Dr. Sowell's "Basic Economics" should be required reading for anyone graduating from college in any field or running for public office at any level. If you can't pass a test based on reading the book, no degree or no spot on the ballot. Not likely to happen, I know, but we'd all have a higher standard of living if it did. Had I the finances, I'd give a copy to every member of Congress and the state legislatures, and every governor and federal or state educational policy maker,not to mention Sens. Obama and McCain.

Robert A. Hall
Massachusetts Senate, 1973-83.

As usual Thomas Sowell has written a book "Basic Economics" that can provide a vital assist in understanding economics by the average American without the need for an extensive background in the complicated subject.
Fundamental understanding of the basics of economics by Americans is essential to the understanding of the use of our limited resources by making choices in using those resources. Thomas Sowell provides the essential knowledge of the subject matter through this 3rd edition that will provide the average person with the ability to follow the ups and downs of various economic decisions with some understanding of what is behind those ups and downs as related to the use of our limited resources.

Thomas Sowell should be required reading in schools. No one articulates complex subjects in such simple, understandable terms than this man. He's a great read. Simply great.

My background is in computer science and engineering, not economics. I've been on a kick reading economics books lately. This book is by far the clearest and easiest to understand of the few that I've read. The topics are laid out very thoroughly with language that is easy to understand for a layman without being tedious. He makes the basics of economics understadable enough that I had many "doh, why wasn't I taught this in school" moments. I quickly got a "big picture" view of what I had previously thought were daunting topics.

I wish I would have read this in High School and if I were "teacher for a day" it would be required reading. Highly recommended.

This book is required reading for anyone wanting to vote in any country.

He starts with how prices, supply, and demand interact which is really basic economics and applies these principles to other aspects of economics such as labor, commodities shortages, housing prices, money supply, interest rates and international trade among others. Along the way he points out the unintended consequences of interrupting the signals that prices send in an economy.

Again, you don't have to agree with everything, but if you don't at least understand what is in this book you shouldn't be voting.

Mr. Sowell does an excellent job of writing. Also, he does outline some very interesting conditions backed by compelling argument as to their roots. I admit I was rather far along in this book before it hit me. Mr. Sowell has an agenda. Mr. Sowell has political views that manifest themselves in his problems and solutions. For the record, I agree with some of his points on the downsides of communism and socialism. I am currently torn between advocating a 100 percent capitalist society or some sort of hybrid. I also agree with Mr. Sowell's depiction of politicians and their blind ambition and EXTREME lack of foresight. What I do not agree with is Mr. Sowell's obvious beliefs that money solves everything and any policy that encourages economic growth should be embraced at any cost.

At the risk of being unfair by taking a small snippet of an entire book to prove my point (or look dumb by doing so and proving nothing), at one point Mr. Sowell suggests that Poland's economic health can be assessed by the fact that as of 2005 only two percent of purchases in Poland were made with a credit card (among other indicaters). How is that indicative of any fundamental economic deficiency? I understand the need of foriegn countries to adapt sophisticated financial/banking tools and policies used in more "advanced" countries. Immatation can lead to success. I do beleive though that there could be an aurgument as to the "value" of credit cards as a viable economic tool. Such ramblings of economic theory should not be presented as well known, proven economic fact. This is but one example of how, at times, objectivity is lost and Mr. Sowell's opinions become clear. This is a good book for those interested in studying the different economic theories and philosophies that exist.

In response to above: You don't have to agree with everything, but if you don't at least understand the basic principles of how people's opinions and bias can be reflected in their writings, you shouldn't be voting...or reading for that matter.

