Economic Issues Today: Alternative Approaches

Here is a great way to learn economics without all the mathematics! Carson, Thomas, and Hecht have produced a short, very readable book covering the burning economic issues of our time. The unique thing about this book is that it provides three different viewpoints (Conservative, Liberal, and Radical) for each issue covered!

"Economic Issues Today" is the layman's guide to the big economic issues affecting American society in our time. The book covers a wide range of issues from consumer welfare and income distribution to big business and international economics. For each topic (and there are 14 topics altogether) the conservative, liberal and radical views are presented. Given the number of topics there is only limited discussion on each.Carson, Thomas and Hecht have tried to present the basic arguments of each side, while reserving judgment on what they think is the `right' view. They admit that they were tempted to do this, but decided that the reader should be the final judge as to the merits of each argument. Because of this, the essays read as a debate between three economists, each from a different school of thought, but without the jargon usually involved in such debates. On some issues, one side clearly shines but on others there did not seem to be a winner to me. The only caveat here is not to take the representative views here as that actually held by the sides in real life. The arguments employed by actual conservatives , liberals and radicals are obviously much more thorough and realistic. The essays at time make it seem that some of the sides have very simplistic and unrealistic views on life, and the reader may be tempted to believe it especially if it confirms their prior biases. The authors have written a short bibliography for those readers interested in finding out more about the differing views. The bibliography is short, but it lists the major figures that have had a large influence on their respective schools of thought.Carson et al. have done an excellent job by not letting their biases show when relating the three different paradigms, I would highly recommend this book to undergraduates in economics or politics or to any general reader who wants to find out more about the economic arguments employed by conservatives, liberals and radicals when they talk about the economic issues of today.