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Books to Understand Economics

149 points by armitage188 7y ago

jeremyboom8 7y ago
This book changed my life: The Future of Money From Goodreads "Today’s financial system is seen by the most as having a fixed size. Bernard A. Litaer challenges this perspective by showing that there were different economic systems in history and that our present system has arisen from a tacit and problematic collective acceptance. He sees the future in the development of complementary currencies. He explains which money is necessary for which needs and how we can commonly create it. Money only exists because of trust — where trust has been destroyed, money is loosing its value; chaos and poverty are sad consequences. Lietaer has written an exciting and informative book for anyone who is aware of economic problems, from interested laymen to bankers." https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/984314.The_Future_of_Money https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/984314.The_Future_of_Mon...
- simonebrunozzi 7y ago
  Thanks for the recommendation. In which way it changed your life specifically?
  - jeremyboom8 7y ago
    Understanding that money is a human creation, and that we can evolve it. Bernard Lietaer: “My conclusion is that greed and the competitive drive are not inherent human qualities. They are continuously stimulated by the kind of money we use. There is more than enough food and work for everyone. There is merely a scarcity of money.”
- dbancajas 7y ago
  what is the TLDR of the book?
  - jeremyboom8 7y ago
    "Bernard Lietaer discovered the destructive effects of the prevailing monetary system while working in Latin America during the 1970s. “Enormous loans were being granted for senseless projects. The banks were throwing money around. I wondered if I was seeing things other people weren’t seeing.” As a professor of international finance at the University of Leuven in Belgium, he wrote a book about his experiences in which he predicted a major debt crisis. The book came out in 1979. In 1981 the crisis in South America broke loose. Lietaer’s belief that the global monetary system needed reform led him to the Belgian Central Bank, where for several years he was involved in the establishment of the “ECU,” or European Currency Unit, the precursor of the euro. He subsequently became general manager of a foreign-currency fund. His remarkable successes in that capacity attracted international attention. The influential U.S. magazine Business Week proclaimed him the world’s best currency dealer in 1991. Even more than that, Lietaer had become a genuine expert on money, privy to the deepest secrets of the financial world. He decided it was time to write new books. While teaching at the University of California in Berkeley and California’s Sonoma State University, in the 1990s, he worked on The Mystery of Money (Riemann Verlag, 2000) and The Future of Money (Random House UK, 2001). These books unravel the present concept of money and show how different approaches have different social consequences—including environmental and social sustainability. According to economics textbooks, money is value-free. It is nothing more than a means of exchange and is regarded as having no effect on transactions. Lietaer contests that view. “Money isn’t at all value-free,” he argues. “The monetary system is programmed—albeit not deliberately—to cause certain behaviour. It promotes competition and short-term thinking; it forces economic growth; and it undervalues care, education and tasks crucial to maintaining a society. Economics theory teaches us that people compete for markets and raw materials; I think, in reality, people compete for money.” This competition is a direct consequence of the manner in which money is created. Banks put money into circulation by means of loans. For example, as soon as someone negotiates a 100,000-dollar mortgage, money is created and begins circulating in the economy. But then the bank expects the recipient of the loan to pay back a total of 200,000 dollars in repayment and interest over the next 20 years. But the bank does not create the second 100,000 dollars. The receiver of the loan must get hold of that money—the interest—one way or another, and this forces him or her to compete with others. It’s simple: Some people must lose money or go bankrupt in order to put others in the position to pay off their loans. At the same time, this collection of interest results in a concentration of wealth: Those who have money “automatically” get richer. In addition, the system forces society into an endless loop of economic growth: New money must constantly be put into circulation to pay off old loans. Lietaer says, “My conclusion is that greed and the competitive drive are not inherent human qualities. They are continuously stimulated by the kind of money we use. There is more than enough food and work for everyone. There is merely a scarcity of money.”" From an old interview (thanks Archive.org!): https://web.archive.org/web/20101108043616/http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/26/money_should_work_for_us_not_the_other_way_around/ https://web.archive.org/web/20101108043616/http://www.odemag...
- ghoulfarmer 7y ago
  Cooincidentaly I ordered this exact book the other day. I knew about Bernard because he became obsessed with Bancor, a "breakthrough" (his words) to solving the liquidity issues that plague complementary currencies. I became interested in the same project for other reasons and now I want to read his books. He passed away earlier this year. RIP.
hirundo 7y ago
I vote for this collection of Claude Frédéric Bastiat: https://mises.org/library/bastiat-collection https://mises.org/library/bastiat-collection. In particular the leading essay, "That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen." It may be the quintessential statement of how to think like an economist. The article includes a popularization of it as "Economics in One Easy Lesson" but here's the original source, free, clear and timeless.
- claudiawerner 7y ago
