18 Comments

I thought Naked Economics was well written and easy to read.

Expand full comment

Thanks. I have read them all down to and including Freakonomics, but not Discover Your Inner Economist (I know Cowen principally through Marginal Revolution, the blog) or below on your list. Also I have read some other writings by these authors.

These are swell books and I want to stay very affirmative. However, none of them presented an axiomatic approach to economics (well, that could hardly be expected) nor answer the precise question I held in abeyance last time, which I therefore reinstate. I can, of course, refresh your memory if you wish it.

Expand full comment

No. I'll just offer my regrets. Not sure what you want, and I need to tend to other things now. Perhaps we can pick up the discussion at a later date.

Expand full comment

Perhaps.

Expand full comment

Interesting picks, Professor Graboyes. I enjoyed some of Landsburg’s book immensely, especially the suggestion that politicians be held legally liable for their campaign promises.

Some of my favorites include Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introduction by Morton Davis and Timothy Taylor’s and Randall Bartlett’s Great Courses courses (light, but a useful introduction).

Of course, Professor Sowell’s Basic Economics is a must read.

Expand full comment

Thanks again for a great tour of economics. I now have two more titles to pursue, having been a fan of Hazlitt for some time. I’ll also seek out the essays of your famous window.

Expand full comment

What about Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics" and "Economic Facts and Fallacies?"

Expand full comment

Worthy entries. I'm a Sowell fan, but I haven't read either book. Hence, their exclusion.

Expand full comment

Sadly I took two semesters of economics as a sophomore in 1969-70. The topics so dry and uninspiring I decided to pursue the exciting fields of biology and chemistry. Sadly after college and having read Freedman Hyack did I realise I might have missed something.

Expand full comment

Time to take a better course!

Expand full comment

I still have my “Armchair Economist” copy from when I took your class ;-)

Expand full comment

Good. I’ll be testing you on it soon.

Expand full comment

What about Dr. Sowell's Basic Economics?

Expand full comment

I’m a big admirer of Sowell, but I’ve never read the book. I only included books I’ve read.

Expand full comment

Have you seen the video showing a debate between Keynes and Hayek using a rap format? As a student of economics whose readings have included (among many others) “Human Action” by Ludwig von Mises), I found this video to be both entertaining and affirming.

Expand full comment

Thanks! I have seen the rap videos. They are enjoyable. Mises’s “Human Action” is an important book, but it’s definitely NOT beach reading. It’s expensive to buy. The hardcover version is over 900 pages. It’s not a friendly read. And it is a dissent AGAINST mainstream economics—disdainful of most of the tools of the trade. It will not give the reader any idea at all what I’ve done with economics over the course of my career.

Expand full comment

I agree with you. I guess I was just showing off. Your addenda and readers’ comments included much more salient suggestions. Mine would have been more cerebral, as in ‘nerd’.

Expand full comment

Nerd is good. :)

Expand full comment