Exploring General Equilibrium

Fischer Black was among the most brilliant economists of the 20th century, with an eccentric style. This book is a masterpiece that goes back to Von Neumann-Morgenstern first principles to reconstruct macroeconomics, stripping away errors due to oversimplified models and overaggregated data. The argument is short and easy to understand, although its subtleties repay many rereadings. The bulk of the book consists of short refutations of other views, organized alphabetically by economist last name (Fischer was an eccentric guy). These contain many important insights, although they require familiarity with economics terminology to understand, and the random topical order is annoying.

This is an excellent resource for a graduate student in economics to have (or for a professor). It has good summaries of many articles and clear information on a wide variety of issues relating to macroeconomics. However, it would be extremely difficult to learn macroeconomics from this book. It assumes that you already have a wide knowledge.