Faculty Books

ECONOMICS FOR YOU AND ME by DeanArthur Upgren and Stahrl Edmunds. NewYork: Macmillan. 1953. 246 pp. $4.00.

In a lively and graphic style and through the use of terms from every-day life, this book presents for the general reader an exposition of some aspects of elementary economics. Some of the phrases used as chapter headings are particularly intriguing. Would you ever guess that PUT-AND-TAKE is about supply and demand; that LADIES' CHOICE discusses consumer spending; that THE BANKER KEEPS A KITTY explains the use of bank reserves; or, that THE BIGGEST SHOW ON EARTH tells about the nature and size of government spending?

The basic principles of economics are the core of the book. Part I in troduces the Gross National Product, a measure of the value of all goods and services produced each year, and shows the violence and extent of business changes. Part II deals with the things that go into, or are taken out of, the Gross National Product and its varying size. Part III discusses shifts in demand, money, bank credit, and the national debt. Part IV looks into the future and raises some of the main issues, the unsolved problems, which provoke the stresses and strains in our present economy.

The purpose of the book is to give you and me the main tools of economic analysis in or- der that we may be able to "add up" for ourselves a complete view of business conditions. There is a long-felt need for books of this type. Too few economists are either willing or able to undertake the task. Even here, with the easy, conversational style and the excellent drawings as illustrations, the technical nature of the topics makes close attention imperative. However, if we do read it with understanding, we shall be much better equipped to help make those public policy decisions so vital to our future way of life.