Customer Reviews

The Concise Guide to Economics

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Jim Cox has produced an excellent introduction to various economic questions, which he has grouped in three sections. Basics discusses schools of thought, entrepreneurship, minimum wage law, licensing, unions, and other themes; Money and Banking addresses inflation, business cycle, the Great Depression, and more; and Technicals offers ideas on methodology, trade defecit, the Phillips Curve, Multipliers, etc. The book's format lends itself well either to self-study or as a course outline for beginning students, which the author, for many years a professor at an Atlanta junior college, has much experience in doing. Cox approaches the discipline with an Austrian perspective, and his recommendations for further study normally offer Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, Hazlitt, and less well-known scholars, such as Block, Armentano, Georgia's White and Sigler, or NYU's Kirzner and Rizzo. But he also directs one often to Friedman, some Randians, and other non-Austrians. The author's viewpoint is solidly pro-market and pro-liberty. If you want a Keynesian or socialist perspective, go elsewhere. When he gives specific pages in books, this guide into the literature is especially useful. Cox's guide is truly concise; in fact, I usually wanted him to discuss more, explain more, and introduce more themes, and the virtue of this book, its brevity, is also my biggest complaint. But that is why he provides recommended readings. I am an historian, not an economist, so I use this book often when I want to know more about a specific topic or problem in economics; it guides me into some of the important works.

If the teacher using it had the background and fundamentals down, this would be an excellent text book for the purposes of provoking reasoned discussions of economics. It is particularly effective in debunking some very widespread myths such as those involving the demonization of "speculators", "price gougers", and "day traders".

This book is a very quick read with a wealth of useful, factual information. Its main problem is that some of the issues are dealt with too quickly and thus the author does not fully explore the issue. In a few chapters he also leaves economics and enters into ethics to show why something is wrong. Normally, that would be fine except I'm reading this book for economics, not ethics. This book is very informative for the beginner and I would recommend it along with "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt. Also read von Mises and Rothbard.

I bought this book thinking it would be packed with Laffer curves and consumption functions and would make technical economic theories simple. It instead is one of the most layman-readable economics texts that I have read. Outstanding coverage of the areas of economics that truly matter, and those that would be deemed relevant to the non-economist. Those who enjoyed Milton Freidman's Capitalism and Freedom would find this text equally readable.

Understanding the Economic Principles of the free market-system, is a daunting task; especially for the neophyte. This book allows the student to comprehend more readily the complex theories that govern our economy.

Cox uses a "common sense" approach to economics, thereby making this book easy to read, and easy to follow.

While this book should be required reading material for all econ. students; people from all walks of life would benefit from having a copy of this work. EXCELLENT Book!!

This book is so useful because you can look up specific topics in economics and get a SHORT, accurate explanation of what it's about. Cox has a libertarian slant on each topic, which in my opinion makes it even better. He simplifies complex subjects and gives you enough basic ideas to hold a conversation with more learned folks.

I'm homeschooling my 10th grade son and although we've discussed economics and free markets before, this is a concise, well-organized book that covers several important topics with examples that have sparked good conversations. Each chapter is only a few pages long but covers the gist of the subject clearly.

What I really liked about this book was 1) it is concise, the chapters are small ,clear and have a high knowledge per page ratio if you know what I mean. 2) The end of every chapter has great recommendations. 3) the chapters that remove the blame on capitalism for black tuesday and the great depression should be standard on all intro to econo books as examples of where the blame should really be placed(gov intervention).

And best of all.. drumroll... this great book is available for free online, use your imagination.

The title is indeed an apt one. In the course of 167 pages, Jim Cox is able to prove the potential of free market economics, as well as show some of the many flaws of existing economic systems. The book is tremendously uplifting for anyone who has questioned the feasability of a libertarian laissez faire economy.

Jim Cox has provided an excellent tool to enable readers to more clearly understand the free market and just how crucially it is tied to our liberty. Cox writes in a way that is understandable, interesting, and thought-provoking. I believe Cox has well accomplished his purpose of helping his readers to grasp some difficult economic topics including price controls, heroic insider trading, and the market versus the command economy. Cox includes an overview of the schools of economic thought, the Great Depression, and a history of economic thought. The reader is provided with excellent references for each chapter for more detailed study. I especially like the quote from Milton Friedman at the beginning of the book: "Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself." I believe Jim Cox's work will help the reader understand how important economics is to freedom and our way of life.