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Economics: The User's Guide: The User's Guide Hardcover – August 26, 2014
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In his bestselling 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang brilliantly debunked many of the predominant myths of neoclassical economics. Now, in an entertaining and accessible primer, he explains how the global economy actually works-in real-world terms. Writing with irreverent wit, a deep knowledge of history, and a disregard for conventional economic pieties, Chang offers insights that will never be found in the textbooks.
Unlike many economists, who present only one view of their discipline, Chang introduces a wide range of economic theories, from classical to Keynesian, revealing how each has its strengths and weaknesses, and why there is no one way to explain economic behavior. Instead, by ignoring the received wisdom and exposing the myriad forces that shape our financial world, Chang gives us the tools we need to understand our increasingly global and interconnected world often driven by economics. From the future of the Euro, inequality in China, or the condition of the American manufacturing industry here in the United States-Economics: The User's Guide is a concise and expertly crafted guide to economic fundamentals that offers a clear and accurate picture of the global economy and how and why it affects our daily lives.
- Print length384 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
- Publication dateAugust 26, 2014
- Dimensions6.7 x 1.55 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-109781620408124
- ISBN-13978-1620408124
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Review
“The dismal science rendered undismally, even spryly...lively, intelligent, and readily accessible.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“This excellent economics primer is written "in plain terms" for a college-educated reader; it follows efforts by some academics to seek a readership market beyond the classroom.” ―Booklist
“A practical guide that shows the importance of the subject as a worldview and how it fits into everyday life.” ―Library Journal
“This book should be the poster child for the word "tweener." Not quite an introductory text (although that is the category into which the author places it), the book is "a mile wide and an inch deep" and includes "everything but the kitchen sink" in terms of level of detail and scope of coverage […] an interesting, entertaining, and worthwhile contribution that offers a picture of the global economy and how and why it affects daily life.” ―A. R. Sanderson, University of Chicago, CHOICE
About the Author
Ha-Joon Chang, a Korean native, has taught at the Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, since 1990. He has worked as a consultant for numerous international organizations, including various UN agencies, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. He has published 11 books, including Kicking Away the Ladder, winner of the 2003 Myrdal Prize. In 2005, Ha-Joon Chang was awarded the 2005 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.
Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at Cambridge University. His books include Reclaiming Development (Zed 2004) and 23 Things They Don't Tell You about Capitalism (2010).
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Economics: The User's Guide
By Ha-Joon ChangBLOOMSBURY PRESS
Copyright © 2014 Ha-Joon ChangAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62040-812-4
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, xi,PROLOGUE Why Bother? WHY DO YOU NEED TO LEARN ECONOMICS?, 1,
INTERLUDE I How to Read This Book, 9,
PART ONE: GETTING USED TO IT,
CHAPTER 1 Life, The Universe and Everything WHAT IS ECONOMICS?, 15,
CHAPTER 2 From Pin to PIN CAPITALISM 1776 AND 2014, 29,
CHAPTER 3 How Have We Got Here? A BRIEF HISTORY OF CAPITALISM, 45,
CHAPTER 4 Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom HOW TO 'DO' ECONOMICS, 109,
CHAPTER 5 Dramatis Personae WHO ARE THE ECONOMIC ACTORS?, 171,
INTERLUDE II Moving On ..., 203,
PART TWO: USING IT,
CHAPTER 6 How Many Do You Want It to Be? OUTPUT, INCOME AND HAPPINESS, 209,
CHAPTER 7 How Does Your Garden Grow? THE WORLD OF PRODUCTION, 239,
CHAPTER 8 Trouble at the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank FINANCE, 277,
CHAPTER 9 Boris's Goat Should Drop Dead INEQUALITY AND POVERTY, 315,
CHAPTER 10 I've Known a Few People Who've Worked WORK AND UNEMPLOYMENT, 345,
CHAPTER 11 Leviathan or the Philsopher King? THE ROLE OF THE STATE, 375,
CHAPTER 12 'All Things in Prolific Abundance' THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION, 405,
EPILOGUE What Now? HOW CAN WE USE ECONOMICS TO MAKE OUR ECONOMIC BETTER?, 449,
NOTES, 461,
CHAPTER 1
Life, The Universe and Everything
WHAT IS ECONOMICS?
