"The NBER Macroeconomics Annual" provides a forum for important debates in contemporary macroeconomics and major developments in the theory of macroeconomic analysis and policy that include leading economists from a variety of fields. The papers and accompanying discussions in "NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2009" address leverage cycles and how they can be driven by the interaction of heterogeneous beliefs and equilibrium leverage, the validity of alternative explanations of the recent increase in foreclosures on residential mortgages, the credit rating crisis, quantitative implications for the evolution of the U.S. wage distribution, and noisy business cycles.