Mr. Sowell does an excellent job of writing. Also, he does outline some very interesting conditions backed by compelling argument as to their roots. I admit I was rather far along in this book before it hit me. Mr. Sowell has an agenda. Mr. Sowell has political views that manifest themselves in his problems and solutions. For the record, I agree with some of his points on the downsides of communism and socialism. I am currently torn between advocating a 100 percent capitalist society or some sort of hybrid. I also agree with Mr. Sowell's depiction of politicians and their blind ambition and EXTREME lack of foresight. What I do not agree with is Mr. Sowell's obvious beliefs that money solves everything and any policy that encourages economic growth should be embraced at any cost. At the risk of being unfair by taking a small snippet of an entire book to prove my point (or look dumb by doing so and proving nothing), at one point Mr. Sowell suggests that Poland's economic health can be assessed by the fact that as of 2005 only two percent of purchases in Poland were made with a credit card. How is that indicative of anything? This is but one example of how, at times, objectivity is lost and Mr. Sowell's opinions become clear. This is a good book for those interested in studying the different economic theories and philosophies that exist.

Again, you don't have to agree with everything, but if you don't at least understand the basic principles of how people's opinions can be reflected in their writings, you shouldn't be voting...or reading for that matter.

Mr. Sowell does an excellent job of writing. Also, he does outline some very interesting conditions backed by compelling argument as to their roots. I admit I was rather far along in this book before it hit me. Mr. Sowell has an agenda. Mr. Sowell has political views that manifest themselves in his problems and solutions. For the record, I agree with some of his points on the downsides of communism and socialism. I am currently torn between advocating a 100 percent capitalist society or some sort of hybrid. I also agree with Mr. Sowell's depiction of politicians and their blind ambition and EXTREME lack of foresight. What I do not agree with is Mr. Sowell's obvious beliefs that money solves everything and any policy that encourages economic growth should be embraced at any cost. At the risk of being unfair by taking a small snippet of an entire book to prove my point (or look dumb by doing so and proving nothing), at one point Mr. Sowell suggests that Poland's economic health can be assessed by the fact that as of 2005 only two percent of purchases in Poland were made with a credit card. How is that indicative of anything? This is but one example of how, at times, objectivity is lost and Mr. Sowell's opinions become clear. This is a good book for those interested in studying the different economic theories and philosophies that exist.

Sowell describes fundamental principles in language that anyone who has earned a high school degree can understand. He illustrates the principles with clear and compelling examples. The book contains a wealth of information that explains why good intentions so often lead to bad results in economic matters such as rent controls and "excess profits." The 3 chapters in Part I Prices and Markets are worth the price of the book. There is a priceless sentence on page 544: "...no listing of economic fallacies can be complete, because the fertility of the human imagination is virtually unlimited." Sowell provides further examples of this fertility in his other books, especially "Applied Economics" and "Economic Facts and Fallacies." If I were to make a list of the top 10 books an educated person should cherish, Basic Economics would be on the list.

If you only ever read one book on Economics make it this one. It reads more like a story than a text and is packed with common sense cause and effects with many interesting examples. You will gain insite how human behavior patterns are generally in their own best intersts. Business, Media, and Political actions in everyday life do make sense and not evil conspiracies. It will help you understand how BOTH risk and reward (failure and success)are essential. This is one of the best books I've ever read.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an inkling of curiosity about how society functions and want more information to construct well-informed opinions on current issues. Sowell's fascinating examples help illustrate his points and frequently turn popular thought on its head. He manages to turn something as potentially complex and dry as economics and make a fun, well-written, book that everyone can understand.

I have read Thomas Sowell's columns for a number of years, and appreciate his fact based, common sense critique of current events. Basic Economics was my first Sowell book. It was extremely easy to read, and covered each topic with enough depth to impart a basic understanding of economic principles.

The book's outline lends itself to people who are discovering economics for the first time. Each broad subject is divided into several chapters, the last being a summary to tie it all together. Dr. Sowell uses various examples culled from sources around the world and throughout history to illustrate cause and effect relationships for a number of economic policies.

This book should be suggested reading for anyone high school age or older who is looking for a solid introduction to economics.