What is economics?
A reader who is not familiar with the subject might reckon that it is the study of the economy. After all, chemistry is the study of chemicals, biology is the study of living things, and sociology is the study of society, so economics must be the study of the economy.
But according to some of the most popular economics books of our time, economics is much more than that. According to them, economics is about the Ultimate Question – of 'Life, the Universe and Everything' – as in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the cult comedy science fiction by Douglas Adams, which was made into a movie in 2005, with Martin 'The Hobbit' Freeman in the leading role.
According to Tim Harford, the Financial Times journalist and the author of the successful book The Undercover Economist, economics is about Life – he has named his second book The Logic of Life.
No economist has yet claimed that economics can explain the Universe. The Universe remains, for now, the turf of physicists, whom most economists have for centuries been looking up to as their role models, in their desire to make their subject a true science. But some economists have come close – they have claimed that economics is about 'the world'. For example, the subtitle of the second volume in Robert Frank's popular Economic Naturalist series is How Economics Helps You Make Sense of Your World.
Then there is the Everything bit. The subtitle of Logic of Life is Uncovering the New Economics of Everything. According to its subtitle, Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner – probably the best-known economics book of our time – is an exploration of the Hidden Side of Everything. Robert Frank agrees, even though he is far more modest in his claim. In the subtitle of his first Economic Naturalist book, he only said Why Economics Explains Almost Everything (emphasis added).
So, there we go. Economics is (almost) about Life, the Universe and Everything.
When you think about it, this is some claim coming from a subject that has spectacularly failed in what most non-economists think is its main job – that is, explaining the economy.
In the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, the majority of the economics profession was preaching to the world that markets are rarely wrong and that modern economics has found ways to iron out those few wrinkles that markets may have; Robert Lucas, the 1995 winner of Nobel Prize in Economics, had declared in 2003 that the 'problem of depression prevention has been solved'. So most economists were caught completely by surprise by the 2008 global financial crisis. Not only that, they have not been able to come up with decent solutions to the ongoing aftermaths of that crisis.
Given all this, economics seems to suffer from a serious case of megalomania – how can a subject that cannot even manage to explain its own area very well claim to explain (almost) everything?
Economics Is the Study of Rational Human Choice ...
You may think I am being unfair. Aren't all these books aimed at the mass market, where competition for readership is fierce, and therefore publishers and authors are tempted to hype things up? Surely, you would think, serious academic discourses would not make such a grand claim that the subject is about 'everything'.
These titles are hyped up. But the point is that they are hyped up in a particular way. The hypes could have been something along the line of 'how economics explains everything about the economy', but they are instead along the lines of 'how economics can explain not just the economy but everything else as well'.
The hypes are of this particular variety is because of the way in which the currently dominant school of economics, that is, the so-called Neoclassical school, defines economics. The standard Neoclassical definition of economics, the variants of which are still used, is given in the 1932 book by Lionel Robbins, An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. In the book, Robbins defined economics as 'the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses'.
In this view, economics is defined by its theoretical approach, rather than its subject matter. Economics is a study of rational choice, that is, choice made on the basis of deliberate, systematic calculation of the maximum extent to which the ends can be met by using the inevitably scarce means. The subject matter of the calculation can be anything – marriage, having children, crime or drug addiction, as Gary Becker, the famous Chicago economist and the winner of 1992 Nobel Prize in Economics, has written about – and not just 'economic' issues, as non-economists would define them, such as jobs, money or international trade. When Becker titled his 1976 book The Economic Approach to Human Behaviour, he was really declaring without the hype that economics is about everything.
This trend of applying the so-called economic approach to everything, called by its critics 'economics imperialism', has reached its apex recently in books like Freakonomics. Little of Freakonomics is actually about economic issues as most people would define them. It talks about Japanese sumo wrestlers, American schoolteachers, Chicago drug gangs, participants in the TV quiz show The Weakest Link, real estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan.
