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Fourie FCVN & Burger P (2019) How To Think and Reason in Macroeconomics - A South African Text. 5Th Edition. Cover, Preface & Table of Contents
Fourie FCVN & Burger P (2019) How To Think and Reason in Macroeconomics - A South African Text. 5Th Edition. Cover, Preface & Table of Contents
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Fourie FCvN & Burger P (2019) How to think and reason in Macroeconomics - a
South African text. 5th edition. Cover, Preface & Table of Contents
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How to think and reason in macroeconomics – a South African text. Why the
complicated title?
First, this textbook purposefully and methodically teaches the reader how to think and
reason about economic behaviour, real-life processes and change in macroeconomics –
not merely how to manipulate a set of theoretical equations or shift a few curves around.
(After all, the economy does not have curves.)
Secondly, the text continually situates the analysis and comprehension of economic
processes in the South African context. Thus the reader will learn extensively about:
❐ relevant data and data sources to underpin understanding;
❐ economic institutions that shape economic processes, including policy institutions and
the political-economic landscape;
❐ policies that could be used (but also misused) in the pursuit of macroeconomic objectives
such as high employment, low inflation and steady growth; as well as
❐ broader considerations such as human development and inclusive growth – with South
Africa being an (upper-) middle-income country relative to peer countries in Africa and
elsewhere, as well as high-income countries.
But what does this really entail?
Preface ix
x Preface
Preface xi
xii Preface
Preface xiii
Using the national accounting identities as a tool to understand sectoral coherence and
constraints
The national accounts can be a dry subject area, dominated by definitions and accounting
conventions. But one can engage with the topic without doing accounting. Indeed, chapter
5 provides a unique treatment of the national accounting identities: as powerful tools to
bolster logical-intuitive reasoning and analyses of macroeconomic change. It becomes a
tool to understand the accounting-type coherence between sectors of the economy – the
numbers must add up, must balance – as well as underlying constraints on macroeconomic
change and adjustments. Along the way the reader will acquire a working understanding
of the System of National Accounts and important South African data sources.
xiv Preface
Preface xv
Preface��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ix
3. The basic model II: financial institutions, money and interest rates
3.1 The monetary sector and interest rates��������������������������������������������������������������������76
3.2 Linkages between the monetary and the real sectors����������������������������������������������98
3.3 The IS-LM model as a powerful diagrammatical aid���������������������������������������������� 109
3.4 Real-world application: The 2007–08 financial crisis – varying investor
behaviour and impotent monetary policy�������������������������������������������������������������� 134
3.5 Analytical questions and exercises������������������������������������������������������������������������ 138
Table of contents v
vi Table of contents
Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 568
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