The main organizing principle I use in this book is to divide economics into its two broad pieces, macroeconomics and microeconomics: p. 34: " for simplicity, economists use the term demand curve to refer to all plotted relationships between price and quantity demanded, regardless

To view this book’s Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for Economics For Dummies Cheat Sheet for a handy reference guide that answers common questions about economics. I try to keep equations to a minimum, but sometimes they help make things clearer. In such instances, I sometimes have to use several equations one after another. To avoid confusion about which equation I’m referring to at any given time, I give each equation a number, which I put in parentheses. For example, The straight line connecting the points in Figure 1-1 is a demand curve. I know it doesn’t curve at all, but for simplicity, economists use the term demand curve to refer to all plotted relationships between price and quantity demanded, regardless of whether they’re straight or curvy lines. (This is consistent with the fact that economists are both eggheads and squares.) Public goods: Public goods are goods or services that are impossible to provide to just one person; if you provide them to one person, you have to provide them to everybody. (Think of an outdoor fireworks display, for example.) The problem is that most people try to get the benefit without paying for it.

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p. 29: "All pollution issues, as well as all cases of species loss, are the direct result of poorly designed property rights generating perverse incentives to do bad things." Interesting proposition, which flies in the face of the environmental activists' anti-private property, anti-capitalist agendas.

They’re productively efficient, which means that they produce these goods and services at the lowest possible cost. p. 38: "However, an economist can view altruism, helping others at one’s own expense, as a personal preference.".......Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to plot these three points on Figure 1-1. After you’ve done that, connect them with a straight line. (Yes, you can write in the book!)