  Also worth reading are Marx's critiques of Basiat and Say in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Marx is even critical of him in the Grundrisse where he contrasts Bastait and Carey, in which he derides both as bourgeois political economists. Far from seeing what is "not seen", they are obsessed with price and external appearances: >Bastiat, by contrast, presents fantasy history, his abstractions sometimes in the form of arguments, another time in the form of supposed events, which however have never and nowhere happened, just as a theologian treats sin sometimes as the law of human existence, then at other times as the story of the fall from grace. Hence both are equally unhistorical and anti-historical. But the unhistoric moment in Carey is the contemporary historic principle of North America, while the unhistoric element in Bastiat is a mere reminiscence of the French eighteenth-century manner of generalizing.
  - legitster 7y ago
    Marx calling out someone for playing fast and loose with history and generalizing concepts is richly ironic. This criticism also does nothing to attack the merits of the argument or even the existence of opportunity cost. Does he deny that such a concept exists?
    - claudiawerner 7y ago
      That's not the main criticism, it's a bit of polemic following on from the rest of the analysis; I quoted it here only to mention that Marx does engage with these thinkers. The criticism is too long to reproduce here but you can check it out on sites that host Marx's collected works. I can't remember if opportunity cost is discussed. I'm curious what criticism of Marx's historiography you're mentioning though. While controversial, his theory of historical materialism is not discounted in contemporary history academic literature.
chumali 7y ago
This is just a broad list of econ type books with no discernible curation. I certainly wouldn't call it a list of the 'best' econ books even though there are some great reads in there. It ranges from very specific works on central banking, finance and behavioural economics to an undergrad textbook covering most of Econ 101. Some of these entries are only tangentially related to economic theory (Thinking Strategically, Capitalism vs. the Climate). There are also some glaring omissions (e.g. Radical Markets by Posner and Weyl).
- davidw 7y ago
  Yes. A good list might start with some general, fairly neutral books. A lot of the books here are fairly biased or are trying to drive home some point or agenda. Tim Harford's books are pretty good, in general in that he promotes "thinking like an economist" without going overboard in any direction.
- rchaud 7y ago
  The reason it's titled "best" is for SEO purposes, nothing more. The author wants this page to rank for people's searches, and unfortunately people use terms like "best", "ultimate", "fastest", etc. I mostly avoid clicking on links like this because these pages exist to make money, not inform the user or deliver a unique point of view. That much was obvious with the "free ebook" interstitial that came up the second the page loaded, and the smattering of Amazon affiliate links for every book listed.
- Matticus_Rex 7y ago
  I found Radical Markets engaging (if not compelling), but I think it would be totally out of place on this list.
niceperson 7y ago
Read Steve Keen
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
sixhobbits 7y ago
I really enjoyed Tim Harford's books "The Undercover Economist" and "The Undercover Economist Strikes Back". Maybe they are too far in the "popular economics" category to be included in a list like this (although there are some on the list that look similar) but he explains things clearly and argues well and I feel like I understand economics far better after reading them.
willyg123 7y ago
Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell is a book that changed my views a decade ago. I have skimmed through it a few times in the years since, through a full market cycle, and he continues to be spot on.
- fc_barnes 7y ago
  Thomas Sowell, like so many conservative thinkers, is a stupid person's idea of what a smart person sounds like. If that's too harsh for you, sorry, but that's what happens when angry Austrians go through the thread systematically downvoting anyone who doesn't agree with them.
  - dang 7y ago
    Please don't post ideological flamebait here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - willyg123 7y ago
    I could debate Austrian vs Keynesian economics all day and wipe the floor with you but the fact you had to resort to an ad hominem attack lets me know I already won the debate. FWIW I've never downvoted anyone on HN so it appears as though your assumptions, just like your emotions, are out of control :)
fc_barnes 7y ago
It's a good list. Generally pretty reasonable but they threw in some Austrians at the end for "balance" or something. People usually get more then enough Austrian economics from radio and online ranting, and they get a fair amount of behavioral from pop media. Honestly, what most people need to get basically educated in econ is 1. Some basic national-accounting type Keynesian macro, 2. Basic forex and bond pricing, 3. Enough education in marginalism to understand comparative advantage and enough education in game theory to genuinely understand the concept of a Nash equilibrium, and 4. A smattering of folks like Adam Smith and Douglass North to understand the human or sociological side of things.
legitster 7y ago
Wow. I am really stunned by this list. I took a look expecting the usual chorus of contrarian populist hardbacks, but this list is very conclusive and and covers a wide range of opinions and subjects. I have read about a quarter of them and can attest they are all excellent (although with varying degree of readability). This is the exact sort of list if you want to see multiple perspectives and challenge yourself. I also want to shout out to Hidden Order, which I was really surprised to see here, but is really quite the gem. More than any other econ book, I have pulled off the shelf and gone through the much dog-eared pages. It does an amazing job of taking off-the-shelf economic ideas and framing them in such excellently written parables or examples. Disagree or whatever, but it's an excellent and often trite way to understand classic principles. A couple books I would add to the list: Why Nations Fail Red Plenty Who Gets What and Why
- pjscott 7y ago
