A highly ideological piece masquerading as a non-controversial introduction to economics. Wheelan proclaims that economics is amoral and apolitical, and then goes on to give very detailed political descriptions about what government should be. He also seems attached to the false dichotomy of 'free' markets vs. communist state economies - though he does recognize that the neoconservative vision that markets will operate efficiently without government is, as he puts it, 'nonsense.'

I wanted to rea

Apart from news articles, the last time I read any book on economics was high school. I found Naked Economics explained how Western (primarily US) economic systems worked in very simple, easy to understand language. Particularly in these troubled times, learning how the Federal Reserve and other government agencies try to tweak the economy to encourage fairness and stability. He is unabashedly pro-trade and explains his stance well, which helped me to understand it, though I can't say he address ...more

"Charles Wheelan Tells It Like It Is" would be an equally appropriate title for this fucking awesome overview on all things economic in this world. As someone who's read more than a few of the popular economics books currently glutting the market, and as a economics major in college, I was skeptical that this book could teach me anything I didn't already know or entertain me with wry anecdotes. What surprised me was actually that: the wry anecdotes and useful explanations such as what "fast-trac ...more

Sometimes I think it is a fool’s errand to study economics and hope for enlightenment. Much economics knowledge is too simple for that goal—for example, the relationship of supply and demand to prices. Such facts are easy to grasp through direct personal experience. But beyond that, actual enlightenment never comes, because, as everybody knows, economics is not a science. Economists can’t even analyze the past with any precision or unanimity, much less the future. Because I thought highly of the ...more

The book is an interesting primer on economics. It is no doubt ideological but the author has given strong arguments for the ideological position he has taken. The book, however, is limited as it is only good for understanding market based economy. It doesn't shed light on feudalism and tribal societies economics and the complex socio-political and economic relations such societies wield. Apart from such limitations, the book convincingly give arguments for free trade, globalization and market b ...more

Scariest book I've read in a while. Econ for people who never took Econ in school, what were we thinking?! A good read for anyone, a must read for young adults. Start investing, kids. ...more

UPDATE (06/08/13):
I reread Charles Wheelan's Naked Economics, revisiting it now about four years later. It is still one of my favorite books, but I do have a more modest perspective of it now. I'll try to provide a better summary of Wheelan's book than I did four years ago.

A market economy is really just a name for the transaction of buying and selling goods and services, and the scarcer the goods and services and the more demand, the more people are willing to pay for them. This explains in par

"One of the fallacies of poverty is that developing countries are poor because they have rapid population growth. In fact, the causal relationship is best understood going the other direction:Poor people have many children because the cost of bearing and raising children is low. Birth control, no matter how dependable,works only to the extent that families prefer fewer children. As a result, one of the most potent weapons for fighting population growth is creating better economic opportunities f ...more

I would like to thank my AP Economics teacher for recommending such a piece of shit :) It was a time well spent!

Great primer on the often dull world of economics. No charts, calculus, or arcane math, lots of good examples of problems and issues that we all are affected by but don't have much understanding of. Things like the Fed, interest rates, trade balances, taxes, etc are covered and made easy to process. My biggest problem is the lack of discussion of things like outsourcing, debt, and currency issues and how they are actually affecting our economy. I'd like to see a book that is not so theoretical o ...more

I may or may not have just skimmed it instead of reading it.

If you are like me, you have a vague sinking feeling from not having the gumption to pick up, let alone complete, Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century. You know somewhere deep down inside that an impressive tome by an erudite French economist would be just the ticket to help you thoughtfully contribute to the conversation at that gathering of MBAs, or progressives, or rich relatives that you somehow find yourself attending over the year. But you also know that, given the choice b ...more

Isn’t it fascinating that an emotionless discipline like economics can make people so incensed that they send economists hate mail? This is just one of the fun tidbits I learned from this compelling deep dive into basic economics. The book is full of anecdotes, studies, and examples (including the 2007 recession) that bring economics to life and make it approachable, interesting, and provocative.