The author has a very engaging way to say that economics is really an intelligent decision making process with the underlying assumption resources are scarce and have alternative competing use. And he somewhat purposely suppresses the role of man-made money/currency and banking/finance into the economic decision making equation and examples. If resources (natural and man-made) are really scarce, how come man-made fiat currency has no limit and produced abundantly as debt-based usurious (coumpound interest bearing) commercial bank credit?

How the western colonial institution of centralized fractional-reserve based banking and monetarization of economies and global central banks like world bank figure into the mayriad ills of globalization we see around the world today? How wealth accumulated and concentrated in few hands and why the symptoms of delusional economics and finance creating currency war and famine simultaneously? Search for Deep conscious capitalism and may be you will have another deep view of economics.

This was my first read of Thomas Sowell and it was not at all disappointing. This book is exactly what it is titled, the basics of economics. I would highly recommend this for people who are not economists or in related professions for understanding what economics is about. We all have our own narrow view of economics based on what affects us monetarily but its much more than that. This book explains theories and actual economic events lucidly. I would not say that this book provides solutions to economic issues but rather enhances the cause and affect of decisions and the trade-offs. If the author had presented solutions which were able to satisfy political, social and economical issues with a common thread running through them I would give this book 5 stars.

This is a very insightful book. It will be helpful for anyone trying to really understand the way the market works. It thoroughly explains why many things go wrong economically in our country and what the solutions would be if people knew the truth about economics. It's really not hard to read and is very interesting in many places. A definite must for anyone that is thoughtful about economic matters.

I've only ever taken one class in economics, and that was a few years ago during college. This book taught me a hundred times as much as I learned in that class and really opened my eyes to a new world. Though reading it won't make you an expert on economics, it will give you a strong foundation to pursue further study or simply a grounding with which to understand the world a bit better.

Surprisingly, considering the subject, the book is an entertaining read. I found myself deeply interested and read through it very quickly.

I recommend this book to anyone who desires a basic understanding of economics.

