Asymmetrical Information

I've not read through the entire thing (and am far from an economist), but what about Thomas Sowell's _Basic Economics_? It seems to have been written for the explicit purpose of giving laypeople a grasp of basic economic principles.

I've not read through the entire thing (and am far from an economist), but what about Thomas Sowell's _Basic Economics_? It seems to have been written for the explicit purpose of giving laypeople a grasp of basic economic principles.

I haven't read his recent "Basic Economics", but Sowell's "Knowledge and Decisions" is the single best economics primer I know.

But eventually Megan's friend will have to delve into a Principals text.

The Economics of Everyday Life by David Friedman (Milton's son) is very good.

How about Milton and Rose Friedman's "Free To Choose"? Of course that may be more along the lones of a "political" primer.

All of the above mentioned are way, way too highbrow for your friend. There is an online primer called "Economics for Dummies" at http://www.strom.clemson.edu/becker/prtm320/economics_primer.html. I realize this material is likely beneath your loyal readers, but I feel for your friend.

"The Worldly Philosophers : The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers" by Heilbroner.

Amazon Link

Contains a good overview of the well-known economists and their theories.

I'd also recommend two other Krugman collections - "Peddling Prosperity" and "The Accidential Theorist."
If your friend is interested in tax policy, I'd recommend "Taxing Ourselves" by Joel Slemrod and Jon Bakija.

Second the comment about The Worldly Philosphers. I'd also suggest The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith and the 1844 Manuscripts by Marx. Bleak House, by Dickens, while not strictly an economics text, is also worth reading.

I'd also recommend two other Krugman collections - "Peddling Prosperity" and "The Accidential Theorist."
If your friend is interested in tax policy, I'd recommend "Taxing Ourselves" by Joel Slemrod and Jon Bakija.

Its a goody. See review below.

Armchair Economist: Economics And Everyday Experience
by Steven Landsburg (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0029177766/qid=1069187325/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-7465836-5073611?v=glance&s=books

Book Description
Witty economists are about as easy to find as anorexic mezzo-sopranos, natty mujahedeen, and cheerful Philadelphians. But Steven E. Landsburg...is one economist who fits the bill. In a wide-ranging, easily digested, unbelievably contrarian survey of everything from why popcorn at movie houses costs so much to why recycling may actually reduce the number of trees on the planet, the University of Rochester professor valiantly turns the discussion of vexing economic questions into an activity that ordinary people might enjoy.
-- Joe Queenan, The Wall Street Journal

Better than The Worldly Philosophers - because more current and less left-wing - is "New Ideas From Dead Economists", by Todd Buchholz. It gets you from Smith to public choice and rational expectations with minimal discomfort. (Heilbroner stopped at Schumpeter last I looked, and was longer by two hundred weary pages.)

I second Hazlitt, and add "The Noblest Triumph" by Tom Bethell, an examination of property rights. Good companion for DeSoto.

After that a good used bookstore should yield a cheap old copy of "Economic Analysis of Law" by Richard Posner, for all that political economy jazz. "Law and Economics in a Nutshell" by Jeffrey L. Harrison could substitute if our victim already knows a bit about the law.

And a very good look at what you might call the sociology of capitalism is "The Mind and The
Market" by Jerry Muller, a chronicle of the intellectual response to creative destruction over the centuries. Not really economics per se, but a place where a humanities type could feel at home.

Sowell's book has been on my wish list for ages.

P.J. O'Rourke - Eat the Rich

This is actually a really great project. How about a supplemental list for people who know a good amount of math (calculus, engineering statistics) and want to learn enough to be able to talk with a brother getting a PhD in Econ? (Or is that just me......)

Seriously, it would be very nice to have a second list for those who would like to see some of the underlying math, too. Just in case I'm still interested after looking at these books.

I like the Paul Krugman, David Friedman, and William Easterly books mentioned above. Also 'Against the Dead Hand' by Brink Lindsey, and 'Globalization and Its Discontents' by Joeseph Stiglitz.

But if I had to pick one book for the layperson, it would be 'Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets' by John McMillan. It's non-technical, touches on important subjects with real world relevance, and ideologically even handed.

I'd suggest:

Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, by Charles Wheelan (Norton)

A Student's Guide to Economics: Paul Heyne: ISBN 1882926447

To get the real scoop on the utter intellectual bankruptcy of neoclassical economics, pick up Steve Keen's "Debunking Economics". The best part is that there is no real idealogical bias (at least not that I can tell) to his analysis. He simply lays out, in a mathematically sophisticated but accessable to the intellegent layman style, why the neoclassical model is mathematically inconsistant and completly incapable of describing the real world. He also lets the Marxists have it, while he's at it...

