Economics for Dummies

This is probably the first and last review I'll ever do of a "Dummies" book, but I just had to give this book a plug. Whoever wrote it (I don't remember and I'm too lazy to scroll up and see) did a fantastic job. It's really good! I confess that I was so impressed with the explanations and examples offered in this book that for a while I mulled over having our school switch from our current texts (Mankiw's "Principles of Macroeconomics" and Samuelson's "Economics") to this one. But I soon thought better of it: the department would probably acquire a bad name in a big hurry if students were seen walking about with copies of a "Dummies" text under their arms as their official course text. And that would be bad for me. But that's how good it is. Too bad I'm so self-interested! Now the students will just have to slog through inferior texts. Don't think you're getting a free lunch, though: there are graphs, models, and equations you're gonna have to learn to wade through it. But in my estimation, going through a layman's course in both micro- and macroeconomics could not be made more painless than here, unless your needs are so casual that you're looking to dispense with graphs and equations altogether. In which case, good luck learning anything solid about economics!

I highly recommend this book to those who wants rudimentary Economics knowledge. It is ladened with graphs and basic algebraic equations which made the concepts easier to understand. The author has dispelled my long belief that the subject is "dull".

I took an economics course back in college in 1990. Even though I did get an A on the course, I had forgotten most of the concepts. I read this book for fun reading and as a life long learning refresher. Since it has been 16 years since I read an economics book, I cannot compare this book to other books. However, I thought that the book was easy to read and the information easy to digest.

I bought this book as a primer for a micro economics class I'm taking for my MBA. It's been a while since I took economics as an undergrad, and I needed a refresher. This book was great. At a high level, it introduced me to the concepts I needed to know to succeed: - supply and demand - utility maximizing consumers - profit maximizing companies - the relationship between marginal and average cost - consumer and producer surplus - deadweight loss - profitability and competitive markets If you need a high-level intro without lots of algebraic equations and stuffy writing, then this is the book for you.