The curve-shifting approach does have one advantage we would be foolish to throw away: sometimes a graph can greatly facilitate exposition and understanding. The aggregate-supply/aggregate-demand diagram and its alter ego, the Phillips curve, are so valuable in this respect that they are shamelessly exploited. All other diagrams—most notably the supply/demand diagrams for money, labor, and the exchange rate—are bypassed; for those interested, appendix A at the end of the book exposits these diagrams to provide perspective on the curve-shifting approach and a sense of what it is about the aggregate-supply/aggregate-demand diagram that makes it so useful.

One feature of this appendix is that its second half draws a “big picture” of the macroeconomy that can provide a useful perspective to students. The macroeconomy is divided into four sectors—the goods and services sector, the labor sector, the monetary sector, and the international sector. Each of these sectors has supply and demand activity that creates forces for change. Macroeconomic analysis consists of exploiting these forces to create explanations for how variables such as unemployment, interest rates, and exchange rates are determined.