For an Austrian perspective -

_Economics_for_Real_People_ by Gene Callahan

http://www.mises.org/store/product1.asp??SID=2&Product_ID=116

How about Atlas Shrugged? While not technically an "economics" book it is a good deconstruction of the time, talent and resources that go into commerce, and what is economics if not that?

While not strictly a book, you could direct them to Brad Delong's economic history of the 20th century.

http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Old.html

The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism Updated Edition
by Russell Roberts
Is extremely effective at presenting the issues around free trade without math or technical arguments.

"Keynes and After" by Michael Stewart is very good and very readable (and short!) for anyone interested in Keynesianism and how it's fared since WWII.

Armchair Economist, Landsberg
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0029177766

Fair Play, Landsberg
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684827557

Hidden Order, Friedman
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0887308856

While I have not read Posner's "Economic Analysis of Law" (mentioned above), I would guess that would be a little beyond your friend. I've read some of Posner's other works. While most of the models are pretty simple and he gives interesting market analysis of non-market behavior with a variety of interesting applications, it might be tricky to pick up without good economic intuition.

Jim: if you have a good background in mathematics you shouldn't have a problem enjoying some graduate economics texts. E-mail me and let me know:

A) What you're interested in learning about in economics,
B) What your math background is like (obviously you've had plenty of calculus courses and linear algebra.. what about real analysis? how far does your stats background go? etc.)

I think I can make some useful comments for you with that additional information. Also let me know what branch of engineering you're in... if you're very familiar with optimal control theory, for example, you should take very quickly to some dynamic optimization problems in macroeconomics. Signal processing theory is also useful in that it's been used in business cycle analysis and such.

Friedman: Capitalism and Freedom http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0226264211

Jim

I strongly second the suggestion for The Choice: Free Trade vs. Protectionism by Russell Roberts. It weaves a discussion on free trade through an It's-a-Wonderful-Life-type narrative. No, really, it's much better than it sounds. And no more math than addition is required.

I think that I would vote for Sowell's "Basic Economics."

However, if your friend would like to be an alpha-tester for my entry-in-progress, she is welcome to try
http://arnoldkling.com/econ/book/contents.html

I liked "Eat the Rich" by P.J. O'Rourke. Kind of basic, but gets the general point across humorously.

Howdy,

Another vote here for "Basic Economics". It's a good introduction to the way that economists think. The only major problem I've had with the book is that it is pretty much math-free.

"Eat the Rich" was another good suggestion.

I wouldn't reccommend "Wealth of Nations" to an economics newbie. Adam Smith is pretty hard going. My hat is off to anyone who has managed to get through his Digression on Silver.

A much more accessible 'classic' economist is Frederic Bastiat. I heartily endorse his essay "What is Seen and What is Not Seen". Happily enough, it is available on the web

http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/BasEss1.html

Yours truly,
Jeffrey "B.Sc. Econ" Boulier

I'd agree that O'Rourke is a good intro/warmup act before starting in with the real economists, although "Eat the Rich" was hardly his most entertaining book. ("Parliament of Whores" remains the best book I've read on American government, and I've read a few.)

Sowell & Friedman & even O'Rourke are great recommendations. In fact Sowell's weekly columns are an education in Econ 101 as applied to the sophistries of many of our leading pontificators.

I would add a classic: Huff's "How To Lie With Statistics" (Norton 1954), an outgrowth of a 1950 Harper's article. "Many a statistic is false on its face. It gets by only because the magic of numbers brings about a suspension of common sense."

Quite simply, after reading it (or the Harper's article as I did in College) one will never again simply accept a "statistic" without question. (His last chapter is entitled "How To Talk Back To A Statistic"!)

Yes its examples are dated & yes it's not a book on Economics, much less a text, but its basic common sense lessons on the art of obfuscation through weighty statistical presentations by people with weighty credentials have lasted with me for almost 50 yrs.

TomCom

I'd second "New Ideas From Dead Economists", by Todd Buchholz.

I second Friedman's _Hidden Order_.

There was also a book (I didn't read) called something like "The Hidden Heart," which was a romance novel between a high school economics teacher, and another teacher, that was supposedly very good.

I'm thinking that this is a good companion reader to anything current by Krugman.

Oh. That one's over a decade old; my bad.