  It turns out that Hidden Order is hard to google because of a spy thriller by the same name, so here's an Amazon link to the econ book: https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Order-Economics-Everyday-Life/dp/0887308856 https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Order-Economics-Everyday-Life/...
- roymurdock 7y ago
  Yeah seconded, this really is an excellent list. Very pleasantly surprised to see "The Rise and Fall of American Growth" as first on the list, it should be required reading as a guide to what we're seeing playing out in American politics currently (after it is rewritten into a more coherent and concise/accessible book, in its current form it's clearly the work of multiple undergrads/grad students stitched together by Prof. Gordon) - but the ideas in it are really powerful. Also really pleased to see The Road to Serfdom by Hayek on the list. Eager to check out the book on Climate vs. Capitalism as I haven't seen this topic given full treatment in a book yet beyond questioning the sustainability of growth economics and efficacy of carbon taxes in broad terms. The Mankiw textbook is used in intro undergrad classes everywhere. I would also love to read a book by a contemporary Chinese economists on their thoughts of the Chinese market, although something tells me a good academic/unbiased book on this topic is impossible to find. Only two books I would add would be: The Age of Diminished Expectations (Krugman) Dune (Herbert)
TDL 7y ago
Haven't Jared Diamond's theories been thoroughly debunked?
- ghaff 7y ago
  In what way? I'm not sure that anyone seriously argues [against the idea] that geographic determinism had a lot to do with which two core centers of civilization arose earliest (and hence had a big head start). The criticism, such as it is, mostly relates to the fact that geography certainly isn't the only factor that played into how civilizations evolved after they got going in the first place.
  - TDL 7y ago
    I see, so the criticism has more to do with Diamond not taking other factors into account. Thanks.
    - ghaff 7y ago
      Not an expert and there may be other criticisms. However, if you read Why the West Rules for Now (which serves as a pretty good East and West world history), the author basically says near the beginning that of course geography played a big role in where early civilization started. But, to the central question of the book, that doesn't begin to explain why China had to pay homage to Britain, rather than the other way around.
      - AnimalMuppet 7y ago
        If I understand correctly, China could have ruled the world at least twice. First, around 1100, China was starting in on an industrial revolution. They peaked at tens of thousands of tons of iron produced each year. Then the mandarins noticed that some commoners were getting rich, which was contrary to the proper order, and the government shut down the iron industry, and the whole thing stopped. But they could have had at least the beginnings of the industrial revolution five centuries before England. (Source: The Victory of Reason, by Rodney Stark.) Second, China had fleets that dominated at least the Far East, and could have dominated the Indian Ocean. But shortly after 1434, the Chinese emperor decreed an end to the voyages of their great fleet. (Source: 1421 and 1434, by Gavin Menzies.)
sansnomme 7y ago
They need to add Varoufakis' Foundation of Economics.
voldacar 7y ago
A lot of people online swear by the Hazlitt book - has anyone here read it and would like to share their thoughts?
- Matticus_Rex 7y ago
  It's a bit dated in 2019, and he's obviously coming to come conclusions with political implications, but the basic framework of thought the book presents is not only educational, but fantastically useful. I read it at the end of undergrad and had my mind completely blown.
- timtas 7y ago
  It’s a very good intro to economics. However, I generally recommend instead reading the work that it’s based on: That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen by Frédéric Bastiat. [1] Bastiat’s work is timeless, whereas Hazlitt’s, written to be consciously modern at the time, is showing it’s age. [1] http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html
rodneyzeng 7y ago
cannot open the link.
carapace 7y ago
Economics is basically numerology. A true science of economics could be described as "ecology + psychology", and would be based in physics. The closest thing I've ever seen to a proper economics is the "Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars" document. (It's chapter one of Bill Cooper's infamous book "Behold a Pale Horse". I want to make it clear, FWIW, that I never read the rest of the book. I have less-than-zero to say about the content of the rest of the book.) Oh look, it's online and with diagrams now: https://lawfulpath.com/ref/sw4qw/index.shtml https://lawfulpath.com/ref/sw4qw/index.shtml Bitchin'. It's pretty creepy: it's a combination of an exposition on a simple electrical model of economics with a nightmarish gloss of crypto-fascism (or something, I'm not sure what you'd call it.) Anyhow, the "electro-economics" is what I want to call HN readers' attentions to: something like that is what I would expect economics to look like. (Without the creep Dr. Evil vibe.)
- oarabbus_ 7y ago
  Why Stock Markets Crash by Didier Sornette is the book which most rigorously applies physics to economics that I have ever read.
thecleaner 7y ago
Why is something like this being hosted on a site named filmlifestyle.com ?
- armitage188 7y ago
  Site covers quite a few topics.
ChicagoBoy11 7y ago
Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society" contains the most important and fundamental insight about markets. It's an essay worth a read every couple years.
- Matticus_Rex 7y ago
  If you're reading this and seeing "Hayek" and thinking "nah, that's conservative/libertarian propaganda," reconsider for your own sake. This essay isn't political, and some of the insights have been largely accepted by virtually all economists. The essay also inspired Wikipedia and is constantly cited by innovators as having been massively influential on their thinking.
maxime-levesque 7y ago
Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy - Warren Mosler Available here in PDF: https://moslereconomics.com/wp-content/powerpoints/7DIF.pdf https://moslereconomics.com/wp-content/powerpoints/7DIF.pdf Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has a convincing answer to the question: "What gives fiat currencies their purchasing power" Mainstream economists simply say that purchasing power of money commes from "confidence", but they don't explain where the confidence comes from. It is a circular logic: one has confidence in a currency if one beleives that others have confidence in it, ... whoever whas the first the "have confidence" must have been duped, ... or more likely the theory is flawed... MMTs explanation of purchasing power is simply that in an economy there are mandatory transactions: taxes, and taxes have to be paid in the currency mandated by the state. Money is not a commodity, it does not arise out of barter, it is (and always has) been imposed by states that required taxes be payed with their currency. This has many consequences: 1. Taxes serve to generate and maintain demand for the currency (reduce inflation, or produce deflation). 2. Currency has to be spent before it can be taxed (how else can currency enter the economy?) 3. The debt of a currency issuing state is equal to the net financial assets (sum of all monetary assets, minus sum of all monetary debt) 4. Markets are monetary in essence, they are a side effect on the enforcing of money on a population. In a market, participants all purchase money with goods and services. MMT is primarily a descriptive theory, the mainstream academic orthodoxy doesn't like it so much because it debunks many of its claims, but MMTs predictive capacity on the macro economy makes it a valuable tool on Wall Street: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/business/economy/mmt-wall-street.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/business/economy/mmt-wall...
Avisha 7y ago
Freakonomics
burfog 7y ago
It's more a list of famous books written more-or-less about economics. They are famous, not necessarily good. You will understand economics less if you take "Das Kapital" seriously. You'd do much better with "ECONOMICS: PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHOICE" by James Gwartney, Richard Stroup, Russell Sobel, David Macpherson. Another good choice is "Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell.
AtlasBarfed 7y ago
49 goddamn books and not a single one that integrates environmental destruction and survival of the human race as the foundation of its theme. The list basically incorporates everything that frustrates me about the field of economics. It pretends it is key to everything in the world (and there are many applications under certain circumstances), but it has pretended like capitalism and various policies enacted under economic (especially laissez-faire) recommendations have led to a fundamentally unsustainable world order and economic system. I remember the first time I read about externalities. It was the perfect term. A tack-on to economics. A minor side concern to the primary task of making money for the rich while the world steams toward oblivion.
- AtlasBarfed 7y ago
  My third sentence is very poorly constructed. I'm basically annoyed that economics acts like it understands everything that occurs in the world via game theory, efficiency of energy, as if their study is as fundamental as physics, but at the same time pretends the consequences of its implementation in the political and practical spheres don't exist because their study can't quantify them. How does economics quantify the extinction of a species? In the nihilistic sense if humanity goes extinct, what is the economic impact of that? What is the value of a human life lost in mass displacements of global warming? What is the value of humanity? It doesn't answer these questions. It can't. The real answer is that economics is a means for the powerful to rationalize their positions, and ignore their devastation.
- FiatLuxDave 7y ago
  You may enjoy the Naomi Klein book, "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate". It's about halfway through the list.
rramadass 7y ago
Not sure on how to phrase this, but i would like some suggestions please; 1) What is a basic beginner book on Finance i.e. how do Normal Banks, Investment Banks and Money work? Explanation of the concepts, terminology and jargon involved. 2) What is a basic beginner book on Economics i.e. the big picture concepts of how trade, currencies (inflation) etc. work? Basically the concepts behind what really makes our "modern world" tick.
- chumali 7y ago
  1) For a concise and non technical introduction to issues of monetary economics I would suggest Alan S. Blinder - Central Banking in Theory and Practice. 2) For an introduction to macroeconomic principles you can try Cores free online textbook. [1] [1] https://core-econ.org/the-economy/book/ https://core-econ.org/the-economy/book/
  - rramadass 7y ago
    Thank you. Will look into those. Another thing i was looking for is a layman's book on how everything (economics+trade+debt+banks+money+etc.) comes together explaining both the concepts and jargon involved. Something which a high-school student can pickup to have an overview of "the market and the system".
FiatLuxDave 7y ago
This seems like a good thread to ask: Does anyone know any good economics book focusing on regional differences in inflation, and the effects of that on economic growth in each region? I'm specifically interested in cases where the regions all share a common currency. I remember reading a book about this many years ago (Bastiat maybe?) which I'm pretty sure was French, since it focused on differences between the metropole and the colonies, but I'm hoping to find something a little more modern. I would be interested in a book from any time period, however, so please respond if you know of one.
timtas 7y ago
Missing is the most comprehensive treatise on economics in the 20th century, perhaps ever: “Man, Economy & State” by Murray N. Rothbard. https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-ma... Another is Rothbard’s little book, “What Has Government Done to Our Money?” which provides a wonderfully accessible introduction to the theory and history of money. https://mises.org/library/what-has-government-done-our-money https://mises.org/library/what-has-government-done-our-money

