Big Picture Economics

Big Picture Economics: How to Navigate the New Global Economy

A new book, from award-winning economist Joel Naroff and veteran journalist Ron Scherer, helps you understand the interconnections that make the economy work.

Hoboken, NJ (April 2014)—At times, the economy seems like a Times Square billboard with news headlines flashing in random patterns. Consider the disparate messages we hear regularly: Consumer spending is up. The value of the Chinese currency is artificially high. The stock market is down. The Federal Reserve is lowering interest rates. Congress is cutting spending. Panama is expanding the canal. It’s hard to know what all of it means. And it definitely makes you wonder: What is the thread tying all of these factors together?

Context is the answer, say economist Joel Naroff and journalist Ron Scherer. In their new book, Big Picture Economics: How to Navigate the New Global Economy (Wiley, 2014, ISBN: 978-0-470-64181-1, $34.95), the authors show how understanding economic context—your own personal roadmap—is important to everyone from truck drivers and mayors to the presidents of universities and entrepreneurs.

“Every sector of the economy—the consumer, business, the Federal Reserve, international trade, and government—needs to look at what’s going on around them when they make critical decisions like buying new products, building new factories, hiking or lowering interest rates, or setting budget goals,” says Naroff. “Decoding the mysteries of a tumultuous economy is not easy, but our book can help people put the pieces together and form frameworks for future decision-making.”

With unique insight, a candid approach, and the expertise to back it up, the authors examine such diverse and seemingly unrelated events as the expansion of the Panama Canal, a Tex-Mex restaurant’s menu change, and Americans cutting back on their healthcare spending, and show how they are linked to the changes coursing through the economy. Big Picture Economics illustrates how context impacts decisions and decision-makers.

  • The Federal Reserve and Congress in formulating economic policy
  • Consumers in a shopper nation and what makes us buy or not buy
  • Corporations making decisions on whether to build new factories and buy other companies
  • The federal budget that must deal with complex issues, including the reduction of healthcare spending
  • A simple test for tax cuts or increases: Will they help the economy grow?
  • Where to produce and where to sell in a global economy that is more like a Mobius strip than a flat world
  • International events that can ripple through the economy and ultimately affect workers in the Midwest
  • Technology, such as intelligent drones and wearable computers, that is changing the future

“We think of the book as not only a readable way to better understand the global economy, but also a guide to how to use this information to make financial decisions and plan for the future,” says Scherer. “Wealthy individuals, global corporations, and governments have been using the insights and advice you’ll find in our book for years, and now you can apply that same knowledge to take control of your destiny.”

# # #

About the Authors:

Joel L. Naroff is a nationally recognized expert and recipient of the Lawrence R. Klein Award for blue chip forecasting excellence and twice the winner of the National Association for Business Economics Outlook Award. Named the Bloomberg Business News 2008 top economic forecaster, Naroff was also named top economic forecaster by MSNBC in 2006. Data compiled by Bloomberg shows Naroff as the top forecaster of the U.S. economy during a period that included the start of the global credit crisis.

Ron Scherer is a veteran journalist who has worked for UPI, U.S. News & World Report, and for The Christian Science Monitor, a prize-winning publication. In his 37 years at the Monitor, he covered Wall Street and the economy, bringing perspective to daily events.

About the Book:

Big Picture Economics: How to Navigate the New Global Economy (Wiley, 2014, ISBN: 978-0-470-64181-1, $34.95) is available at bookstores nationwide, from major online booksellers, and direct from the publisher by calling 800-225-5945. In Canada, call 800-567-4797. For more information, please visit the book’s page on www.wiley.com.

For a review copy of the book or an interview with one of the authors, contact Dottie DeHart, DeHart & Company Public Relations, at (828) 325-4966 or Dottie@dehartandcompany.com

Linking the Economic Environment to Your Business Strategy