6. The Wall Street Journal

Description of Publication: The Wall Street Journal (WSJ)

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) may be the most renowned business newspaper in the world; it certainly is in the United States, the largest economy in the world. Regional editions are also published. The Wall Street Journal Europe is edited and published in Brussels and printed in Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, and Belgium.

The WSJ is one of the most frequently consulted financial dailies in the United States. Any casual reader will enjoy going to the center column on the first page for some trivia or plain old fun, such as, "Quizz: How do U Spel Milenium? Not That Way, Actually" (June 25, 1997). The WSJ provides much more than just securities quotations; nevertheless, the detailed financial tables are one main reason for its popularity. The data are provided by a variety of sources. Stock quotes appear daily for the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, and other domestic and foreign exchanges. The WSJ has a large "Directory of Services," which will help the reader find information provided by Dow Jones & Co. For example:

The Wall Street Journal is divided into three sections: the first covers general business, political, and economic news, the second reports on marketing, media, technology, law, and Who's News (called "Marketplace"), and the third section (called "Money & Investing") covers the financial markets. Regular updates of the monthly and quarterly statistical indicators usually appear in summary form in the second column on the first page of the first section. The news stories to which these summaries refer are almost always published on the second page of the first section. On Mondays the WSJ publishes on this page a tabular summary (called "Tracking the Economy") of all the statistics that appeared in the previous week as well as a calendar of those you can expect in the present week. In short, The Wall Street Journal is replete with statistics that come out at various times: daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly. The Wall Street Journal publication schedule is available on-line and includes statistics such as these:

Mutual funds, bonds, stock options, commodity futures, futures contracts for indexes and interest rates, cash prices for selected commodities, and a separate table for daily oil prices are some of the quotations provided by the paper. Also, detailed foreign exchange data are reported daily. Exchange rates are given both in U.S. dollars and the national currency for 50 countries. Every Monday, the Bank of America publishes an extensive list of exchange rates for nearly every country in the world. General market barometers also appear daily (e.g., the Stock Market Data Bank), along with Markets Diary, which describes the activities of the New York and American exchanges and the over-the-counter market. A special edition on learning, The Wall Street Journal Educational Edition, is provided for students by Dow Jones, as are student subscription rates.

One great little book that serves the needs of students, academicians, and investors alike is Michael Lehmann's Real World Economic Applications: The Wall Street Journal Workbook (ISBN 0-256-13153), published by Richard D. Irwin (now McGraw-Hill Higher Education) at (800) 338-3987. According to the editors, Real World Economic Applications: The Wall Street Journal Workbook is not a typical study guide or workbook. It incorporates a proven, successful method for teaching fundamental principles of the macroeconomy by focusing on a number of key statistical reports that appear regularly and predictably in the WSJ. Their belief is that a student using this workbook and The Wall Street Journal acquires a surprisingly quick and firm comprehension of the ups and downs of the American business economy "in a systematic, pleasing, and non-technical manner." The true-to-life aspect of the data and applications goes a long way in supporting theoretical arguments and a student's motivation to learn them. The table of contents for the Real World Economic Applications: The Wall Street Journal Workbook is as follows:

www.wsj.com
webmaster@mcgraw-hill.com
CD available
Database: Dow Jones Interactive

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ)

newspaper
ISSN 0099-9660
For more information, call: Dow Jones Directory Assistance,
Phone (800) 832-1234

In this section:

2. Hoover's Handbooks
3. Standard & Poor's
4. Robert Morris Associates' Annual Statement Studies
5. FASB Accounting Standards
6. The Wall Street Journal
7. Occupational Outlook Handbook
8. Harvard Business Review
9. Who's Who in America
10. MIT's Technology Review
11. Small Business Sourcebook
12. Peterson's Guide to Four-Year Colleges
13. American Heritage
14. The Worldly Philosophers

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