For some reason Econ 101 was not a required course in the Humanities Department 😂 and I am pleased to

If you are interested in learning about economics but find the topic somewhat confusing and boring, this book breaks down the major concepts in a way that makes it interesting and understandable. Wheelan is a witty and sarcastic man which added greatly to his stories and real life examples he used when supporting topics within economics. I am highly interested in developmental economics and his chapter on this topic broke down common misconceptions that people may have about developing countries ...more

This is a fantastic economic primer which skillfully introduces the reader to the most important economic concepts in a humorous and mostly detached manner. There are of course some minor things that I would take issue with, especially some simplified categorizations - but I trust that Wheelan is quite aware of this and has not done this in order to shoehorn any of his own ideas, but rather to make life simpler for the reader. I'm now working my way through more complex books on economics, which ...more

This dude is so stupid.... UGH

Grabbed this one from a friend, Nate, who kept a hold of it long after his Econ 101 course and, well, I'm glad he did!

Wheelan starts of by addressing the fact that many students who are forced to take Econ 101, or even do so by choice, are instantly turned away from the subject by dry texts, boring teachers and a heavy dependence on the mathematical aspects of the science.

In Naked Economics, Wheelan promises to not only offer a broad overview of this overlooked science but do so in turn without

I love how Charles Wheelan explains concepts. But sometimes I hate how he goes over and over about explaining some concepts.

The book is a great read to anyone who has any remote interest in how the world of economics works. This is the first economics-related book I read, but it won't be the last. It shows how economics affects global decisions (and how decisions affect economics) as well as the micro and individual level.

I feel so much enriched after reading the book, and I am going to read sl

The title itself of the book is intriguing, but reading the book is funnier than people would think just hearing the word “economics”, because lets face it for some students even professionals the topic economics is boring. This book is a surprise, I had fun reading this that I was not able to put it down. As Book Magazine said “Explains our global economy in a way that is (gasp!) actually entertaining.”, with that kind of review who in their right mind would not be allured in reading this book. ...more

For a book on economics I found this hilarious. It wasn't hilarious in the sense that he didn't know what he was talking about but hilarious in that he made writing about economics funny--his writing style is the key. He is very knowledgeable about his topic and I found myself thoroughly enjoying it because he didn't bore you. His writing was engaging, humorous, thorougly researched, instructive, and knowledgeable. If you want to learn more about economics I suggest this book. ...more

A basic and informative introduction to economics with no equations, charts, graphs, and not many numbers. Sometimes the breezy journalistic style gets annoying, but overall, a decent book.

First of all, this is definitely not a 5 star book but I really appreciate the fact that it does what it says.The book presents every major aspect of an economy based on capitalism.The author is an American and even got involved in politics, so you should expect a very subjectivist point of view on how the economy should work under capitalism.Although he is a militant of it and globalization he underlines a few problem of them and also shows a few ideas about future.

A fun quote:
"Paul Krugman has

I don’t consider myself ignorant of economics. I did in fact study economic history in college and did quite well in the one MBA course (accounting) I had to take for my graduate degree. Not that any of those qualifies me as an economist (or even impresses anyone) but I came to this book with some background. The part I did not really understand was economic policy. Before this book I only knew what politicians expounded upon around election season (typically a promise to lower taxes and a hint ...more

Making economics accessible to the non-economist is a formidable task, but it's a crucial one in a democracy, because economic illiteracy is the bane of sound public policy, and the people shouting the loudest on both sides of the political divide are the ones most afflicted by it. I modestly consider myself reasonably economically literate, but I learned a good deal from this excellent layman's guide by The Economist's former Midwest correspondent.
There are, thankfully, no graphs or tables in t ...more

Economics can be a dense and heavy subject, and the author does an admirable job trying to liven it up and give concise and clear examples of the way economics affects our lives (2 stars)

However, his unending obsession with Seattle (chill my dude), his endorsement of sweatshops and child labor, and his callous dismissal of the problem of environmental externalities (-3 stars for above) did not endear this book to me.

I think there are better books out there, and probably much more recent and cu

Its a decent enough overview of the first semester of Econ 101, but the author is a potato.