The Irwin Guide to Using the Wall Street Journal

Michael Lehmann proves that you don't have to get a college degree in Economics to be able to understand the American economic system. Using the multifold economic data regularly published by the Wall Street Journal as his his focus, Professor Lehmann goes about explaining the background and meaning of the data and how to interpret it for your own advantage. He covers subjects which would be includedin a variety of college courses and does so in a clear and understandable narative. He provides a rich background and explanation on subjects such as the Business Cycle, Role of consumer demand, the role of the Federal Reserve System, Fiscal Policy, International Transactions, and the Leading Economic Indicators. He also provides information on how to keep up with the data using internet and computer access. A must have for any person interested in understanding the American economy.

I invest extensively in the stock market and had been looking for an economics book which is practical and detailed (but not overally technical like a college textbook). This book was exactly what I needed. This book's focus is on the data and what is is saying about economic conditions. The beginning of the book is historical and general then goes into detailed explainations of the economic data reported in the WSJ (as well business TV shows and on the internet). The data is explained clearly and concisely, and its impact shown with graphs overlaid with recession periods. The book includes data leading up through the stock market bubble of the late 90's ending just before the bubble burst.I would recommend this book to someone who is looking for a practical guide to understanding economic data and what it is saying about the overall economy. The book's emphasis is on the data available to the general public and its implications, not economic theory.

This book is a good introduction to the principles of the macro economy. The author explains the basics of the federal reserve system, monetary policy, the causes and effects of inflation, and various personal investment products such as stocks, mutual funds, commodities, and money market accounts. The basics of each is explained, and the author shows how each is tracked daily in the Wall Street Journal. The purpose is to allow individuals to understand their investments, track their progress, and be able to react to changing market conditions. Its all sounds very axiomatic, but the great thing about this book is that it states basic principles that are often assumed, and thus left unstated.For example, if the following excerpts are helpful to you, then this would be a great book for you:Page 15: "The forces of supply and demand condition every business cycle."Page 25: "Bank lending finances spending, and spending generates inflation. The Fed controls bank lending and can thereby control inflation."Page 33: "Every commodity has a price; the interest rate is the price of money. As with any commodity, the price fluctuates according the the laws of supply and demand."Page 165: "Mutual funds are popular with individual investors because they permit diversification in a wide variety of securities with a very small capital outlay."These are examples of the points covered, and the level at which they are covered. If the above quotes sounded obvious, this book may be below your expertise. But if you finally want to understand the jargon you hear on CNNfn, this book will do the job.This would be a great book to buy as a graduation gift for a high school senior, or anyone without a background in finance.

Whether you are a mutual fund manager or a private investor, a CEO of a multinational firm or the owner of a small business, a retired millionaire or a young professional just starting out, a new capitalist or an old Marxist, this is the book for you. Whoever you are, this book gives you the tools to intelligently read and use the premier business publication of today--The Wall Street Journal. The writing, the charts, and the statistical analyses are so crystal clear that you can truly use the Wall Street Journal to be your own economist. Complex concepts such as the price earnings (P/E) ratio for the Dow stocks, for example, are fully explained, placed in their historical and contemporary context, and are shown to have important implications for the investor, the business person, and the financial advisor. Statistical reports in the Wall Street Journal are explained as more than isolated pieces of data, but rather as part of the economic matrix of the world economy. The classic business cycle is the economic and literary tool that the author uses to organize his book and to advance the reader's understanding of what is happening in the world economy--and why. In short, the author has done a masterful job in explaining how we can use the Journal to understand the past, the present, and the future of our economic world. Read this book, and your perceptions of that world will never be the same.

This book is an excellent introduction to how the U.S. economy works, what the Federal Reserve system and Alan Greenspan do, and how the economic information published regularly in the Wall St. Journal can be used to follow and forecast business and economic trends. The book is clearly written and easy to follow. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about how the economy works, and/or wants a greater understanding of what they read in the Wall Street Journal.