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"The New Illustrated Guide to the American Economy" is a useful asset for anyone seeking to make sense of economic news or - more important - to place it in a broader context. It consists of straightforward, objective statements about the United States, each one explained in a page of text and a page of bold, four-colour charts. At the same time it deals with the uncertainties of the data and the interpretations based on them. Listening to TV or reading newspapers raises a long list of questions whose answers would be relevant to the national discussion but are commonly unknown, ignored, or misunderstood, such as: how rich is the American economy compared with other times and other countries?; what is the extent of poverty in America?; what has happened to productivity and real earnings?; what is happening to the relative earnings of women or blacks compared with white males?; how heavy are American tax burdens today compared with earlier times and other countries?; and what caused the large increase of the US trade deficit? Students and their professors should find this volume an accessible companion to books that emphasise principles. Unlike textbooks that focus on theories of how unidentified economies in unidentified places might work, this book deals in facts about wealth and poverty as well as growth and business cycles in the United States, as seen by economists. This thoroughly revised second edition brings the information up to date and expands the treatment of many subjects, including: the economics of health; problems in measuring changes in the quality of life; government capital and infrastructure, natural resources and research and development; small business, multinational corporations and trade unions; and the distribution of income and its changes.