Basic Economics 2nd Ed: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded Edition by Basic Books

	Title: Basic Economics 2nd Ed: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded Edition Purchase Item Manufacturer: Basic Books List Price: $35.00 Our Price: $38.26
Customer Reviews:
Basic Economics 2nd Ed: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded Edition by Basic Books You'll want more than one copy
Sowell is a brilliant economist and very talented writer. I loved it so much I've given it as a gift.
Basic Economics 2nd Ed: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded Edition by Basic Books So simple, yet so great!!
Even if you think you know economics or you know you do not, this book is outstanding, easy to understand, and written very well. Can't imagine not owning this!
Basic Economics 2nd Ed: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded Edition by Basic Books Not a citizen's guide
Thomas Sowell is Milton Friedman with a venomous disdain for politics and the media. The book sells itself as an equationless, odorless introduction to economics, and the magic is certainly in repeated application of intuitive concepts. Sowell builds your intuition by training you to think in terms of trade-offs of resources and the incentives which guide them. Sowell favors the market because it utilizes these incentives to allocate scarce resources most effectively, while government actions rarely have the proper incentives to direct behavior in the way government intends. As his second objective, Sowell disfavors the media and politics because they use statistics and wording that are misleading. By using the intuitive concepts presented in the book, it is easy to see how statistics come up short and how words are often too categorical to describe situations reasonably. Later, Sowell concentrates more on economics as the allocation of scarce resources rather than on incentive. The author also throws in other insightful, more philosophical insights along the way. For example, knowledge and power are often contained in the same person in a free market, but not in socialism, which allows a free market to find a more valuable use for the scarce resource of knowledge just by virtue of the system. For another example, profits are the price of incentive, and removing the visible price of profits causes the invisible price of inefficiency to appear. This ends up costing society more, as many factual cases show. If you consider the relationship of incentive here, this should fall into place. In all, this book is more akin to a more political book like Free to Choose than its advertisement would lead one to suppose. It is different in that it lives more on the extremes. It has deeper analysis combined with sharper criticism of the "zest of the media" and the "jungle of misconceptions" in politics, as Thomas Sowell puts it. If you can stomach just the occasional jabs at the media and undue references to the Soviet Union--one book about the regime is cited in at least 6 chapters--this book is well worth it. Note: Beware of the green copy because typos abound. Also, for those who think Sowell is just some pro-market fanatic, I'll leave you with this quote on p. 251, "Economic decisions made through the marketplace are not always better than decisions that governments can make. Much depends on whether those market transactions accurately reflect both the costs and the benefits which result. Under some conditions, they do not."
Basic Economics 2nd Ed: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded Edition by Basic Books "Capitalism good, Communism bad"
That's basically it. Repeated ad-nauseum for 128 pages. Unfortunately that's as far as I got, I just couldn't take it. With each new concept presented, the author eventually leads the reader back to the same inevitable conclusion, "Capitalism good, Communism bad". I actually thought I was rereading the same pages by mistake or that sections of the book had been reprinted by accident. If you are looking for a book about basic economics, as I was, something that would lay out a foundation of universal economic truths, this book is not it. If, however you need some simplistic, one sided ammunition in order to shout down the next unsuspecting tree-hugging-commie-liberal you meet at your next cocktail party that tells you why he thinks raising the minimum wage in this country would be a good thing, then buy this book. I'm not kidding.
