Hi
Since I have been on the PIN I have developed a real interest in Economics- I should I suppose have studied it in college but I was a lazy Arts student!
I’d like to educate myself on the whole economics thing- anyone recommend a few good books?- nothing to heavy mind, just so that I can understand the basiscs
Theres a sticky thread on reccommended books in the Piston Broke
and don’t forget, Economics isn’t just about the money, it’s also about people both as individuals and in a group, seeing trends, looking at systems and understanding history!
Blue Horseshoe
The Undercover Economist and Freakanomics are fun places to start.
Fun? FUN!!!
We didn’t build this miracle of an economy by having FUN.
Start off with “The Wealth of Nations”.
The full Adam Smith original, not the cliff notes by P. J. O’Rourke
And while reading it you should kneel on a concrete floor.
Fun!!! Whatever next?
If you want to go on to be an actual economist, then you’ll need something a little different. I’d suggest this:
amazon.co.uk/Economics-Dummi … 0764557262
-Rd
PS
The two books mentioned by my honourable friend are indeed fun.
If you’re into that sort of thing. 
yay fun!
After fun I would suggest reading something on the Great Depression, shows you how wrong smart people can be.
“Confessions of an Economic Hitman” is fun. Its more about geo-politics, but has “Economic” in the title. Very easy read.
EDIT: And oh yeah, Economics is a social science, an Arts subject!
The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith.
Excellent read and you would not believe the parallels with our own house of cards.
Just as many VI’s back then spouting the same “its a new paradigm” nonsense.
A Short History of Financial Euphoria, J.K, Galbraith is easy to read and, surprisingly as the title suggests, short. Fewer than 120 pages all in.
If you fancy something meatier on the topic try Charles P. Kindleberger with Manias, Panics and Crashes, or if you want to take the Coke Patrick heavy reading approach De La Vega or Mackay.
Me, I’d stick with the short and fun if I were you. The two books by David McWilliams make the issues here accessible in “laymans terms” but are over simplified for some.
But there are plenty of suggestions on the mentioned thread.
Blue Horseshoe
I stand by my opinion that Freakonomics is a pile of steaming horse manure…
I’ll have to read “Hitman”, not done that yet…
I’ve read some of the recommendations in the book thread recently (know your enemy and all that), and I greatly enjoyed: Guns, Germs & Steel (Jared Diamond) and A Random Walk Down Wall Street (Burton G.Malkiel). Interesting stuff.
If I had to give you my recommendation, I would concur with Blue Horseshoe, context is equally important… As such, I’d recommend things like: Leviathan (Hobbes), The Prince (Machiavelli), The Iron Heel (Jack London), The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand), equally useful in building a perspective of the human psyche under various conditions…
Do a search for Krassimir Petrov on google video. He has posted a load of lectures there - he’s from the Austrian School of Economics.
Guns, Germs & Steel (Jared Diamond)…which one TUG?
Which is as discredited as the rest… 
Crash Proof : How to profit from the coming economic collapse, by Peter Schiff, is easy to read. It explains basic economic theory as seen by the supply-siders and explains how inflation is created by government and central bank debasement of a currency. Many of the predictions made about the US housing market, CDO’s, commodity prices etc. have already come to pass or are well underway. Buy Gold!
This is the best book written on Commodity bubbles and how stupid Bankers and how the dumb fucks always move in a herd .
amazon.com/Funny-Money-Mark- … 0618197273
Its very funny and sadly true and more sadly it proves that bankers will never learn.
Roll on the next bubble, OH! Commodities again IS it ??
It’s Shipping Commodities …
Sans Doute 
hitman comes across like a bit of a paranoid rant, probably some truth to it.