Chapter 1 describes the book’s aims and scope. The main objective is to improve understanding of the Great Recession and its aftermath. The book provides a unified theoretical framework that uses dynamic general equilibrium models, or DGE, but dispenses with the rational expectations assumption. Its distinctive features are clean models with a rich institutional structure encompassing credit money, external finance, borrowing constraints, net worth, real estate, and commercial banks. Written for economists in universities, governments, and financial institutions, the book addresses an international audience.