149 points by armitage188 7y ago

This book changed my life: The Future of Money From Goodreads "Today’s financial system is seen by the most as having a fixed size. Bernard A. Litaer challenges this perspective by showing that there were different economic systems in history and that our present system has arisen from a tacit and problematic collective acceptance. He sees the future in the development of complementary currencies. He explains which money is necessary for which needs and how we can commonly create it. Money only exists because of trust — where trust has been destroyed, money is loosing its value; chaos and poverty are sad consequences. Lietaer has written an exciting and informative book for anyone who is aware of economic problems, from interested laymen to bankers." https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/984314.The_Future_of_Money https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/984314.The_Future_of_Mon...

simonebrunozzi 7y ago
Thanks for the recommendation. In which way it changed your life specifically?
- jeremyboom8 7y ago
  Understanding that money is a human creation, and that we can evolve it. Bernard Lietaer: “My conclusion is that greed and the competitive drive are not inherent human qualities. They are continuously stimulated by the kind of money we use. There is more than enough food and work for everyone. There is merely a scarcity of money.”
dbancajas 7y ago
what is the TLDR of the book?
- jeremyboom8 7y ago
  "Bernard Lietaer discovered the destructive effects of the prevailing monetary system while working in Latin America during the 1970s. “Enormous loans were being granted for senseless projects. The banks were throwing money around. I wondered if I was seeing things other people weren’t seeing.” As a professor of international finance at the University of Leuven in Belgium, he wrote a book about his experiences in which he predicted a major debt crisis. The book came out in 1979. In 1981 the crisis in South America broke loose. Lietaer’s belief that the global monetary system needed reform led him to the Belgian Central Bank, where for several years he was involved in the establishment of the “ECU,” or European Currency Unit, the precursor of the euro. He subsequently became general manager of a foreign-currency fund. His remarkable successes in that capacity attracted international attention. The influential U.S. magazine Business Week proclaimed him the world’s best currency dealer in 1991. Even more than that, Lietaer had become a genuine expert on money, privy to the deepest secrets of the financial world. He decided it was time to write new books. While teaching at the University of California in Berkeley and California’s Sonoma State University, in the 1990s, he worked on The Mystery of Money (Riemann Verlag, 2000) and The Future of Money (Random House UK, 2001). These books unravel the present concept of money and show how different approaches have different social consequences—including environmental and social sustainability. According to economics textbooks, money is value-free. It is nothing more than a means of exchange and is regarded as having no effect on transactions. Lietaer contests that view. “Money isn’t at all value-free,” he argues. “The monetary system is programmed—albeit not deliberately—to cause certain behaviour. It promotes competition and short-term thinking; it forces economic growth; and it undervalues care, education and tasks crucial to maintaining a society. Economics theory teaches us that people compete for markets and raw materials; I think, in reality, people compete for money.” This competition is a direct consequence of the manner in which money is created. Banks put money into circulation by means of loans. For example, as soon as someone negotiates a 100,000-dollar mortgage, money is created and begins circulating in the economy. But then the bank expects the recipient of the loan to pay back a total of 200,000 dollars in repayment and interest over the next 20 years. But the bank does not create the second 100,000 dollars. The receiver of the loan must get hold of that money—the interest—one way or another, and this forces him or her to compete with others. It’s simple: Some people must lose money or go bankrupt in order to put others in the position to pay off their loans. At the same time, this collection of interest results in a concentration of wealth: Those who have money “automatically” get richer. In addition, the system forces society into an endless loop of economic growth: New money must constantly be put into circulation to pay off old loans. Lietaer says, “My conclusion is that greed and the competitive drive are not inherent human qualities. They are continuously stimulated by the kind of money we use. There is more than enough food and work for everyone. There is merely a scarcity of money.”" From an old interview (thanks Archive.org!): https://web.archive.org/web/20101108043616/http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/26/money_should_work_for_us_not_the_other_way_around/ https://web.archive.org/web/20101108043616/http://www.odemag...
ghoulfarmer 7y ago
Cooincidentaly I ordered this exact book the other day. I knew about Bernard because he became obsessed with Bancor, a "breakthrough" (his words) to solving the liquidity issues that plague complementary currencies. I became interested in the same project for other reasons and now I want to read his books. He passed away earlier this year. RIP.

hirundo 7y ago

I vote for this collection of Claude Frédéric Bastiat: https://mises.org/library/bastiat-collection https://mises.org/library/bastiat-collection. In particular the leading essay, "That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen." It may be the quintessential statement of how to think like an economist. The article includes a popularization of it as "Economics in One Easy Lesson" but here's the original source, free, clear and timeless.

