Let’s face it. Our economy is a mess, and getting worse by the day. Not for the billionaires, but for the other 99% of us with modest goals, trying to pay our bills and enjoy a few treats every now and again. Economics seems daunting and way about most of our understanding, but Yaruss presents a more approachable study of the field with this book, exploring the way that it works and asking/answering questions such as, Why is inequality soaring and what can we do about it? Do tax cuts for the wealthy create jobs or just create more inequality? Where does money come from, why does it have value, and who controls it? What does the Fed do and how does it affect our lives? Could alternative currencies like Bitcoin replace the dollar? Is our national debt a threat? Why do so many people believe free trade is good if it causes some people to lose jobs? Why does the economy regularly turn down and how can we get it back on track? And others.

I’ve had a passing interest in economics the last ten years or so and even considered going back to school to study it, but then I realized that would probably make me hate it, even if I understood it a little more, so I seek out books like this one, ones that make sense and approach the topic realistically and directly. I learned a lot from this book, and I definitely recommend it if you’re looking to understand our economy a bit better but want to avoid all of the confusing jargon designed to keep regular people confused.

Before I retired I used to teach college-level economics and I can tell you that this horrible book misses the mark completely. Proof of this is that the author's original title was "Economics for Activists". Mr. Yaruss' main point is that income and wealth inequality has been rising when the opposite has been the case. For the last 100 years, ALL measures of inequality in the US have been converging and the same has been true for the rest of the world for the last 50 years as many developing nations abandoned socialism.

I enjoyed this book. I found the writing very clear and done in such a way that a background in finance or economics isn’t necessary to understand and enjoy this book. I also found the writing compelling and it was hard for me to put the book down. Howard Yaruss writes with a conversational tone and with some humor. I found the book rather more prescriptive than just descriptive but I was fine with this as Yaruss supports his points with studies. Thank you to Netgalley and Rowman & Littlefield, Prometheus for the advance reader copy.