What about F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom?

Also a decent book recently published is "The Adventure Capitalist." It's a great primer for understanding many of the world's economies from the ground up - not to mention a great first person account of what it is like to travel the world by car.

Not an economics textbook, and with a lot of politics and history worked in, but "The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy" by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw is highly informative.

It's a good list, but after those books, perhaps a "proper" (?) economics textbook like:

Economics by John Sloman, or
Economics by David Begg

I really like "Naked Economics" by Charles Wheelan. Check it out here.

I was recently in exacly the same position as your friend is now. I was very happy with The Economic Way Of Thinking by Heyne. It's a textbook, so it can be had at a very good preice if you get a used version from a previous edition.

It taught me a lot, and left me enthused about the topic. Can't ask for more than that.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0130608106/002-0814359-7114463

I was disappointed by David Friedman's "Hidden Order" and would not recommend it. A better text is Paul Heyne's "The Economic Way of Thinking." Also, "The Wealth of Nations" is a great book and a classic, but there is a reason classics are called "books that everybody talks about but nobody reads."

"Eat the Rich" is full of good stuff, written so well you don't realize how sophisticated it is.

Neither as short nor as pithy is Nathan Rosenberg and L.E. Birdzell, Jr. "How the West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation of the Industrial World." One of the things I liked about it was its consideration of various popular theories, indicating the problems with them.

Tom Bethell's "The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages" is good and easy to read (Bethell is a journalist). More scholarly, though written well, and with almost no overlap with Bethell is Richard Pipes, "Property and Freedom."

When I first read it, I was blown away by Part I of "Knowledge and Decisions." (It was like old Krugman; Part II was more like new Krugman, one-sided and political.)

The book that Tom is thinking of is "The Invisible Heart," by Russell Roberts. The set-up--libertarian high school economics teacher, conventional left-liberal prep school students--makes for some illuminating conflict. I enjoyed it, though I know people who didn't.

THE INCREDIBLE BREAD MACHINE
by Richard W. Grant
Illustrated by Richard Stein
Fox & Wilkes, 1999, paperback

a quick read of the capitalist's view of US history

For another Austrian suggestion, I like "Mises on Money."

I second the suggestion "The Mystery of Capital" by DeSoto. Another book that tackles practical,
specific issues with economics is:

"Money for Nothing: Politicians, Rent Extraction, and Political Extortion"

by Fred McChesney - explains how politicians work
in a way I had never thought of before.

One vote for Roberts' "The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance."

Why?

1) It's a light-hearted love story with a twist.

2) You can read it in an hour or two, and you won't want to put it down.

3) It answers the age-old question of why cleaners charge more to clean women's shirts.

4) It contains some understandable lessons about the rationale for free-markets. [Note: If you're inclined to oppose free markets, this book will not convince you otherwise. But it does lay out the pro-market viewpoint in a pleasing way.]

How the West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation of the Industrial World
by Nathan Rosenberg and L.E. Birdzell, Jr.

The Hazlitt is great, and the Krugman (and a number of his other, pre-insanity books are good choices as well. I also liked the Easterly very much, though another good one I thought of covering the same ground is "From Subsistence to Exchange" by Peter Bauer. Something by Hayek - "The Road to Serfdom" or a collection like "Economic Freedom" would also be solid.

I disagree that Malkiel would be inappropriate. "Random Walk" is an extraordinary book that is very contrarian in a lot of ways to the standard market-related blather, and would help your friend cut through a lot of conventional wisdom on what is an important, large part of the economic world. There's a little bit of math (actually, more numbers than math) but not much, and I would argue, not meaning to be snarky, that when actual math enters the world of economics, economic thought usually winds up worse off.

Free to Choose, by Milton and Rose Friedman

The Road to Serfdom, by Hayek

Basic Economics, by Thomas Sowell

And one of my old favorites,

Dreams Come Due: Government and Economics As If Freedom Mattered, by "John Galt"

For a brief history of economic thought, "New Ideas From Dead Economists" by Todd Buchholz is a good place to start. A fun read.
The Fraser Institute in Canada has published a useful pamphlet called "What Everyone Should Know About Economics and Prosperity" by James Gwartney and Richard Stroup, which is also reproduced on their website, here:
http://oldfraser.lexi.net/publications/books/econ_prosp/

If your friend is really interested in learning economics beyond a very basic level, I would recommend skipping the "principles" texts, most of which are pretty bad, and jump right to the intermediate texts. Here are some pretty good ones:

1. First, she'll need some basic math. An excellent place to start is "Mathematics for Economists: An Introductory Textbook" by Malcolm Pemberton, Nicholas J. Rau. This book starts out very basic and progresses slowly with nice, short chapters. There's no need to read the whole book, since most chapters are quite self-contained. An easier alternative is "Mathematics for Economics and Finance : Methods and Modelling" by Martin Anthony and Norman Biggs. Both books are good for beginners and for self-study, with lots of worked out examples and answers at the back. They are also bargains in paperback editions.