Most people would think (and the authors also admit) that none of these people, except real estate agents and drug gangs, have anything to do with economics. But, from the point of view of most economists today, how Japanese sumo wrestlers collude to help each other out or how American schoolteachers fabricate their pupils' marks to get better job assessments are as legitimate subjects of economics as whether Greece should stay in the Eurozone, how Samsung and Apple fight it out in the smartphone market or how we can reduce youth unemployment in Spain (which is over 55 per cent at the time of writing). To those economists, those 'economic' issues do not have privileged status in economics, they are just some of many things (oh, I forgot, some of everything) that economics can explain, because they define their subject in terms of its theoretical approach, rather than its subject matter.
... or Is It the Study of the Economy?
An obvious alternative definition of economics, which I have been implying, is that it is the study of the economy. But what is the economy?
The economy is about money – or is it?
The most intuitive answer to most readers may be that the economy is anything to do with money – not having it, earning it, spending it, running out of it, saving it, borrowing it and repaying it. This is not quite right, but it is a good starting point for thinking about the economy – and economics.
Now, when we talk of the economy being about money, we are not really talking about physical money. Physical money – be it a banknote, a gold coin or the huge, virtually immovable stones that were used as money in some Pacific islands – is only a symbol. Money is a symbol of what others in your society owe you, or your claim on particular amounts of the society's resources.
How money and other financial claims – such as company shares, derivatives and many complex financial products, which I will explain in later chapters – are created, sold and bought is one huge area of economics, called financial economics. These days, given the dominance of the financial industry in many countries, a lot of people equate economics with financial economics, but it is actually only a small part of economics.
Your money – or the claims you have over resources – may be generated in a number of different ways. And a lot of economics is (or should be) about those.
The most common way to get money is to have a job
The most common way to get money – unless you have been born into it – is to have a job (including being your own boss) and earn money from it. So, a lot of economics is about jobs. We can reflect on jobs from different perspectives.
Jobs can be understood from the point of view of the individual worker. Whether you get a job and how much you are paid for it depends on the skills you have and how many demands there are for them. You may get very high wages because you have very rare skills, like Cristiano Ronaldo, the football player. You may lose your job (or become unemployed) because someone invents a machine that can do what you do 100 times faster – as happened to Mr Bucket, Charlie's father, a toothpaste cap-screwer, in the 2005 movie version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Or you have to accept lower wages or worse working conditions because your company is losing money thanks to cheaper imports from, say, China. And so on. So, in order to understand jobs even at the individual level, we need to know about skills, technological innovation and international trade.
Wages and working conditions are also deeply affected by 'political' decisions to change the very scope and the characteristics of the labour market (I have put 'political' in quotation marks, as in the end the boundary between economics and politics is blurry, but that is a topic for later – see Chapter 11). The accession of the Eastern European countries to the European Union has had huge impacts on the wages and behaviours of Western European workers, by suddenly expanding the supply of workers in their labour markets. The restriction on child labour in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries had the opposite effect of shrinking the boundary of the labour market – suddenly a large proportion of the potential employees were shut out of the labour market. Regulations on working hours, working conditions and minimum wages are examples of less dramatic 'political' decisions that affect our jobs.
There are also a lot of transfers of money going on in the economy
In addition to holding down a job, you can get money through transfers – that is, by simply being given it. This can be either in the form of cash or 'in kind', that is, direct provision of particular goods (e.g., food) or services (e.g., primary education). Whether in cash or in kind, these transfers can be made in a number of different ways.
There are transfers made by 'people you know'. Examples include parental support for children, people taking care of elderly family members, gifts from local community members, say, for your daughter's wedding.
Then there is charitable giving, that is, transfer voluntarily made to strangers. People – sometimes individually sometimes collectively (e.g., through corporations or voluntary associations) – give to charities that help others.
In terms of its quantity, charitable giving is overshadowed in many multiples by transfers made through governments, which tax some people to subsidize others. So a lot of economics is naturally about these things – or the areas of economics known as public economics.
Even in very poor countries, there are some government schemes to give cash or goods in kind (e.g., free grains) to those who are in the worst positions (e.g., the aged, the disabled, the starving). But the richer societies, especially those in Europe, have transfer schemes that are much more comprehensive in scope and generous in amounts. This is known as the welfare state and is based on progressive taxation (those who earn more paying proportionally larger shares of their incomes in taxes) and universal benefits (where everyone, not just the poorest or the disabled, is entitled to a minimum income and to basic services, such as health care and education).
