A Conservative Catechism of Commerce | Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and...

Understandable Theory | Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity | James Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, ...

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	• Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity James Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, ... St. Martin's Press, 2005 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Should be required reading for voters

I've read several of the economics books meant for a general audience. Overall, I'd say this one is the best, edging out Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics 3rd Ed: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy.

Common Sense Economics is particularly strong when it discusses the ways in which various government policies make us poorer.

A Conservative Catechism of Commerce

If you want a "bare bones, bottom line" approach to economics, this book is for you. Like Aquinas's A Shorter Summa: The Essential Philosophical Passages of Saint Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica, this book has the naked essentials. Each section is a list of bullet-points fired off in rapid succession, and each idea hitting its target.

Here is the breakdown:

Part I: Ten Key Elements of Economics. (Macroeconomics)

Part II: Seven Sources of Economic Progress. (Applied Macroeconomics)

Part III: Economic Progress and the Role of Government. (Macroeconomics and Democracy)

Part IV: Twelve Key Elements of Personal Finance. (Microeconomics)

Remember those tedious and tortuous lectures on economics, with distracting graphs and mush-mouth jargon? This ain't it--not by a long shot. The book is a list of various axioms or truths, followed by an extended supporting explanation. So this book is closer to a Catechism, or a Confession, or a list of Articles of Faith.

This is key. The reason why religions use catechisms and articles of faith is two fold. They are distillations, or primers, of the faith's high theology. Second, they serve as springboards for deeper discussions of the mysteries. Milk before meat, arithmetic before calculus. But when we are doing differentials, we still use the arithmetic.

By approaching economics this way, the authors are following a thousand years of pedagological experience. And by focusing on axioms, they simplify the thinking process. When we wrangle over the economic questions, we can fall back onto these distilled and encapsulated truths to guide our thinking.

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One reviewer commented, "As mentioned by one other reviewer, the first section (discussing general economic principles) is a useful primer in layman's terms. Sadly, after that first section, the book essentially turns into a political tract disguised as an economics handbook. The authors enlist basic economic concepts to make political points (e.g., taxes bad, school vouchers good, Socialism evil). These political positions are all presented as "common sense" results of the economics lessons."

This, of course, refers to Part III. But as Aristotle pointed out, all philosophy is an integrated unit (The Philosophy of Aristotle (Signet Classics)). What you believe about economics is a reflection of your views on politics and human nature. If humanity is free, and elections are free, then the markets must be free. If you control the markets, then by definition you believe that elections and people must be equally controlled.

Ronald Reagan said, "This was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize. They knew that governments don't control things. A government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. They also knew, those Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy."([Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches)

This is all based in Bastiat's The Law, the Declaration of Independence, and Rev. William John Henry Boetcker's "The Ten Cannots." What the authors are doing is laying down tried and true economic principles. They are just a sure as gravity, or any other law associated with the hard sciences. Our only concern is to change our opinions to fit the facts.

You see, economics is sometimes referred to as the dismal science. We have so many dreams and fellow-feeling for people, but common-sense economics keeps getting in the way of things. This should no be. Economics is the joyful science. Once we change our ideas to suit the hard and obvious facts, we can finally live our economic dreams. This is merely a reaffirmation of what Francis Bacon said, "Nature, to be mastered, must be obeyed." If we wish to master economics--create wealth, prosperity, and financial freedom, we must first obey economics. That is the point of this book.

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Home-schoolers will love this book, written at the 10th grade level. So get your ambitious 8th-grader to read it. Read in tow with Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy and Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One and The Federalist Papers (Signet Classics), your crumb-cruncher will be years ahead of their collegiate peers.

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Understandable Theory

A well written book. I do not believe in all that was stated in free trade but that would only be my opinion. The very best and why this should be mandatory reading in high school is the final thirty pages or so explaining compound interest, saving, investing and paying for college. I strongly believe each young man should share in the cost of college. If we are going to compete in a world market we better learn that college is for filling the head with knowledge and not the belly with beer. Unless you wish to be a telemarketer for some third world country with your degree.

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Incredible Overview of Economics Basics

This book is the simplest and most effective explanation of economics I've ever seen. I think reading this should be a prerequisite to voting in any political elections. It is a real eye opener to the economic policies of the US and how those policies affect the economy. It also provides a great economic perspective on personal finances.

* Do taxes help more than they hurt?
* What effect does redistributing wealth have on our economy---and those who participate in its redistribution?
* What is the role of government?
* How does an economy work?

James Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, and Dwight R. Lee are three of the most prominent economists today, and in Common Sense Economics they show us why economic understanding is an essential ingredient for life in today's society, a key element that empowers those who possess it to better take charge of their own lives and their own responsibilities to their society. In clear, powerful language free of any hint of jargon or obscurity, they illuminate the basic principles of supply and demand, private ownership, trade, and more. In a world where free trade, taxes, and government spending are issues everyone needs to understand, Common Sense Economics is a lucid, simple explanation of how and why our economy and our world work the way they do, and how and why individuals and nations prosper.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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