2. For microeconomics I would recommend any edition of "Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach" by Hal R. Varian. This is a very accessible text that still manages to be pretty rigorous. Most of the math is in the appendices, which should not be skipped. Doing the problems in the companion workbook will really help the material sink in. Limited mathematical prerequisites, just basic calculus for the appendices and workbook problems.

3. There are a couple of good choices available for macroeconomics. "Macroeconomics" by N. Gregory Mankiw, is clear and accessible. "Macroeconomics" by Olivier Blanchard is a more dense and challenging alternative, but also quite clear. (The titles aren't very original, are they?) In general it's better to use recent editions of macro texts because the examples are more up-to-date. No mathematical prerequisites beyond high-school math in either case.

4. As for statistics/econometrics, I don't think a decent introductory text exists in this area. "Statistics for Business and Economics" by Paul Newbold is just okay. It has lots of problems and worked-out examples, but it doesn't explain the concepts very well. If your friend already has some statistics, "Basic Econometrics" by Gujarati is quite accessible, but it also fails to explain key concepts. Unfortunately, most of the decent texts are way too challenging for a beginner.

Rather than providing a "mini-education," these books would give the reader a sort of condensed B.A. in economics. If your friend is still interested in the subject after reading the lay-person books, this kind of short course would be the logical next step.

Except for the math texts, these should all be available in any decent academic library. Actually buying them would be a costly investment for an amateur. Borrowing would probably be a better idea.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street

is not strictly pure economics, but is good.

i second mike spenis, re paul heyne's text, "the economic way of thinking." paul died a couple of years ago, but the spirit of his humour, inventiveness, clarity, and cheekiness live on in this book. my high school students like it for the fact that the math issue is largely bypassed in favour of an approachable textual approach.

Heilbroner and Thurow's "Economics Explained" is a fairly good, concise introduction to the subject--far more readable and less intimidating than the typical 800-page principles text.

Robert Kuttner's "Everything for Sale" is essential. There are many books that glorify, and indeed exaggerate, the benefits of free markets--many of the books previously mentioned do so very nicely. Kuttner gives the other side--the numerous real-world factors that cause markets to operate imperfectly. If you're going to be knowledgealb about economics, and not just a laissez-faire ideologue, you have to understand these issues. Fred Block's "The Vampire State" is another good one in a similar vein.

Steve Keen's book, already mentioned, is a good complement to Kuttner. Keen goes into the theoretical shortcomings of much of standard economic analysis, while Kuttner has more of an empirical focus.

The remaining books I suggest are more specific in their focus.

What Martin Mayer doesn't know about the banking and financial system isn't worth knowing. I suggest his "The Bankers: the Next Generation" and "The Fed."

Other books worth reading about the banking and financial system include William Greider's "Secrets of the Temple," Roger Lowenstein's "When Genius Failed," and Barbara Garson's "Money Makes the World Go Around."

There are a lot of outstanding works in economic history that are accessible to general readers.

I'd start with the late Jonathan Hughes two excellent books, "The Vital Few" and "The Governmental Habit." Edward Chancellor's "Devil take the Hindmost" is an excellent introduction to historical crises in financial markets.

At a somewhat more advanced level, Charles Kindleberger's work is in a class by itself. I recommend his "Manias, Panics and Crashes" and "The World in Depression."

Finally, I recommend some outstanding books that aren't explicitly on economics but which deal with issues of concern to economists: "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser, "Cadillac Desert" by the late Marc Reisner, "Three Strikes" by Stephen Franklin, "Credit Card Nation" by Robert Manning, and "Protecting America's Health" by Philip Hilts.

I also endorse all the Krugman books and Stiglitz's "Globalization and its Discontents."

