Honne No Keizaigaku: Kyōkasho Dewa Wakaranai Yononaka To Okane No Shikumi (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Suffers from a serious problem of masquerading as a relatively objective introduction, while the author seemingly can't help but interject his own biases. On several occasions, it is gallingly easy to spot examples of him framing something that worked well for an economy with a description of "free market," even though such a nebulous thing only exists in abstraction (and for which he never bothers to give a meaningful definition). Meanwhile, as quickly as a couple of sentences later when describing something bad that happened to the economy that could just as easily be described as being a product of the mythical "free market" to which he often refers, he'll avoid this descriptive phrasing in order to condition the reader into thinking that such an alleged "free market" couldn't have negative consequences. He also frequently makes off-hand remarks that would likely breeze by unnoticed in many cases, but which would actually really need a citation, such as claims about the Affordable Care Act's popularity (or rather claiming the lack thereof), which has demonstrated far from clear and consistent popularity in polling. In some cases, these oversights are relatively harmless. In others, it makes me skeptical of the author's intentions and professionalism.When talking about clearcut issues of fact, Ip does a fine job of explaining, but it seems to me that there is more editorializing than either the author intended or than this kind of introductory book should really contain. OK, this slim volume could be called Economics for Dummies. It tackles a bewilderlingly complex and arcane subject and tries to boil it down to a few simple essentials. No small task, especially for a little book. If you know any economics, it's probably too simple and you will probably disagree with parts of it. If know nothing about economics except that it's sometimes referred to as "the dismal science," it will probably make the subject seem a little less dismal. But it will also leave you thinking it's not a science at all. That's not to say that it doesn't achieve its objective. At times, it actually makes what can be a dry and boring subject interesting. The material is clearly presented, but clearly the subject matter is confusing and often contradictory. Hence, my favorite part of this book was the joke about the President who said he was going to start hiring only one armed people to be his economic advisors because all the ones he had so far kept following the advice they gave by saying "on the other hand..."
What do You think about Honne No Keizaigaku: Kyōkasho Dewa Wakaranai Yononaka To Okane No Shikumi (2011)?
Good overview of economics and finance sprinkled in with examples of current events.
—left2dafur1
Simple introduction to the economy and corresponding terminology.
—ferdinan
