TV primadonna Paul Krugman tries his hand in the textbook business. Like seemingly all his prophecies, this book needs an update and some adjustments.

incomplete book, you will not be able to learn everything.
(no chapter on opec, and no chapter on modern monetary theory )

After two years of sitting on my shelf, I'm just now picking this up after yet another friend recommended it to me.

It offers a good overview of the basic concepts but the format is perhaps too much that of a handbook, leaving you with little creative study space for extracting definitions, creating summaries, etc. Too much of a good thing.

I don't think I have ever included this in a book review, but the size and choice of paper just made it difficult to handle. So far for reading up in bed, slipping it in your bag, stealing some extra hours by studying on the train. It seems so trivial but over the course of a semester I do notice those things actually do make a difference.

Since the concepts in this books are so basic, I made up for lost study time with Khan Academy, and actually think the courses there could have substituted this book (and the entire semester, for that matter).

On a more positive note: the 'stories' were a great addition I think, really bringing the basics back to the 'real world'.

Billiards balls hitting one after another. Ergo, projection of causality.

Macroeconomics by Paul Krugman (2005)