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zmull's review against another edition
4.0
Every single thing in know about economics comes from the 300 pages of this book. It's an eye-opener to finally see somewhat into the tumble of jargon and conflict that is modern capitalism. Wheelan's no apologist, but he does absolve himself of the moral implications of global capitalism. People are reduced to parts of an equation. But, it is instructive to know what's happening in the world around you. Economics does provide a relatively simple framework for ordering the universe. And Wheelan lays in out in style. His writing is breezy and easy to follow. I'm curious to know more.
ramossnr's review
3.0
I found Wheelan's explanations of markets very clear, and he does a good job of selling the positives of laissez faire capitalism. I'm still thinking about his point that working for low wages in poor working conditions is superior because it's the best option individuals have (aka "Sweatshops aren't that bad"). There's lots of incidental anti-fat bias in this book, which I found off-putting. Overall, I'm glad I picked this book up, it helped me understand basic economics better, but I found much of the tone off-putting.
transparent_tea's review
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.5
I had an e-book version of this book for some time but never got a chance to read it. What I did instead was buy a hard copy of the newer edition and leave it on my bookshelf to eventually read it. I think that was sometime in 2021 (when I was studying for the BEC portion of the CPA exam, which no longer exists).
As the book's blurb mentioned, this is for those people who don't know economics and do not want to sit in a lecture hall, listening to a dry lecture about globalization, government involvement, and the like. The author takes a different approach to Econ 101 and has the reader read thoughts/comments about a certain topic, tying it back to a more recent event and building upon these thoughts with additional sections that relate to one another, like how an over-arching final exam would do (or a Calculus class, because you can't move forward to Green's Therom unless you understand the basis of taking a derivative of a function, but that's just nerd Math talk for you.)
At times, I did rush through the section because it was getting a bit too long, but overall I did enjoy this approach to learning economics (coming from a person who took a joke of a class back in high school). It does provide additional insight into what the US economy is doing, as well as why some things that are getting pushed through may be a bad idea in the long run.
A must-read for those who want to know about economics without the effort of signing up for a class.
As the book's blurb mentioned, this is for those people who don't know economics and do not want to sit in a lecture hall, listening to a dry lecture about globalization, government involvement, and the like. The author takes a different approach to Econ 101 and has the reader read thoughts/comments about a certain topic, tying it back to a more recent event and building upon these thoughts with additional sections that relate to one another, like how an over-arching final exam would do (or a Calculus class, because you can't move forward to Green's Therom unless you understand the basis of taking a derivative of a function, but that's just nerd Math talk for you.)
At times, I did rush through the section because it was getting a bit too long, but overall I did enjoy this approach to learning economics (coming from a person who took a joke of a class back in high school). It does provide additional insight into what the US economy is doing, as well as why some things that are getting pushed through may be a bad idea in the long run.
A must-read for those who want to know about economics without the effort of signing up for a class.
denjzen's review against another edition
4.0
A great book for explaining how economics works in amusing language that real people can understand. I don't always agree with his opinions, but I still thougth the book was good!