• Clean, Clear Theory

Despite the abundance of real-world applications, this is at heart a principles text, not a compendium of issues. Good theory and interesting applications are not mutually exclusive. This is a text that wants to teach economics, not just increase awareness of policy issues. To that end, The Economy Today provides a logically organized and uncluttered theoretical structure for macro, micro, and international theory. What distinguishes this text from others on the market is that it conveys theory in a lively, student-friendly manner.

• Concept Reinforcement

Student comprehension of core theory is facilitated with careful, consistent, and effective pedagogy. This distinctive pedagogy includes the following features:

• Self Explanatory Graphs and Tables

Graphs are completely labeled, colorful, and positioned on background grids. Because students often enter the principles course as graph-phobics, graphs are frequently accompanied by synchronized tabular data. Every table is also annotated. This shouldn't be a product-differentiating feature but, sadly, it is. Putting a table in a textbook without an annotation is akin to writing a cluster of numbers on the board, then leaving the classroom without any explanation.

• Reinforced Key Concepts

Key terms are defined in the margin when they first appear and, unlike in other texts, redefined as necessary in subsequent chapters. Website references are directly tied to the book's content, not hung on like ornaments. End-of-chapter discussion questions use tables, graphs, and boxed news stories from the text, reinforcing key concepts.

• Boxed and Annotated Applications

In addition to the real-world applications that run through the body of the text, The Economy Today intersperses boxed domestic (In the News) and global (World View) case studies. Nearly every text on the market now offers boxed applications, however, The Economy Today's presentation is still distinctive. First, the sheer number of In the News (130) and World View (70) boxes is unique. Second, and more importantly, every boxed application is referenced in the body of the text. Third, every News and World View comes with a brief, self-contained explanation. Fourth, the News and World View boxes are the subject of the end-of-chapter Discussion Questions and Student Problem Set exercises. In combination, these distinctive features assure that students will actually read the boxed applications and discern their economic content. The Test Banks and DiscoverEcon with Paul Solman Videos also provide subsets of questions tied to the News and World View boxes so that instructors can confirm student use of this feature.

• Photos and Cartoons

The text presentation is also enlivened with occasional photos and cartoons that reflect basic concepts. The photos on p. 40 are much more vivid testimony to the extremes of inequality than the data in Figure 2.6 (p. 39). The contrasting photos of the original Apple I (p. 500) and the iMac (p. 509) underscore how the “animal spirits” of competitive markets spur innovation. The cartoon on p. 395 reminds students that not all economists are of the same mind. Every photo and cartoon is annotated and referenced in the body of the text. These visual features are an integral part of the presentation, not diversions.

• Student Problem Set

I firmly believe that students must work with key concepts in order to really learn them. Weekly homework assignments are de rigueur in my own classes. To facilitate homework assignments, I have prepared the Student Problem Set that includes built-in numerical and graphing problems that build on the tables, graphs, and boxed material in each chapter. Grids for drawing graphs are also provided. Each chapter's problem set is detachable and includes answer boxes that facilitate grading. (Answers are available in the Instructors Resource Manual, in print or in downloadable form on the book's website). The Student Problem Set is behind the tab at the end of each book.

All of these pedagogical features add up to an unusually supportive learning context for students. With their support, students will learn and retain more economic concepts - and maybe even enjoy the educational process.