Nobel Prize winning economic historian Douglas North's "Structure and Change in Economic History" is the place--for everyone who hasn't read it--to start. North wrote much of it while at UC-Berkeley and now teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. The structure in the title basically refers to the institutions that have determined the economic rules of play throughout history. Change in the title refers to the way alterations of these structures have changed who benefitted and who paid in economies through out history. Without this book, one struggles to grasp the institutional legacies and agendas that determine the acceptance, rejection or indifference to theoretical change proposed by economists in any age. North's book has been the historical spring board for he and many other economists to inquire into the effects of institutional change (i.e., the rules of the game) on recent economic activity. The reason for the broad sprectrum of these books is also hard to grasp without first reading "Structure and Change in Economic History." It has been translated into many languages and has been read by most of he policy makers and economists working in the G10 countries. It is a short, easy read, almost a historical handbook. START HERE; then leap into recent books on theories of institutional strategy in international relations and economics in order to grasp the strategy of altering regulation for global and regional integration; then and only then come back to brand name economic theories (e.g., Keyensianism, monetarism, etc.). Doing so, one will have a keen sense of the limits and possiblities of these theories in practice; i.e, who will back them and why, what circumstances will likely foster their acceptance or rejections and what must be done to bring them into play. This book is required reading for serious thinkers on the right, left and center.

Nobel Prize winning economic historian Douglas North's "Structure and Change in Economic History" is the place--for everyone who hasn't read it--to start. North wrote much of it while at UC-Berkeley and now teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. The structure in the title basically refers to the institutions that have determined the economic rules of play throughout history. Change in the title refers to the way alterations of these structures have changed who benefitted and who paid in economies through out history. Without this book, one struggles to grasp the institutional legacies and agendas that determine the acceptance, rejection or indifference to theoretical change proposed by economists in any age. North's book has been the historical spring board for he and many other economists to inquire into the effects of institutional change (i.e., the rules of the game) on recent economic activity. The reason for the broad sprectrum of these books is also hard to grasp without first reading "Structure and Change in Economic History." It has been translated into many languages and has been read by most of he policy makers and economists working in the G10 countries. It is a short, easy read, almost a historical handbook. START HERE; then leap into recent books on theories of institutional strategy in international relations and economics in order to grasp the strategy of altering regulation for global and regional integration; then and only then come back to brand name economic theories (e.g., Keyensianism, monetarism, etc.). Doing so, one will have a keen sense of the limits and possiblities of these theories in practice; i.e, who will back them and why, what circumstances will likely foster their acceptance or rejections and what must be done to bring them into play. This book is required reading for serious thinkers on the right, left and center.

Nobel Prize winning economic historian Douglas North's "Structure and Change in Economic History" is the place--for everyone who hasn't read it--to start. North wrote much of it while at UC-Berkeley and now teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. The structure in the title basically refers to the institutions that have determined the economic rules of play throughout history. Change in the title refers to the way alterations of these structures have changed who benefitted and who paid in economies through out history. Without this book, one struggles to grasp the institutional legacies and agendas that determine the acceptance, rejection or indifference to theoretical change proposed by economists in any age. North's book has been the historical spring board for he and many other economists to inquire into the effects of institutional change (i.e., the rules of the game) on recent economic activity. The reason for the broad sprectrum of these books is also hard to grasp without first reading "Structure and Change in Economic History." It has been translated into many languages and has been read by most of he policy makers and economists working in the G10 countries. It is a short, easy read, almost a historical handbook. START HERE; then leap into recent books on theories of institutional strategy in international relations and economics in order to grasp the strategy of altering regulation for global and regional integration; then and only then come back to brand name economic theories (e.g., Keyensianism, monetarism, etc.). Doing so, one will have a keen sense of the limits and possiblities of these theories in practice; i.e, who will back them and why, what circumstances will likely foster their acceptance or rejections and what must be done to bring them into play. This book is required reading for serious thinkers on the right, left and center.

Other people have recommended it, but I would enthusiastically recommend "Basic Economics, A Citizen's Guide to the Economy" by Thomas Sowell. Absolutely no math, but it's still meaty enough to keep a "dashing and clever" person interested, and Sowell is good at explaining the importance of and implications of different economic laws and principles.

I don't know that I would recommend his "Knowledge and Decisions" as an "introduction to economics" type text but everyone should read it eventually if they have the slightest interest in economics.

I have to agree with the others:

Thomas Sowell's - "Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy"

He even debunks the current Leftist propaganda about Walmart.

Boy, quite the political list.

I think one problem that too many people have is a basic fallacious assumption that economics is about money. In fact, what it studies is collective decision making (or so I've come to understand it, speaking as an outsider and an economic dilettante). Since a nation's economic activity is the result of collective decision making about spending and investing, that's a natural application of economics, but it isn't the only one.

