Economics
Economist
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Gary Radtke
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Gary Radtke
Executive Leader & Economics Expert.
Gary Radtke is a former Fortune 500 executive, educator, and leadership strategist with decades of experience leading organizational transformation, mentoring future executives, and driving large-scale growth across healthcare and corporate industries.
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Glossary
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Key Concepts
What is economics?
Economics is the scientific study of how scarce resources get allocated.
What are some of the different types of economics?
Macroeconomics: economic study of how large entities such as a state, a country or the
entire world behave and include such metrics as unemployment, inflation, or GDP. It
evaluates how bureaucracy, fiscal and monetary policy interact and identifies major
impacts such as recessions and economic growth.
Microeconomics: economic study of how individual entities such as individuals,
households and companies react to the conditions around them. Concepts such as
utility, opportunity cost, consumption, income and indifference curves are important to
microeconomics.
Econometrics: is merely the intensive use of mathematical and statistical models to
describe or evaluate economic theories and concepts. Regression analysis, time
series, autocorrelation, multicollinearity, Least Squares and a host of other terms are
often used in the analysis.
What is supply and demand?
Supply is the amount of a product or service that is available for purchase or barter over
a specific time period and set of prices.
Demand is the quantity of goods or services that consumers are willing and able to
purchase or barter for over a specific time period and set of prices.
What is inflation?
Inflation is a sustained increase in prices for goods and services
What is a recession?
A recession is a sustained, significant reduction in economic activity. There are many,
many ways to measure the start and duration of a recession.
What is unemployment?
Unemployment means that a person or group of people are not working, but who are
actively looking for work and are available to accept a job. There are many types of
unemployment and as a result this concept is often misunderstood.
What is Full Employment?
Full Employment is the theoretical situation that exists when no one is involuntarily
unemployed in an economy. Since there are always situations where some people are
unemployed, there is a lot of debate over whether Full Employment means zero percent
unemployment or some other number. Historically, 5% unemployment has been used
as the United Staes Full Employment rate by many economists but since the
unemployment rate has been below 5% for the last ten years (except for the Covid-
pandemic year of 2020), it does not appear that this is valid currently.
What is GDP?
GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product. It is the sum total of the monetary value of all
goods and services produced in an economy in a given time frame. The formula for
GDP is often expressed as:
G+I+C plus exports but minus imports where G is Government Spending, I is
investment by businesses and C is consumption by the public.
What is the difference between “real” and “nominal”?
Nominal refers to the actual number calculated. Real means adjusted for inflation.
What is the difference between positive and normative economics?
Positive economics is describing or evaluating economic activity using facts and data.
Normative economics uses opinions and value judgments to determine which actions to
take, or what should be, as opposed to only using the data.
An example would be a study that found that if you increase the minimum wage by 10%
and it results in a 4% reduction in employment. This would be a positive economic
statement.
However, depending on your opinion or value judgments, you might argue to increase
the minimum wage (because you feel that more people would be helped than hurt) or
you might argue not to increase the minimum wage (because people will lose their jobs
and might not find another). Most arguments in economics arise when using normative
statements since there are no right answers, but it depends on the tastes of the
commentator.
What is the difference between labor and capital?
Labor is the human input into the creation of goods and services. Capital is the non-
human input into the creation of goods and services and includes items like machinery,
tools, and information technology.
A term that overlaps both concepts is Human Capital. Human Capital is the knowledge,
expertise, health and drive that enables an individual or workforce to be productive.
What is Keynesian Economics?
Keynesian economics is the macroeconomic theory that aggregate demand drives
output in an economy and that when output is less than ideal, government intervention
through spending and tax policies is required to get the economy back on track.
What is Supply Side Economics?
Supply side economics is the macroeconomic theory that the economy can be more
effectively improved by lowering the cost of production and making goods and services
easier to produce.
What is Monetarism?
Monetarism is the macroeconomic theory that focuses on controlling the money supply
to contain inflation and stabilize the economy as the best means of retaining a strong
economy.
Which macroeconomic theory works best?
No, there is no one theory that works in every situation and Supply Side Economics,
Keynesianism, Monetarism have all been shown to be excellent models in specific
situations and less than ideal in others. Keynesianism is inflationary when the country
is near full employment or already undergoing inflation. Supply Side economics and
Monetarism may take much longer than the voting public would like or struggle if the
voters or the government desire that certain industries grow faster due to national
security or other requirements.
De Gustibus non est Disputandum
Roughly translated, De Gustibus non est Disputandum is a Latin phrase that means that
it is no longer worth arguing when the debaters are using opinions and not facts.