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Title: Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
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Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
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| Customer Reviews: |
| Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Three Rivers Press 3.5 Stars-A useful supplementary text for lower division microeconomic principles courses only |
| This book is useful for teaching lower division undergraduate students the principles of microeconomics.It can be used as a supplementary book.Hazlitt emphasizes the important concept of opportunity cost,but neglects to incorporate any discussion of spillover effects and externalities(positive and negative,depletable and undepletable),market failure,public goods,the theory of second best,adverse selection,moral hazard, the principal-agent problem,etc.It is interesting that all these missing topics were originally covered by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations(1776),especially in Part V. |
| Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Three Rivers Press How to Learn Opportunity Cost |
Economics in One Lesson is a clear and concise explanation of opportunity cost and price incentives. This book is extremely useful as a supplemental text. The reason why is that most modern economics textbooks pass over opportunity cost too quickly. The basic idea of opportunity cost is easy, but students need to see how the opportunity cost concept applies universally.
One way to learn opportunity cost is to read Cost and Choice, by JM Buchanan. Cost and Choice is a great little book, but it does not work well for an intro class. Bastiat wrote some classic essays on opportunity cost, but his work could be seen as a little dated. Of course, opportunity cost is itself timeless, but Bastiat aimed at explaining the general applicability of opportunity cost reasoning to a nineteenth century audience.
Economics in One Lesson is a modern restatement of Bastiat's essays. Hazlitt writes to counter mid twentieth century Keynesian fallacies. This is an important aim. All to many of us believe that disasters like 9-11 and Katrina created jobs. Too many of us fail to see that the labor and capital that goes into reconstruction has forgone alternative uses. Too many of us believe that capital itself causes unemployment by replacing labor. Labor saved by capital has alternative uses. Even some economists can benefit from reading this book (if they have an open mind) because too few of us see how government spending and credit expansion can displace and distort private sector spending. This is not to say that the free markets never have any slack or are perfect, but the Old Keynesian belief that activist fiscal and monetary policy can permanently increase real GDP is not well founded. Any New Keynesian will tell you that Hazlitt was right about the Old Keynesian economic program.
Hazlitt also does fine explaining the basics of price incentives and price and wage controls. Many people will object to what Hazlitt writes about wage and price controls on ideological grounds, but his reasoning is sound. Even pro-minimum wage economists like David Card and Alan Kreuger admit that large increases minimum wage rates must cause increased unemployment. This is a basic lesson of economic theory.
The critics of this book generally do not know what they are talking about. Sure Hazlitt does not discuss externalities or asymmetric information, but EIOL is not a comprehensive text, it's a primer on opportunity cost and price/wage controls. Keynesian critics will find fault in its discussions of unemployment, but the fact of the matter is that virtually all economists now reject the Keynesian paradigm that Hazlitt attacked in 1946, including contemporary self described Keynesians. Hazlitt is second only to Bastiat in explaining the general applicability of opportunity cost reasoning in an entertaining fashion, and his book is more up to date. All first year economics students should read Economics in One Lesson. |
| Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Three Rivers Press A must-read for every non-economist |
| This book has a nice way of explaining some basic economic facts in a way that any reasonably intelligent person can understand even if they haven't had a course in economics. This is critical if these people are going to have input into the political process that ultimately determines economic outcomes. Too often otherwise intelligent people are making choices that defy basic economic truths. This book clarifies these issues and does so in an entertaining way. It's also short-and-sweet and easy-to-read! |
| Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Three Rivers Press Best Book in Economics -- Forget all the technical stuff |
| A great and accessible book on economics. If you know nothing about the topic, read it, because it will save you from the pitfalls that have brough on most of modern economic errors. If you know much about economics, read it, because it will correct many tipically wrong notions of economics in your head. It is not meant to be a tratise, nor to solve all problems. Like all great books, it is a simple, concise, yet essential single lesson in economics. From a broken window glass it takes you through all main aspects of modern economics and teaches you an essential lesson: think about the unseen effects of economic policies and actions. Get that lesson wrong and you will find yourself in the midst of a third world economics mentality (which of course you may want, depending on your political position in life). |
| Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Three Rivers Press A great macro-understanding of a dismal science! |
This book is not a thorough, complicated review of every aspect of economics. This is a book that explains the fundamentals in easy prose and understandable terms. It won't make you an economist nor will you prepare you for an economics' exam... but it will increase your general knowledge of economics and some of the fundamentals behind the everyday terms you hear. You will really understand the theory behind the jargon. I liked it and thought it was easy to read and understandable. It's relatively short and is good for beginners as well as the more advanced readers in the this area.
From the outset, we are explained in this book that the two important issues that make economics less than an exact science (physics, etc.) is the influence of interest groups and balancing the short term needs vs. the long term needs of individuals and the society - very basic and yet so true.
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| Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Three Rivers Press Product Description |
| A simple, straightforward analysis of economic fallacies that are so prevalent they have almost become a new orthodoxy. |
