Macro is the Greek for large or expansive. Micro is the Greek for small or limited. Macroeconomics deals with big picture stuff like what broad sectors of the economy are doing or what entire economies are doing. Microeconomics is all about what small economic players are doing, like individual companies or consumers taken one by one.

Most of our problems lately have been macro problems. The simple fact that the broad economy hasn’t grown very quickly lately is a macro element. The historical condition that most of Western Europe has a highly evolved but very expensive welfare state is a macro problem. The situation in the US where we have a large block of the electorate that doesn’t want to have higher taxes while at the same time a largely over-lapping group of Americans won’t stand to have services curtailed is a macro issue. Read more