #1: Does government spending help the economy?
  • BQ #8: What causes recessions?
  • BQ #6: Can central banks control the economy?
  • BQ #10: What is money, actually?
Featured Takes
Print money Fed control MMT & deficits Bitcoin as money
Start track →
Click to see full chapter list ↓
  • Ch 7 Macroeconomic Measurement Intro GDP, inflation, unemployment, business cycles
  • Ch 8 Intro Macro Models Intro IS-LM, fiscal/monetary policy, AD-AS
  • Ch 9 Intermediate Macro Intermediate Micro-founded consumption, Solow, Mundell-Fleming
  • Level jump: intermediate → graduate. From assumed behavior to derived behavior.
  • Ch 13 Growth Theory Graduate Ramsey, endogenous growth, why ideas drive long-run growth
  • Ch 14 Real Business Cycles Graduate The DSGE chassis, calibration, the Lucas critique
  • Ch 15 New Keynesian Economics Graduate Calvo pricing, Taylor rule, ZLB — modern central banking
  • Ch 16 Monetary and Fiscal Theory Graduate FTPL, Ricardian equivalence, optimal taxation
  • Opening the economy: everything before assumed a closed economy. Now: the general case.
  • Ch 17 Open Economy Macro Graduate Exchange rates, Dornbusch, OCA, sovereign debt, impossible trinity
Empirics
3 chapters · Intermediate → Applied · How do we know what we know?
Ch 10→ Ch 18→ Ch 20
The epistemology of empirical economics. From econometric methods to institutional evidence to the RCT revolution in development. How do economists establish causal claims?
Key Big Questions
  • BQ #3: Do minimum wages cause unemployment? (Card & Krueger)
  • BQ #2: Why are some countries rich and others poor? (AJR)
Featured Takes
$15 minimum wage Colonialism & poverty Foreign aid
Start track →
Click to see full chapter list ↓
  • Ch 10 Econometrics Foundations Intermediate OLS, IV, DiD, RD, RCTs — the complete identification toolkit
  • From methods to application: the biggest empirical question in economics
  • Ch 18 Institutional Economics Applied AJR settler mortality IV — the most famous instrument in economics
  • Scale change: from countries to villages, from regressions to experiments
  • Ch 20 Development Economics Applied The RCT revolution, external validity, structural estimation
Behavioral
1 core + 2 optional · Testing economics' most fundamental assumption
Ch 11*→ Ch 19→ Ch 20*
A hub, not a linear path. Ch 19 is the core. Ch 11 provides formal foundations (deep read). Ch 20 provides real-world applications. Two reading modes: quick (Ch 19 only, ~2-3 hrs) or deep (all three, ~4-6 hrs).
Key Big Questions
  • BQ #4: Are people rational?
  • BQ #7: Do markets allocate resources efficiently? (behavioral finance angle)
Featured Takes
Government nudges Billionaires
Start track →
Click to see full chapter list ↓
  • Ch 11 (§11.1-11.2) Choice Axioms & Revealed Preference Graduate Optional foundation: what rationality formally requires
  • Ch 11 built the rational-choice edifice. Ch 19 stress-tests it against evidence.
  • Ch 19 Behavioral and Experimental Economics Applied Core: prospect theory, present bias, nudges, behavioral finance
  • Behavioral insights matter most where stakes are highest and feedback is weakest.
  • Ch 20 (§20.6, 20.8) Behavioral Development Applied Optional extension: RCTs and behavioral interventions in developing countries