If people ask me to recommend popular expositions of basic evolutionary biology or quantum physics, I have no trouble. In these and many other areas of natural and behavioral science brilliant expositions of basic theory abound. Economics is s different story. It is invariably the case that a popular economics book has a "point of view" that presents a biased and fundamentally unbalanced description of the state of knowledge in economic theory and policy. I do not know why this should be the case, but it is. Invariably.
One might argue that there are no agreed-upon "principles of economics" on which there is general consent among professional economists. This surely used to be the case when neoclassical economics, Marxian economics, Keynesian economics, and Institutional economics all held court. But, over the past two decades, a startling degree of unanimity on basic principles has developed---to the point where one can no longer say that there are alternative "schools of thought," except for a very small minority of beleaguered "heterodox" followers of some venerable guru, such as Marx, Veblen, von Mises, or Keynes.
This does not mean, of course, that economists agree on economic and social policy. For one thing, there are many things we simply do not understand very well. Take "corruption," for example. I believe corruption is a major impediment to growth in poor countries, but others believe corruption is a symptom rather than a cause, and I have neither the data nor the analytical model that can convince them otherwise. For another thing, economists differ in fundamentally normative ways. For instance, some believe that poverty is an abomination that should be addressed with all our economic resources. Others have a taste for reversing global warming, and others believe government should get out of the business of "solving social problems."
Sowell's book, Basic Economics, comes pretty close to being a neutral exposition of what economists know about running the economy. There is no statement of fact, no statement of economic principle in this book with which I disagree, even though my background is from the Left, and I have never voted for a Republican in my life, and Sowell is the arch-conservative guru of Hoover Institution fame. I am sure some of my Left colleagues will be shocked at this statement, but I predict that they objection to Sowell's basic principles will be simply wrong.
So, I would offer this book to acquaintances who want to "learn something about economics." However, Sowell's presentation is severely unbalanced in the presentation of basic economic issues. Most important, we have had a valuable model of the interaction of markets and state for the past forty years, and in the past twenty years this has involved an impartial treatment of market successes and failure, as well as the successes and failure of state interventions. Sowell treats market vs. state as a competition in which the market is almost always "good" and the state intervention almost always a disaster. By contrast, modern economic theory presents economic development as the joint growth and inextricable interaction of both state and market. We are trained to ask, in the face of a market failure, whether there is an appropriate remedy in the form of state intervention, but we are not predisposed to a negative answer. Indeed, the modern economy is precisely a synergistic interaction of state and market, with rather small deviations from a common model in all advanced countries.
As a general statement, I would say that markets do well in dealing with highly decentralized informational systems, whereas states do well in making the rules of game followed by participants in market exchange. As soon as state attempt to produce goods and services, or predict winners and losers, they are out of their domain of comparative advantage, and do poorly. On the other hand, there is nothing in fact, or in economic theory, that supports the notion that market exchange can generate efficient and welfare-enhancing rules of the game.
Another example of Sowell's bias is his treatment of poverty and inequality. Sowell says very clearly that it is not right to take from those who have earned their income and wealth to give to those who have little. This right-wing principle seems to me to be grotesque and bizarre. Humans have been redistributing material wealth since the time of our hunter-gatherer forbears. If a crumb is redistributed from a man with a surfeit of fine food to a starving child, this appears to be to be a just and fair act. Of course, taking from a hard-working family to support an antisocial drug addict might well be unfair, but this is a different story.
The basic unfairness of the capitalist economy is that people are born into a particular economic station, and that station will severely affect their ability to realize their ambitions and exercise their human capacities for self-realization. There is no way to avoid this situation, but Sowell does not even mention this issue is this volume. Pity.
Contemporary American liberals will not like this book because it defends free international trade and criticizes many of the types of programs liberals favor. However, I think Sowell is usually correct. On the other hand, there have been monstrously successful liberal program that Sowell does not acknowledge, such as social security, Medicare, EITC, and the welfare system. We need similar programs to deal with world poverty, domestic poverty, environmental destruction, and several other important social issues. The correct way to deal with this problems is to use the market system, but to erect incentives that lead private individuals and firms to act on behalf of the public interest. Only a strongly synergistic pattern of market and state activity can conceivably succeed. Sowell's imbalance in favor of markets is, in this respect, part of the problem rather than part of the cure.

This is the best book on basic economics you will find. Those with previous experiance in the subject of economics may find it rather simplistic but for taking a complex subect and making it interesting and understandable it deserves 5 stars. If you want to better understand the world around you buy it, if you want in depth knowledge use it as your starting point. Its great examples that make the complex understandable.

Facinating and easy to read. I've had a hard time putting it down. I finally understand economics in depth. I've had my own business for over 20 years and the things that Thomas Sowell explains are so true.

This book will give you a basic sense of market economics, and certain aspects of non-market economies (mainly the key drawbacks of protectionist legislation and centralized socialist economies). It uses lots of examples to explain its concepts, which makes them easy to digest. It does not enter into all too much detail. It is also explicitly pro-free-trade, which is occasionally annoying in its repetitiveness. If you want someone to articulate for you why you should be against protectionism or socialism, you will particularly enjoy this book. Or, if you favor protectionism or socialism but want to read a scholar who challenges those views, you will probably also find this book worthwhile. It is a fairly easy read, and not number-heavy. Sowell's prose is solid and well edited, but nothing special.

I am enjoying this book. It is definitely a page turner, especially in today's economic situation.

I highly recommend this book to anyone.

As much as I want to end the review with that statement let me say that I was a business major in college, have taken several economics courses, and was really doubtful that Mr. Sowell could write a whole book on basic economics without using graphs or mathmatical formulas.

I was wrong.

This book is about the practical side of economics that truly affect us every day. Even with the little back of background I did have I learned a lot from his real world examples and this book sparked my interest into other economics books that focus on the practical side of this profession.

