I’d like to become less ignorant about economics, and have a good read while I’m at it.
Could someone suggest a book or two, aimed at the generally educated citizen, that are not only authoritative but well written?
Some well-known experts in other fields have a snappy writing style:
[ul]
[li]Stephen Jay Gould was good at explaining evolution.[/li][li]John McWhorter is good at explaining linguistics.[/li][li]John Allen Paulos is good at explaining math.[/li][/ul]
Do these writers have counterparts in economics? Someone who can explain the basics of microeconomics, macroeconomics, statistics, etc. as a way of illuminating more complex or timely topics?
Well, I enjoyed “Freakonomics,” but I’m not sure that’s what you had in mind; it’s a quirkier look at the subject than I imagine you were wanting. I think one of the authors is Stephen Leavitt (sp?), I forgot the other.
I heartily recommend Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan. I was looking for just the same introduction to the subject that you are, and came across it in a bookstore. No math, no graphs, just concise and entertaining chapters on a number of different topics.
Hidden Order, by David Friedman. Very well-written and entertaining, and covers a broad range of subjects from micro- to macro-economics, including an economic perspective on some subjects you don’t normally think of in that context, such as a cost/benefit analysis of human dating and mating.
Fair warning, though: Friedman is a libertarian and a pretty hard-code free-market advocate, and he makes no attempts to hide that fact. Most of the examples in the book are about how government intervention (almost) always leads to worse outcomes than leaving everything up to the market, about how protectionism is bad, etc. People who don’t share that outlook may be less impressed by the book. However, his view is a legitimate and popular one so you may as well expose yourself to it if you want to learn about economics, and he covers most of the usual talking points in the course of the book.
You can read his book Price theory on-line, which covers pretty much the same subjects and has the same writing style, so it should give you a good idea of what to expect. Price theory is a bit heavier on maths and graphs than Hidden Order, but the latter still contains examples of the most central formulas and graphs you’d expect to encounter in an Econ 101 course.
The World Is Flat, A Brief History Of The Twenty-first Century by Thomas Friedman. It speaks of massive, radical changes in the way the world does business in the last few years. Some places have jumped from the oxcart to the internet, bypassing all the steps in between.
Hmm, David Friedman and Thomas Friedman. What about Uncle Miltie?
I’ve read The Tipping Point and some of Gladwell’s New Yorker stuff. A very clever fellow and he certainly meets my good-writing criterion, though I’m now looking for a more general introduction to the field of economics.
Thanks, all, for the suggestions so far. Based on these, I’ll probably start with Wheelan and D. Friedman and go from there. Always open to a longer reading list, though.
Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt, is an excellent book that gives a good overview of economics and is easy to read. Of course, it’s very libertarian and skewed towards the free market.
