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The Cartoon Introduction To Economics: Volume One: Microeconomics (2010)

by Yoram Bauman(Favorite Author)

4.09 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0809094819 (ISBN13: 9780809094813)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Hill and Wang

review 1: I enjoyed this book for much of its 211 pages but I faltered right at the end over two ideas. One was the statement that "You might think that a decentralized economy guided by individual self-interest would lead to chaos, war and disaster...but...we think it's the best option". This book was written in 2010, two years after the market crash caused by self-interested bankers and a chaotic war that was paid for by a credit card, the bill for which was immediately handed off to the populace. So I guess I DO think a decentralized economy etc etc. But the experience of 2008 does show their analysis of market forces and taxation to be correct: i.e. the people will pay in the end and the "suppliers" will get off scott free. This quote, I admit, is taken slightly out of context s... moreo I'm open to other interpretations of this.The other issue I had with the book was their sudden cheer leading for "Market forces" to be able to solve issues like climate change. Earlier in the book they had proven that the market forces were at best misunderstood and hard to define and then they wanted us to believe that simply "making pollution too expensive" will stop big business from bad practices, thus saving the planet - this is naive at best in my opinion.Otherwise this is a fun read and it taught me a lot about the nuts and bolts of microeconomics in a very short space of time, if not a lot about the applied philosophy of using microeconomics in realistic situations. I would recommend reading widely around this title, so as to understand the author's nuanced viewpoint, but this will certainly give you a broad base to start from.I would like to give this four stars, it was a five for a long time, but the doubts at the end just gave me pause as to the author's purpose - so three it has to be.
review 2: A surprisingly excellent introduction to economics that clearly crystallises the key components of academic economic thought, which seems so frequently to be at odds with observations of the "real world".As someone generally a bit skeptical of whether economic theory stands up to the real world (I am a geologist/mineral economist, so really have a more applied view of life), or really has anything to add of practical use to day-to-day life, this book has changed my mind somewhat, making me appreciate more the pure theoretical aspects of the subject and want to learn about them.The book firstly explains what "Microeconomics" is all about in one line "the optimising individual" and then covers their role in decision making, game theory, auctions and finally market theory - supply-demand, taxes, margins, elasticity etc, before highlighting some of the areas requiring further research (behaviourial economics, environmentalism etc), and setting the foundations for what "Macroeconomics" is (the second book).I wouldn't describe this book as "funny" or "witty" as often comics are thought to be, rather simple, clear and aesthetically engaging.A would highly recommend this to anyone beginning their economics studies, to help you get the ideas clear in your mind, before you delve into the more technical and tiresome literature.As an aside this book may also be useful to academics crossing into or working with economics, and business people who find they are dealing with economics and economists more. One of the best outcomes of this book is explaining how economists think and view the world, which is a bit different to most people. less

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