For anyone with an interest in this subject (the practical application of economics without having to know complex math formulas or use graphs) I would highly recommend the podcasts on www.econtalk.org - The host Russ Roberts (An Economics professor at George Mason University) interviews many famous economists about many practical matters and how economics can be used to find solutions or answers. He is a funny and interesting host and the topics and discussions are always stimulating to listen to.

I would also suggest the sequel to this book as well, Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One.

I have never read a book on economics in my life, but found this book by Thomas Sowell, to be direct, simple to read and can I dare say......exciting? I tend to be a Liberal in most political areas but I can see now that I'm really a economical Libertarian after reading "Basic Economics".

This is a gigantic book that looks like a textbook but honestly reads like a novel! It is about as easy a way to get a great education on critical economic concepts as there is.

What many call by the name of Delayed Gratification, Cause and Effect, or the Law of Unintended Consequences is demonstrated by this author as the playing out of "Stage One" and Stage Two. One of his examples would be: A politician gets elected on a "Tax the Businesses More Platform", to lower the taxes on the people (voters), this is Stage One; the result is the community becomes flush with money, as the new resource is tapped. Then Stage Two; Tax revenue diminshes as the years go by, the politician gets elected to a higher office, and the business community has taken actions to move its operations to lower tax areas, expand its subsidiaries in those areas and the community has lost its chance to foster new business because the startups do not even consider starting in a high tax community.
This book has its purpose if this is the only economics book one will be exposed to, then the Stage one/Stage two concept is a good principle through which to view the financial and political workings of the world, in effect "watch where the money goes".
The author does make an economics book interesting, which is no easy task, by mentioning examples such as these: The high probability of guns in American households versus British households results in the American criminal casing and planning there targets much more extensively than their British counterparts. The simplistic nature of this book may be good for a certain target readership, but this reader wishes the author had addressed the secondary questions the arise from his examples.

America First

Thomas Sowell is another autistic free trade economist. His book is a paean to the free market and free trade. Mr. Sowell makes the standard arguments for free markets against socialized and central planning. When dealing with Free Trade he is autistic.

Mr. Sowell states, "Free trade may have wide support among economists, but its support among the public at large is considerably less." In every country, Britain France, Italy, Australia, Russia and the United States, the citizens favor protectionism." This Mr. Sowell blames on "...the problem of getting the general public to understand international trade is due to their not having the facts."

Mr. Sowell should climb out from his ivory palace at Stamford University and visit some ghost manufacturing towns, like Detroit, Syracuse, Bridgeport, etc. These are towns that have become shells of their former selves. No, Mr. Sowell will continue to pontificate, drawing a six figure salary from whom? Who supports the Hoover Institution at Stamford? It is those globalist, multinational corporations who profit from free trade!!!

At what point does Sowell realize he is a paid flack for millionaires, not an economist. And he is certainly not an economist interested in the welfare of America's workers.

The effect of globalization and free trade is to drive up the value of capital (machinery and the means of production) and to drive down the value of labor (those who operate the machines). A machine in China making 1,000 widgets a day produces a higher return on investment than the same machine in the United States because Chinese labor to operate the machine is lower.

In Rochester, New York, international trade meant that Kodak's employment went from 125,000 to 25,000 as but one example. Men and women with high paying jobs in manufacturing, now have low paid jobs fixing furnaces. But according to Mr. Sowell, they did not have the facts. This he blames on "business, labor and agriculture, who wish to escape the consequences of having to compete in the marketplace with foreign producers." But workers ask, "Why should we have to compete with slave labor?"

Mr. Sowell, as the other free trade ideologues, simply ignores the economic history of the United States. The first act of the U.S. Congress was to pass Alexander Hamilton's protective tariffs, which gave rise to American industry and a country that blossomed economically. These tariffs were whittled away by the Jeffersonian Democrats and the U.S. industry suffered. Basically, the no-tariff Democrats wanted slavery, a small impoverished white middle-class and imported goods at the world's lowest prices.

