

Ask HN: Getting a grip on economics - nopassrecover

I find my economics knowledge is typically deficient. Likewise I find every little bit of economics I learn is helpful.<p>Can you recommend sources that can help build a basic mental model of economics for someone with more of a coding background?
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hga
_Economics in One Easy Lesson_ by Henry Hazlitt. A set of short "lessons",
starting with the Broken Window Fallacy. No special background required so it
should work for someone with "a coding background".
[http://www.amazon.com/Economics-One-Lesson-50th-
Anniversary/...](http://www.amazon.com/Economics-One-Lesson-50th-
Anniversary/dp/0930073193/).

There's an old 1948/52? edition available as a scanned PDF which can give you
an idea if you want to buy the updated version:
<http://www.fee.org/pdf/books/Economics_in_one_lesson.pdf>.

At a higher level, _The Road to Serfdom_ by Friedrich von Hayek is also short
but unlike the above quite dense. Most useful (to me) for applying information
theory to command economies. Rather apropos to the situation in the US today,
it was published in 1944 and dedicated to "The socialists of all parties". It
was intended as a warning to the British socialists of the day who were about
to take over and remake their country, warning them of a variety of things,
some of which they found out the hard way, plus the demonstrable even back
then danger of concentrating so much power at the top (too easy for idiot
thugs to take over, e.g. Stalin, "Those who are good at acquiring and
exercising discretionary powers in government are usually the most ruthless
and corrupt individuals." (Wikipedia)). [http://www.amazon.com/Road-Serfdom-
Fiftieth-Anniversary/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/Road-Serfdom-Fiftieth-
Anniversary/dp/0226320618/)

Check out
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Serfdom#External_li...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Serfdom#External_links)
for the _Reader's Digest_ condensed version (Hayek was amazed at how good it
was) and there's even a cartoon version that I reviewed and found to be quite
good.

After the above two you'll be oriented for a variety of much larger tomes,
from the classic _The Wealth of Nations_ to e.g. von Mesis' _Human Action_.

------
dantheman
* Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt

* Man, Economy, and State by Rothbard

* Road to Serfdom by Hayek

* Capitalism and Freedom by Freedman

* Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Nozick (politics/philosophy, but a great book)

* What has the government done to our money by Rothbard (<http://mises.org/money.asp>)

------
billswift
"Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell is the easiest to read, accurate
introduction I have read.

"Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life" by David Friedman requires a
little more work.

Several previous commentors have recommended Hayek's "Road to Freedom", but I
think his last book, "The Fatal Conceit" covers more or less the same ground
and is easier to read.

"Software As Capital" by Howard Baetjer, Jr is interesting, but I wish he had
discussed open source in it, since his analysis contradicts most open source
theories and practice.

A good Engineering Economics text may be useful.

And I second the other commentors who suggested Jane Jacobs's "Economics of
Cities" and "Cities and the Wealth of Nations" and O'Rourke's "Eat the Rich",
his "On the Wealth of Nations", an analysis of Adam Smith's classic is also
worth reading.

------
linhir
Greg Mankiw wrote years ago on his blog a good list of introductory high level
econ books:

 _A student emails me asking for a summer reading list. Here are ten very
different books I like that are fun enough that you would not be embarrassed
(well, not too embarrassed) reading them at the beach:

Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers

Paul Krugman, Peddling Prosperity

Steven Landsburg, The Armchair Economist

P.J. O'Rourke, Eat the Rich

Burton Malkiel, A Random Walk Down Wall Street

Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff, Thinking Strategically

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics

John McMillan, Reinventing the Bazaar

William Breit and Barry T. Hirsch, Lives of the Laureates_

I'd also recommend a good textbook, if you're a little more serious.

------
nopassrecover
I should mention that so far i've found The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith) and
this blog (<http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com>) have built up an
idea of classic economics and hinted at Austrian economics.

I'm still having trouble understanding some of the macro stuff like foreign
currency reserves, printing money, inflation + employment etc.

~~~
hga
Heh, "having trouble understanding some of the macro stuff like foreign
currency reserves, printing money, inflation + employment etc." shows that
you've learned enough to be as confused as any honest person is about these
fields, e.g.:

The Phillips Curve postulated there was an inverse relationship between
inflation and employment (e.g. one aspect was that as labor got tight, it cost
more to hire people and that lead to inflation). It was utterly destroyed by
the stagflation of the '70s where we got both high inflation and
unemployement, but it's still the law of the land in the US
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey-
Hawkins_Full_Employmen...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey-
Hawkins_Full_Employment_Act)).

I prefer the explanation that you get inflation by "printing money", but as we
and e.g. the Japanease in the last two "lost decades" show, it's not that
simple: this is confounded by the velocity of money as the high level concept
and at the low level is expressed as the futility of "pushing on a string"
(e.g. "dropping money from helicopters" as the current Chairman of the Fed
puts it does little good if people are afraid to borrow or lend).

Macroeconomics is a wild blood sport where no one is _really_ sure of their
view of The Truth.

------
MaysonL
A few books I've found extremely helpful for thinking about these things.

Jane Jacobs on cities as the economic entities that _really_ matter: _The
Death and Life of Great American Cities, The Economy of Cities_ , and _Cities
and the Wealth of Nations._

Peter Drucker: _Entrepreneurship and Innovation_.

and _the_ classic textbook:

Paul Samuelson: _Economics_

