This book was difficult to comprehend, and it’s length is relative to a Harry Potter novel. Although some ideas got through to me, I will definitely need to revisit it again. But over all a great book.

Economics is almost its own language, it takes a while to get used to the terms and analysis, but this book does an excellent job of orienting the reader to that world. It's long and in-depth, but I never felt that it was ponderous. The author has a readable, logical style and uses great examples. Some argue that the book is "conservative," but it rather gives facts and principles that need to be accounted for in any political or fiscal ideology. The main idea is to be able to look beyond the initial consequences of an economic policy and to cut through terms and ideas that can be misleading. It effectively trains the brain to think "economically."

If a new civilization was just starting up and deciding between Soviet style price controls and capitalism, they should definitely read this book. Or if you are interested in all the ways rent control made NYC and SF the most expensive cities, this is the book for you. Anyone else not living in a world of black and white, should read a less biased economic book. This book does explain some helpful terms and concepts. But I would hate for anyone who's read this book to think that they understand "economics." What they are getting is just a very "Basic" view of the world.

Economics is at the same time a fascinating and rather complex subject. It is fascinating since it touches on so many aspects of our lives, and it is complex due to the highly technical analysis that is oftentimes required to be mastered in order for Economics to be fully appreciated. This technical complexity oftentimes obscures rather simple principles that underlie most economic phenomena. The well known relationship between a supply and demand is one of those, and a good example of a simple concept that is oftentimes misunderstood, ignored, or downright overlooked in everyday circumstances, especially when political considerations are at play.

Thomas Sowell begins the book with one of the most insightful definition of what is economics. In this view, economics is nothing but a study of limited resources for which there are alternative uses. In heaven, there would be unlimited resources; in hell no alternative uses. In the real world we need to take into account the limitations that are imposed on us by the facts. Each use of a product or a resource prevents other viable uses. Economics is ultimately the science of tradeoffs, and it helps us with making the most rational decisions about those tradeoffs.

This book is primarily aimed at general public and its aim is to make this public literate in terms of thinking and understanding economic processes. It is a very readable account, and it contains neither technical jargon nor sophisticated mathematics. All of the examples are taken from everyday experience or the major stories that have been making the news in the recent decades. Hopefully, the book will raise the level of basic literacy and inculcate us from the demagoguery that often accompanies political talk on economic issues.

Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell is a great book for those not familiar with the field of economics, but who still desire to have a general understanding. It approaches the topic in a verbal way (without equations, graphs, etc), and provides a rich argumentative explanation with a plethora of real-life examples.

The book spans a wide range of topics, from basic principles like supply, demand and prices, to financial concepts like stocks, bonds and banking, and to international concepts like international trades. It does not, however, limit itself to mere explanation. Instead, it presents different fallacies, and argues against them in a straight no-nonsense fashion. In addition, the book often reiterates ideas mentioned previously, in order to make sure that the idea is deeply understood by the reader.

My only problem with the book was the over-confident tone, which, I believe, negatively affects its credibility. Economics has never been a precise science; there are always exceptions that go against common theories. But the book explains all its ideas in a tone which conveys that everything mentioned works 100% of the time, with no exceptions whatsoever, which, to me, reduces the credibility of the book, if only slightly.

Overall, Basic Economics was definitely an investment worth spending my "scarce resources, which have alternative uses."

I heard it said that you don't know a subject until you can explain in the simplest of terms. This book provides a down-to-earth view of economics that is easy to understand without using unexplained jargon. I recommend this book to anyone just getting into economic theory and trying to understand how our economy works in the free market.

Everyone who can read should read this book - otherwise, get the audiobook.

Basic Economics is a introduction to economic principles, written in a clear and easy to understand style without relying on complex jargon. The book covers fundamental topics like supply and demand, price controls, international trade, and government intervention, all while using real-world examples to illustrate key concepts.

One of the book’s core arguments is that many economic fallacies stem from a lack of understanding of incentives and unintended consequences. Sowell emphasizes how free markets, when left to function with minimal interference, tend to allocate resources more efficiently than centralized planning. He critiques policies like rent control, minimum wage laws, and excessive government regulation, showing how they often produce the opposite of their intended effects.

A major highlight of Basic Economics is its historical approach. Sowell frequently references economic trends across different countries and time periods, illustrating how certain policies have consistently led to prosperity or stagnation. He argues that economic realities do not change based on political ideologies or good intentions—prosperity follows when people and businesses are free to operate in an environment of competition and price signals.

I find it amusing that after engaging with Sowell’s work—and economic history in general—tends to challenge left-leaning economic assumptions. The more one studies the consequences of government intervention and wealth redistribution, the more they tend to lean toward free-market principles, which are often associated with right-wing economic thought. This shift is not necessarily ideological but rather a response to historical patterns showing that market economies tend to produce more innovation, wealth, and overall well-being than centrally controlled ones.

Economics is one of those subjects that does not always strike readers as a very fascinating one, but this book manages to do a good job at keeping history entertaining.  One of the odd factors that made this book particularly entertaining to read was the way that a previous reader had made some comments that indicated he did not understand what Sowell was about.  To be sure, a book like this is part of a conversation, as is generally true in economics as well, as Sowell focuses on questions of practicality and results while also promoting a particular view of restraint on the part of government because of what works and what doesn't.  Not all of the time does this become a literal conversation, though, as a reader thinks it fit to write in the margins and in the spaces between lines snarky comments about the author's statements.  For example, the author comments about the worth of building housing, but the anonymous troller writing in the book thought that this was related to the urging of policies related to the housing boom that he said so.  And that is only one of the more entertaining comments to be found in reading this copy of a book that is pretty entertaining already.

