Understand the economy as a machine you can drive.
Every concept comes in three layers — a thirty-second answer, a five-minute working model you can manipulate, and a twenty-minute deep dive with sources. Every concept ends with the only question that matters: so what does this change about a decision you actually make?
The default path · for first-time learners
~ 1h 50m totalA guided sequence that builds vocabulary, then mechanism, then leverage. Skip any node you already know — every node stands on its own.
The eight tracks
Pick any track · they cross-linkMoney: what it actually is
Six nodes building the floor: what money is, who issues it, what gives it value, and why dollars are not just one currency among many.
Markets & prices
Four nodes on prices as a coordination mechanism — and the cases where they get it wrong.
The macroeconomy
Five nodes on the aggregate: the cycle, employment, inflation, and the rate-setting machinery.
Trade & capital
Five nodes on the cross-border economy — goods, money, technology, and the political fight over all three.
Fiscal & institutions
Five nodes on government finance and the supra-national plumbing — the debt-sustainability math, central banks compared, Bretton Woods, reserve currencies, sanctions.
Cycles & crises
Four nodes on what breaks. One general anatomy, and three replayable case studies. Plus 1929, 1970s, 1997, 2020, 2022 as deep-dive expansions.
The modern frontier
Five nodes on the live arguments — what's contested right now and likely to matter for the next decade.
Leverage in your life
Eight nodes — the point of the rest. Read the regime; decide on housing, savings, career, big purchases, currency, debt, portfolio.