KEY MESSAGE: Readers learn best when they see a concept applied in the context of examples they understand. That is why Economics Today is so successful when readers hail from a wide variety of backgrounds. An abundance of relentlessly current, news-worthy examples motivate every chapter and reflect the interests of today's diverse reader population. Introduction: The Nature of Economics; Scarcity and the World of Trade-Offs; Demand and Supply; Extensions of Demand and Supply Analysis; The Public Sector and Public Choice; Taxes, Transfers, and Public Spending; Dimensions of Microeconomics: Consumer Choice; Demand and Supply Elasticity; Rents, Profits, and the Financial Environment of Business; Market Structure, Resource Allocation, and Regulation: The Firm: Cost and Output Determination; Perfect Competition; Monopoly; Monopolistic Competition; Oligopoly and Strategic Behavior; Regulation and Antitrust Policy in a Globalized Economy; Labor Resources and the Environment: The Labor Market: Demand, Supply, and Outsourcing; Unions and Labor Market Monopoly Power; Income, Poverty, and Health Care; Environmental Economics; Global Economics: Comparative Advantage and the Open Economy; Exchange Rates and the Balance of Payments For all readers interested in principles of microeconomics.