The Economics Book Big Ideas Simply Explained

The Economics Book Contents

• Let the trading begin
• The age of reason
• Industrial and economic revolutions
• War and depressions
• Post-war economics
• Contemporary economics

Introduction to The Economics Book Big Ideas Explained

Few people would claim to know very much about economics, perhaps seeing it as a complex and esoteric subject with little relevance to their everyday lives.

It has been generally felt to be the preserve of professionals in business, finance, and government. Yet most of us are becoming more aware of its influence on our wealth and wellbeing, and we may also have opinions often quite strong ones about the rising cost of living, taxes, government spending, and so on.

Sometimes these opinions are based on an instant reaction to an item in the news, but they are also frequently the subject of discussions in the workplace or over the dinner table. So to some extent, we do all take an interest in economics.

The arguments we use to justify our opinions are generally the same as those used by economists, so better knowledge of their theories can give us a better understanding of the economic principles that are at play in our lives.

Economics in the news

Today, with the world in apparent economic turmoil, learning something about economics seems more important than ever.

Far from occupying a separate section of our newspaper or making up a small part of the television news, economic news now regularly makes the headlines.

As early as 1997, the US Republican political campaign strategist Robert Teeter noted its dominance, saying, “Look at the declining television coverage [of politics].

Look at the declining voting rate. Economics and economic news are what moves the country now, not politics.”

Yet how much do we really understand when we hear about rising unemployment, inflation, stock market crises, and trading deficits? When we’re asked to tighten our belts or pay more taxes, do we know why?

And when we seem to be at the mercy of risk-taking banks and big corporations, do we know how they came to be so powerful or understand the reasons for their original and continued existence? The discipline of economics is at the heart of questions such as these.

The study of management

Despite the importance and centrality of economics to many issues that affect us all, economics as a discipline is often viewed with suspicion. A popular conception is that it is dry and academic, due to its reliance on statistics, graphs, and formulas.

The 19th-century Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle described economics as the “dismal science” that is “dreary, desolate, and, indeed, quite abject and distressing.”

Another common misconception is that it is “all about money,” and while this has a grain of truth, it is by no means the whole picture. So, what is economics all about?

The word is derived from the Greek word Oikonomia, meaning “household management,” It has come to mean the study of how we manage our resources, and more specifically, the production and exchange of goods and services.

Of course, the business of producing goods and providing services is as old as civilization, but the study of how the process works in practice is comparatively new.

It evolved only gradually; philosophers and politicians have expressed their opinions on economic matters since the time of the ancient Greeks, but the first true economists to make a study of the subject did not appear until the end of the 18th century.

At that time the study was known as “political economy,” and had emerged as a branch of political philosophy.

However, those studying its theories increasingly felt that it should be distinguished as a subject in its own right and began to refer to it as “economic science.” This later became popularized in the shorter form of “economics.”

A softer science

Is economics a science? The 19th-century economists certainly liked to think so, and although Carlyle thought it dismal, even he dignified it with the label of science.

Much economic theory was modeled on mathematics and even physics (perhaps the “-ics” ending of “economics” helped to lend it scientific respectability), and it sought to determine the laws that govern how the economy behaves, in the same way, that scientists had discovered the physical laws underlying natural phenomena.

Economies, however, are man-made and are dependent on the rational or irrational behavior of the humans that act within them, so economics as a science has more in common with the “soft sciences” of psychology, sociology, and politics.

Economics was perhaps best defined by British economist Lionel Robbins. In 1932, he described it in his Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science “the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.” This broad definition remains the most popular one in use today.

However, the most important difference between economics and other sciences is that the systems it examines are fluid.

As well as describing and explaining economies and how they function, economists can also suggest how they ought to be constructed or can be improved.

The Economics Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained) 

Author(s): DK Publishing

Publisher: DK Publishing, Year: 2014

ISBN: 9781465438393,9780756698270

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