Resources earned or transferred get consumed in goods or services
Once you gain access to resources, whether through jobs or transfers, you consume them. As physical beings, we need to consume some minimum amount of food, clothes, energy, housing, and other goods to fulfil our basic needs. And then we consume other goods for 'higher' mental wants – books, musical instruments, exercise equipment, TV, computers and so on. We also buy and consume services – a bus ride, a haircut, a dinner at a restaurant or even a holiday abroad.
So a lot of economics is devoted to the study of consumption – how people allocate money between different types of goods and services, how they make choices between competing varieties of the same product, how they are manipulated and/or informed by advertisements, how companies spend money to build their 'brand images' and so on.
Ultimately goods and services have to be produced
In order to be consumed, these goods and services have to be produced in the first place – goods in farms and factories and services in offices and shops. This is the realm of production – an area of economics that has been rather neglected since the Neoclassical school, which puts emphasis on exchange and consumption, became dominant in the 1960s.
In standard economics textbooks, production appears as a 'black box', in which somehow quantities of labour (work by humans) and capital (machines and tools) are combined to produce the goods and services. There is little recognition that production is a lot more than combining some abstract quanta called labour and capital and involves getting many 'nitty-gritty' things right. And these are things that most readers may not normally have associated with economics, despite their crucial importance for the economy: how the factory is physically organized, how to control the workers or deal with trade unions, how to systematically improve the technologies used through research.
Most economists are very happy to leave the study of these things to 'other people' – engineers and business managers. But, when you think about it, production is the ultimate foundation of any economy. Indeed, the changes in the sphere of production usually have been the most powerful sources of social change. Our modern world has been made by the series of changes in technologies and institutions relating to the sphere of production that have been made since the Industrial Revolution. The economics profession, and the rest of us whose views of the economy are informed by it, need to pay far more attention to production than currently.
Concluding Remarks: Economics as the Study of the Economy
My belief is that economics should be defined not in terms of its methodology, or theoretical approach, but in terms of its subject matter, as it is the case with all other disciplines. The subject matter of economics should be the economy – which involves money, work, technology, international trade, taxes and other things that have to do with the ways in which we produce goods and services, distribute the incomes generated in the process and consume the things thus produced – rather than 'Life, the Universe and Everything' (or 'almost everything'), as many economists think.
Defining economics in this way makes this book unlike most other economics books in one fundamental way.
As they define economics in terms of its methodology, most economics books assume that there is only one right way of 'doing economics' – that is, the Neoclassical approach. The worst examples won't even tell you that there are other schools of economics than the Neoclassical one.
By defining economics in terms of the subject matter, this book highlights the fact that there are many different ways of doing economics, each with its emphases, blind spots, strengths and weaknesses. After all, what we want from economics is the best possible explanation of various economic phenomena rather than a constant 'proof' that a particular economic theory can explain not just the economy but everything.
(Continues...)Excerpted from Economics: The User's Guide by Ha-Joon Chang. Copyright © 2014 Ha-Joon Chang. Excerpted by permission of BLOOMSBURY PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- ASIN : 1620408120
- Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing (August 26, 2014)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781620408124
- ISBN-13 : 978-1620408124
- Item Weight : 1.42 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.7 x 1.55 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #285,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #112 in Microeconomics (Books)
- #156 in Macroeconomics (Books)
- #258 in International Economics (Books)
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Customers find the book provides a fair and easy explanation of economic concepts for non-economists. They appreciate the detailed discussion on basic concepts like capitalism, money, and monopoly. The book is described as insightful, interesting, and engaging. Readers praise the concise writing style and relatable references. The author's sense of humor and perspective are also appreciated.
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Customers find the book's explanations fair and easy for non-economists. They appreciate the detailed discussion of basic concepts like capitalism, money, and monopoly. The book provides a good synthesis of the history of economic thought and today's schools of thought. Readers expect to come away with deeper insights into economic issues and a greater respect for them. They find the details explained right alongside their importance and motivation. Overall, it is described as a well-researched and well-written book suitable for common researchers.
