Everything you need to know about the economy

An old joke says that economics is the painful elaboration of the obvious.

Despite that, many economic concepts aren’t widely understood, even among investors. Some think they’re boring; others find them intimidating.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a series of straightforward, Q&A-style stories to explain the ideas everyone should understand.

Think of it as Economics 101 without having to sit through hour-long lectures.

Here they are:

What you need to know about GDP

What is fiscal policy?

How currency exchange affects your life

Central banks and why they exist

Monetary policy and how it affects you

Supply and demand: why do you care?

We’ve also got two explainer videos for visual learners:

Read the transcript for Advisor.ca explains fiscal policy

Read the transcript for Advisor.ca explains supply and demand

We also think you’ll enjoy:

Understanding why interest rates are low

How the target inflation rate affects you

We hope this content helps you better understand why the economy works the way it does, and that the next time someone starts droning on about the Federal Reserve, you’ll be able to follow along. (And, at the very least, you’ll be better equipped to understand why these economics jokes are funny.)

And, take a look at this partner content from Sun Life Global Investments: How to convince a 15-year-old to invest.