From Here to Economy: A Short Cut to Economic Literacy

Rating:
Summary: A fine introduction, though now somewhat dated.
Review: *From Here to Economy* is a concise and entertaining (if you like the author's sense of humor) introduction to economics. Since the book is only about 250 pages long, the coverage of any given topic is not deep, but the author does touch on the key concepts and explain them at a level appropriate for the literate novice. The book divides the subject into 5 sections: macroeconomics, microeconomics, international trade and finance, personal finance and investing, and schools of economic thought. The section on personal finance and investing will, I think, be particularly useful to the average reader, since it ties the broader economic concepts discussed in the rest of the book into the economic questions that most of us face every day. This section is also the one that struck me as dated, in that it does not mention all the investment information (both good and bad) that is now readily available on the Internet. However, that's a minor flaw in an otherwise very useful work. Readers may also want to look at Sowell's *Basic Economics* -- Sowell gives a fuller discussion of microeconomics, but he's also much more tendentious than Buchholz, is not so good on international topics, and does not discuss personal finance or the history of economic theory.

Rating:
Summary: Simple, educational, and entertaining!
Review: If you want to learn about the economy then this is the book for you! It's a great start if you know nothing about the economy. And even if you did some time ago, this book would still be a good refreshing resource.

I recommend this book for basic knowledge of the economy.

Rating:
Summary: occasionally accurate, always slanted
Review: This book is an apology to the voters for Bush I's economic policies, including supply-side economics. It says something that not a single well-known economist wrote a blurb for this book's cover. After all, when Wheelan wrote "Naked Economics" he was able to get some. Krugman (himself a very well-respected economist) was able to. Why only this guy can't? Hmmmmmm.

It's because a bit of the information here isn't completely accurate, and he is always biased. He will not consider the role of government seriously, and of course tax-cuts and deregulation are the ultimate panacea. (Of course government has its fingers where they shouldn't be. But why not bother to consider where they should be and shouldn't be, like a real economist?)

On other matters, where there's no room for politics, he's accurate. Which only draws more attention to the difference when politics are involved.

Also, things are just poorly explained. He tries to explain how the Fed's interest rates affect economic growth, inflation and unemployment. But if I hadn't understood that already, there's no way I would have understood his presentation. That kind of thing occurs throughout the book.

Two other, less serious, criticisms. First, a lot of interesting stuff has happened in economics since this book was written. The Asian tigers crashed, currency crises in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Russia, the internet stocks and the bubble of the 90s crashing, China and India coming online, and the consequences of Bush II's economic policies. Not covering any of those events is no fault of the author's, but it just means the book is too old.

Second, the writing is not that great, and the humor is terrible. His idea of "humor" is, "Let's say Helen buys bananas."

Really, if you want to learn about economics, my first recommendation is "Naked Economics," Charles Wheelan. That's the book this one is trying to be, and failing. Or check out Krugman (start with "The Return of Depression Economics"). If you want a decidedly conservative perspective, head for Milton Friedman. I also recommend Nobel Prize winners Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz. All much better.