When Abraham Lincoln came into office he enacted high tariffs against imported goods and American industry boomed. Those tariffs were essentially in place through the 1960's when free trade advocates lead by Milton Friedman of the University of Chicago began to peddle free trade.

Milton Friedman dissembled, lied and ignored economic history and reality. Friedman was essentially a globalist with a utopian scheme: all countries would improve their economies. He ignored the economic history of the United States and focused totally on prices.

Free trade economists are autistic by almost totally focusing on one issue. "If an American consumer did not have the lowest world price for a good, he or she was being cheated." They blithely ignored the impact on employment and ignore the fact that consumers without jobs cannot purchase very much. Milton Friedman is dead, but millions of Americans are bearing the consequences of his delusional economics. Thomas Sowell continues this foolishness.

In explaining NAFTA, Mr. Sowell says that there were no negative effects to American workers because "In, reality, the number of American jobs increased...." He blithely ignores that the United States increase in jobs is a result of an increasing population due to immigration and the jobs that were created were in low wage industries. In other words, he uses gross national figures to mask the underlying loss of high wage jobs. The increases in jobs in the U.S. economy were jobs in retail, service industries and health care. They were not high paid, technical jobs in manufacturing.

In the last two decades, the difference between the mean and median incomes in America has switched. That is millionaires at the top are increasing the average wage, but the majority of Americans are stuck at the same or lower incomes.

Max Planck once observed that a new truth (or in the case of an economics, an old truth revisited) does not see the light because of conversions holders of the incorrect, but established truth. They go to their graves first. Milton Friedman went to his grave ignoring the fact that free trade is destructive to all citizens, but enriches the international elites.

Mr. Sowell will go to his grave holding the same erroneous belief in free trade. But what does he care, he is happy in his autistic world, rocking back and forth, singing the mantra of Free Trade.

Paul Streitz, author of AMERICA FIRST, Why Americans must end free trade, stop outsourcing and close our open borders.

The book is a good start in studying Economics. It is mainly designed for people who have no previous knowledge of Economics. It is useful for these people to understand some basic free market economic principles. It is really not for people that have previously taken Economics courses.

If I were God, I'd make reading this book manditory before any US citizen could vote! Best Book on Economics I've Ever Read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No one should ever presume to vote in an election without having a basic working knowledge of economics. This one is simple, direct, straightforward and concise. It totally debunks all of the silly things people believe about economics and politics. Please read this before you vote in 2008.

I love how Sowell is able to explain basic economic principles in simple, interesting and understandable terms. My kids are reading this! This should be taught in High schools across the country.

Everyone without a degree in Economics should read this book. This is a very easy and practical way to understand basic economic principles. Sowell is a master at making seemingly complex concepts into something very understandable by removing all the unecessary jargon and replacing it with real life examples we can all understand. I'e read this book twice. The second reading two years later than the first. I got as much out of it the second time as I did the first. I'll share this book around the family, but will definately be getting it back again.

I recommend this book to everyone. It's easy to read, and difficult to put down. Sowell's explanations are really clear, and helpful. Moreover, the information is presented in a way that is easy to remember, and recall later. The concepts really are "basic," (hence the title) however -despite their rudimentary nature- Sowell shows how "basic economics" is still misunderstood in ubiquitous numbers, and by a myriad of historical smarties, too. If you'd like to learn "basic economics" then I recommend you dodge the textbooks, and buy this item instead. It's jargon free.

This book is a great addition to any library it takes the mystery that is Economics for most people and de-mystifies it.

Most of the book is common sense that Dr. Sowell presents in an informative and enjoyable manner. I never knew Economics could be explained in so easily understood terms.

Dr. Sowell sure knows how to simplify a complicated and controversal subject. This text should be required reading for anyone either lobbying or otherwise serving in Washington.

