Customer Reviews

Principles Of Economics

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I totally absolutely agree with the opinions of [other reviewers]. I am a student from Norway, and with limited Macroeconomics books available in Norwegian, we have to chew the most incomprehensible Macroeconomics book written by our own professor. He teaches at our college so we have no other choice than using the Macroeconomics book he wrote. Students say there is a book mafia system at our school, meaning we only use the books written by our lecturers whether the books are well written or not.

Lucky enough, the professor who wrote the most incomprehensible Macroeconomics book at my college also recommended us to read Mankiw's book and even claimed that this was the best Macroeconomics book ever written...even though, he said, it was at a slightly lower level than what he taught us. What he means by "at a slightly lower level" is probably due to the fact that our professor chokes the students with so much incomprehensible math and so many formulas which we do not understand and do not know how to relate to the real world unless we take Ph.D degree in Economics, whereas Mankiw refrains from doing so and instead gives us a passion to learn Economics and a critical mind to explore Economics issues further .

Last semester, I finally ended up reading Mankiw's book for pleasure, knowledge, and understanding, and dropped my Macroeconomics course with the incomprehensible professor and his equally incomprehensible book. I do not want to take a course which I do not understand and which I am implicitly forced to answer the exam questions in the style my Macroeconomics teacher wants. Yes, I do lack a credit and a grade in Macroeconomics, but I do possess a much better understanding than my classmates who just memorize rawly our Macroeconomics professor's way of answering. If our professor used Mankiw's book instead of his own book, he would certainly produce much better students who possessed excellent understanding in Economics and passion to study this wonderful subject.

Students must pay a hefty price when they end up with a professor who cannot teach and write. I wish we had more choices.

I cannot say that I have read too many economics textbooks, but I think that it would be pretty hard to find one that is better than this. This textbook is for the absolute beginner. No prior knowledge of economics is needed. The author starts from scratch and works his way up without assuming anything about the reader's knowledge. What's even more important is that this book is fun to read. This is one of those books that you actually find yourself reading to know more. Suddenly when you reach the end of the book you will be surprised at how easy and fun economics can be and this would encourage you to move on to heavier stuff. I used this book as a self-study guide and had no problems. The best textbooks are those that deliver the message by themselves, and this certainly applies to "The Principles of Economics".

I read the first edition of this book on the trains to/from work, skipping the Questions and Problems in the end of the chapters. Extremely readble, this book is most relevant to daily life. Maybe it's simple, but consider quantum mechanics and general physics. Quantum mechanics is a whole lot more complicated than general physics, but we donot use quantum mechanics in daily life. One clearly understood idea is worth more than 1000 ideas we donot really comprehend. This book explains the basic ideas in economics in the most clearly way. Reading 2 less excellent books is not a good subtitute of reading 1 truly excellent one. (Discussing Jim Carrey's earning, the author writes, "If Jim Carrey is the funnest actor around, then everyone will want to see his next movie; seeing twice as many movies by an actor half as funny is not a good substitute.") This explains why Jim got ...[many millions] in 1995, and also why the author was prepaid ...[millions] for this textbook.

I took an economics class as an elective my first semester of college and had this book. It was a brilliantly written book and really stimulates thought on economics even way after the class is over.

This book made learning basic economics very easy, and the examples and graphs are very clearly explained. A great book especially if you have a bad/incoherent professor.

It's a great book, very simple to understand and excellent explanations. A brilliant book by a brilliant economist! I 100% recomend it.

According to Greg Mankiw's own page on blogspot, this book is THE best pathway to economics. A little presumptuous, isn't it, in the face of Smith, Keynes, and Friedman?

Well, Mr. Mankiw is right. I cannot think of a better beginner's book. I cannot IMAGINE one. I don't even care too much about the (slight) political inclinations in this book. OK, some 70 or so wall-street-occupier-minded (and I am sure somehow well-informed) students of Professor Mankiw's class of 700 at Harvard chose to disagree by quitting his class. Before they finished his course, and presumably, before they finished his book. Smart people, I am sure.

It is CLEAR what Mr. Mankiw wants to say in this book - crystal clear. What he has to say is LOGICAL. And that is good enough for me.

The book makes every concept so SIMPLE and so easy to understand. If you want to teach yourself economics, use this book. At many hundred pages, the book appears intimidating. But the book is so CLEARLY written, reading it is actually ENJOYABLE.

Disclaimer - I took college economics some years ago with a different textbook, and am reading this as a reminder and perhaps more for pleasure.

What? Reading a textbook for pleasure? Yup. You got the idea. Do yourself a favor.

This book is a good selection for those middle-aged, former students such as myself who wish to refresh their knowledge of the very important subject of economics. However, I wish this book (actually it is a "textbook") offered a key to its questions at the end of each chapter. Likewise, more visual aids would be appreciated, such as detailed graphs about inflation, prices, wages, etc during the Great Depression and other such significant eras. There are indeed some very useful and informative graphs and illustrations, but just not enough for a visually oriented person such as me.

Like some other reviewers, I bought this as a "refresher course", since I graduated college (majoring in economics!) in the late '60's, and I've found it to be generally worthwhile. However, I also found Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics" to be at least equally as useful (and much more concise). Thus, one should consider one's investment (cost) in relation to one's benefit from the product in question.

All matters considered, even though this volume is danged expensive (Why are the book companies trying to give college students such a hard time?), it is a tome worth owning for study, reference, and personal edification.

Recently I wanted to brush up on some Economics, so I purchased this book. The book is extremely reader friendly and the economic principles are clearly explained. But back in the eighties I took Economics in college and the class as well as the text were extremely rigorous. This book at times seems a little too simple when compared to that old text. I wish I still had it to make a comparison, but I don't. This book could be half its size due to a lot of wasted space. There are boring cartoons throughout, and why so many authors have to put cartoons in their textbooks is beyond my comprehension. It is all part of plan to keep reader attention; I wish the author would use the space to better illustrate an economic principle. I believe cartoons and photographs in this text as well as others, do nothing but water down an already difficult subject. These things also make the book more ........ Over ....for a textbook is ridiculous! I am glad I am not a student or I would be in the poor house!