HN Books @HNBooksMonth

Basic Economics - Thomas Sowell https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Common-Sense-Economy/...

⬐ frgtpsswrdlame

^ Not this one. Mankiw is already ideological enough, Sowell and Hazlitt should be stayed far away from. The real answer to the above commenter is that you can't, not really. You can put a lot of work into understanding Mankiw and then you go to econ grad school and learn all the caveats and how much of it is basically wrong. Economists themselves barely understand the economy and they spent years and decades getting to 'barely.' A layman is basically incapable.

In that sense maybe I'm wrong and maybe Sowell is the good choice, just decide your ideological viewpoint on the economy now, read enough to defend your viewpoints to other laymen and let that be that.

Here's another vote for Basic Economics. It's a great (and fairly thorough) overview, written in a down-to-earth manner. Lots of real-life examples are used to explain basic economic principles, making this subject understandable and even enjoyable (for me, at least).

Here is a direct link to it on Amazon (reviewers here gave it high ratings as well): http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-3rd-Ed-Economy/dp/0465...

Current econ PhD student here. Sowell is great. There's a 3rd edition out now.

http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-3rd-Ed-Economy/dp/0465...