The author explains the basics of the federal reserve system, monetary policy, the causes and effects of inflation, and various personal investment products such as stocks, mutual funds, commodities, and money market accounts. The basics of each is explained, and the author shows how each is tracked daily in the Wall Street Journal. The purpose is to allow individuals to understand their investments, track their progress, and be able to react to changing market conditions. Its all sounds very axiomatic, but the great thing about this book is that it states basic principles that are often assumed, and thus left unstated.
For example, if the following excerpts are helpful to you, then this would be a great book for you:
Page 15: "The forces of supply and demand condition every business cycle."
Page 25: "Bank lending finances spending, and spending generates inflation. The Fed controls bank lending and can thereby control inflation."
Page 33: "Every commodity has a price; the interest rate is the price of money. As with any commodity, the price fluctuates according the the laws of supply and demand."
Page 165: "Mutual funds are popular with individual investors because they permit diversification in a wide variety of securities with a very small capital outlay."
These are examples of the points covered, and the level at which they are covered. If the above quotes sounded obvious, this book may be below your expertise. But if you finally want to understand the jargon you hear on CNNfn, this book will do the job.
This would be a great book to buy as a graduation gift for a high school senior, or anyone without a background in finance.
The Wall Street Journal is the best source of all the financial, economics and investment news, figures and data you need to get started on acquiring financial literacy. Having said that, for one who has not studied economics or obtained a finance degree, it can be quite a task trying to understand all that information. This is where The Irwin Guide to Using The Wall Street Journal helps the interested reader to make full use of The Wall Street Journal to become his/her own economist.
Not many books like this book come this far. This book is now into its 6th edition, having been first published in 1984. This edition has been updated with more current and post-1996 examples and illustrations.
I like how this book takes the various sections found in The Wall Street Journal and explains the significance of the information, figures and data and then relates it to the reader's understanding of finance and economics. This certainly enhances the reader's appreciation of the nuggets of information found in The Wall Street Journal. This book also enlightens the reader as to the various choices of investments out there - from stocks, to commodities and metals, and to money market investments.
All in all, I found this to be good book for those who have no prior education in finance and economics but who are willing to take action to learn more. Even those with a basic knowledge of economics will stand to gain from this book.
For those who may require a more basic book on understanding economics, I would like to recommend Economic Literacy by Jacob De Rooy or The Wall Street Journal's Guide to Understanding Money & Investing. And for those ready to take on more complex readings, I would recommend R Mark Rogers' Handbook of Key Economic Indicators.