Economics Made Simple Resource Guide
Many thanks to the Allen Area Patriots for having me as a guest speaker this week. I hope they enjoyed the session.
First, here are the slides:
The Trading Game
View more presentations from Ed Kless.
As a follow up for them, I have created a short, but deep list of resources for anyone who might want to dig a little deeper into the topic of economics.
Books
- Basic Economics 4th Ed: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell – This one is dense, but still a most pleasurable read. His opening chapters on price are beyond brilliant.
- Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem by Jay Wesley Richards – This is the book that inspired the Trading Game.
- Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Henry Hazlitt – The lesson: The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups. The rest of the book is example after example of how most government policies ignore this lesson.
- Wealth and Poverty (ICS Series in Self-Governance) by George Gilder and Robert B. Hawkins – This George Gilder’s seminal work that touched off the supply-side revolution in the 1980s. President Ronald Reagan insisted all members of his cabinet read this book. In fact if you can find it get this one Wealth and Poverty (1980 edition) by George Gilder. In my opinion it is better than the updated version.
- Fair Play by Steven E. Landsburg – Landsburg is irreverent and hysterically funny. He points out the fundamental flaws in socialists argument with great stories and humor. “We don’t worry about the lost income of a bully on the playground.”
- Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth by Ronald J. Baker – OK, a confession, Ron is my friend and economics advisor, but honestly, if you want to understand how human knowhow is really the only form of wealth, this is a must read.
- Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life by Michael Novak – In this terrific book Novak refutes the popular conception that businesses are materialistic.
- The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (P.S.) by Matt Ridley – The author tears down the notion that all is lost, despite the difficult times in which we live. Brick by brick he builds a case of why now is the best time to have ever been alive.
- Free to Choose: A Personal Statement by Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman – Friedman is (in spite of the fact that his is deceased) the rock star of free market economics.
On the Web
- In addition to Friedman’s Free to Choose book, this PBS (that is right PBS) series of 10 programs is outstanding. Each episode is about 30 minutes of Friedman followed by 30 minutes of discussion with guests, including Thomas Sowell. Be sure to watch this part and see how Friedman politely, but ruthlessly destroys all on-comers.
- This is the Gapminder tool.
- Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, especially their excellent documentaries The Call of the Entrepreneur and The Birth of Freedom
- I, Pencil a short essay by Leonard Read, founder of the Foundation for Economic Education. You will want to read this and pass on to your children and grandchildren. If you can get them to understand this, they will forever see the world differently.
- The Virtues of Free Markets by Mark A. Zupan – a longer, but brilliant essay that covers near every aspect and objection to the free market system.
- The Bastiat Society – Another great and newly forming free market organization. I am starting a Dallas Chapter, if you are interested, please email me.
- UPDATE: I forgot this important one: Economics in One Page by Mark Skousen.
Blogs
- Thomas Sowell
- Dan Ariely – one of today’s brightest behavioral economists
- Mises Institute
- David Friedman – Milton’s son, careful he might even convince you that we do not need a standing army
- The Acton Institute
- Steve Landsburg
- Coyote Blog – a brilliant defender of the entrepreneur
- Café Hayek – some of the best Austrian economists of today post here regularly
- Foundation for Economic Education