I want to warn anyone who thinks this is an impartial book on economic theory that the whole premise of this book is that unrestrained free market economy can do no wrong. The author makes constant reference to the system of the former soviet union to drive home the point. The author ignores the importance of labor unions in creating high wages in the US, he ignores the unregulated business practices that caused the great depression, he ignores the role of socialism in creating strong economys and high standards of living in western european nations, he ignores the problems of unrestrained capitalism in 3rd world nations. Ive lived in a few latin american nations and know first hand what unregulated capitalism can cause, unfortunately all the problems of these nations are blamed on government corruption and nothing is done to improve the system on a pure economic front.

Thomas Sowell's book Basic Economics should be read, discussed, and understood by every American. Every member in Congress should be required to take and pass a test [with a 100% score] on the contents of the book. Every new citizen must understand [yes, pass the test, too] the principles of Economics as laid out in the book before we let them participate the the first and best democratic free market society man has ever developed.

Teens should have to pass this Economics test before they are issued a driver's license; forget the driving test ordeal. Every homeschooled kid probably has this book as their Eco. book in the 6th grade around the dining room table.

Knowing the basics of Eco. as put forth in this clearly written and enjoyable book will set anyone apart from the herd.

City officials should be well versed in this basic knowledge especially zoning boards where bottom feeding politicians, bored housewives, and retired New Dealers are too often found.

A very readable book essential to the American way of life. Even a couple of post graduate degrees did not dim my enjoyment of the book. Perhaps I knew the economic principle but not like Tom Sowell laid it out for me. Get the book, read it, and buy copies for people you care about.

i agree wholeheartdly with the other reviewers, this book takes a complicated subject and explains it in a commonsense way. however, whenever a complicated subject is made basic there is a LOT of room for subtle biases to injected, which may not be noticeable without questioning on the readers' part.

for example, in explaining the relationship of supply/demand, scarcity, and pricing, this scenario is cited: a natural disaster occurs, and people in the area need to use hotels. the hotel owner raises the price of the rooms.

so, is the owner exploting the situation and making as much profit as possible because the patrons are in a vulnerable position and will pay a temporary, though drastically inflated price? not according to Sowell, who deflty explains that the hotel owner is doing the patrons a favour. price control is used here to manage the way that the patrons share a scarce resource. if the prices were kept low, a family of 4 would be more likely to to get 2 rooms, but the high price influences them to get a single room, ths leaving more of the scarce resource available for other patrons (who are willing to pay an inflated price).

many of the explanations in this book intuitively seemed twisted to me, and ultimately i believe that the authour's writing is manipulative. reading the book, though, really helped me appreciate his logic and way of reasoning. before reading this, i did not know anythign about economics and now i feel i have a much better grasp of what it involves.

ultimately, a great book... but it was tedious to read because there are so many redundant examples used in it. a difficult way to get through an easy way to explain a difficult subject!

Thomas Sowell has a gift to see the whole picture and uses great examples to paint the picture for the reader. A sometimes boring subject turns interesting from his perspective.

This is simply an excellent read, taking the complicated subject of economics and making it totally understandable. Mr. Sowell, much like Hayek and Friedman, helps you understand how free markets, capital, supply and demand, and pricing are the true keys to freedom. This is a complete explanation as to how we use our talents, in a free society, to create wealth and provide products and services that others want or need. Beyond simple economics, this book helps you see how we all relate to one another through our economies, good and bad.

This is simply the best book on understanding rudimentary economics available. This book takes a sophisticated subject and makes it very clear and understandable. While not as detailed as a textbook on the subject would be, it gets across the main theories of economics with real examples that can be understood and related to by almost anyone. This is simply the best and most readable source available to get a basic understanding of economic principles.

When one thinks of economics, one is typically confronted with the kind of malaise that Jimmy Carter once spoke of. However, Sowell's book is filled with concrete examples of how to apply some basic and interesting principles of economics in daily life, and he explains why these principles are so fundamental to our lives. I think all high-school graduates with any sense should read this before signing up for credit cards or getting a job, and certainly any college student looking for work as well. A fantastic read, which is certainly difficult to do when one is speaking about the economy.