Yamarone aims to connect the theories presented in economic textbooks with the everyday world of Wall Street to demonstrate how to understand the economy for traders and investors, and therefore how to make decisions about investing. He focuses on key economic indicators most relevant to Wall Street, and others from fixed-income and commodity markets, which have been added for this edition. These indicators are constructed by government and private organizations, such as the US Census Bureau and the Institute for Supply Management. Each chapter describes an indicator: the Gross Domestic Product and indexes of leading, lagging, and coincident indicators, consumer prices, manufacturing, housing, retail sales, and others. Major attributes of the indicator, its effects on the markets, its origins and development, how data is obtained, analyzed, and presented, and its use in investment are discussed. Yamarone, an economist, is a director of economic research who has extensive experience analyzing and researching domestic and international economic trends and consulting monetary and fiscal policymakers. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less