Good Books Regarding Economics?

[Jordan Olsommer]

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Are you an Econ major or an Economist?

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No sir. I thought about minoring in economics in college, but when I skimmed some of the textbooks and found that most economic theories started with "assume a rational consumer" I thought "well, to hell with that!". [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[PokerProdigy]

Was this awhile ago, because I have never seen anything like "assume a rational consumer." Rather most economic theories today are based on statistics. So I am guessing that you were either in college awhile ago (no offense [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]) or that it was a terrible textbook.

[Jordan Olsommer]

[ QUOTE ]
Was this awhile ago, because I have never seen anything like "assume a rational consumer." Rather most economic theories today are based on statistics. So I am guessing that you were either in college awhile ago (no offense [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]) or that it was a terrible textbook.

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Or option C - it was just a lame joke :P

If you want a good book on economics though, I would say personally stay away from the textbooks; those tend to be for "how can economics help me sell these wicker jumpsuits?" businessmen types. The regular "economics for laymen" type books are worth reading for the enlightening experience youll have when you "get" economics and the free market, etc. I'm convinced that every socialist on the planet can be cured by reading a good layman's work on economics [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[MCS]

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Was this awhile ago, because I have never seen anything like "assume a rational consumer."

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I'm in graduate school right now and we often assume a rational consumer. I work a lot with preferences, so maybe that's why.

What's the alternative to which you refer?

[IronDragon1]

Read works by Amartya Sen and Milton Friedman

Two different perspectives on a complex subject=Very good

[PokerProdigy]

Hey, I quoted Amarta Sen once in a paper about famine in Africa. Because Sen (the nobel prize winning economist) believes that a democratic society/country would never have the same famine problems, because people aren't going to elect someone that will allow these problems.

And I heard about Milton Friedman in my economics textbook. Friedman believes in world economy right?

Anyway thanks for the recomendations, and specifically what books should I read?

[IronDragon1]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey, I quoted Amarta Sen once in a paper about famine in Africa. Because Sen (the nobel prize winning economist) believes that a democratic society/country would never have the same famine problems, because people aren't going to elect someone that will allow these problems.

And I heard about Milton Friedman in my economics textbook. Friedman believes in world economy right?

Anyway thanks for the recomendations, and specifically what books should I read?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sen-Development as Freedom

Friedman-Money and Capitalism

The standards really

[tylerdurden]

Rothbard. The man was simply brilliant, and had an uncanny ability to clearly explain complicated topics while still keeping his writing concise. Many of his books are freely available on the web, though you can get proper printed versions for about $5-6 on amazon.

http://www.mises.org/content/mnr.asp

"What Has Government Done to Our Money" should be required reading.

[gergery]

Economics should be called Assumptionomics

Old joke:

A Chemist, a Physicist and an Economist are trapped on an island. All they have is 1 can, which they must open to free the magic Genie who will grant their wish and get them off the island.

Chemist says, “Well, a hyperchlorite acid could get thru that, and that occurs naturally in the bark of that rare tree over there, so if we can just…” He continues for several minutes on how to create the appropriate acids.

The Physicist says, “Well, that can will open if we can generate the correct force per square inch on an appropriate fulcrum points. So if we just…” He continues for several minutes about the potential energy of rocks dropped from the top of cocoanut trees.

The Economist says, “Well, let’s assume we have a can opener…”