"...Chang also addresses the inseparability of economics and policy with their profound social implications, for example, the Pareto criterion about the..." Read more
"...a simple read-through but aside from being easy to reread, its organized well and easy to reference specific points. Excellent overall." Read more
"...The book begins with a detailed discussion on basic concepts like capitalism, money, monopoly, and proceeds to cover different schools of economic..." Read more
"...This is a most enjoyable read, full of easy to understand explanations, little asides and jokes, informative footnotes at the bottom of pages,and..." Read more
Customers find the book insightful, interesting, and engaging. They appreciate the refreshing perspective and accessible overview of a difficult subject. However, some feel the last third gets lost in details.
"Ha-Joon Chang's "User Guide" is an accessible, engaging resource for anyone wanting to see the big picture in the complicated universe of economics...." Read more
"...But ultimately, the biases in the book is what makes this an interesting read, and I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone interested..." Read more
"...He presents thumb-nail sketches of the major theories, their assumptions, their political and moral commitments, and their strengths and weaknesses..." Read more
"...that he gives a brief outline of modern economic history, grounding the book in reality...." Read more
Customers find the book readable and easy to understand. They appreciate the concise writing style and relatable examples from everyday life.
"...It is well researched, well written at a high school graduate level, and thus accessible to most anyone with an interest in economics..." Read more
"...I think the most important takeaway from this readable and winsome work is Chang's insistence that the purpose is not to convince you that one..." Read more
"...Also this is brilliantly written and very gripping. I give it to anyone of my friend's children who go to university to study the subject...." Read more
"This is a very easy-to-read, enjoyable introduction to economics...." Read more
Customers enjoy the humor and perspective in the book.
"...read, full of easy to understand explanations, little asides and jokes, informative footnotes at the bottom of pages,and short bibliographical..." Read more
"...And also, very entertaining, great sense of humor. I recommend it for "rigid" and "non-rigid" economists...." Read more
"...Clear explanations of basic economic concepts. Also has sense of humor and perspective. Doesn't push one point of view." Read more
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2024Ha-Joon Chang's "User Guide" is an accessible, engaging resource for anyone wanting to see the big picture in the complicated universe of economics. Also, the book layout, notes, and index make it an essential addition to any personal reference library. I share with some of the other comments from other readers that I wish I had read this as an undergraduate Econ major forty-plus years ago. The author analyzes vital concepts and the ABCs of economic theories, their strengths, and weaknesses in real-world settings. Chang also addresses the inseparability of economics and policy with their profound social implications, for example, the Pareto criterion about the "greater good." For a comprehensive understanding of the subject, this book is a must-read. However, a baseline of economic coursework (which everyone should have!) will be helpful for a greater appreciation. It is an excellent starting point for individuals seeking to broaden their understanding of the massive field of economics and its relevance to our lives.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2022This book just has so much in it. An overview of the whole history of economics, indeed, and delivered in a very accessible way. The details are explained right alongside their importance and the motivation for why they matter and how you've seen them in the world around us. Of course, the amount of information is too much to retain more than a vague understanding of the full contents from a simple read-through but aside from being easy to reread, its organized well and easy to reference specific points.
Excellent overall.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2020Being a fan of his prior work, I was excited to see that Dr. Chang has written a book on general economics. For better or for worse, the book lived up to its name. This book initially felt to me like the manual that comes with a new gadget that you should really read before using it, but you put it away because the manual has way too many steps and words. The book begins with a detailed discussion on basic concepts like capitalism, money, monopoly, and proceeds to cover different schools of economic thought. Unlike his prior books, it did feel like I really needed to take notes along the way to keep up with the broad scope and depth of the book. I probably got on and off the book several times before I got into it enough to actually finish the book.
