These are real terms you'll see in the news, on report cards from economists, and at your dinner table whenever inflation comes up. Tap any word to see what it actually means.
Every term above is something you'll hear in real news stories, real classroom debates, and real conversations about money. The more of these you can explain without looking, the better you'll understand what's actually happening when prices change — and the harder it gets for someone to tell you a too-simple story.
These questions follow the chapters in order. Some are factual recall — make sure you understood the basics. Others ask you to think and explain. Type your answers below; they save automatically as you write.
Time to get hands-on. These four activities help you do what you learned, not just remember it.
Pick something your grandparents or older relatives might have bought when they were your age — a candy bar, a movie ticket, a comic book. Find out (ask them, or look online) what it cost back then. Then enter the numbers below to see how much that same item should "feel like" today, using inflation math.
After you calculate, ask: how does the answer compare to what the item actually costs today? If they're different, why might that be?
Each of these is a real headline-style scenario. Identify which inflation driver (or drivers) is at work: demand-pull, cost-push, money supply, or expectations. More than one answer can be correct — explain your thinking.
For each person below, decide whether mild inflation would generally help them or hurt them — and write why in one sentence.
Inflation has just hit 6% — three times the Fed's target. You're the President. Below are five tools you could use. Pick three. Write down which ones, in what order, and why. There is no "right answer" — but every choice has tradeoffs you should explain.
Your three picks (and order):
What's the biggest tradeoff or risk in your plan?
Check things off as you finish them. Your progress saves automatically.
This is the most important page in the workbook. Take your time.
Now that you've finished Hey, Who Shrunk My Dollar?, write your answer in your own words. Don't just summarize the book — say what you think.
Some prompts to help you, if you want them: What is inflation, really? What surprised you most about it? Did the book change your mind about anything? If a younger sibling asked you to explain it, what would you say?
There's no right answer here. The smartest readers are the ones who can hold the whole picture and weigh it honestly.
Ten questions. Each one has one best answer based on the book.
Pick your answer for each, then click Score My Quiz at the bottom. You'll see what you got right, what you missed, and a quick explanation for each one.