Economics is scary. Or boring. Or both. Say the word and watch people yawn.

But what's going on around us right now--the U.S. mortgage crisis, skyrocketing oil and food costs, tanking wages and disappearing health care and retirement benefits, to name a few of our current traumas--makes the need for understanding a few fiscal fundamentals critical for most Americans.

So how do we dislodge people from watching "American Idol" long enough to see that the reason they are having trouble paying bills, affording health care or sending their kids to college is not because they are only working two jobs instead of three. Rather, there's something really wrong with the way our nation's economy is being run. And it's in their interest--and the interest of all of us--to understand why.