Customer Reviews

Macroeconomics: Principles and Policy with Xtra! Student CD-ROM and InfoTrac College Edition

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I think this introductory econ book is exceptionally good as a text book; a book that truely deserves 5 stars. If a book explains things clearly, I usually give it 4 stars, but this book goes beyond that. The authors made a concious effort to make learning easy and meaningful.

Right at the beginning, the authors will tell you that they don't expect you to be a econ fanatic and remember every little detail - in fact, the authors seem to completely understand why we students forget most details soon after the final exam. So, right a way they list out the main ideas - in their own words: "ideas for beyond the final exam". Not only did the authors filtered out the most important material, they also truly believed that the material will be improtant beyond the final exam - in life that is. It is the first text book I saw that has such a candit and honest attitude because so many books and so many people talks down to me rather than at me.

Also, for each chapter, the authors always begin with some kind of "bait question", something that the reader understands but usually can't answer right a way. This is a great way to focus the chapter and entice people to read. And all the examples the authors use are either famous or recent (or both). One effect is to make you think what you are learning is truly useful because you can use it to analyze so many things from the news. A more subtle impression is that the authors really did update the book every few years to reflect important events that just occurred. As a computer science engineering major, I have seen countless "8th editions" that's just like the prior ones - but I seriously doubt the prior editions of this econ book talked about Asian economic crisis or the booming economy of the 1998 / 99

clear book + impressive effort = 5 stars

Baumol and Blinder explain all the important concepts of macroeconomics with tremendous clarity. Students with little or no knowledge of economics will find this book most straight-forward. Interesting real world examples are given to reinforce key ideas. For example, the authors describe the Asian crisis of 1998 to illustrate the shortcomings of a fixed exchange rate system. Secondly, unlike other econ. textbooks, this one is filled with colorful graphs and even photographs. I wouldn't be too surprised if this book succeeds in piquing the interest of those students, who are averse to econ. Finally, the attempts at humor are generally unsuccessful but provide a refreshing change from the unceasing monotony of most college textbooks.

"Increasing demand leads to rising interest rates which leads to reduced investment spending and appreciating currency exchange rates..." The authors of "Macroeconomics" effortlessly provide the economic reasoning that underlie events like these such that they really make common sense - and without the need for rote memorization on the part of the reader. A previous reviewer from Los Angeles did an excellent job in praising Baumol and Blinder for their clear and concise teaching, and I strongly agree with his comments. Instead of going into abstract theories and ideas, Baumol and Blinder focus on making the reader understand the "real world" implications of macroeconomics. For example, each chapter in their book introduces a different contemporary economic issue as a way to illustrate the ideas being described in the text. Additionally, the authors outlined eight take-home messages that they believe the reader should remember after finishing the book. Although the authors label these take-home messages as "Ideas for Beyond the Final Exam", these ideas are equally relevant for student and non-student alike.

It should be kept in mind that the eighth edition of this textbook was published in 1999, so most of the "contemporary" issues that are discussed within are now out of date. In one chapter, for example, the authors' upbeat commentary on America's 1998 budget surplus seems sadly ironic considering the large budget deficit that we are currently dealing with in financing the War on Terror in 2003. Additionally, I thought many of the examples in the book were a bit "pro-Clinton", and depending on one's own political orientation, that may or may not be welcome. I have not looked at the ninth (and latest) edition of "Macroeconomics", but assuming that the fundamental principles remain the same, I would encourage the reader to pick up that copy in order to have a more current and up-to-date illustration of ideas.

Readers looking for mathematical models and equations to play with will be sorely disappointed, as the only foray into mathematical analysis involves deriving the demand-side equilibrium condition of the Keynesian economic model (a simple algebraic equation). But considering that the slant of this book is towards "real world" understanding, I think the authors were probably justified in keeping the mathematical equations to a minimum.

All in all, I think "Macroeconomics" by Baumol and Blinder would be an excellent introduction for the economically-illiterate person (as I was before reading this book). Although many of the examples in the eighth edition are a bit out of date, it is true that the fundamental economic principles that are discussed endure throughout all of the editions of this textbook.

I studied under Alan Blinder and I know he is a brilliant man, but his book is not disciplined enough. Explanations are reduced at the cost of large big-picture concepts which are, as a result, carelessly encountered. Additionally, the reader will be surprised at how much the text is littered with typos.

I ended up purchasing a used paperback copy of this edition. It was used, so the damages have nothing to do with my opinion. Everything is explained clearly, with some long winded political bias of course, but you get through the content. Plenty of visual aides.

I used this book for my college intro to macroeconomics course. The information in the book is really well explained, I never had a hard time understanding and it was enough to read it once and then be able to work on problem sets. Moreover, it really helped me understand lectures much better. However, one thing that I really hated about how it is organized was the fact that introduced some examples in text boxes cutting the paragraphs and making the reader move back and forth in order to finish reading the chapter. Besides this, in my class I used to use graphs intensively and in the book I encountered information about graphs that were on the next page and I had to keep moving back and forth in order to understand. It was not a big deal in the beginning, but as I started to review for my exams it became so annoying.

Pros: easy to understand, a lot of information

Cons: graphs and some examples

The price wasn't all that great when I realized that the economics hardcover book was only like $2 more but overall the book came in good condition.

The first four chapters of this book and the Micro book are identical. Which was convenient as that was the first weeks reading for both classes. However considering how much I spent on these books, I didn't like buying 4 chapters twice. The information is well delivered over all and I find that you understand the material well enough if you have decent reading comprehension.

this is a good straight forward text that does not get bogged down in the unecessary details for an introduction to the subject. It is simplified, and straightforward, while trying to be enjoyable reading.

I would definitely recommend this buyer. I ordered the book at the very last minute for school and received it a few days later, just in time to start class. The book was in stated condition. I had a very good experience and would use them again.