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[[Image:NYSE-floor.jpg|right|thumb|Face-to-face trading on the [[New York Stock Exchange]]'s trading floor.]]

[[Image:NYSE-floor.jpg|right|thumb|Face-to-face trading on the [[New York Stock Exchange]]'s trading floor.]]

'''Economics''' is a social [[science]] concerned with how society produces, allocates, and consumes goods and services.  Economic freedom, essential to prosperity, is protected in the [[United States]] by the [[Constitution]] and its republican form of [[government]].

'''Economics''' is a social [[science]] concerned with how society produces, allocates, and consumes goods and services.  Governments can be classified by their economic policy.  The [[United States]] economic policy, set down in the [[Constitution]] and inspired by enlightenment thinkers.

== Issues in economics ==

== Issues in economics ==

Economics deals with a large number of issues:

Economics deals with a large number of issues:

* [[Theory of value]]: What are things worth?  Why are they worth what they're worth?

* [[Theory of value]]: What are things worth?  How do we compute value?

* [[Economic justice]]: What is a "fair" distribution of resources in a society?

* [[Economic justice]]: How are resources distributed in society?  What is the ideal distribution?

* [[Economic prosperity]]: What policies encourage economic growth and development?

* [[Economic prosperity]]: Which policies encourage economic growth and development?

* [[Economic prediction]]: What can the economic realities today tell us about the economic realities of tomorrow?

* [[Economic prediction]]: How can we use economic information from today to predict future results?  Which [[econometrics]] are leading indicators?

== Disciplines within economics ==

== Disciplines within economics ==

==Branches of economics==

==Branches of economics==

* [[Microeconomics]]: the study of economic decisions in individual people, businesses, and markets;

* [[Microeconomics]]: the study of economic decisions of firms and households acting in markets.

* [[Macroeconomics]]: the study of economic dynamics and policies in an entire economy  

* [[Macroeconomics]]: the study of aggregate economic decisions and the results of those decisions in a local, national, or world economy.

== History of economics==

== History of economics==

''Main article: [[History of economics]]''

''Main article: [[History of economics]]''

It is generally accepted that the formal study of economics began with the Scotsman [[Adam Smith]], in his book [[An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations]]. The origins of the field however, lie in the [[banking]] industry, which has developed over thousands of years.{{fact}}

Economic thought originated with the rise of the state.  Classical economics, or the long-run model, was articulated by [[Adam Smith]] and has since fomented the rise of free-market capitalism in economic thought.

[[Category:Economics]]

[[Category:Economics]]