Reports in the press tend to say "the market did this" or "themarket expected good news on the economic front", as if themarket were a single…

1) To understand reports of market behaviour you have to bear in mind the way the market works; 2) On the stock market, business can be transacted over the telephone, almost by remote control; 3) A market is a shorthand expression for the process by which households' decisions about consumption of al-ternativegoods, firms' decisions about what and how to produce, and workers' decisions about how much and for whom to work are all reconciled by adjustment of prices.4) Much of economics is devoted to the study of how marketsand prices enable society to solve the problems; 5) Given your desire to eat, and your limited resources, the low hamburger price told you that this was a good way to satisfy your appetite.