Series
Macro Foundations
The numbers behind the headlines and the forces behind the numbers: what each measure counts, how it is built, what drives it, and what it leaves out.
The toolDefine it, measure it, explain it
Define it
What exactly is being counted, and what isn't?
Measure it
How the number is built, and what it shows over time and across countries.
Explain it
What drives the number, where the evidence is strong, and where the measure or the theory runs out.
Readings in this series
The 16 numbers we track on growth, jobs, inflation, and policy, with a short monthly commentary
Macro FoundationsHow Do We Measure the Economy?What GDP counts, what it misses, and why it still matters
Macro FoundationsWhat Makes Economies Grow?Productivity, catch-up, and the power of small differences
Macro FoundationsWhat Does the Unemployment Rate Tell Us?Who counts, how we count, and what the number misses
Macro FoundationsWhat Does Labor Force Participation Tell Us?Who is working or looking, who is not, and why it matters
Macro FoundationsWhat Does the Inflation Rate Tell Us?Why prices rise, how we measure it, and why the rate is a speed, not a distance
Macro FoundationsWhat Causes Booms and Busts?Aggregate demand, aggregate supply, and the shocks that move the whole economy
Macro FoundationsShould Government Fight Recessions?Keynesian and neoclassical views of what happens after a shock
Macro FoundationsWhere Does Money Come From?What money does, how we count it, and how banks make more of it
Macro FoundationsWhat Does the Fed Do?Who runs it, how it sets interest rates, and why it is kept at arm’s length from politics
Macro FoundationsHow Does the Government Tax, Spend, and Borrow?Where the money goes, where it comes from, and what fiscal policy can and cannot do