There have always been expansions and contractions and bubbles that pop. We always seem to be debating government spending, economic growth, taxes, and regulation.

How can we understand all of this?

Because economics is about people and what they have done, we can start by meeting the first real economist, Adam Smith, and then continue onward to other economic thinkers. Through these thinkers and stories from our own economic history, we can grasp how we got to where we are. By seeing where our economy has been, we can understand where we want it to go.