New ideas from dead economists
The classic introduction to economic thought, now updated in time for the publication of New Ideas from Dead CEOsThis entertaining and accessible introduction to the great economic thinkers throughout history Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and moreshows how their ideas still apply to our modern world. In this revised edition, renowned economist Todd Buchholz offers an insightful and informed perspective on key economic issues in the new millennium: increasing demand for energy, the rise of China, international trade, aging populations, health care, and the effects of global warming. New Ideas from Dead Economists is a fascinating guide to understanding both the evolution of economic theory and our complex contemporary economy.
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- NPR's "Planet Money" does an outstanding job in explaining economics and finance in general. The podcast has been around for years so you can listen to past episodes until you get sick of it. I don't know the number but they have to be in the hundreds.
To get a bit of background here's a book that's fun to read. It doesn't get too deep in the weeds. It gives you just enough info to be dangerous.
"New Ideas from Dead Economists by Todd G. Buchholz"
Also, "The Ascent of Money - Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson" is a great read as away to get some historical background on how our financial system came to be. Little to no jargon so it's a fast and entertaining read.
Not an economics' book but a view into how our factory based food system works. I think it's worth reading as a way to understand our Economy's food factories.
"Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats"
- Try New Ideas from Dead Economists by Todd Buckholz, a gentle and non-ideological introduction to a wide variety of theoretical concepts in economics.
For personal money management, ignore macroeconomics but develop some capability at micro, which is useful in many everyday contexts, from household budgeting to managing your time. Macro is just micro with more price theory and overconfidence. (Seriously, macro is interesting but the theoretical foundation is wobbly and prone to fads. I like the econophysics approach of treating economic systems as kinetic models myself.)
There are lots of good books but everything you need to know for personal use can be found in an AP study guide. Barrons (the financial daily newspaper) publishes an excellent and affordable series of study guides on this and related topics. It's not hard, a great deal of economics is just measuring the area under a curve, ie basic calculus.
Be ware that political evangelists promote personality authors as being the only ones worth reading, eg Marx on the left, Friedman or Hayek for libertarians, Thomas Sowell for conservatives. These are all meme writers who are more interested in getting you to agree with a particular interpretation of the world than developing independent reasoning skills, so I suggest treating their fans the same as religious solicitors.
- OK, here's a few rules of thumb to get you started.
First, be selective about whose information you consume. Nobody is right 100% of the time but you can identify news and information providers who are consistently more reliable than others. The best way to do this is by measuring their predictive power over time. You don't have to do this in a spreadsheet unless you enjoy that sort of thing, but if you notice that a source of information on some topic consistently informs you about issues earlier and more accurately than the general news media, then you should give extra weight to hat source.
Second, don't make the mistake of assuming that all claims are true from the claimant's perspective, and that if you just seek to understand all the competing claims you'll be able to synthesize some great overall understanding. There are quite a lot of people who will lie and deceive either to promote their own ideology or for money. Default to assuming good faith, but never exclude the possibility of bad faith, and if you encounter it burn the source down (not literally, but by calling out the deception to raise awareness among others and undermine the deceiver's credibility).
Third, never stop maintaining your own intellectual foundations. The study of economics is especially rewarding because economic insights can be applied to any area of life. I don't mean that you should sit around doing basic calculus problems all day - indeed when there are too many numbers flying about you should be cautious, because most economic mistakes derive from choosing incorrect starting assumptions rather than a failure of logic, so I'm a little suspicious of economic claims that look too like a math paper (Nobel Prize winner Ronald Coase used to refer contemptuously to 'blackboard economics,' and warned against falling too in love with one's models to the detriment of empirical observation).
Rather, treat economics as a set of techniques with which to assess a complex problem. An excellent introduction to the field that has the merit of being intellectually neutral and exploring ideas from both left and right perspectives is Todd Buckholz's New Ideas From Dead Economists. IIRC it has a pretty good bibliography too, if not it'll still give you a decent overview of the field.
- Economist here.
I disagree that if someone wants a broad introduction that by picking up Samuelson or MWG will be able to figure out the field from first (mathematical) principles.
New Ideas from Dead Economists is a fantastic, broad introduction into the philosophy of economics that you appears interested in.
Works by Keynes, Smith, Marx, Robinson, Hayek, and Ricardo do a fantastic job laying the groundwork for modern economic theory.
If you're looking for the quantitative side of economics, Mostly Harmless Econometrics, Freakonomics, and (on the very theoretical side) Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics are must reads.
Capital by Picketty is currently being debated, as the underlying evidence towards his theories are compelling but not necessarily testable.
Game theory is also a fun field within economics, and has overlap in CS and (occasionally) statistics.
- For readable bios of the major economic thinkers, I like:
New Ideas from Dead Economists: An Introduction to Modern Economic Thought, by Bucholz and Feldstein
The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers, by Heilbroner
And for a readable sample of the economists' thought in their own words, there's:
Teachings from the Worldly Philosophy, by Heilbroner
- Grab an economics book and get familiar with the concept of marginal utility. A gentle introduction might be Todd Buckholz' 'New Ideas from Dead Economists.'
