Need advice on a good economics book

[underpants]

I haven't read an economics book in over 10 years.

My two economics classes consisted of reading Milton Friedman and then Lester Thoreau-one semester each.

I am interesting is a good overall economics book covering the general approaches of different schools of thought.

I know that Friedman's theories are generally the focus of teachings these days but I am looking for the others as well.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[papau]

1. MIT's Paul Samuelson

Foundations of Economic Analysis, 1947.

Economics: An introductory analysis, 1948.

[dcfirefighter]

2. A good read

Not generally an academic economics book, but a good read nevertheless, (no equations or charts):
Progress and Poverty by Henry George
An online copy: http://www.henrygeorge.org/chp1.htm

[stevebreeze]

3. I don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for but..

I found this extremely interesting. Especially Heath's explanation on the basis of right vs left thought.

Efficient Society : Why Canada is as Close to Utopia as It Gets (Paperback)
by Joseph Heath

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140292489/qid=1139355704/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-1025944-2064606?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

[nick303]

4. Depends what you want

If you are looking for something that resembles a textbook, try the following:
The low road -
Economics for Dummies, Sean Masaki Flynn - pretty much what it sounds like

The middle road -
Economics, William McEachern - pretty standard, you can find a used copy cheap
Economics, Paul Samuelson - many swear by the original (1948?) edition

The high road - If you have some mathematical aptitude and want a closer look at the underpinnings, this borders somewhere between
intro and intermediate:
Microeconomics - Pindyck & Rubenfeld

You ask for something that covers the different schools of thought, which is a bit more of historical interest. For that I've heard (but don't know personally) that you might want to check out a book called The Worldly Philosophers. It profiles the main players and their theories over the last few hundred years.

Books I recommend you avoid for your purposes:
Freakonomics; The Undercover Economist - Not going to learn much econ from these, they are closer to being sociology studies
Debunking Economics, Steve Keen - Covers some interesting alternative theories but does a poor job of it. Not something that can be properly analyzed without the better part of an undergrad econ degree.
Other - Anything that is overtly political (i.e. trying to convince you to take a point of view)

[idlisambar]

6. I second "Debunking Economics"

The book does a great job of both explaining neoclassical microecon and pointing out the flaws -- it is a great companion book to a standard microecon text. It is a little unfair to say it does a "poor job" of looking at alternative theories, as this is not really the purpose of the book. More accurately stated -- the coverage of alternative theories is "slight", though I do think that one gets a good feel of many alternative schools (Keynesian/Post-Keynesian, Sraffian) and don't forget the chapter was devoted to "debunking" Marxist economics -- one of the more popular alternative schools.

[underpants]

8. Freakonomics

Yeah I already read that one. Very interesting. I am not sure I completely agree with his (their) taking one piece of data and inferring as they do (not because I might disagree with them).

[2Design]

5. if you are just looking to understand economics - search on the

web for tutorials
Economics and the theorists have changed over the years - like reaganomics didn't work so bushanomics is based on that and won't work either - at least not for the majority people

my favorite way of searching is to use the word tutorial in every search

so you might start with

' tutorial economics '
tutorial economic trends
tutorial reganomics

search engine - http://www.dogpile.com is a good one because it pulls data from 5 to 10 other search engines and usually has more relevant results than I find with google

play with the words in your search - think about what you really want to know

[depakid]

7. Try these excellent and readable texts

Ecological Economics, by Herman Daly & Joshua Farley (2004).

Excellent intro to mostly macro material, plus much needed criticism of the Neoclassical approach and globalization. A reality based book, as opposed to the sheer fantasy and sophistry that you'll read elsewhere (like Milton Friedman, et al.) I highly recommend this book for anyone, no matter how much econ they've taken. It'll open your eyes.

(Daly was a senior member of the World Bank).

Microeconomics, Priciples and Policy, 9th Ed. by William Baumel & Alan Blinder (2003).

Easy to understand basic Micro material, with cool, real life sidebar examples and intro graphs.

[Democrats_win]

9. Neoconomy by Daniel Altman. Unbiased look at bu$h's tax-cut policy.

i learned a lot about what the necons planned for the economy. It took a while for economists to realize what was going on, but by 2004 they figured it out.

This book discusses almost every major economic issue of the bu$h "error" from Social Security to offshoring.

His policies were designed to motivate savings and investment. Any tax or policy that hindered savings or investment was targeted. The neocon's theory was that savings were needed to put our economy into hyper-drive so that the standard of living would climb permanently.

bu$h sold his tax cuts as a way to help the country out of a recession, but that was a lie. The tax cuts were designed for long term economic growth. Of course, who knows if we'll ever see that growth.

Recall that last year, the 4th year of his economic plan, the savings rate was actually negative for the first time since the great depression. It's not working.

[underpants]

10. ** Thanks everyone**

great tips

[loftycity]

11. The Money Masters video

I bought it. You can watch it at www.Madcowpolitics.com. Video forum. It is the best.

[oscar111]

12. PAUL SAMUELSON IS HORRID.. avoid wasting time

i had his book.. it is RW, and even so garbled that it does a bad job of arguing for such ideas.

i mean, it is REALLY garbled. MIT should be ashamed to be connected with such a second rate mind. Third rate, really. His text was chosen by many DINO and GOP professors in the 'fifties, so it got momentum and brainwashed many.

Note.. there are more lies in economics than perhaps any other field, since it deals with money and theft thereof.


Look for british texts. They are more progressive over there... JFK went to the London School of Economics, headed by the Webbs, IIRC. See if sidney and beatrice webb have any books out.

PS i think mick jaggaer also went to the LSE, but dropped out. Not real sure of this, just a rumor.

[On the Road]

13. William Greider Writes Good Economics for a Popular Audience

None of them are textbooks or cover the whole field, but his writing is very lucid. He's a progressive and a former WashPost reporter, and a good speaker.

Greider has books on the Federal Reserve, globalization, the military-industrial complex, and capitalism vs. morality.

Here's his website:

http://www.williamgreider.com/