How to Learn About Global Economics

It's hard for the average consumer to keep track of it all: the falling Dow Jones Industrial Average, the talk of a global economic recession, the mortgage crisis and the broken housing market, the financial meltdown in Wall Street, rising fuel prices and OPEC, the US government bailout bill and the repercussions of the plunging U.S. dollar. The question of how to educate yourself so you can understand what it all means, why it happened, and where it's going can seem overwhelming. Here are some suggestions that should help you learn about global economics and the recession.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Books and information sources on global economics, recession, the mortgage crisis, and the financial meltdown in Wall Street. See the Resources section for ideas.

1. Search Google News, not just regular Google, for news archives related to global economics. Search for phrases like housing market and falling U.S. dollar. The subjects are often interconnected. A search on financial meltdown and the mortgage crisis will turn up relevant results, as will global economics and banks. Try oil prices and OPEC. Searching for the official title of the bailout bill, or Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, will get you detailed results you wouldn't get if you just searched for bailout bill.

2. Check out Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, either the print version or the online version, to learn about global economics. The online coverage of the recession from the point of view of the financiers is vast. Keep up with the Dow Jones Industrial average from the Wall Street Journal or Google Business News.

3. Search Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com) for basic answers to questions like, What is the Dow Jones Industrial Average? What is the bailout bill? What is the difference between a recession and a depression? What was the Stock Market Crash of 1929?

4. Visit the BBC News site for extensive coverage of global economics and the recession from a non-US-centric viewpoint. Look both in the World and Business sections for financial information. If you are in the States, international news media are great for learning about the financial meltdown on Wall Street and the mortgage crisis from a non-American point of view.

5. Read the transcript of an episode of the National Public Radio show, This American Life, called The Giant Pool of Money, episode 355, for information specific to the mortgage and housing crisis. (See the Resources section below for the link.) This is an easy read for the layman of an explanation of how the mortgage crisis developed.

6. Read a book on global economics and the recession. Find some suggestions in the Resources section below.

Tips & Warnings

• When you search Google News, change your sort options if you get too many results or you want the most recent articles first. To get the most relevant results, put your phrases in quotes.

Resources

• Fixing Global Finance, from October 2008
• Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, from April 2008
• PDF file of the Global Pool of Money radio show transcript
• The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It from August 2008
• Dow Jones Decline Rate Mimics Great Depression
• What Stock Market Charts Can Tell Us About the Great Depression

[omghow]

on 10/13/2009 Thanks for sharing. good informations for staying on top of the world issues.