The Concise Guide to Economics (Paperback)

~ Jim M Cox (Author) "There are four major schools of economic thought today..." (more)
Key Phrases: artificial increase, New York, The Ludwig von Mises Institute, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... a valuable addition to the growing libertarian-Austrian economics library." -- David Bergland, author of Libertarianism in One Lesson

"Brutally honest and straightforward... easy to read, well-documented, and thought-provoking... so clear that even politicians can understand..." -- Walker Chandler, Chandler v Miller, US Supreme Court

"Cox has the rare gift of writing readable economics." -- Brad Lineweaver, author Moon of Ice

"This handy, quick reference guide save searching through hundreds of pages for an answer. I wish I'd had this book when I first began my study of Economics." -- Dawn Baker, Wall Street Journal Award, DeKalb College

Product Description

Sets out the arguments in favor of the free market in 37 short chapters covering topics over which critics of the free market find fault, along with other topics as well. Each chapter includes references to further investigagte a topic. Everything from minimum wage laws, to price gouging, regulation, inflation, price controls, history of economic thought, the calculation debate, etc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 167 pages
• Publisher: Laissez Faire Books; 2 edition (July 10, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570872929
• ISBN-13: 978-1570872921
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,404,960 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An extremely helpful introduction to various aspects of econ, April 20, 1999

By A Customer

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This would be a great (and affordable) high school text., October 4, 1999

By A Customer

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".

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but too concise, October 12, 2003

By	"pininfarina_maranello" (Edmonton, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews

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.