Economics For Dummies 2Nd E Paperback – April 8, 2011

Because both describe the reality in which I find myself every day. While physics describes the world in terms of mass, motion, and energy, economics describes the world in terms of costs, constraints, and choices.I am not an economist. My degrees are both in computer science. I had a year of economics as an undergraduate, and only then because it was required, and that was nearly nearly forty years ago. Although I aced those courses, I was far too young and inexperienced to appreciate the material. Since then I've gotten interested in topics in economics for both professional and personal reasons. I wanted a readable introduction that would let me understand microeconomics as it applied to my business, and macroeconomics as it applied to what I was hearing and reading on the news. This book fulfilled those goals very well indeed.This book is a remarkably readable introduction to both micro- and macroeconomics. I read it cover to cover, front to back. I did pause now and then to ponder a graph. And once to calculate a second derivative on a coffee shop napkin, but that was mostly just to see if I could remember how to do it. Occasionally I'd make a brief note in the margins to remind myself how the material applied to something in my own life and work.Like it or not, you are part of the economic world just as you are part of the physical world. I recommend this book as a way to understand the world around you better.

I will actually discuss three books in this review. All are books on self-learning of economic theory for serious beginners.Sean Flynn, Economics For Dummies (Wiley, 2011)Tom Gorman, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Economics (Penguin, 2003)Steve Slavin, Economics: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley, 1999)People often ask me what to read to learn the type of basic economic theory that is taught in university graduate and undergraduate courses. This is somewhat difficult because most writers for the general public have some sort of political axe to grind and present a one-sided version of the theory, or a complete alternative to the theory. I have nothing against such writers, but I will always suggest that readers also/instead of/before reading these political pleadings, find out what the general "received wisdom" is.It may seem that there is no "received wisdom" that is shared by most economists, but this is not the case. Except in the area of macroeconomic policy, there are few disagreements. In the macroeconomic area, the standard models are pretty awful, but economic policy types have deeper problems: general models can show you the general direction of effects, but when there are offsetting directions, only quantitative evidence can supply a credible answer. For instance, increasing government expenditure to lower the unemployment rate may be offset by the effects of government debt on interest, inflation, and growth rates. Only careful attention to details can determine the net effect of the policy, and even this is subject to significant error. However, you cannot even begin to assess economic policy seriously unless you know basic economic theory.The books reviewed here are basic starting points for gaining a facility in economic theory. Alternatively, you can simply buy one of the leading undergraduate textbooks and plow through it. The textbook will be more demanding, very fat, and quite expensive. Before doing this, I advise that you tackle one or more of the above volumes. They are all quite good, and it wouldn't hurt to read them all. But, here are my impressions.Economics for Dummies is the most sophisticated of the three books and covers extremely important material left out of the others. This includes an analysis of property right, market externality, public goods, asymmetric information, and other absolutely fundamental aspects of modern economic theory, which is really the theory of the interaction between markets and macroeconomic regulation for efficiency and stability. It rather weak on national income accounting (none of the books is strong in this very difficult area), and it does no general equilibrium analysis (e.g., the very instructive Edgeworth box is missing). Finally, the book rather slights statistical information on the economy and give little historical perspective.The Complete Idiot's Guide to Economics is a little out of date (2003), and is especially concerned with regulatory policy in dealing with volatile economies. It has lots of interesting statistics, and gives a detailed explanation of the Federal Reserve and its operation. It is similarly strong on analyzing international trade and exchange rates. Read this after Economics for Dummies.Economics: A Self-Teaching Guide cannot deal with recent economic issues because it was published in 1999, but it is well worth reading. It is especially strong on economic history and it presents in some detain the various schools of thought in macroeconomic theory. It also does considerable national income accounting, which I consider a prerequisite to understanding current economic issues. Its microeconomics sections are rather brief. It is certainly not a substitute for Economics for Dummies.If readers have comments and/or suggestions of these or other candidates for learning basic economic theory, please pass them on to me.

Had I read Economics for Dummies before I took the Econ 101, the class would have made much more sense. I finally understand how the government puts money into the economy, why many stimulus measures may not work at all, and the futility of price supports. While my huge Econ textbook contained arcane terms and copious footnotes, it's nice to know that the basic concepts of economics depend on neither of these. I suspect the author of having conservative leanings, and I suspect that some of his arguments are either oversimplified or have another side not presented here, but for the modest price of this book, I certainly gained insight for evaluating the political fray which is currently taking place and really obtained more useful information than I gained in the $1,000 class. (This book was provided to me by the Amazon Vine program, but I also bought a copy for my Kindle; every time I had a moment to read the free copy, I found it in my husband's hands! Oh, by the way, much as I love my Kindle, this is not a good book to read there. Increasing the type size does not increase the size of the formulas, leaving them very difficult to read.)

Before I read this book, I knew nothing about Economics, but I was interested in the topic.My intention was to find a book that was easy to read, something that was enjoyable and not dry.I wanted to learn about Economics and not get discouraged after a few pages.Sean Masaki Flynn is a great author, I think he did a great job.The book is broken down into 2 parts:Micro and Macro Economics, he tackles all the issues under both umbrellas in a clear and accurate manner.From topics as simple as Supply and Demand to topics like fiscal policy, marginal utility and the law of demand..This book is essential for everyone.I originally purchased the electronic version and read it on my computer, then I purchased the actually book to have as a reference, just to give you an idea.I'm happy I read this book, because it allows me to read other books that are more advanced.

Great to get up to speed on any topics.

Excellent book for beginners. Delivered in time .easy explanation With real life examples, it is truly a good book just go for it.

The Economics version of the Dummies series is one of the best that I have read. Usually, I think that the series works well for things like software and less well for more general subjects where the bitty structure and characteristic Dummies contents like the "Part of Tens" as well as the humour tend to get in the way. Not so with the Economics book. While you can still "dip into" it, it also works well as an introductory text that can be read cover to cover. The humour is light enough to enliven the "dismal science" but not so daft as to become annoying. The result is a book that is perhaps more detailed and heavyweight than some might expect from a Dummies book - it's hard to accurately identify the level but I'd say that it is perhaps most suitably pitched to first year university level. Of course that depends on the course etc, but while it is certainly not too hard to follow for A level students or armchair economists, perhaps some of the graph and algebraic information, while well explained, might be more than is needed and may in fact put some off it.Most introductory books tend to be stronger on macroeconomics - as it lends itself more to being interesting as a basic level - but this book also gives due weight to microeeconomics and spends much time on supply and demand curves and the implications of monopoly etc. Unless you are studying it, this might make it too dry for the casual reader who wants just to know a bit more about economics.The authors have an ability to make complex, but logical ideas simple to understand. I'd definitely recommend this and it exceeded my expectations.

This is a very easy book to read, plain and sparkling clear in order to understand easily economics concepts which are normally quite hard to get.

Ich habe dieses Buch als Begleitlektüre für mein Unifach "Business Administration" (1.Semester) verwendet und muss sagen, dass ich es sehr hilfreich fand. Der Schreibstil ist sehr einfach, unterhaltsam und sehr angenehm zum lesen. Als Einsteigerlektüre finde ich das Buch sehr empfehlenswertDa ich auf Englisch studiere hat mit die Sprache des Buches kein Problem gemacht. Wer sich mit Englisch vielleicht ein Bisschen schwer tut, sollte sich das deutsche Äquivalent kaufen.