So I recommend this book:

"Prisoner's Dilemma", by William Poundstone, ISBN 038541580X.

It's a biography of John Von Neumann (one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century), but it also covers his contributions to game theory and to economics. I think you can't truly understand economics (in its more broad meaning) without fully understanding "the Prisoner's Dilemma", and its child "the Tragedy of the Commons" and grandchild "the problem of Free Riding". Poundstone's book spends a lot of time discussing the Prisoner's Dilemma and its ramifications, as I remember from reading it ten years ago.

Poundstone is a good writer and a good popularizer, and this book is written for the laity and is not loaded with jargon or heavy math. He's one of those people like Martin Gardner who can present esoteric subjects in ways which don't intimidate outsiders.

Just a bit more: Poundstone's book isn't really a biography in the classic sense; he concentrates more on game theory than on Von Neumann. Read the publisher's note here:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=708KN4Y2KG&isbn=038541580X&pdf=Y

Another vote for Sowell's Basic Economics. It's about the best, simplest explaination of economics I've ever read.

Eat the Rich - P. J. O'Rourke
Basic Economics - Thomas Sowell
The Road to Serfdom - F. A. Hayek

I hope your friend's got a vacation coming, Jane.

Knowledge and Decisions, and All The Trouble in the World (P J O'Rourke). I think O'Rourke does a better job of explaining 3rd World economic problems than anyone else I've read.

"Nobel Prize winning economic historian Douglas North's "Structure and Change in Economic History" is the place--for everyone who hasn't read it--to start. North wrote much of it while at UC-Berkeley and now teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. "

Er, for the record, North had been a long time professor at the University of Washington when that book came out. (He left for Washington University shortly thereafter.)

(Gotta stick up for the alma mater...especially when it touches on my favorite Econ class.) --sw

'Basic Economics'(Sowell), hands down. No math, cogent language.

Definitely Sowell's Basic Economics, which is supposed to come out in an updated and expanded version soon. There is also a companion volume planned as well, Applied Economics, which may already be out.

I did a posting on just this topic -- some suggestions of my own, a bunch from visitors and commenters. It's here.

As someone who put himself through a starting-from-zero self-education in econ over the last few years, I did a posting on just this topic -- some suggestions of my own, a bunch from visitors and commenters. It's here.

I just got Sowell from the library and am trying to read it. Not what I'd call a page-turner. Three sentences where one would do, always the least active verb, the least visual noun, etc. Loves words like "convey" and "output".

Seems to cover a lot of good stuff, esspecially the time and risk business, but I recall Free to Choose and Hazlitt being significantly more invigorating.

From a different angle: "The Effective Executive", by Peter Drucker. Short, worthwhile, and a classic.

From a different angle: "The Effective Executive", by Peter Drucker. Short, worthwhile, and a classic.

I'm surprised no one else (besides me) has mentioned 'Reinventing the Bazaar'. I'm guessing the reason the book hasn't gotten much attention is precisely because it is non-idelogical. Anyway, here's what the venerable UK economics commentator Samuel Brittan says about it:

"There is in fact a growing body of knowledge about the conditions in which competitive markets will bring socially beneficial results and in which they will not. By far the most readable book I know on the subject has just appeared. It is by John McMillan entitled Reinventing the Bazaar, a Natural History of Markets, Norton, (£19.95). The book covers far more than the title suggests.

The author is enviably up to date on matters such as the internet and modern auction theory. But he writes simply and directly without talking down. At long last I have found a book that I can recommend to the proverbial nephew who desires to find out about economics without wanting to pass an exam or become a practitioner himself. "

The book also gets praise from economist (and AtlanticBlogger) William Sjostrom:

"It is about every sort of imaginable market, and it is one of the few books about economics that I have ever recommended to non-economists without any sense of guilt whatever.

All the vile side of academic life tends to bury it, but reading McMillan's reminded me why I went into economics in the first place: the sheer fun of trying to make of the world around us."

There are 73 posted comments and I don't have ime read them all and see if this suggestion has already been offered but the list is not complete without it:

"The Road to Serfdom", Hayek.

There are 73 posted comments and I don't have ime read them all and see if this suggestion has already been offered but the list is not complete without it:

"The Road to Serfdom", Hayek.

There are 73 posted comments and I don't have ime read them all and see if this suggestion has already been offered but the list is not complete without it:

"The Road to Serfdom", Hayek.

Comments are Closed.