ABSTRACT
You cannot build a comfortable, secure house without a good understanding of construction materials, pipes, and building techniques. Likewise, we first need to examine some of the “building blocks” of any economy in order to understand how societies might be able to achieve the macroeconomic goals of good living standards, stability, and sustainability. While an in-depth analysis of specific parts of the economy is the subject of microeconomics, not macroeconomics, some familiarity with micro-level activities is a prerequisite for a macroeconomic understanding of how all these activities add up to make a national (and global) economy.
