You, The Economist

It’s easy to think the economy has nothing to do with you—you can’t see it, feel it, or engage with it in any tangible way, and if it comes up in the news, it might sound too boring and complicated to bother with. But in fact, the economy is nothing but the cumulative result of the way you live your life, and the way everyone around you lives theirs.

“Fear” “danger” “panic” “double panic”. These are the kinds of words we often hear when we talk to people about the economy. The economy is described as “a giant blob” that is “vast and never ending”, “one big circle”, even “a monster”. So what exactly is the economy?

Microeconomics zooms in on the specific decisions people and organisations make. How does a restaurant decide how much to charge for a bowl of soup? How do you decide between the soup and the steak? That’s microeconomics.

Macroeconomics zooms way out and looks at the big picture of the economy. How many people have jobs, and what kind of jobs do they have? How quickly is the economy growing, and who is benefiting from that growth? That’s macroeconomics.