First of all, microeconomics deals with small things: how you are going to use your paycheck, why your favorite coffee shop sells lattes for $5, or why your cousin opened that weird vintage store downtown. In a way, it is like being a detective to find out why people buy what they do and why businesses charge the prices they charge for their products.

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Now, macroeconomics—that's the big picture. That is what one gets in the news: unemployment rates, inflation, economic growth. Sort of like being a weather forecaster for the economy—trying to predict if we're headed for sunny skies or stormy times.

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Now, here is a fun way to think about it: imagine attending a music festival. Microeconomics would prove to be checking on what makes one food truck's line longer compared to another or how much people are willing to pay for a bottle of water on a hot day. Macroeconomics would want to know the number of tickets sold, the amount the festival brings into the local economy, or whether increased fuel costs will raise ticket prices next year.
 

Macroeconomics will look at the big trends in tough times, like a recession: why are so many people losing jobs? Why aren't people spending as much? Meanwhile, microeconomics might look at how your local diner is coping with fewer customers, or how families are cutting back on expenses.

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The truth of the matter is that both micro and macro have excellent relevance toward understanding how our economy works. You might liken it to needing a microscope and a telescope to understand the world.

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Microeconomics helps us understand the hum of day-to-day decisions; macroeconomics gives the bird's-eye view of where we're all headed together.