Overall, this book is a relatively short one for its scope at about 350 pages of writing without economic jargon or the sort of graphs that are most familiar with this subject.  This book is divided into seven parts, starting with a preface, acknowledgements, and an answer of the question what is economics (1).  The first part of the book contains a discussion of prices (I), with the role of prices (2), price controls and their failure (3), and an overview (4).  There is then a discussion of industry and commerce (II), with the rise and fall of businesses (5), the role of profits and losses (6), big business and government (7), and an overview (8).  There is a discussion of work and pay (III) with chapters on productivity (9), controlled labor markets (10), and an overview (11).  There is a section of chapters on time and risk (IV), with a look at investment and speculation (12), risks and insurance (13), and an overview (14).  This leads into a discussion of the national economy (V), with a look at national output (15), money and the banking system (16), the role of government (17), and an overview (18).  There is then a discussion of an international economy (VI) with a look at international trade (19), transfers of wealth, and the usual overview (20).  Finally, the book ends with a discussion of popular economic fallacies (VII), including "non-economic" values (21), prices and purchasing power (22), business and labor (23), as well as an over (24), after which there are sources and an index.

Why is economics considered to be the dismal science?  A great deal of that comes out here, not merely in Sowell's specific comments about various economic fallacies or various issues that economists have to deal with.  What makes economics dismal is that there are practical consequences for the behavior of people.  Laws may be passed or regulations may be made with specific goals and intentions in mind of shifting the behavior of people in one direction, but they often create perverse incentives that motivate people contrary to the intentions of the law, leading to much gnashing of teeth on the part of people who would want others to act according to their attentions rather than the incentives set up by laws and regulations.  Sowell gives intentions no credit whatsoever and he spends his time discussing the incentives that are created by various policies or various approaches, a rather pitiless but effective way of discussing economics and explaining the behavior of people in different situations.

This is a very readable book on economics. It’s an important topic, because unlike every other complex field, “from botany to brain surgery”, we cannot avoid taking part: while we can, and usually should, refuse to perform brain surgery, we should not refuse to vote for politicians (and, in some states, initiatives) that have wide-ranging economic effects.

The basic definition of economics that Sowell uses is that “economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses.”

The hardest lesson is that there are no free choices. “Because an economy deals with scarce resources that have alternative uses, every benefit has a cost in the alternative uses that could have been made of the same resources that created a particular benefit.”

What a “free market” does in an economy is spread the cost-benefit analysis out to the people who produce and consume those resources. The alternative, an economy in which everything is run by an elite, “has thrown away much of the knowledge, insights, and talents of most of its people.”

But that is not what this book is about; this book is about being able to analyze the costs and benefits of particular economic decisions, so that results are more likely to approach goals. Too often, goals aren’t stated, or are abandoned in favor of policies that don’t reach now-abandoned goals.

I come out of this book with a new perspective on a lot of things, especially trade balance and barriers, the benefits of some government-run businesses, and the value that some middlemen can add.

I highly recommend it.

I don't know if it's a good or bad thing that the first book I read in 2016 will most likely be the heaviest book I read in 2016.

Anyways, I picked this up because so many people were saying Bernie Sanders was an idiot who didn't understand economics. I couldn't agree or disagree and that led to the realization that I didn't understand economics either. This was a recommendation from a....book club? Message board? Random stranger on the internet? I don't know what to call it but it was recommended and I can see why.

This was a very in-depth and easily digestible glimpse into what economics is and how it works. It goes into the purpose of it and all the ways it can go wrong. Globalization, politics, capitalism, socialism, minimum wage, production, everything. It was well-written and broken up into segments which made it easily digestible.

I think it would be good for every high school kid in America to read this. Make a course out of it or just make economics a required course for graduation. A more educated society would be a more productive society. It would also eliminate much of the BS politicians push under the auspice of help which will actually hurt the general populace.

Despite having been to business school (I considered Economics as a major) and spending my career in the Banking industry, I felt a need for a refresher in economics to ensure I wasn’t jumping to conclusions or making invalid assumptions as I read the business and political news of the day. I found this book exceeded the cumulative value of all the economics courses I have taken, explaining it all in a very understandable manner while incorporating many real-world examples and using the logic explained to interpret historic and more recent economic events. I do not feel you need economics or business knowledge or experience to understand what is provided; you only need an interest in the subject. However, at times the material is dry.

Thomas Sowell was recommended to me, and I was most impressed. He analyzed and explained every economic-related problem I could think of and explored the difference between the answer economics provided and a business, government or political interpretation of the same issue. In doing so, he defined what economics is and what it is not. He also helped me to understand what we are missing as a citizenry if we lack a healthy understanding of economics. This was not some intellectual discussion; on every page Sowell was describing how economics could be applied to the problems and challenges of today.

Published in 2000 this did not feel dated. At times it felt as if it was written to directly address some of the confusion and misunderstandings of the past ten years. It was not only a refresher for me; I gained a deeper understanding of several issues, and some problems were explained for which I had little previous understanding. The sections on international trade strengthened my understanding and opinions about tariffs and protectionist trade strategies, which was one of the takeaways I had hoped to get from the book. If you already have a wealth of economics knowledge, you might not find this book of value, or you might want to read specific sections from which you think you could benefit.