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Please recommend a good economics book?
- Thread starter Moheb M
- Start date
I don't actually recommend anyone try to understand Economics without a good grounding in Logic and Philosophy.
Economics is all about how systems work to achieve particular objectives, and because it is trying to predict and influence the Future, it has to make assumptions. Logic will help you see when those assumptions are questionable if not totally laughable.
Philosophy matters, too. Any Economic system will have "winners and losers" by somebody's standard. You have to be clear on your own philosophy to be prepared to justify the results your favored system will produce. In other words, if a Free Market system includes the potential for Poverty, you have to decide whether Freedom is worth that risk, and if Socialism precludes the possibility of Poverty at the cost of stifling Innovation and Excellence, you have to decide if that cost is worth paying.
In other words, there is no single Economics book that covers all of that, although Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" does come close.
Economics is all about how systems work to achieve particular objectives, and because it is trying to predict and influence the Future, it has to make assumptions. Logic will help you see when those assumptions are questionable if not totally laughable.
Philosophy matters, too. Any Economic system will have "winners and losers" by somebody's standard. You have to be clear on your own philosophy to be prepared to justify the results your favored system will produce. In other words, if a Free Market system includes the potential for Poverty, you have to decide whether Freedom is worth that risk, and if Socialism precludes the possibility of Poverty at the cost of stifling Innovation and Excellence, you have to decide if that cost is worth paying.
In other words, there is no single Economics book that covers all of that, although Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" does come close.
Macrocompassion
New member
I think that there is no one good macroeconomics text book.This is because they are all written by university people who want to keep their jobs and are being "politically correct" in sticking to the viewpoint of their supervisory managers and supporting industrialists.
The best book I know, which does not have this failing is:
"Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt 1945.
Otherwise you need to read several books and to decide where there is no bias.
The best book I know, which does not have this failing is:
"Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt 1945.
Otherwise you need to read several books and to decide where there is no bias.
I have three for you:
1) The Undercover Economist, by Tim Harford
2) Freakonomics, by Levitt and Dubner
3) The Economic Naturalist, by Robert Frank
Of the three above, The Undercover Economist is the most broad using rational, real life, and current examples to explain modern macroeconomic concepts. The most entertaining to read is Freakonomics which uses economics and quantitative measures to explain events of recent years and comes up with some very surprising, previously unthought of, answers. The Economic Naturalist explores various social/economic questions that pop up on ordinary people's heads and provides economic answers for these questions.
Also, you may want to try Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics. An excellent synopsis, but a little too doctrinaire for my tastes.
1) The Undercover Economist, by Tim Harford
2) Freakonomics, by Levitt and Dubner
3) The Economic Naturalist, by Robert Frank
Of the three above, The Undercover Economist is the most broad using rational, real life, and current examples to explain modern macroeconomic concepts. The most entertaining to read is Freakonomics which uses economics and quantitative measures to explain events of recent years and comes up with some very surprising, previously unthought of, answers. The Economic Naturalist explores various social/economic questions that pop up on ordinary people's heads and provides economic answers for these questions.
Also, you may want to try Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics. An excellent synopsis, but a little too doctrinaire for my tastes.
D
DBA002
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The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers