Rating: 
Summary: Superb introduction to concepts of economics for the layman.
Review: I got this book up after reading the comments of Prof.Burton Malkiel of Princeton University about it. Prof.Malkiel is the author of highly acclaimed "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" (now in Seventh Edition). This is the book Prof.Malkiel wanted to write himself.The author combines his excellent background in economics with the writing skills of a top-flight journalist. It reads like a good novel. Very hard to put down. It leaves the reader with a better understanding of how the world works, from an economist's point of view. Well worth the price and a place in the bookshelf. Highly recommended. Highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: Fundamentals of Capitalism
Review: I highly recommend this book to anyone unfamiliar with basic economics, or looking for a simple, easy-to-read introduction to the science. Wheelan does a great job explaining the nuts and bolts of a free market system, and why this economic system as it stands is currently the most successful in the world. He's devoted chapters to the power of markets, incentives, the government, information, productivity, human capital, finance, the federal reserve, organized interests, trade and globalization, and ends with a discussion as to what it would take for poorer, less developed countries to get out of poverty. After reading Thomas Sowell's, "Basic Economics" I found Charles Wheelan's writing to be refreshingly balanced, and more humorous. That said, I still think both writers and books are worth-while. Anyone unconvinced that a free market system is the best economic system available, or wishing to know more about the system in which we live ought to read these books. Especially if you're against free trade, and fear "globablization". Wheelan admits there are serious social consequences and problems related to bad government, but insinuates (with a little more finesse than Sowell) that the problems are mostly rooted in bad policies, not economics. Corruption and dishonest politicians and leaders impoverish countries, not capitalism itself. However you choose to look at these issues, I think Wheelan does an excellent job at providing the fundamentals of the world in which we operate on a daily basis, and reading "Naked Economics" can only help one understand how to better affect desired change. Every college student should be required to read this!
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Summary: Economics??
Review: I think the title is a little misleading, whether you are interested in economics or not, this is a fascinating book. I would recommend it to people who have no interest in economics. I read it in one sitting, the highest compliment I can give any book.
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Summary: Loved loved loved this book!
Review: I'm a recovering Psychology major who only had one statistics course in college: and that was a math for dummies. This is for all those people who can't do equations in their minds. I've always been facinated by economics, but it always seemed so dry and unappealing and eye-crossing. I've been looking for an econ-for-dummies book for years. Thank you, Mr. Wheelan!!!
Rating:
Summary: peerless
Review: I've been studying economics for the past six months or so from various texts, plodding through all of them by dint of perseverance and a sense of duty.
For some light reading, I picked this book up. From it, my studies of economics gained renewed vigor, because this was the first book that really made me LOVE ECONOMICS. After reading it I saw most economic ideas -- especially macroeconomic ideas -- in a new light.
Folks, it's fantastic. Absorbing, witty, and clearly-written.
Not only will you come to basically understand many important economic principles from reading it, but the book contains not a single graph, chart, or unsavory equation.
This is the only economics books I've ever read and read, until I was done: on the john, in the tub, on the bus, etc. I just could not put it down!
The thing I really like is Wheelan's genius for picking examples, many of which will boggle your mind and stick with you for days.
Wheelan has also got a great sense of humor. When's the last time that you found yourself laughing out loud every few pages while reading an economics book?
Here's an example:
"The sultan of Brunei earned billions of dollars in oil revenues in the 1970s. Suppose he had stuffed that cash under his mattress and left it there. He would have had several problems. First, it is very diffuclt to sleep with billions of dollars stuffed under the mattress. . ."
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant.
Review: I've never thought "the dismal science" a fitting nickname for economics. (This may be because my AP economics teacher describes price as supply and demand's love child, and lets fourth period order pizza twice a week.) I went into this book already knowing quite a bit about subject and liking it. He touched on a lot of concepts I wasn't familiar with, and made interesting points about those I was. He made what had been a bunch abstract theories, graphs, and formulas connect to my life, here, on this planet. The book is also tremendously enjoyable to read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent. Better than my undergrad degree from Chicago
Review: Naked economics is an extraordinary account of what economics really is and how they should teach it. Unfourtunately current professors think that throwing a lot of math at you (without any intuition whatsoever) makes them look intelligent. Economics is much more fun (not necessarily easier) than solving a hundred optimization problems without any regard for the real world.
To all the people who design economics undergraduate programs in the U.S. please understand that: (1) we need something useful, (2) most of us are not going to study a ph.d., (3)we need a tool for understanding the world, not something we won't remember six months after the end of the course. What was a Lagrangean anyway?
Rating:
Summary: Now I Understand...
Review: Now I understand what I studied while getting two degrees in economics. If Wheelan had written the book before he was born (my bachelor's degree from Yale was in 1962), unquestionably I would have experienced better grades.
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Summary: Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science
Review: Popular economics writing does not get any better than this. In a dozen somewhat independent chapters, journalist Wheelan presents "Economics 101" in a readable, objective, and delightful manner. Employing basic concepts and assumptions, such as choices, incentives, tradeoffs, prices, costs, and the economics of information, Wheelan cuts a large swath though contemporary microeconomic and macroeconomic issues, controversies, and fallacies. (He sneaks in more sophisticated theoretical points and jargon, e.g., externalities and the prisoner's dilemma, but in interesting, informative ways.) Topics include environmental problems, health care and insurance, risk and safety, education and productivity, the Federal Reserve System and monetary policy, financial markets and capital, inflation and unemployment, international trade and globalization, income and wealth inequalities, and economic development. Using anecdotes and applications galore, Wheelan treats both the power of markets and the role of government in a market economy (including special interest groups and the politics of economics). Devoid of graphs and mathematical equations (but not documentation), this book is quite simply a terrific, much-needed addition to the economics literature for intelligent general readers and must-reading for the media, government officials at all levels, and those who cast ballots and attempt to influence public policy. Highly recommended for general readers, lower- and upper-division undergraduates, and professionals.
Rating:
Summary: Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science
Review: Popular economics writing does not get any better than this. In a dozen somewhat independent chapters, journalist Wheelan presents "Economics 101" in a readable, objective, and delightful manner. Employing basic concepts and assumptions, such as choices, incentives, tradeoffs, prices, costs, and the economics of information, Wheelan cuts a large swath though contemporary microeconomic and macroeconomic issues, controversies, and fallacies. (He sneaks in more sophisticated theoretical points and jargon, e.g., externalities and the prisoner's dilemma, but in interesting, informative ways.) Topics include environmental problems, health care and insurance, risk and safety, education and productivity, the Federal Reserve System and monetary policy, financial markets and capital, inflation and unemployment, international trade and globalization, income and wealth inequalities, and economic development. Using anecdotes and applications galore, Wheelan treats both the power of markets and the role of government in a market economy (including special interest groups and the politics of economics). Devoid of graphs and mathematical equations (but not documentation), this book is quite simply a terrific, much-needed addition to the economics literature for intelligent general readers and must-reading for the media, government officials at all levels, and those who cast ballots and attempt to influence public policy. Highly recommended for general readers, lower- and upper-division undergraduates, and professionals.
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