Understanding Economic Equilibrium: Making Your Way Through an Interdependent World

Economic agents all over the world are trying to maximize their returns given their efforts, resources, and opportunities. They come together in markets that ultimately allocate goods and services among many competing interests. We can readily see how individual markets behave; it’s more difficult, but exponentially more important, to recognize the general equilibrium across all markets. Disturbances in one market have implications for others.

These interrelationships are particularly important to understand when policy changes are being considered where actions in one market will impose changes on other markets, and not always in obvious or pleasant ways. Understanding Economic Equilibrium reveals how all markets fit together, and how we as individuals fit into that bigger picture.

Thomas J. Cunningham, PhD, conducted research and developed monetary policy strategies for thirty-one years in the Federal Reserve System, retiring as vice president and senior economist of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Subsequently he served as the chief economist and senior vice president at the Metro Atlanta Chamber (MAC). He was a popular speaker, addressing more than forty conferences, corporate meetings and political bodies annually.

Mike Shaw has been writing about business for more than five decades. He counts more than 15,000 published articles, from investigative pieces adapted by 60 Minutes and ABC 20/20, to articles, white papers and blogs for corporate clients. Mike has founded and run three Atlanta-based marketing agencies.