First, read the Brief Introduction you can download here.
This will tell you everything you need to know to get started.
Below are links to webpages and files that are mentioned in the
document.
The Basics:
The .tex file of the Introduction
Download MikTeX
Download WinEdt
use this to get started default.tex
This is what you need for the bibliography:
harvard.sty
economet.bst
a sample bib file
There are various options for making slides:
1) The seminar package (zip file) .
Here is a sample slide file
2) Another package is called Prosper .
This allows you to make slides that look similar to PowerPoint.
Finally, integrating graphs into Latex is easy. Check this out (courtesy of my colleague Bob Hall).
More
A Primer
Dante Server (A Comprehensive TeX Archive)