Brilliant, insightful, fascinating and challenging. A long, impressive ride for anyone with even a minor interest in macroeconomics. Should be mandatory reading for any politician hyped up on promises without any concern for consequences.

Epic. I read an earlier edition. Now, this one is expanded.

One of the best books I have read in a couple of years. Far from a polemic, Sowell fairly and evenhandedly covers a lot of ground.

You can tell it was a revision because there is a lot of info based on the Soviet Union. While relevant for a contrast and historically accurate, nobody today would spend as much time discussing the USSR.

Really whetted my appetite for more in-depth economic study.

One book to rule them all!

Basic Economics fits it's title very well, it really is a citizen's guide to the economy. Each chapter is filled with carefully selected essays on economic topics. It started off simple then goes on to more complicated issues. Essentially, Basic Economics succeeded Economics in one Lesson by Hazlitt with more modern examples of how economics works. A must read for everyone.

I wasn't familiar with Thomas Sowell before this book. I find the book quite good for understanding the basics of economics. However, there are a few caveats. Just like Newton's theory of how the universe works is great for general purpose application, but inexact when talking about particularly extreme cases (very high speeds, very small objects, etc.) the same is true about the "basic" economic theory.

So while I do feel that it is important to understand everything that is written in the book, there are some questions which do need to be addressed, and some caveats. First, the author is a proponent of the free market theory. He makes a very good argument as to why it seems to be working better than socialism. Still, the argument is not really nuanced. Is the role of an intervention of the state always negative in a free market economy? I find it somewhat doubtful.

Doctor Sowell seems to come from the proud and great tradition of liberalism, pioneered on the works Hobbes, Locke and Adam Smith. As such, they considered that very few things can be done by the state which are good. However, it is difficult to say as to whether this is actually true. They were after all writing out of self interest. Particularly Locke's works are propaganda for the rising merchant classes of his time. Such ideas were part of the movement that mostly disempowered aristocracy and empowered the merchant class which brought on the modern era.

That is not to say that the ideas discussed are wrong. Rather sadly, most people ignore them at their own peril, and Doctor Sowell does a great job at discussing how and where most people do go wrong.

However, I do feel that the arguments presented in the book are at times one sided. They seem to be lacking an analysis of the scale effects. While it is true that the so-called Invisible hand works great when talking about small economic agents in a free market, does the invisible hand work similarly well in the case of huge corporations which often have assets much larger than any country?

Let's consider the case of France whose biggest 3 banks have assets which are two and a half times its GDP. In UK the banking sector owns 131 the GDP of the country. Is such a bank under similar control by the invisible hand as the small baker in Adam Smith's vision? I find it highly unlikely. I believe that such a huge economic agent is actually acting de facto as a state. Similar discussions can be applied to other enormous companies like Amazon or Facebook, and so on.

What I am trying to say here is not that the book is flawed in and of itself. However, it seems that it could be a bit more nuanced at times. I am not sure if this is discussed in later books.

"For those who are willing to stop and think, basic economics provides some tools for evaluating policies and proposals in terms of their logical implications and empirical consequences"
-Thomas Sowell

Honestly I couldn't have summed up this book any better than that. Dr. Sowell has a way of plainly and concisely presenting economic principals. In this book he solely (no pun intended) used words to illustrate economic concepts. I feel like this book is a perfect introduction to economics and it has sparked my interest in this discipline. In short, Dr. Sowell is the homie.

704 pages or 24 hours of what could and should be a one year course in schools around the world.

This book will give you the basic knowledge about the prices, international trade, investments but also will - probably - make you more sceptic about so called 'information' being produced by the media or the politicians. You will also get a better understanding of why price control on food often led to hunger, rent control led to the housing shortage and how increased minimum wage increased unemployment.

'Much confusion comes from judging economic policies by the goals they proclaim rather than incentives they create [...] Unfortunately little of the knowledge and the understanding within the economics profession has reached to the average citizen and voter, leaving politicians free to do things that would never be tolerated if most people understood economics as well as Alfred Marshall understood them century ago.'

What a great book and a great start to studying economics.

This book is freakin' great. It gives a very solid foundation on economics. It covers things like unintended consequences, how the free market operates, rent control, etc. Highly recommended. Changed how I see the world.

This book is for readers of non-economic background and covers macroeconomic aspects of economy. It starts with explanation of economy and moves through explaning politics of price control, subsidy, economics of scale etc. concept.

Author argues for complete freeing of market and criticizes any interference of government. Author opines that imposition of minimum wage policy actually increases unemployment. Similarly he criticizes effort of unions to raise their wages. It has detrimental effect on industries as it increases the cost of production. The capturing of American car industry by Japan is perfect example. Labor unions' hard negotiation for higher wage gave rise to mass lay-off and they were hired by Japanese factories set up in America. A similar live example can be destruction of industries in West Bengal by Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Author's view of child labor and improvement of working condition may be controversial, however, he emphasizes that competition in market will ultimately create safe working environment for workers. Obviously workers will move towards safer environment, hence fear of lossing workforce will compel producer to improve working conditions. Similarly, author challenges the concept of exploitation of labor. Author writes "the growth and development of such non-labor inputs as science, engineering and sophisticated investment and management policies, as well as the institutional benefits of a price-coordinated economy, have given billions of people around the world higher standards of living".

The author is in support of capitalism and shows that socialism can not be cause for economical growth. He quotes often famous Soviet economists Shmelev and Popov, who themselves criticize price control, wastage of valuable raw material, rampant black-marketing etc. in Soviet economy and similarly shows how China has moved towards capitalism. "China’s leader Deng Xiaoping said; let some people get rich first”.

The book is of around 700 pages and need careful active reading.

As a novice in economics, I believe this book can truly be described as a page-turner. In clear language, providing vivid examples of real-life scenarios, Sowell demonstrates his command of fundamental economics and masterfully transfers that knowledge to his readers. Without trespassing into areas that economics cannot and is not meant to explain (morality, political expediency, the problem of evil), Sowell provides his readers with an additional, helpful layer to the way they can evaluate decisions and look past simple straw and boogeymen.

The greatest danger this book presents to its readers is that it will trick them into believing they are experts because of how clearly they will understand and believe its claims.

I could not believe how much I enjoyed reading this book. Picking it up because it was recommended to me, I wasn’t exactly excited to dive in. That changed in the very first chapter, and I will be reading more Sowell as well as more significant economic works.

Economics from a free market fundamentalist. Easier and less boring to read than Mankiw or other "Econ101" texts that I've perused, but boy if you're new to economics like I am, make sure you realise that you're reading a very particular libertarian form of econ'

As someone who did his masters in international political economy, I am not impressed by Sowell.

This book presents mix of pretty conventional mainstream economics that at best help you understand the concept of the market economy and at worst provide the reader with an extremely inaccurate understanding of the market economy based on flawed and utopian conceptions and assumptions of theoretical economics. The biggest problem with this is that, in my opinion, this book is clearly appealing to average people with no formal economic training and will provide a narrative that is scarily simplistic and extremely outdated.

Secondly, Sowell mixes basic mainstream and non-mainstream economics (particulaly that of Milton Friedman, who has had a significant downfall since the 90s and is largely now distanced from most modern economics academia for his flawed theories and teachings) along with real world applications of these theories he is trying to teach the reader about. While he provided some educated insights, he far too often provides extremely flawed and absurd analyses that will leave the reader more uneducated on economics than before reading this book.

In conclusion, I would consider this book an absolute disaster. It is arguably the worst economics based book I've ever read. Would never recommend to anyone.

This is an excellent primer on economics that I think all people should read.