Basic Economics

A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

By: Thomas Sowell

Narrated by: Brian Emerson

Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Basic Economics has been written with the thought that learning economics should be not only a relaxed experience but also an enjoyable one.

This is the revised and expanded edition of a new kind of introduction to economics for the general public, without graphs, statistics, or jargon. However, the enlargement of this edition is not just more of the same. In addition to being updated, Basic Economics has also become more international, with the inclusion of economic problems from more countries around the world, because the basic principles of economics are not confined by national borders. Each chapter reflects the experiences of many different peoples and cultures.

©2004 Thomas Sowell (P)2006 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Clear and concise....Among economists of the past 30 years, [Sowell] stands very proud indeed." (The Wall Street Journal)
"Basic Economics is not only valuable for a general lay-person audience, it would also benefit lawyers, politicians, and, yes, economists, as well." (Washington Times)

beyond the band of brothers

a wonderful and educational look at the group of men that winters was with in WWII. I went and bought the PBS series to watch again. A great read and great narrator. highly recommend this. will do Ambrose's book again now.

Polemnically sounds though unconvincing...

This is a classic, unadulterated economics for high school students and freshman and sophomore year undergraduates, it ceased to be convincing once it is read by anyone with advanced degree. It ignores the question of power, culture and technological advantages and differences some countries have over others and how those can be exploited for gain, still it is worth reading and thought provoking book.

If you think of Economics as tedious, try this!

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

For anyone who is unable to complete an introductory lesson on this subject without losing consciousness, this book can help. The author is able to convey the concepts in terms that anyone can understand, and even made it enjoyable for me. I remember taking an Economics class in college, and had I had this book, it would have been much easier to remain interested.

Any additional comments?

If only Dr. Sowell had been the narrator...

Excellent, phenomenal, great, fabulous!

Now, why did I say that? Awesome book to explain economy and economics to folks from various walks of life. Great examples of Centralised economy and its impact on allocation of resources and economic outcomes. The best (so far) book explaining complex economic theories with simple terms and multiple examples. If anyone believes that the Government can effectively manage our economy and create the most efficient distribution of our resources and prevent scarcity this book is a must to listen to! Don't thank me, thank Thomas Sowell! Mr. Thomas Sowell you are my HERO! I can't wait to listen to all his books. Ayn Raynd would be impressed. A must read!

Notice, New edition is coming

Absolutely, The is a great book. Great Thomas Sowell, and very good Narrator.

BUT Notice, New edition is coming.

required reading

This book should be required reading in every high school in the country. It explains very simply why a market economy is the most efficient and thus delivers the highest standard of living for its participants. It points out where much that passes as common knowledge is wrong and why. Even those of us in the business world start to believe some of the common statements in the media about economics as we all here them day in and day out. It was nice to feel grounded again to be reminded how and why the system works and what happens when government tries to circumvent the market. Read it then give it to your kids.

Meh.

the problem is not in praising free markets and pointing out historical examples of folly in efforts to control them.

the issue is that in tone, the book regards military spending as the only valid use of discretionary resources. Military applications of scarce resources too can be tremendously wasteful. While it makes mention of this in terms of subsidies, not so in terms of direct military spending...

This feels to some extent like economic punditry. Several examples given with the intent to discredit the views of political observers in the past seem to have backfired with regard to the commentary here; most notably comments related to the California energy crises in the 2000s and the supposed always mutually beneficial long term effects of trade policies.

Time has not been as kind as it might have been. There are other problems herein, but there also useful information as well. As with all things, think for yourself and examine closely.

Good description and defense of capitalism

Would you consider the audio edition of Basic Economics to be better than the print version?

Very well thought out, rationale, and flows well. The author describes basic concepts of economics and why capitalism with whatever flaws it has is better inevitably than any type of central planning.

Basically, the freedom of the individual to act on that individual's values to accrue as much "good" as the individual can allows capitalism to fulfill the most needs most efficiently. When a single person or government tries to plan for millions of people, even if that entity is completely free of corruption, the amount of data that needs to be processed is overwhelming, and resources are wasted because the central planner is unable to respond quickly to changing needs/supplies/events.

Sometimes the book is repitative in making a point, unnecessarily drawing out an example or making the same example at multiple times throughout the book. It could be edited to be cleaner and more concise without giving up any of it's substance.

The book is great, I highly recommend it for anyone interested in a clear overview of economics.

good book

Very good book. Easy to listen to.
Sowell brings clarity to a subject that is usually poorly understood by most people. The book will take the reader to a different level of comprehension of economics and dispel many well entrenched myths. Should be mandatory reading to anyone in positions of management.

Insufferable narrator, clear and interesting book

I recently started a Master's program in public policy and have become interested in economics. In class, I felt like I was learning the details without understanding the big picture, and I wanted to get more background information about the main schools of economic thought. When I read the reviews for this book, it seemed like conservatives loved it and liberals hated it. I tried finding a book that had more balanced appeal and couldn't find one, so I decided to listen to this one to get a better understanding of the economic orthodoxy and then to listen to Ha-Joon Chang's "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism" to get the opposing view.

As for this book, first of all, the narrator is insufferable. He comes off as a pompous know-it-all. He never stopped irritating me, and it is a long book. However, what he was narrating was interesting, so I gritted my teeth and kept going.

Thomas Sowell has managed to write a very clear and easy to understand book about economics. He is very convincing on some topics. He thoroughly convinced me, for example, that rent control is a bad idea. Also, I work for a nonprofit, and his analysis of the incentives in the nonprofit sector made me chuckle: they sounded very familiar.

At the same time, his analysis occasionally struck me as oversimplified and biased. The following are a few examples:

* He makes the claim that economists have concluded that FDR's policies needlessly prolonged the Great Depression but then doesn't back it up at all. I was actually quite curious to hear the reasoning behind this conclusion, but it was never given.

* He notes that financial markets raised the price of Brazilian debt after the leftwing Luis Inacio Lula da Silva was elected president, implying that a leftist presidency was bound to be an economic disaster (the book was published in 2004). In fact, Lula presided over huge growth, and Brazil has since become a major player in the world economy.

* He argues that private companies run utilities better than the public sector and gives the example of Argentina as a place where private provision of water was a great success. He does not mention Bolivia, where a private consortium took over water provision, hugely jacked up prices, and caused a widespread public revolt known as "the water war."

* He blames the California electricity crisis on the policies of state government without mentioning Enron's manipulation of the energy market.

* He calls into question whether "dumping" can be proved to exist. He cites some examples where it is hard to prove (if I remember correctly, all were in the context of developing nations dumping products on first world markets), but he does not mention the sale of subsidized American agricultural products in Latin American markets, which is widely viewed as dumping. He rails against agricultural subsidies in other parts of the book, so it seems hard to deny that these products are sold below cost.

Overall, I thought it was a very interesting and well-written book that provides a good primer of mainstream economic thought. It was written before the 2008 crisis, so I'm curious whether any of his thinking has changed since then. At the same time, I'm glad I'm also reading Ha-Joon Chang's book because this one seems oversimplified: examples that don't support his overall thesis are glossed over or ignored.