A Guide to Everyday Economic Statistics

Gary E. Clayton is Professor and former Chair of the Economics & Finance Department at Northern Kentucky University. His Ph.D. in economics is from the University of Utah and he is the only American with an Honorary Doctorate from the People’s Friendship University of Russia (PFUR) in Moscow. He has appeared on numerous radio and television programs and for two years was a regular guest commentator on economic statistics for NPR’s Marketplace. In addition to his other writings and newspaper commentary, he has published five textbooks in the middle school, high school and college markets, including the best-selling Understanding Economics with McGraw-Hill Education. Professor Clayton’s web portal, www.EconSources.com, was described as “among the most useful [sites] on the web” by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Ledger.

Dr. Clayton has taught international business and economics to students in London, Austria, and Australia. He is interested in the economic advancement of developing nations and in 2006 helped organize a micro loan project in Uganda. He is a year 2000 Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award winner for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education, an Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO) national Consumer Education Award winner, and the recipient of a national teaching award from the National Council on Economic Education. In 2005 Dr. Clayton was the recipient of Northern Kentucky University’s Frank Sinton Milburn Outstanding Professor Award.

Martin Gerhard Giesbrecht is a Professor Emeritus of Economics at Northern Kentucky University.  He has taught and/or conducted research at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Indiana University, National Chengchi University (Taiwan), Rutgers University, and Wilmington College.  His doctoral degree (cum laude) was earned at the University of Munich, Germany, which he attended on a Fulbright Grant. Making economics accessible, intellectually enlightening, and even entertaining is the mission of Martin Giesbrecht’s professional life.  All of his 12 books, including this one, and his many shorter articles, some of which have also appeared in German and Chinese, are dedicated to that end, as are hi s weekly radio commentaries on WNKU and WMKV.  Because he writes and speaks in a way that people can understand, the Society of Professional Journalism bestow ed the Award for Excellence on him in 1993.  He has also won awards from the German-American Chamber of Commerce, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the American Society for Engineering Edu cation, the National Science Foundation, the General Electric Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the U.S. Small Business