Customer Reviews

Economics

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I remmber my first encounter with this book in 1978 when I was undergraduate student in accounting and finance. In my micro-economics course, the main textbook was W.Hansen "Principles of Economics". When Samuelson's book with its four colors and 3D charts arrived in our colleage libarary, the 150 students of Business faculty were literaly fighting over the only seven copies in the libarary shelves. I have copied more than 50 pages from the book in long hand, there was no photocopy machines at that time, as there was a long queu waiting for the book. I have learned alot from Samuelson's book and I am so pleased to own the first Arabic translation of the textbook in 2005. The translation was superb and made by Hisham Abdllah and published by Al-Ahlia Publishing House in Amman, Jordan.

This overview of micro and macroeconomics is easy to read and digest. I am thrilled that I chose this book to begin my study of economics.

My comments are provoked by the reviews already posted with regard to the 18th Edition of Samuelson's text. I am an engineer by profession who in the latter days of his career has been teaching seniors in chemical engineering the elements of process systems engineering, which includes engineering economics. Samuelson, whom I greatly admire, has provided us with an approach to the complex and, given the present economic situation the world, and only partially understood science, if that is what is, of economics. But my true guide is John Maynard Keynes as expressed in his The General Theory of Employment,Interest, and Money. He, at least, recognized the psychological dimensions of economics, something that seems teo be lagging far beyond his times. And his counsel led us out of the Great Depression, even if it took WarII to do so. So, read Samuelson, but read beyond also.

"Economics" by Paul A. Samuelson and William Nordhaus is a very good text on the basic principles of Economics, particulary of microeconomics. The explanations and graphics are very good.

However, Samuelson's economics tended toward leftist principles blessing governmental interventions. Apparently, Nirdhaus is of similar bent.

I use Thomas Sowell's books on Economics, with his more conservative outlook, to help me maintain a balance. "Pure" Capitalism has problems and tends to generate monopolies. However, "Pure" Socialism generally puts political policies ahead of pragmatism and distorts the mechanisms of the market to the point where we no longer have "free" markets.

If we put politics aside, this book is an excellent teaching tool for elementary or introductory college courses in economics.

This book is filled with ideology. The authors -although one of them is a Nobel laureate seem not to understand Adam Smith.
From the first page on they make the case for massive government intervention. They go so far as to say that government intervention
1. increases efficiency (sic!) - although they don't explain how,
2. promotes equity by PROMOTING COMPETION - how would a government EVER do that and not the opposite? Governments intervene because they DON'T WANT COMPETITION, and that
3. Government intervention fosters macroeconomic stability-REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT AND INFLATION (sic!!).
Goverments are the very ones who cause inflation by uncontrolled increase of money supply (printing money out of thin air) and they cause unemployment by putting massive burdens on businesses...of course only to achieve "social equity." What Interventionists don't understand is that by putting heavy tax burdens and legal restrictions on businesses they harm the very consumer whom they say they want to help. What do we think, who pays the additional tax burden and the cost for all government regulation...it's us again - with higher prices for the products. How naive are we?

I agree that the book is didactically extremely well written but that's exaclty what makes it so dangerous. It overall seems to represent a neo-Marxist worldview. I would read von Mises Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, Murphy The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Capitalism (Politically Incorrect Guides), Gwartney Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity or Hayek The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents--The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek) as a "counterweight."