claudiawerner 7y ago
Also worth reading are Marx's critiques of Basiat and Say in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Marx is even critical of him in the Grundrisse where he contrasts Bastait and Carey, in which he derides both as bourgeois political economists. Far from seeing what is "not seen", they are obsessed with price and external appearances: >Bastiat, by contrast, presents fantasy history, his abstractions sometimes in the form of arguments, another time in the form of supposed events, which however have never and nowhere happened, just as a theologian treats sin sometimes as the law of human existence, then at other times as the story of the fall from grace. Hence both are equally unhistorical and anti-historical. But the unhistoric moment in Carey is the contemporary historic principle of North America, while the unhistoric element in Bastiat is a mere reminiscence of the French eighteenth-century manner of generalizing.
- legitster 7y ago
  Marx calling out someone for playing fast and loose with history and generalizing concepts is richly ironic. This criticism also does nothing to attack the merits of the argument or even the existence of opportunity cost. Does he deny that such a concept exists?
  - claudiawerner 7y ago
    That's not the main criticism, it's a bit of polemic following on from the rest of the analysis; I quoted it here only to mention that Marx does engage with these thinkers. The criticism is too long to reproduce here but you can check it out on sites that host Marx's collected works. I can't remember if opportunity cost is discussed. I'm curious what criticism of Marx's historiography you're mentioning though. While controversial, his theory of historical materialism is not discounted in contemporary history academic literature.

chumali 7y ago

This is just a broad list of econ type books with no discernible curation. I certainly wouldn't call it a list of the 'best' econ books even though there are some great reads in there. It ranges from very specific works on central banking, finance and behavioural economics to an undergrad textbook covering most of Econ 101. Some of these entries are only tangentially related to economic theory (Thinking Strategically, Capitalism vs. the Climate). There are also some glaring omissions (e.g. Radical Markets by Posner and Weyl).

davidw 7y ago
Yes. A good list might start with some general, fairly neutral books. A lot of the books here are fairly biased or are trying to drive home some point or agenda. Tim Harford's books are pretty good, in general in that he promotes "thinking like an economist" without going overboard in any direction.
rchaud 7y ago
The reason it's titled "best" is for SEO purposes, nothing more. The author wants this page to rank for people's searches, and unfortunately people use terms like "best", "ultimate", "fastest", etc. I mostly avoid clicking on links like this because these pages exist to make money, not inform the user or deliver a unique point of view. That much was obvious with the "free ebook" interstitial that came up the second the page loaded, and the smattering of Amazon affiliate links for every book listed.
Matticus_Rex 7y ago
I found Radical Markets engaging (if not compelling), but I think it would be totally out of place on this list.

niceperson 7y ago

Read Steve Keen

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

sixhobbits 7y ago

I really enjoyed Tim Harford's books "The Undercover Economist" and "The Undercover Economist Strikes Back". Maybe they are too far in the "popular economics" category to be included in a list like this (although there are some on the list that look similar) but he explains things clearly and argues well and I feel like I understand economics far better after reading them.

willyg123 7y ago

Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell is a book that changed my views a decade ago. I have skimmed through it a few times in the years since, through a full market cycle, and he continues to be spot on.

fc_barnes 7y ago
Thomas Sowell, like so many conservative thinkers, is a stupid person's idea of what a smart person sounds like. If that's too harsh for you, sorry, but that's what happens when angry Austrians go through the thread systematically downvoting anyone who doesn't agree with them.
- dang 7y ago
  Please don't post ideological flamebait here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- willyg123 7y ago
  I could debate Austrian vs Keynesian economics all day and wipe the floor with you but the fact you had to resort to an ad hominem attack lets me know I already won the debate. FWIW I've never downvoted anyone on HN so it appears as though your assumptions, just like your emotions, are out of control :)

fc_barnes 7y ago

It's a good list. Generally pretty reasonable but they threw in some Austrians at the end for "balance" or something. People usually get more then enough Austrian economics from radio and online ranting, and they get a fair amount of behavioral from pop media. Honestly, what most people need to get basically educated in econ is 1. Some basic national-accounting type Keynesian macro, 2. Basic forex and bond pricing, 3. Enough education in marginalism to understand comparative advantage and enough education in game theory to genuinely understand the concept of a Nash equilibrium, and 4. A smattering of folks like Adam Smith and Douglass North to understand the human or sociological side of things.

legitster 7y ago

Wow. I am really stunned by this list. I took a look expecting the usual chorus of contrarian populist hardbacks, but this list is very conclusive and and covers a wide range of opinions and subjects. I have read about a quarter of them and can attest they are all excellent (although with varying degree of readability). This is the exact sort of list if you want to see multiple perspectives and challenge yourself. I also want to shout out to Hidden Order, which I was really surprised to see here, but is really quite the gem. More than any other econ book, I have pulled off the shelf and gone through the much dog-eared pages. It does an amazing job of taking off-the-shelf economic ideas and framing them in such excellently written parables or examples. Disagree or whatever, but it's an excellent and often trite way to understand classic principles. A couple books I would add to the list: Why Nations Fail Red Plenty Who Gets What and Why

