Economics Books
"i'm absolutely a newcomer in economics and i wish to understand how things work around finance. This is a pretty loaded question. To understand finance, you need the basics of economics. In almost every economics school in the country, you first study microeconomics and then economics. So, we'll start with micro. One of, if not the, most popular books is ""Principles of Microeconomics"" by Mankiw. This book covers the fundamentals of micro econ (opportunity, supply, demand, consumer choice, production, costs, basic game theory, and allocation of resources) in a clear and effective manner. It's designed for the novice and very easy to read.   Like Mankiw's other book, ""Principles of Macroeconomics"" is also top notch. There is some overlap in key areas (i.e. opportunity cost, supply, demand, indifference curves, elasticity, taxation) because they are fundamental to economics and the overlap will always be there, but from there the book goes into key macro concepts like GDP, CPI, Employment, Monetary and Fiscal policy, and Inflation. An excellent intro primer indeed.   Now that you have the fundamentals down, it's time to learn about finance. The best resource, in my opinion, is ""Financial Markets"" by Robert Shiller on Open Yale Courses. I've personally taken Prof. Shiller's class last semester, and the man is brilliant. The lectures cover every single aspect of finance and can turn the complete novice into a fairly experienced finance student. The first lecture also covers all the math required so you don't get lost at any point. Be warned, however, that the course is very deep. We used Fabozzi's textbook ""Foundations of Financial Markets and Institutions,"" which is over 600 pages deep and we were required to know essentially all of it. Watch the videos and follow the readings and you'll be a finance whiz soon! Financial Markets on Open Yale  And that's your roadmap to what you want. There are other economics books and it's true that the first few chapters of both Mankiw books are largely the same, but that's because any economics course always covers the basics first. If you want to look at other books, Krugman has written some good books as well. Be sure to read reviews because some books are meant for 2nd/3rd year econ students, so you don't want to get a too advanced book. At the novice level, we're interested in understanding the basic concepts so we can master Fabozzi. As for finance books - Fabozzi teaches you all the fundamentals of financial markets so you've got a powerful foundation. From there you can expand to more niche books such as books on investing or on monetary policy or whatever you want. Best of luck!" Economics without math is a tall order, since it seems that one of the things economists love to do is try and reduce everything down to mathematical formulas.  OTOH you are asking about a lot of topics besides economics. A few books I might suggest would be those three should do a good job of introductory info and helping you understand the basics and vocabulary. If you want more, one of the better 'recommended reading lists' for things financial that I've ever found is here I followed Economics by Michael Parkin for my college level course. It does not involve very complicated mathematics (beyond simple arithmetic and interpreting plots/charts). I found it very enjoyable.  Stocks, bonds, and other money market instruments are not covered under this subject usually. They are covered under finance. I normally recommend Hull to people but because you are not interested in mathematics I would recommend Stuart R Veale. The free Yale Course taught by Bob Shiller called Financial Markets is really good. Find it on youtube, iTunes U, academic earth, or yale's site.
It seems to me that 99% of the problems that keep economics from being considered a real science is that it obstinately sticks to using polyanna, unrealistic models to illustrate real-world behavior.  Don't be surprised if that doesn't work and completely fails to predict major market events. Well, yeah, but did they affect *everything* equally?  You don't get two houses, one for your extra worker, so it decreases demand for the *number* of houses relative to the number of workers.  A textbook author or journalist authors the same book or newspaper article; it's just printed more times.  It does cause a shift in what types of labor are in demand relative to supply. "Economics is built on the assumption that people make rational decisions based on the desire to increase their economic well-being. While economists have long known that isn't strictly true, Thaler was a pioneer in studying why people sometimes make irrational decisions, and how they can be encouraged to make smarter ones. He's made economics more human,"" said Peter Gärdenfors, a member of the commitee that awarded the prize.""    So how come the business world still ignores him? And treat humans like machines?" So what you’re saying is that the undergrad level text (fundamentals of blablabla) is good enough to get a decent understanding of the concepts?  I’m a bit confused of the two bcs for e.g. take Hull, the grad level book is more widely recommended. I’ll graduate very soon, enter the workforce, and plan to go to a grad school several years down the line. Now, being in a sort of break point, I’m not sure which one I should go for. I do have an exposure to read some finance texts, but not a lot—introductory chapters here &amp; there—and would prefer texts that are not super dry.  What do you think? #####&amp;#009;  ######&amp;#009;  ####&amp;#009;  [**Progress and Poverty**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress%20and%20Poverty): [](#sfw)   ---  &gt;  &gt;___Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy___ was written by [Henry George](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_George) in 1879. The book is a [treatise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treatise) on the [cyclical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_cycle) nature of an industrial [economy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy) and its remedies.  &gt;====  &gt;[**Image**](https://i.imgur.com/b8JhYJK.jpg) [^(i)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_George2.jpg) - *Henry George, author of Progress and Poverty.