Economics: The Remarkable Story of How the Economy Works

by Ben Mathew

Economics is essential for understanding the world around you. Billions of people across the planet wake up every morning and participate in a profoundly complex and interconnected global economy. How does it work? How does everyone know what to do? Why do some people get more of the output than others? What causes recessions? Why is there inflation? Why is there an environmental crisis and what can we do about it?

Learn about these and other aspects of the economy in this short and lively introduction to economics. The topics covered are similar in scope to an introductory course in economics, but explained in a more approachable way without any math. The focus is on developing key concepts and showing how it relates to everyday life as well as to the big problems of society.

Unlike with the hard sciences, people tend to have strong preconceptions about economic issues. But seemingly obvious conclusions about these issues are often wrong because they don’t take into account some of the deeper and harder to see connections of a complex economic system. Economics provides the tools you need to better understand these connections, giving you a new and powerful view of the world around you.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Business

130 pages, Paperback

First published July 4, 2013

About the author

Ben Mathew has a B.A. in economics from Dartmouth College, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, where he won the Martin and Margaret Lee Prize for the highest score on the microeconomics qualifying exam. He has taught economics at the University of Chicago and Colgate University. He lives near Seattle with his wife and twin daughters.

Reviews

[Anil Swarup · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is simply brilliant.........simple and brilliant. Very rarely do you come across books that have such complex subjects articulated so lucidly so as to become comprehensible even to a layman. One may disagree with some of the absolute"Smithonian" conclusions and prescriptions as the jury is still out on the extent of state intervention. However, the fundamentals, explained through "relatable" examples makes for easy reading.
A must read for all those who want to understand economics as also for those that have understood it.

[Andrew Carr · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable enough retelling of Economics-in-one-lesson (efficiency is the necessary goal, most interventions are unhelpful distortions). As such, it is an easy primer and I might introduce it to someone who is intimidated by the idea of even learning about economics.

Even without adding more detail, I'd have liked a little more nuance about the value of efficiency and interaction between society and markets. The friction of life is too often overlooked, changing this to more a story of how an economy works in theory than in reality.

[Vinoth Kumar Kannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely recommended for beginners.
Price discovery, free markets, bank rates, etc. explained with simple language and clean easy-to-follow examples.

I feel I really understood whatever basics the author intended to get through to the readers and I'm more interested in economics now.

No fluff/unnecessary page fillers in the book.
It isn't a boring read at all. Give it a try!

[Alex Timberman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book is good at explaining the theory behind economics. However, the author seems to be pretty set on the greatness of the free market like many other economists related to the Chicago School. I too believe in the free market and free competition, but there seems to be plenty of instances where governments can play an essential role using tools outside of traditional economic models. I don’t think any progressive ideas on the economy are represented well in this book. Also, I felt like the author was talking down to the reader. My assumption is he believes the audience for the book is really clueless about the economy, and therefore stupid.

[Tadhg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for those seeking an introduction to the subject of economics. Ben manages to explain all of the key economic terms which you'd read in a newspaper or be introduced to in a first year college class. The beauty of it all is that there is not one diagram or graph - this ensures that the book can appeal to economics newcomers without bogging you down with graphs and figures. As a teacher, this book would be ideal for anyone struggling to comprehend basic economic concepts.

[Rag. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I personally feel that every citizen must have a general idea about the way our economies function.This book gives you just that, it helps you to become an informed voter and consequently an ideal citizen.The author deserves praise for his style of writing,this book is entirely free of jargon and lucidly written, he transformed the boring activity of learning basic economics into fun and entertainment.

[Parikshit Sohoni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short read to get a high level understanding of how the economy works. Technical jargon is virtually non existent in the book. Will surely help if you want to start becoming economically literate.

Ps: Came across this awesome essay called "I pencil" while reading the book. The essay describes how even making an ordinary pencil requires mind boggling feats of co-operation and coordination by millions of people in the economy, not one of whom actually knows how to make a pencil. Most of them are not even aware that the are involved in making a pencil. Just google "I pencil essay" to read the essay.

[Daniel Ares · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ridiculously biased and short-sighted. This is a fairy tale and not social science. Mr. Mathew talks down his readers as if we were 7th graders to present controversial issues as if they were simple matters of fact. His views about applying free market rules for human-organs trafficking are insane. And that is only an example. He takes away most cultural, collective and ecological dimensions of what it means to live decently and sustainably in this planet in order to present some idealistic extreme principles and "laws" of neoliberal economics. His analysis of the role of the modern state and use of natural resources in contemporary economies is a fairy tale or dream world.

[Ashutosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good to understand the basics of economics

The explains the concepts in a manner that anyone could understand. It is a good book to start with if you are new to economics. Of course you will need to read other books too to get a deeper insight into the topics. Overall a good read.

