By nature, people have unlimited wants.

Economics is the study of how people choose to allocate their scarce resources towards satisfying their unlimited wants. This process involves the production, exchange, and consumption of goods and services. The field of economics is broken down into two distinct areas of study: microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics is concerned with the interaction between individual buyers and sellers and the factors that influence choices that buyers and sellers make. In particular, microeconomics focuses on the determination of price and output in individual markets, such as the market for shoes. Macroeconomics studies the entire economy: the "Big Picture". It considers the combined effects of billions of individual choices on the overall performance of the economy. Terms like 'consumer price index', 'unemployment rate', 'gross domestic product', and 'economic growth' make up the language of macroeconomics. The fundamental interaction in a market economy is that between households and firms. Households supply land, labor and capital to firms through resource markets. In return, households demand goods and services from firms through product markets. By introducing the medium of exchange, called money; the exchange of resources and products between households and firms can be described in terms of income and expenditure. Firms pay rent, wages, interest, and profits in exchange for resources that households provide. These payments are considered income by households. Households spend their income on products. This transfer of money is called expenditures. From the product markets, firms receive revenue. From the diagram, we see that while resources and products flow in a counter-clockwise direction, the corresponding payments for these products and resources flow in a clockwise direction. In most countries, the government is an important supporting actor in the economy. Governments purchase resources, such as labor, from resource markets. They also purchase goods and services such as automobiles and maintenance from product markets. Governments convert these products and resources into public goods and services which they provide to households and firms. To pay for this public production, governments collect revenue from the private sector in the form of taxes and fees. This completes our circular flow model of the domestic economy which describes the flow of resources, products, income, and revenue among households, firms and the government. However, we must consider one more important component to the macroeconomy: the rest of the world. Foreign countries supply goods and services to our national product markets and also purchase goods and services from our markets. There is a two-way flow of goods and services into and out of the country. Likewise, resources such as specialized machinery and labor flow back and forth between the United States and the rest of the world. It follows that payments for products and resources flow in both directions as well. Now we have a more complete model for the flow of income and expenditure in the macroeconomy. Before we undergo a deeper analysis of the macroeconomy, let's review the basics of supply and demand by taking a closer look at the product markets.