pjscott 7y ago
It turns out that Hidden Order is hard to google because of a spy thriller by the same name, so here's an Amazon link to the econ book: https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Order-Economics-Everyday-Life/dp/0887308856 https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Order-Economics-Everyday-Life/...
roymurdock 7y ago
Yeah seconded, this really is an excellent list. Very pleasantly surprised to see "The Rise and Fall of American Growth" as first on the list, it should be required reading as a guide to what we're seeing playing out in American politics currently (after it is rewritten into a more coherent and concise/accessible book, in its current form it's clearly the work of multiple undergrads/grad students stitched together by Prof. Gordon) - but the ideas in it are really powerful. Also really pleased to see The Road to Serfdom by Hayek on the list. Eager to check out the book on Climate vs. Capitalism as I haven't seen this topic given full treatment in a book yet beyond questioning the sustainability of growth economics and efficacy of carbon taxes in broad terms. The Mankiw textbook is used in intro undergrad classes everywhere. I would also love to read a book by a contemporary Chinese economists on their thoughts of the Chinese market, although something tells me a good academic/unbiased book on this topic is impossible to find. Only two books I would add would be: The Age of Diminished Expectations (Krugman) Dune (Herbert)

TDL 7y ago

Haven't Jared Diamond's theories been thoroughly debunked?

ghaff 7y ago
In what way? I'm not sure that anyone seriously argues [against the idea] that geographic determinism had a lot to do with which two core centers of civilization arose earliest (and hence had a big head start). The criticism, such as it is, mostly relates to the fact that geography certainly isn't the only factor that played into how civilizations evolved after they got going in the first place.
- TDL 7y ago
  I see, so the criticism has more to do with Diamond not taking other factors into account. Thanks.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    Not an expert and there may be other criticisms. However, if you read Why the West Rules for Now (which serves as a pretty good East and West world history), the author basically says near the beginning that of course geography played a big role in where early civilization started. But, to the central question of the book, that doesn't begin to explain why China had to pay homage to Britain, rather than the other way around.
    - AnimalMuppet 7y ago
      If I understand correctly, China could have ruled the world at least twice. First, around 1100, China was starting in on an industrial revolution. They peaked at tens of thousands of tons of iron produced each year. Then the mandarins noticed that some commoners were getting rich, which was contrary to the proper order, and the government shut down the iron industry, and the whole thing stopped. But they could have had at least the beginnings of the industrial revolution five centuries before England. (Source: The Victory of Reason, by Rodney Stark.) Second, China had fleets that dominated at least the Far East, and could have dominated the Indian Ocean. But shortly after 1434, the Chinese emperor decreed an end to the voyages of their great fleet. (Source: 1421 and 1434, by Gavin Menzies.)

sansnomme 7y ago

They need to add Varoufakis' Foundation of Economics.

voldacar 7y ago

A lot of people online swear by the Hazlitt book - has anyone here read it and would like to share their thoughts?

Matticus_Rex 7y ago
It's a bit dated in 2019, and he's obviously coming to come conclusions with political implications, but the basic framework of thought the book presents is not only educational, but fantastically useful. I read it at the end of undergrad and had my mind completely blown.
timtas 7y ago
It’s a very good intro to economics. However, I generally recommend instead reading the work that it’s based on: That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen by Frédéric Bastiat. [1] Bastiat’s work is timeless, whereas Hazlitt’s, written to be consciously modern at the time, is showing it’s age. [1] http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html

rodneyzeng 7y ago

cannot open the link.

carapace 7y ago

Economics is basically numerology. A true science of economics could be described as "ecology + psychology", and would be based in physics. The closest thing I've ever seen to a proper economics is the "Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars" document. (It's chapter one of Bill Cooper's infamous book "Behold a Pale Horse". I want to make it clear, FWIW, that I never read the rest of the book. I have less-than-zero to say about the content of the rest of the book.) Oh look, it's online and with diagrams now: https://lawfulpath.com/ref/sw4qw/index.shtml https://lawfulpath.com/ref/sw4qw/index.shtml Bitchin'. It's pretty creepy: it's a combination of an exposition on a simple electrical model of economics with a nightmarish gloss of crypto-fascism (or something, I'm not sure what you'd call it.) Anyhow, the "electro-economics" is what I want to call HN readers' attentions to: something like that is what I would expect economics to look like. (Without the creep Dr. Evil vibe.)

oarabbus_ 7y ago
Why Stock Markets Crash by Didier Sornette is the book which most rigorously applies physics to economics that I have ever read.

thecleaner 7y ago

Why is something like this being hosted on a site named filmlifestyle.com ?

armitage188 7y ago
Site covers quite a few topics.

ChicagoBoy11 7y ago

Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society" contains the most important and fundamental insight about markets. It's an essay worth a read every couple years.

