The worldly philosophers

What Hacker News says

1. wannabebaristaAug 2024
   Here are books I recommend to everyone and got me interested in economics and philosophy:

   - The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner

   - The Cost of Rights: Why Liberty Depends on Taxes by Stephen Holmes and Cass Sunstein

   - Wittgenstein's Poker by David Edmonds and John Eidinow

   - A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

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2. cratermoonMar 2023
   That would be exactly the kind of Chicago School Free Market Fundamentalism the story is calling out. I suggest skipping this link and instead get your hands on a copy of Robert Heilbroner's book The Worldly Philosophers.
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3. santiagobasultoAug 2022
   I read The Worldly Philosophers a long time ago (I was young) and I loved it. I remember really liking the narrative and the historical background.
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4. dvtDec 2021
   > It's absolutely not optimal, it's inefficient. Many companies have learned this, which is why you see things like "Unlimited Vacations! Free snacks! Company provided lunches!" etc, offered as perks.

   You are very (very) wrong and need to read some history. I strongly suggest an economics primer like Robert Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers[1]. It's the second-best selling economics book in history and well worth the price of admission.

   [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/82120.The_Worldly_Philos...

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5. CameronBarreOct 2019
   I just read "The Worldly Philosophers" by Robert Heilbroner and I can recommend that. I now have a tab with Marx's "Capital" open and I'm about half way through Joseph Schumpeter's "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy."

   For finance, reading the Market Wizards series by Jack Schwager is a great idea because you get really personal and in-depth insights into how successful traders think.

   I also recently read "Commodity Conversations" by Jonathan Kingsman which is similar to Market Wizards, but tailored to commodities and I can recommend that as well.

   "The Secrets of Economic Indicators" by Bernard Baumohl is also an interesting overview to macro indicators.

   I have no idea what constitutes an undergrad level of economics education, I don't recall my economics class being nearly as stimulating as everything I've just listed.

   Good luck!

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6. dredmorbiusMar 2018
   Apologies for the late response, though I've been thinking this over.

   I'll stand by my earlier comment: read the classic economists themselves, directly, if at all possible. Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, Marx, Mill (both John Stuart and David), Carlisle, Toynbee, Marshall.

   You don't need to read all of them or the works in full, but each of these addresses at least in some depth and detail the question of goods and their pricing behaviours, in ways that are not generally addressed today.

   There are overviews and histories of economic thought and its development which should be useful. I've read Heilbroner (The Worldly Philosophers) and Backhouse (The Ordinary Business of Life), both of which provide a broad overview. Ha-Joon Chang has Economics: The User's Guide, which is a pretty good overview of various schools of thought.

   I'm particularly impressed currently by Steve Keen, whose most recent book is Debunking Economics. He's been developing his ideas at a rapid pace and to an extent has overrun what's in the book. He's good to watch though.

   John Kenneth Galbraith tends generally to discuss economics more-or-less in the terms I've been mentioning here, with The Affluent Society and Age of Uncertainty probably being good starting points.

   I'm not much impressed by and generally strongly discount most Libertarian thinking, though if you'd like a sense of what I consider to be bad/poor economic theory, Howard Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson and Murray Rothbard's Libertarian Manifesto might be considerations.

   Hope that helps.

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