Author | Thomas Sowell |
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Language | English |
Publisher | Basic Books |
Publication date | 2000 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | |
Pages | 366 (first edition), 704 (fifth edition) (hardcover) |
ISBN | 978-0465081387 |
OCLC | 873007676 |
Preceded by | Intellectuals and Race |
Followed by | Wealth, Poverty and Politics |
This article is part of a series on |
Conservatism in the United States |
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Basic Economics is a non-fiction book by American economist Thomas Sowell published by Basic Books in 2000. The original subtitle was A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, but from the third edition in 2007 on it was subtitled A Common Sense Guide to the Economy. [1] [2] [3]
Basic Economics is focused on how societies create prosperity or poverty for their peoples by the way they organize their economies. [4]
In the introduction to the fifth edition, Sowell writes that he intends to write a book on economics that is written in plain English so that anyone can understand it. The book contains no charts or graphs. [3]
According to the reviewer R. Bastiat in 2004, the book "starts out with a chapter discussing the subject matter and perspective of economics in terms of scarcity and trade-offs. This is followed by six main topical sections, each subdivided into a few short chapters and concluding with an 'overview' that wraps up the main topic of the section." The six main parts of the book cover Prices and Markets, Industry and Commerce, Work and Pay, Time and Risk, The National Economy, and The International Economy. The revised edition concludes with a new section, Special Economic Issues.
This is followed by discussions about the role of prices, incentives, competition, the consequences of price controls, costs as forgone alternatives, trade-offs and substitutes, taxes, and subsidies. The section on industry and commerce delves into the role of markets in coordinating production and distribution in the face of widely dispersed information, and moves on to profit and loss, specialization, monopoly, antitrust, economic regulation, and a comparison of markets versus central planning. Sowell presents arguments about the social and economic consequences of minimum wages, and questions of income distribution, mobility, and poverty. [5] In a 2004 review of the second edition for Cato Journal , R. Bastiat dubbed Basic Economics "an exhilarating tour of the fundamentals of microeconomics, macroeconomics, financial markets, and international trade, with pointed anecdotes and pertinent examples illustrating every analytical point". He praised the Time and Risk section for containing discussion of concepts "that seldom get treated adequately in introductory courses or popular expositions". [5]
James Higgins argued in Claremont Review of Books that "he scores a bullseye. Anyone who hasn't studied economics formally should read Basic Economics to learn it in a logical, straightforward way. [...] Sowell does not jump in and take sides on big economic issues where serious economists still have legitimate disagreements". [6] Edmund A. Mennis wrote in Business Economics [7] that Sowell gives good examples of government controls having bad consequences, and of the way profits and losses in free markets signal to producers how scarce resources should be used. Mennis referred to the book as "an excellent gift for someone who is interested in learning more about economics without working through the economic jargon, graphs, charts, and equations usually found in textbooks." [8]
There has also been criticism. In an article published in Review of Radical Political Economics , Josef Gregory Mahoney, a Marxist scholar and professor in the East China Normal University, [9] critiqued Sowell's Basic Economics and Applied Economics as "ahistorical", writing that "no knowledge of history, or anything else for that matter" would allow lay readers to place their trust in the works. [10] A reviewer in Kirkus Reviews suggested that Sowell's economics is not truly free of subjective views, and that he downplays the extent of institutionalized racism. The reviewer stated, "Sowell’s economics in a social vacuum is as meaningful as color in the absence of light". [11]
The book has also been reviewed for the academic journals The Appraisal Journal [12] the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization , [13] and twice in the micro-review section for The Physics Teacher . [14] [15]
Claude-Frédéric Bastiat was a French economist, writer and a prominent member of the French Liberal School.
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Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social philosopher, and political commentator. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. With widely published commentary and books—and as a guest on TV and radio—he is a well-known voice in the American conservative movement as a prominent black conservative. He was a recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2002.
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Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian–American economist, logician, sociologist, and philosopher of economics of the Austrian school. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberalism and the power of consumers. He is best known for his work in praxeology, particularly for studies comparing communism and capitalism, as well as for being a defender of classical liberalism in the face of rising illiberalism and authoritarianism throughout much of Europe during the 20th century.
In the history of economic thought, a school of economic thought is a group of economic thinkers who share or shared a mutual perspective on the way economies function. While economists do not always fit within particular schools, particularly in the modern era, classifying economists into schools of thought is common. Economic thought may be roughly divided into three phases: premodern, early modern and modern. Systematic economic theory has been developed primarily since the beginning of what is termed the modern era.
Walter Edward Williams was an American economist, commentator, and academic. Williams was the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, a syndicated columnist, and author. Williams held classical liberal and libertarian views, and wrote frequently for Townhall, WND, and Jewish World Review. Williams was also a popular guest host of the Rush Limbaugh radio show when Limbaugh was unavailable.
Keynes: The Return of the Master is a 2009 book by economic historian Robert Skidelsky. The work discusses the economic theories and philosophy of John Maynard Keynes, and argues about their relevance to the world following the Financial crisis of 2007–2010. In contrast to the 30 years he needed to write his prize-winning biography on Keynes, the author was able to write this 240-page book in only three months.
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The Economics Anti-Textbook is both an introduction to, and critique of the typical approaches to economics teaching, written by Roderick Hill and Tony Myatt in 2010. The main thrust of the authors' argument is that basic economics courses, being centered on models of perfect competition, are biased towards the support of free market or laissez-faire ideologies, and neglect to mention conflicting evidence or give sufficient coverage of alternative descriptive models. This book has been updated and superseded by The Microeconomics Anti-Textbook and The Macroeconomics Anti-Textbook, by the same authors.
The Housing Boom and Bust is a non-fiction book written by Thomas Sowell about the United States housing bubble and following subprime mortgage crisis. The book was initially published on April 24, 2009, by Basic Books and reissued on February 23, 2010.
The Review of Black Political Economy is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1970 publishing research on the economic status of African-Americans, the African diaspora, and other non-white marginalized populations. It is affiliated with the National Economic Association and is published by SAGE Publishing. Individual memberships can be acquired through membership in the National Economic Association or through direct subscription.. The journal focuses on research that can inform policies to reduce racial, gender, and ethnic economic inequality. The journal is also a member of the Committee on Public Ethics (COPE).
Harmonies of Political Economy is an 1850 book by the French classical liberal economist Frédéric Bastiat, in which the author applauds the power and ingenuity of the intricate social mechanism, "every atom of which ... is an animated thinking being, endued with marvelous energy, and with that principle of all morality, all dignity, all progress, the exclusive attribute of man - LIBERTY." While it is regarded as Bastiat's magnum opus, it was incomplete when it was published.
Wealth, Poverty and Politics: An International Perspective is a book by American economist and social theorist Thomas Sowell. It was originally published by Basic Books in 2015, with an updated version published in 2016. In the work, Sowell argues against the notion that economic equality is solely natural, and examines geographic, cultural, social, and political factors that have contributed to the wealth of groups and nations.
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