Matticus_Rex 7y ago
If you're reading this and seeing "Hayek" and thinking "nah, that's conservative/libertarian propaganda," reconsider for your own sake. This essay isn't political, and some of the insights have been largely accepted by virtually all economists. The essay also inspired Wikipedia and is constantly cited by innovators as having been massively influential on their thinking.

maxime-levesque 7y ago

Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy - Warren Mosler Available here in PDF: https://moslereconomics.com/wp-content/powerpoints/7DIF.pdf https://moslereconomics.com/wp-content/powerpoints/7DIF.pdf Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has a convincing answer to the question: "What gives fiat currencies their purchasing power" Mainstream economists simply say that purchasing power of money commes from "confidence", but they don't explain where the confidence comes from. It is a circular logic: one has confidence in a currency if one beleives that others have confidence in it, ... whoever whas the first the "have confidence" must have been duped, ... or more likely the theory is flawed... MMTs explanation of purchasing power is simply that in an economy there are mandatory transactions: taxes, and taxes have to be paid in the currency mandated by the state. Money is not a commodity, it does not arise out of barter, it is (and always has) been imposed by states that required taxes be payed with their currency. This has many consequences: 1. Taxes serve to generate and maintain demand for the currency (reduce inflation, or produce deflation). 2. Currency has to be spent before it can be taxed (how else can currency enter the economy?) 3. The debt of a currency issuing state is equal to the net financial assets (sum of all monetary assets, minus sum of all monetary debt) 4. Markets are monetary in essence, they are a side effect on the enforcing of money on a population. In a market, participants all purchase money with goods and services. MMT is primarily a descriptive theory, the mainstream academic orthodoxy doesn't like it so much because it debunks many of its claims, but MMTs predictive capacity on the macro economy makes it a valuable tool on Wall Street: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/business/economy/mmt-wall-street.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/business/economy/mmt-wall...

Avisha 7y ago

Freakonomics

burfog 7y ago

It's more a list of famous books written more-or-less about economics. They are famous, not necessarily good. You will understand economics less if you take "Das Kapital" seriously. You'd do much better with "ECONOMICS: PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHOICE" by James Gwartney, Richard Stroup, Russell Sobel, David Macpherson. Another good choice is "Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell.

AtlasBarfed 7y ago

49 goddamn books and not a single one that integrates environmental destruction and survival of the human race as the foundation of its theme. The list basically incorporates everything that frustrates me about the field of economics. It pretends it is key to everything in the world (and there are many applications under certain circumstances), but it has pretended like capitalism and various policies enacted under economic (especially laissez-faire) recommendations have led to a fundamentally unsustainable world order and economic system. I remember the first time I read about externalities. It was the perfect term. A tack-on to economics. A minor side concern to the primary task of making money for the rich while the world steams toward oblivion.

AtlasBarfed 7y ago
My third sentence is very poorly constructed. I'm basically annoyed that economics acts like it understands everything that occurs in the world via game theory, efficiency of energy, as if their study is as fundamental as physics, but at the same time pretends the consequences of its implementation in the political and practical spheres don't exist because their study can't quantify them. How does economics quantify the extinction of a species? In the nihilistic sense if humanity goes extinct, what is the economic impact of that? What is the value of a human life lost in mass displacements of global warming? What is the value of humanity? It doesn't answer these questions. It can't. The real answer is that economics is a means for the powerful to rationalize their positions, and ignore their devastation.
FiatLuxDave 7y ago
You may enjoy the Naomi Klein book, "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate". It's about halfway through the list.

rramadass 7y ago

Not sure on how to phrase this, but i would like some suggestions please; 1) What is a basic beginner book on Finance i.e. how do Normal Banks, Investment Banks and Money work? Explanation of the concepts, terminology and jargon involved. 2) What is a basic beginner book on Economics i.e. the big picture concepts of how trade, currencies (inflation) etc. work? Basically the concepts behind what really makes our "modern world" tick.

chumali 7y ago
1) For a concise and non technical introduction to issues of monetary economics I would suggest Alan S. Blinder - Central Banking in Theory and Practice. 2) For an introduction to macroeconomic principles you can try Cores free online textbook. [1] [1] https://core-econ.org/the-economy/book/ https://core-econ.org/the-economy/book/
- rramadass 7y ago
  Thank you. Will look into those. Another thing i was looking for is a layman's book on how everything (economics+trade+debt+banks+money+etc.) comes together explaining both the concepts and jargon involved. Something which a high-school student can pickup to have an overview of "the market and the system".

FiatLuxDave 7y ago

This seems like a good thread to ask: Does anyone know any good economics book focusing on regional differences in inflation, and the effects of that on economic growth in each region? I'm specifically interested in cases where the regions all share a common currency. I remember reading a book about this many years ago (Bastiat maybe?) which I'm pretty sure was French, since it focused on differences between the metropole and the colonies, but I'm hoping to find something a little more modern. I would be interested in a book from any time period, however, so please respond if you know of one.

timtas 7y ago

Missing is the most comprehensive treatise on economics in the 20th century, perhaps ever: “Man, Economy & State” by Murray N. Rothbard. https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-ma... Another is Rothbard’s little book, “What Has Government Done to Our Money?” which provides a wonderfully accessible introduction to the theory and history of money. https://mises.org/library/what-has-government-done-our-money https://mises.org/library/what-has-government-done-our-money