Macro Prep

Interactive intermediate-macro reference with live data, drill, and analysis tools.

1 Macro Prep

A working reference for intermediate macroeconomics — Case-Fair-Oster Ch. 7–13 and 19, paired with live FRED data, central-bank press feeds, and 126 worked practice problems. Built for the panicked student the night before a final, and for anyone who wants to actually understand what the Fed just did.

Updated daily · Data: FRED · Feeds: Fed, BLS, BEA, Treasury, ECB, BoE, IMF, BIS, EIA

1.1 Where to start

Foundations

CPI, multipliers, fiscal policy

The Keynesian-cross spine. Solve for Y*, learn why the multiplier 1/(1−c) becomes 1/(1−c(1−t)) once taxes go proportional, internalize the balanced-budget multiplier.

Money

Money creation, money market, bond pricing

Money multiplier K_S = 1/rrr, demand for money, equilibrium r*, and the inverse relationship between bond price and yield with a worked discount-bond example.

Open economy

AS-AD, foreign exchange, regimes

PPP vs. capital-flow channels for the dollar, fixed vs. floating regimes, the impossible trinity in two paragraphs.

Live data

Inflation, labor, rates, GDP, FX, news

Six interactive dashboards reading cached FRED JSON. Slide the time window, filter sources, see the 2% target line and recession bars.

Practice

126 worked problems

Easy → Medium → Hard → Twist. The "Twist" tier is where students lose points — sign flips, units mismatches, regime changes hidden in familiar setups.

Reference

Formulas, glossary, common traps

Every multiplier you need on one page. Every term defined in one sentence. Every exam trap I've seen students fall into, with the fix.

1.2 What’s different about this site

This isn’t a textbook scrape. It’s the cheatsheet I wished existed when I was teaching intermediate macro — every formula stated in clean LaTeX, every exam-relevant trap flagged, and live data wired in so you can see what real CPI looks like right now alongside the equation that produced it.

• Live FRED time series — 26 macro series cached as JSON, refreshed daily by a GitHub Action. No API key needed, no rate-limit anxiety.
• RSS aggregation — FOMC statements, BLS releases, Treasury announcements, ECB decisions, all on one page, sorted by date.
• Observable JS dashboards — plots are interactive (slide the year window, hover for values), not static PNGs.
• 126 worked practice problems — every solution shows the algebra, names the trap, and ends with the one-line key insight.

1.3 Recently from the central banks

feeds_recent = await (await fetch("data/feeds/recent.json")).json()

html`<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; gap: 0.6rem; margin-top: 0.5rem;">
  ${feeds_recent.slice(0, 6).map(item => `
    <div class="news-card">
      <div class="news-meta">
        <span class="news-source">${item.source}</span>
        <span class="news-date">${new Date(item.date).toLocaleDateString('en-US', {year: 'numeric', month: 'short', day: 'numeric'})}</span>
      </div>
      <a href="${item.link}" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
        <div class="news-title">${item.title}</div>
      </a>
    </div>
  `).join('')}
</div>`

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Built by Dr. Ian Helfrich. Source on GitHub. Content licensed CC-BY-SA 4.0.