*  ---  ^Interesting: [^Henry ^George](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_George) ^| [^Georgism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism) ^| [^Climate ^change ^and ^poverty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_and_poverty) ^| [^Business ^cycle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_cycle)   ^Parent ^commenter ^can [^toggle ^NSFW](http://www.np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=autowikibot&amp;subject=AutoWikibot NSFW toggle&amp;message=%2Btoggle-nsfw+cjg6y18) ^or[](#or) [^delete](http://www.np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=autowikibot&amp;subject=AutoWikibot Deletion&amp;message=%2Bdelete+cjg6y18)^. ^Will ^also ^delete ^on ^comment ^score ^of ^-1 ^or ^less. ^| [^(FAQs)](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/wiki/index) ^| [^Mods](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1x013o/for_moderators_switches_commands_and_css/) ^| [^Magic ^Words](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1ux484/ask_wikibot/) Here is a list of threads in other subreddits about the same content:   * [Wealth Management Products in China [pdf]](https://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/78kwt4/wealth_management_products_in_china_pdf/) on /r/Economics with 3 karma (created at 2017-10-25 10:50:52 by /u/LtCmdrData)  ----   ^^I ^^am ^^a ^^bot  ^^[FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/DuplicatesBot/wiki/index)-[Code](https://github.com/PokestarFan/DuplicateBot)-[Bugs](https://www.reddit.com/r/DuplicatesBot/comments/6ypgmx/bugs_and_problems/)-[Suggestions](https://www.reddit.com/r/DuplicatesBot/comments/6ypg85/suggestion_for_duplicatesbot/)-[Block](https://www.reddit.com/r/DuplicatesBot/wiki/index#wiki_block_bot_from_tagging_on_your_posts)  ^^Now ^^you ^^can ^^remove ^^the ^^comment ^^by ^^replying ^^delete! I don’t think you know what is right or wrong.  This is the third time you’ve called me out, and the third time you were mistaken.  The starving man is starvinf because he lacks food.  Give him a million dollars in the middle of Antarctica, and he will still starve.  These false equivalences you have presented above are where so many of our problems come from.  People forget the value of reality over currency.  The Mother’s affection does have monetary value.  It just isn’t so easily quantifiable.  See: Psychiatrists and Psychologists.  They make money off these issues.  The financial value can be seen in the correction of the consequences from lack of affection.  To PAY for affection, trust, loyalty, so many of the “social” properties we rely on, though, negates some or all of their value.  You assume so many rules that just aren’t supported by reality.  Your economic theories seem to fail when faced with the nuances of reality, especially those economics has ignored.  That’s my opinion, anyway. &gt; By volume?  % of GDP  &gt; this is a relative term  relative to other countries. ie soviet union, european nations, ...  &gt; I'm pretty sure everything you know of economics comes from Econ 101, Ayn Rand or both.  i was an econ minor at northwestern (pretty much all Keynesian teaching). i also read a lot of stuff by various austrian economists.   &gt; I'm not going to spend 10 minutes diagramming this sentence.  there's nothing wrong or untrue about that sentence Internet sites Books Academic Those are the three books that were considered fundamental at my university: Investments - Zvi Bodie (Author), Alex Kane (Author), Alan Marcus (Author), Stylianos Perrakis (Author), Peter Ryan (Author) This book covers the basics of financial markets. It explains how markets work, general investing principles, basic risk notions, various types of financial instruments and their characteristics and portfolio management principles. Futures and Options markets - John C. Hull This book goes more in depth into derivatives valuation and the less common / more complex instruments. The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities This books covers fixed income securities. In all cases, they are not specifically math-oriented but they do not shy away from it when it is called for. I have read the first and the other two were recommended by professors / friends now working in financial markets. I'll add Robert Shiller's [Irrational Exuberance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_Exuberance_(book) too, to summarize the recent era of Wall Street booms and busts.   The best books I've ever read on finance are [Nassim Taleb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb)'s. But they're mostly about his own analysis of financial phenomena, and they approach financial history mostly from that highly unique viewpoint. "there's a planet money podcast interview with him from a few years back that gives a good glimpse into the framework of his economic thoughts worth checking out.  he also wrote a book caller ""fault lines"" that is definitely worth the read." You can go to Goodwill or a used book store in town and find a college level textbook  Economics courses are usually broken down into General Econ, Micro Econ and Macro Econ...  after those you can into more focus aspects of economics like Economies of Scale and history..  You can look up more about opportunity costs, supply and demand, guns and butter.. that's what I remember from my General Econ courses.   --- Also, this sub doesn't really have anything to do with Economics as far as academics goes.  It's more about the current events of economic policy. "Chicken or Egg? -----  Demand alone is not enough.   Else famines would never happen, food would just magically appear in response to people's (overwhelming) desire to consume same.  Likewise, Supply alone is insufficient as well: there are plenty of products and services that are produced, but which are unwanted and go unused.  An ECONOMY is just a conceptual aggregate of countless thousands, millions and billions of individual (and often distinct) acts of matching up Supply WITH Demand.  The fundamental error of aggregate-level ""economics"" is imagining that all of those interactions can be controlled as if they were somehow homogenous when they are everything but." Not exactly nonfiction, but [Reminiscences of a Stock Operator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reminiscences_of_a_Stock_Operator) is a can't-skip portrait of the very early days of Wall Street (early 20th century). It's a narrative memoir, not a work of analysis, which makes it an easy read.   If you're looking for something more analytical and recent (but not too recent), the can't-skip recommendation I would make is Burton Malkiel's [A Random Walk Down Wall Street](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Random_Walk_Down_Wall_Street).   If you're looking for something more in the biographical range, I'd look for a biography of the man who's had the most influence on the theory of portfolio construction, [Harry Markowitz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Markowitz). I don't have any titles to recommend here, although [this brief biography](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1990/markowitz-bio.html) might help you decide how to proceed.