Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy

Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy

Thomas Sowell

Language: English

Pages: 786

ISBN: 0465022529

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


The fourth edition of Basic Economics is both expanded and updated. A new chapter on the history of economics itself has been added, and the implications of that history examined. A new section on the special role of corporations in the economy has been added to the chapter on government and big business, among other additions throughout the book.

Basic Economics, which has now been translated into six languages, has grown so much that a large amount of material in the back of the book in previous editions has now been put online instead, so the book itself and its price will not have to expand. The central idea of Basic Economics, however, remains the same: that the fundamental facts and principles of economics do not require jargon, graphs, or equations, and can be learned in a relaxed and even enjoyable way.

Economic Growth (2nd Edition)

Cool: How the Brain’s Hidden Quest for Cool Drives Our Economy and Shapes Our World

The Great Hangover: 21 Tales of the New Recession from the Pages of Vanity Fair

Rebirth of the Salesman: The World of Sales is Evolving. Are you?

The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite those efforts, its five factories remain about 10% shy of the 6,000 employees they need. The difference between having such improvements in working conditions emerge as a result of market competition and having them imposed by government is that markets bring about such improvements as a result of more options for the workers—due to more employer competition for workers, who are increasingly more experienced and more productive—while government impositions tend to reduce existing

take on such stigmatized activities. Thus, for centuries, Jews predominated in such occupations in Europe, as the Chinese did in Southeast Asia, the Chettiars and Marwaris in India, and other minority groups in other parts of the world. At various times and places, the hostility to such groups has reached the point where these minorities have been expelled by governments or have been forced to flee from mob violence. Misconceptions about money-lending often take the form of laws attempting to

determine coverage or premiums was reported on page D11 of the Wall Street Journal of October 15, 2003 under the title “In 95-0 Vote, Senate Passes Bill Barring Genetic Discrimination.” The banning of different insurance charges for women and men in France, and attempts to extend the ban to the European Union as a whole, were mentioned on page 70 of the November 15, 2003 issue of The Economist, under the title “The Price of Equality.” The quote about the use of FEMA as insurance for an affluent

have failed completely if operating alone. Ray Kroc, founder of the McDonald’s chain, was a genius at operating details and may well have known more about hamburgers, milk shakes, and French fries than any other human being—and there is a lot to know—but he was out of his depth in complex financial operations. These matters were handled by Harry Sonneborn, who was a financial genius whose improvisations rescued the company from the brink of bankruptcy more than once during its rocky early years.

cost—inefficiency—that gets weeded out by losses and bankruptcy under capitalism. The fact that most goods are more widely affordable in a capitalist economy implies that profit is less costly than inefficiency. Put differently, profit is a price paid for efficiency. Clearly the greater efficiency must outweigh the profit or else socialism would in fact have had the more affordable prices and greater prosperity that its theorists expected, but which failed to materialize in the real world.

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