Perhaps it's not immediately obvious why an applied microeconomist would write a preface for a macroeconomics text. Some might even say that it's not such a good idea. Nevertheless, I am pleased to introduce you to Morris Davis's Macroeconomics for MBAs and Masters of Finance.

Years ago, the first course I ever taught was, in fact, introductory macroeconomics. I thought then, and still do, that it would be great to have a concise introduction that was somehow both practical and rigorous. Finally, we have that book, and you're holding it in your hand.

Morris Davis is on the faculty of the Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics in the Wisconsin School of Business, where he's also a fellow of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate. After a strong training in economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Morris was an economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve before we persuaded him to move to Madison.

Our Dean, Michael Knetter, is himself a macro and trade economist of some repute. When we hired Morris a few years ago, Mike noticed Morris's strong training and practical experience in macroeconomics. The Dean proposed that in addition to real estate, we assign him to teach our core macro course to MBAs. Professor Davis readily agreed. Unable to find a concise, rigorous yet practical textbook when I taught macro many years ago, I whined and then made do with what I could find.