Reddit reviews The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life

I'll be wrapping up a B.S. in Economics with a minor in statistics this December.

Books:

• One of the best books that I've found is The Armchair Economist by Stephen Landsburg. It's very low tech. which makes it very accessible with respect to the rest of the subject.
  
• I've heard good things about both Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science and New Ideas from Dead Economists
  
• http://www.amazon.com/The-Armchair-Economist-Economics-Everyday/dp/1451651732/ref=pd_sim_b_2
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Economics-Undressing-Science-Revised/dp/0393337642/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
  
• http://www.amazon.com/New-Ideas-Dead-Economists-Introduction/dp/0452288444/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
  
• You can get all three of these in a "bundle deal", and this is a great starting point written in laymen's terms.
  
  
  I also highly recommend the Open Course series to develop the fundamental skillset. You can generally get these texts cheap:
  
  
• Intro Micro/Macro: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/economics/
  
• Money and Banking: http://www.virtualprofessors.com/financial-markets-yale-shiller (Shiller is a very famous financial economist)
  
• As always, the Khan Academy is a great intro resource http://www.khanacademy.org/#microeconomics
  
  
  Blogs are also okay, but be wary of partisan biases. These are what I check daily:
  
  
• Krugman (Left wing biased) - http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/
  
• Cowen/Tabarrok (Libertarian biased) - http://marginalrevolution.com/
  
• Scott Sumner (NGDP Targeting biased) - http://www.themoneyillusion.com/ (possibly my favorite)
  
• Greg Mankiw (GOP biased) - http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/
  
• Karl Smith/Ozimeck (Interesting) - http://blogs.forbes.com/modeledbehavior/
  
• Jodie Beggs (Interesting) - http://www.economistsdoitwithmodels.com/
  
• Becker/Posner (Law and Econ) - http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/
  
• Brad Delong runs a famous blog, and there is never a shortage of highly qualified economists willing to tell you what they think you should believe.
  
  
  
  Ultimately when it comes to econ, there's no perfect substitute for a set of intro micro/macro texts and a university framework. This is contrary to what most pundits/americans seem to believe (seemingly everyone has strong opinions on issues best-explored in an economic framework, no matter how little they've studied it). Also, it's important to note that 98% of what's posted on this subreddit is NOT what economists are talking about. This subreddit is full of news links to stories that promote partisan agendas.
  
  
  
  I'll also warn you that any legitimate study of economics requires a decent handle on math. Through at least half the calc sequence. "Good economists are reborn as physicists, mediocre economists are reborn as psychologists, and bad economists are reborn as sociologists."

...or you could just start where everyone else starts. I really liked The Armchair Economist. I followed it with Cowen/Tabbarok and it was a great read, I can't recommend it enough. Very clear and intuitive writing, cool exercises and interesting, modern topics.

Book suggestion: The Armchair Economist by Steven Landsburg. It basically explains the first semester of Economics 101 in layman's terms. The later chapters are a bit biased, but the first 100 pages or so definitely changed the way I look at the world and human behavior.

Lecture suggestion: Yale's Introduction to Psychology with Paul Bloom. Literally the 20 lectures for an Intro Psych course at Yale. Good to listen to in the background(would recommend at double speed) while doing something else/driving to work/what have you. Helpful for understanding the other people in the world.

>If we are smarter and more informed, why doesn't it appear that way?

Probably because you are comparing reality to your idealized world. Probably because you are suffering from what is called "Availability heuristic." If someone hangs out in r/bad_cop_no_donut, they are going to see a lot of stories about alleged bad behavior of cops gathered from all over the country. (pulling a number out of the air) Let's say 5% of cops are like that, and 95% are reasonable. Is that person going to go read 19 stories about cops doing normal things for every story you read there? probably not. Do you think that this will probably skew their perception of the police? Science says yes.

>How is the media allowed to so rampantly present belligerent lies? We (internet, Reddit etc.) are informed because we choose to be, the mass American public buys into the bullshit and further perpetuates the madness. We are raping the planet.

What are rampantly presented belligerent lies? These? Ignore the politics of the publication. They have citations if you want to verify the historical sources.

I'll give you a rampant bullshit lie believed by lots of people who use Reddit and the internet and who think they are informed. The earth is not anthropomorphic. It does not care for us. It cannot be "raped" without mutating the term in a way that both harms our ability to communicate and that is also callously insulting people who are the victims of rape. Getting this wrong isn't just lazy language. It fundamentally misstates the issues.

I don't see you as arguing, and I'm working under the assumption that you understand I'm not arguing either. That doesn't mean that I agree with you. I do, however, recognize the epiphany you are having. I had one too. Do you want to feel better about the world? Learn and practice some engineering and discover just how fast we are solving our human problems. Learn some history and find out just how different it is today than even 100 years ago. Learn some economics, psychology, and game theory and learn how and why people respond to incentives and just how little an 'informed' person knows. These things have really changed my outlook on life.

Like I said, we've never had so much information at our fingertips. Here's a list of book recommendations. They are all written for a popular audience. None require much in the way of math or previous understanding of the subject matter.

• I, Pencil - This actually isn't a book. It's an essay on just how little you can possibly know. It has basically been recreated in the Toaster Project
  
• Liars and Outliars
  
• Thinking Fast and Slow
  
• Game Theory 101
  
• The Armchair Economist
  
• Chasing Rainbows, Economic Myths, Environmental Facts

Krugman

Landsburg

Acemoglu

Also see the /r/economics reading list here.

Depends what you're looking for. There are a lot of different ideological groups that oppose socialism for various reasons.

As a liberal capitalist I'd start you off with some mainstream stuff such as The Armchair Economist. It's well-written and entertaining, and explains a lot of stuff that I had always been wondering about economics before I read it.

If it doesn't change your mind, at least you'll understand how typical capitalist economists think about problems involving resources and markets, and you'll be better at debating against capitalists. Or maybe it will change your mind and you'll know what was wrong with your previous socialist opinions. Either way, it's definitely worth reading.

Actually scratch the macro/micro difference. The best layperson Econ books are:

-Freakonomics (Revised Edition) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0061234001/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_p6WfAbTQ50ZGZ (it has a follow up, SuperFreakonomics)

And

-The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1451651732/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Q5WfAbR3TEZTP (or anything by Steven Landsburg really)

If you like podcasts, check out Planet Money, Freakonomics Radio, and EconTalk.

Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics are both available as audiobooks and done really well if that’s a thing you like.

The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life by Landsburg


Also, this isn't really 'mainstream' economics, but Rothschild's Bionomics will blow your mind, I promise you.