The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner My rating: 3 of 5 stars Took a while to finish this, due to some circumstances, so my memory of it is patchy. It’s a simple and brief history of economic thought. It’s primarily character-based, surveying the major personalities of economic thought in years past, and briefly covers their contributions to economics in the abstract. Not very informative in that regards, but that’s not the purpose of the book.

1 — Garlic There are many schools of economic thought, but neoclassical economics holds a near-monopoly over the subject. This is harmful because it also gives neoclassical ideas a chokehold over human thought. Our finances, and the economic ideas that influence them, greatly affect our ways of thinking. Chang argues that neoclassical economic ideas assume selfishness in every human and (perhaps like a self-fulfilling prophecy) perpetuate them in its implementation.

The Lesson Economics is a deeply contradictory field. At any given moment, you can find two experts arguing the opposite assertions. As an entire science, economics is difficult enough as is. But since money so deeply involves itself in our lives, and thus beholds itself to greed, economics is also hostage to ‘special interests’. Certain economic policies which would benefit one interest group are often not the problem–the problem occurs when these policies also negatively affect another interest group.

Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest & Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Henry Hazlitt My rating: 3 of 5 stars Not only is this book outdated, it’s also obviously ideological. Don’t read this book — get an Econ 101 textbook instead. You have to be generally wary of pundits who think they can explain an entire social science ‘in layman’s terms’ — but especially those who wrote 70 years ago!

Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World by Ha-Joon Chang My rating: 3 of 5 stars I agree with some of his points: that culture is not a determinant, but can itself be determined; hard-work and productivity are two different things, the latter more important; the importance of technology overcoming the scarcity of resources; his critique of the patent system, and so on. The policy prescriptions are also absolutely valid and are themselves consensus (which might make his supposed opposition to the economic mainstream more tenuous, but regardless).