But just like reading a manual is often times worth the effort and gives you a better sense of how to property use your gadget, the broad and detailed discussions of the book are definitely worth the read. In ways that perhaps only he can provide, Dr. Chang gives readers an alternative take on many of the concepts that mainstream economics or the media doesn’t talk much about, even in mundane subject like the definition of GDP.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising given his background and his prior works that Dr. Chang would provide a different view on things than mainstream economists. However, it did feel like in many parts of the book that things were a bit biased and unjust in that alternative views and interpretation of the evidence was not provided enough, especially in discussing things outside his area of expertise. For example, in discussing ow the “unholy alliance” between short-term investors and professional managers have reduced the ability of corporations to make long-term investment, Dr. Chang cites evidence that the largest US companies now payout 94% of their profits to shareholders compared to 35 to 45% in the decades past. While this is true, the book fails to mention that the percentage of publicly traded firms distributing their profits via dividends or share repurchases has actually gone down over the years. So in recent decades, the payouts are more concentrated in the largest and most mature firms while other firms are more likely to retain profits. One could argue that this is exactly what you would want in an efficient economy where the profits of the old and mature companies to get redistributed to younger firms with more potential, and may have nothing to do with the markets becomes more short-term oriented. This is one of many places in the book where more balanced view would have helped the “users” to see a broader picture.
But ultimately, the biases in the book is what makes this an interesting read, and I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone interested in delving a little bit deeper into some of the common issues in economics.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2016After hearing the author's talk on his book on BoookTV.org. I bought it. I was not disappointed in reading it. This is a most enjoyable read, full of easy to understand explanations, little asides and jokes, informative footnotes at the bottom of pages,and short bibliographical references at the end of chapters. Dr. Chang's tome is an eloquent and persuasive refutation that economics is boring or the "dismal science." He has certainly made it very interesting even though it was with some skepticism that I first cracked it open his volume. It is well worth reading for anyone who, like me did not care much for courses in economics. For me at least, they were all dismal and grim in equal measure. This book is just the opposite. It makes economics the "gay science" to borrow the title of Nietzsche's book without prejudice to the current use of that originally joyful adjective.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2024This is my 3rd read for Ha Joon Chang, highly recommend his books, especially this one in case you want to learn how to navigate economics, while maintaining a balanced and nuanced approach
- Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2014The ones in back cried forward, whilst the ones in front cried back...
This small book is critical to understanding the contradictory conclusions and advice offered by our well educated and well meaning economists and financial advisers. It is well researched, well written at a high school graduate level, and thus accessible to most anyone with an interest in economics (which we all should be, because this is where we spend most of our lives). My take-away is that all the economic schools mentioned from the Marxists to the Austrian School have a piece of the puzzle, but no one has all (or even most of) the answers, and there is not one single economy, but a complicated stratification of economies in different stages of development, even within nations. This is complicated by the extremely high (and accelerating) rate of morphing and evolution of the top economic strata [one ring to rule them all?], currently the “Brave New World Order,” supranational corporationism [not corporatism], and the “Washington consensus.”
Like the Bachman–Turner Overdrive classic _You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet_. [Think hyper artificial intelligence[AI]/big data, nano-technology, and bio-technology/GMO]
Top reviews from other countries
- Jaime AlfonsoReviewed in Mexico on February 28, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Great way to understand our position in the world
This is a very good book for people that know nothing about economics … I highly recommend
- T. EdwardsReviewed in Canada on December 12, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars No Non-sense take on Economics
Ha Joon Chang is the man. There's no doubt about that, and he speaks with a unadorned clarity that is a breathe of fresh air in this age of verbal shenanigans. I recommend this to any fledgeling economist, a layman who wants to know more about the economy, econ majors, really anyone who likes to spend or earn money or create value.
- P B GhoshReviewed in India on October 3, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly Simple and Comprehensive
My interest in economics has never been a passing one. Like Kenneth Arrow, I believe any changes in matters of human behaviour in dealing with others have some economic explanations. Even so, I have had some hoary areas to understand and resolve the disconnects. I tried here and there to grapple with those questions, but to no convincing success. My insistence continued to abide, whetting further. Finally, Chang's book served me with savoury I was looking for. Great work!
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Amazon KundeReviewed in Germany on April 26, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Sehr guter Überblick
Sehr gut, besonders das Kapitel über die verschiedenen Volkswirtschaftstheorien!
-
jemaldiReviewed in Spain on February 23, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Imprescindible para tener opinion sobre temas economicos
Una explicacion muy interesante y muy critica de los concepto economicos mas importantes. Ilustrados con muchos datos