Basic Economics 2nd Ed: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded Edition by Basic Books Guide in economic realism for a world plagued by unrealistic, ineffective policy
When I decided to take on Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy" I was a little unsure of what I was getting into. While the study of economics has always fascinated me, my in-depth inquiry into the subject has, thus far, been primarily in the realm of economic philosophy. The title of the book attracted me because I felt it would give me insight into the general technical workings of economics I hadn't studied in depth. While Sowell does, indeed, provide many statistical and technical explanations for the workings of economics, his book is more focused than I suspected. The second half of the title is probably more representative of the book than the first: "A Citizen's Guide to the Economy." Sowell, a renowned economist and Senior Fellow at Standford University, has written this book directed at the everyday citizen, not only by simplifying and explaining economic terminology, but in its direct instruction of how we, as citizens, are to survive and influence a society that waters its view of the science of economics down to emotional misinformation and ignorance, rather than founding it in realism and thoughtfulness. Early on, Sowell cites Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes as saying, "We need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure." This statement sums up what this book hopes to provide: an education in the obvious, factual, scientific principles of economics, and a warning of the "obscure investigations" into ineffective policy reforms and invasions into economic activity that politicians (from both sides) often impose. Many will probably be scared away from this book because they'll dismiss Sowell's economic beliefs as "opinion." While Sowell may insert his opinions at times, he will distinguish for you what is opinion and what is fact. For those who believe bloated government spending is a solution to poverty and quality of life, the facts, historical examples, and statistical evidence Sowell provides will not provide an "argument" against government spending, he will rather illustrate how there really is no argument on the issue of proven economic principles at all. This isn't like the issues of gay marriage or prayer in schools. This isn't global warming hysteria. This is science. Sowell covers a wide array of economic principles. The book could be divided in two parts, the first being the intricate details of universal economic principles, beginning with a Friedmanesque explanation of prices and markets, and concluding with discussions of industry and commerce, profits/losses, and labor markets (these explanations are not limited only to monetary economies). The second half deals with our monetary system and the current established monetary institutions in economics: banking systems, investment firms, the stock market, etc. He also explains national and international economies, spending more time on trade than any other subject in the book. All these subjects are dealt with an observation of factual evidence and statistical interpretation. Sowell continually interjects with ways government regulations have interfered and caused poverty in the past, and constantly addresses and dispels myths about brand names, monopolies, and the "morality" of the marketplace. Sowell's opposition to anti-trust laws and the policies enacted by Hoover and FDR in the Great Depression era are probably the most striking historical interpretations in the book, even though the conclusions are somewhat depressing when understanding the amount of jobs, lives, and livelihoods that were lost by the creation of the welfare system, farm subsidization, and trade regulations. Among these examples, Sowell takes a rare departure from factual evidence, attempting to explain why society and politicians are so ignorant on economic science. After reading this book, you will never listen to politicians the same way, and perhaps you will never listen to them again. I'm a frequent reader of Sowell's columns, so I wasn't surprised by the thick level of intellectual depth he took in his book. However, coming to a long 496 pages, his heavy analysis can make your brain hurt at times. I happen to find that a satisfying feeling (call me masochistic). If you're curious about economic science, Sowell outlines the principles in a way that will excite you, even if the examples of government interference and destruction terrify you. Sowell sticks to scientific economic explanation to counter the emotional reasoning of Marx, and doesn't mention the qualities of "freedom" or "liberty" associated with capitalism (other than using the term "free" market I suppose). While I kept wanting Sowell to talk about how the liberty provided in a free market is much more moral than the slavery imposed by socialistic systems, it was beneficial to hear a detailed scientific analysis of faulted socialist thinking in a more direct, and simple way: free markets improve life, restricted markets diminish it. Overall, Sowell does a great job in providing a handbook for the everyday citizen. Every American needs to read this book, or a book like it. If more people understood the factual principles of economics, it would influence our voting, which would influence our politicians, which could, eventually, influence our economy to the point where we have an even higher standard of living, employment, and freedom than we have now.
Basic Economics 2nd Ed: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded Edition by Basic Books Product Description
This is the revised and enlarged edition of a new kind of introduction to economics for the general public-without graphs, statistics, or jargon. In addition to being updated, Basic Economics has also become more internationalized by including economic problems from more countries around the world, because the basic principles of economics are not confined by national borders. While most chapter titles remain the same, their contents have changed considerably, reflecting the experiences of many different peoples and cultures.