Customer Reviews

Economic Logic

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4 star:		(4)
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Reading Economic Logic gave me a profound new understanding of how economics applies in the real world, especially in business and personal finance.

My college economics courses, filled with perplexing theories like the paradox of thrift, GDP and Keynesian fiscal policy, were completely refuted in this excellent free-market textbook. Economic Logic focused on important, real issues like business profit-loss statements, entrepreneurship and the advantage of saving -- something my college professors never even touched.

Although I am not currently a student or professor, I thoroughly enjoyed learning economics "right." I have found it helpful in gaining more insight in running my business -- as well as the wisdom of fiscal conservatism in our government policies.

I highly recommend professors use this text in their economics classes. And students, if your professors don't use this text, get it for yourself so you can really understand the concepts and principles of sound economics.

Readers of Thomas Sowell's excellent _Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy_ may want to tackle this fine textbook next. Skousen presents basic economic concepts and principles in clear, crisp prose, and his presentation is the next level up from Sowell's: whereas Sowell eschews graphs and charts altogether, Skousen uses them sparingly and well in order to introduce, illustrate, and explain how markets work.

The text is suitable for anyone with approximately a high-school education (and I'd love to see it used in actual high schools). As such, it's well adapted for self-study.

This textbook is an all-in-one textbook for economics. Not only does it have an overview explaining economic thinking but it also has comprehensive sections on micro and macroeconomics. An added feature is its section on government policy, helping the economic student understand how society's interventions in the market affect the economy. Perhaps the best component is the afterward "What Do Economists Do?" which discusses career opportunities and trends, even with expected incomes!

From an instructor's perspective, the book is designed to maximize learning while minimizing monotony. The text is illuminated with simple yet useful charts and diagrams. The explanation of principles is accomplished with modern scenarios, arousing the student's interest. Each chapter is followed with a summary, a list of important terms introduced in the chapter, and a brief biographical sketch of influential economists. Additionally, each chapter has "Problems to Ponder", including both abstract theoretical questions and practical, calculation-based questions. For supplemental study, each chapter has additional recommended readings.

This book is user- and instructor-friendly, perfect for any beginner economic student - simple, direct, and comprehensive.

This is an excellent work; as both a text and for general reading. Microeconomics is regarded by most students as hard and boring. Skousen's work is neither. It presents real business economics in a simple and logical fashion. His diagrams are explained well and presented clearly. His topic headings are appropriate and at times, provocative, and his chapter summary, points to ponder and recommended reading are very useful. Another interesting feature of the book is a focus on one economist at the end of each chapter. This is an excellent way of getting the reader interested in both famous economists and some economic history.

Although I switched to Heyne's book 'The Economic Way of Thinking' to teach my Business Economics class last semester, I will be using Skousen's work in the future. It is the better book!

This book is written at a high school/college level and is easy to read and understand without any need for math. It focuses more on creating a general and intuitive understanding of how and why the business, national, and world economies work, rather than on solving equations. It covers all areas of economics and finance, micro and macro; and how these fit in with business, the government, taxes, and human behavior. The topics it covers are up to date (2008).

This book is easier to read and understand than the other principles of economics textbooks that I have seen. I really enjoyed reading it and learned a lot from it. I like its format and its content. But you need to be aware that the book does have quite a few typos, editing errors, index errors and poorly labeled graphs in it, which make it a bit more difficult to study on your own. The book has a libertarian / Austrian School bent and explains in detail some of the Austrian School theory; I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

For my friends who are trying to understand basic economics on their own, I recommend reading this book this after Russell Robert's books, "The Best Book on the Market", "Commonsense Economics" and Sowell's "Basic Economcs" in that order.

Mark Skousen wrote this book but he allows you to decide which strategy you agree with. Very well written. When you finish, you will have a healthy respect for economics and feel that you know more but have also more understanding for other views.

I had previously read "Economics" by Thomas Sowell and then tackled Skousen's book. One is a pleasant read and this one is a text book. That is not a negative because it's hard to find a free market text in economics being used in colleges today. I am not taking a class, it's just something I wanted to read, and I have enjoyed it. Somethings are a challenge because terms are used that I don't understand and have to get on the internet and find other writers that have explained the topic differently. However, in all fairness, I am not a college graduate. I am self taught or taught on the job. I was an accountant from 1978 to 1995 and then left the industry. I retired in 2004 and have enjoyed learning on my own. I have done very well in the market using Skousen's newsletter and the councel he provides. So, I have read two or three of his other books and I wanted to read a free market text in economics. I highly recommend it. Get Sowell's audio book from the library and listen to it also.

I wanted to learn such a difficult and mysterious subject and this book has the correct info to do so. Each chapter/topic is very straightforward in content and description. Plus it has exercises to let you gain deep understanding of each subject.

If you are selecting a textbook for self-education, I would recommend the Mansfield book instead. It is a much better written Micro-Economics book. If you are getting this book because it is required reading for a class you are taking, be prepared and forewarned that it is riddled with amateurish typographical errors and misprints. I'm not the most observant eye, and would estimate that there is about one error per every four pages on average. Maybe more. It is very distracting to have the text riddled with misspelled words, conflicting numbers, and other typographical errors.