[Deepak Prathapani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives you a basic understanding of how economy works. It makes one a smart decision maker an informed voter and a responsible citizen. Or in Ben Mathew's own words, it leads to a super economy.

[Akshay Bade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise writing explaining ecosystem of economics. Very simply put together with backing of examples. Recommended for readers having no background of how economy works. At Some places examples seemed little lengthy and drifted out of track.

[Ashwin Doke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben explains serious Economical terms in simple language and with easy examples, one can understand.
Starts with the simplest form and goes up to the role of central banks and governments in today's society.
Helps understand the "why" behind the "what" our governments and Central Banks do

[Harish Sankar · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first book on economics, it introduces concepts in an interesting manner! Go for it if you want to learn the basics of economics!

[animesh jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply brilliant teaches economics comparing with day to day and easily relatable examples.

[Arul Murugan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Veru useful

Very good book to understand the basic of economy in a very simple language what is economic and how it is working

[Sagar Chamoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for beginner's!!!

[Sanket Sonawane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A small but an impactful book.

A must read for budding economist.
I found the concepts beautifully written and explained.
Do read it.
Regards,
Sanket Sonawane

[Venkatesan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

It was a good book and covered almost all bases breifly. Helps to get quite a hang on basic economics

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a short and easy read about general economics written at a middle grade reading level this is a great choice!

[Patricia Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great crack

Good book, fantastic summary. Would recommend to people who live in places in world. General humans. Keep on going humans.

[Macka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Distilling a the complex into something fun and easy to understand, I really love this book

[Jeevan Patnaik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I ever read, other than text books. I read it on Kindle Cloud Reader. It took less than 8 hrs for me to read it completely. I am an Indian and so usually little uncomfortable with American usage of words. But whatever the examples he mentioned in this book, he explained it very well and it is perfect for any amateurs of economics like me to understand the whole basic concepts of economics and as the book says, how it works. Not simply basics of economics, the book contains many things that every person should know to live his life without any financial worries.
Ben Mathew's explanation in this book is very simple and clear. In the beginning, I thought he is more inclined towards US economy principles and his personal opinions, but no, he justified everything that he said. I am thankful to the author as this book motivated me to read more and more books as I have already mentioned that this is my first book I ever read. Thank you Ben!

[Tawfik توفيق · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I didn't study or read about economics before, it was very easy to understand everything in this book. Ben introduces the basics of economy using simple terms and very clear examples. He also shows many scenarios of markets misregulation and suggests the best possible solutions. I don't know if other economists agree with his ideas, but according to this book, most of the finanicial problems that our societies face can be easily solved just by changing some laws. I would have rated it 5 except that I found the examples long and repeated more than what's needed.
Strongly recommend it when you want to enter the world of economics.

[Cheree Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a very simplistic view of how economies work and why capitalism and a free market continue to pass the test of time while socialism, though good in theory, has repeatedly failed in the countries where it has been implemented. The ideas are simple but powerful. I think Ben Mathews does a good job of simply explaining concepts like why economies thrive, the importance of needing incentives, and why government deficits aren't that great.

[Nakul Prabhu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and clear. Initial chapters had the concepts which I mostly knew. But the topics such as inflation and recession were always kind of fuzzy to me and I'm glad to have understood more about them, albeit only superficially. Got the answer to one question I always had.. why doesn't the central bank of any country print more and more money to solve the nation's deficit? The answer was in this book. I could have googled that one earlier but I had never done that.

[GONZA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brief explanation of the major topic of the economy, based on American examples. Interesting, but not quite generalizable.

Breve excursus sui maggiori topic dell'economia, basati su esempi Statunitensi. Interessante, ma non abbastanza generalizzabile.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND ALL NIGHT READS FOR THE PREVIEW!

[Rakesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bookk explains rudimentary principles of economy with very simple examples. Increases your understandinig of basic concepts and I found it very useful for explainig the same to my kid. If you are blank on whats fisical deficit and free market this is the book for you that demistifies the jargons in daily speak.

[Ashutosh Vijay · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book for a novice like me. It explains the basic logic of economy in a very lucid and interesting way.
The book covers a variety of beginners topic through simple example, which keeps reader engaged and interested.
This is a really good book to start learning this subject, though author could have used more examples and increase the scope of the book.

[Ananya Ghosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, simple book written in such lucid style that you can acclimatize with various economical jargon in no time. It is not the ultimate book on economics (the author doesn't claim it to be either) but definitely a great primer if you're new to this subject.

[Kishore Mylavarapu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best intro book to start learning economics

Really simple and easy to understand. Everyone should read this book and get a basic idea what economics is. I like books with less pages.