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By: Thomas Sowell
A Common Sense Guide to the Economy.
Many of the world’s tragedies such as homelessness, starvation, or joblessness are all caused by the failure to understand basic economic principles. Most people, when they think of economics, picture complicated graphs and unfathomable terms and definitions. But economics is simply a way to understand what makes the world tick—the incentives behind the political and social system, and what causes a society to progress or to fail.
If you don’t care to memorize economic terms, try to figure out complicated tables or decipher textbook jargon, Sowell’s Common Sense Guide to the Economy is a perfect asset. Sowell explains basic economics in “plain English”—in a way that every citizen can understand and apply to daily life.
Rather than becoming another textbook on economics, Sowell takes a unique approach: he focuses on how societies create poverty or prosperity by the way their economy is organized. He draws on examples from throughout history and from all over the world. From the consequences of rent control in Hong Kong and New York City to the economic policies of Alexander the Great, Sowell uses true stories and examples to explain how the economy works.
Through his clear explanations and fascinating examples, Sowell reveals the general principles behind any kind of economy--capitalist, socialist, feudal, and so on. He answers questions such as why prosperous countries with few natural resources are just as common as poor countries with rich natural resources.
His book is divided into three sections: Part I: Prices and Markets, Part II: Industry and Commerce, and Part III: Work and Pay. These sections cover the entire field of economics. In readable language, he shows how to critique economic policies in terms of the incentives they create, and explains everything from the rise and fall of businesses to the international balance of payments. This is the best book for anyone who wishes to understand how the economy functions.
This completely revised and updated third edition of Thomas Sowell's instrumental work includes new and updated material such as discussions of child labor laws, national debt, third world working conditions, and a new chapter on government finance.
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution. He writes on economics, history, social policy, ethnicity, and the history of ideas. His most recent books on economics include Affirmative Action Around the World (2004), Basic Economics (2004), and Applied Economics (2003). Other books on economics he has written include Classical Economics Reconsidered (1974), Say’s Law (1972), and Economics: Analysis and Issues (1971).
Over the past three decades, Sowell has taught economics at various colleges and universities, including Cornell, Amherst, and the University of California at Los Angeles, as well as the history of ideas at Brandeis University. He has also been associated with three other research centers, in addition to the Hoover Institution. He was project director at the Urban Institute from 1972 to 1974, a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in 1976–77, and was an adjunct scholar of the American Enterprise Institute in 1975-76.
Sowell was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2002. In 2003, Sowell received the Bradley Prize for intellectual achievement. Sowell received his bachelor’s degree in economics (magna cum laude) from Harvard in 1958, his master’s degree in economics from Columbia University in 1959, and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968.
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