Real Rating: 3.5* of five

Not entertaining, not as dry as a textbook either. Densely packed tendentious freemarketeering with a curious blind spot to how its own examples undermine its Hayek-lite assumptions about how the economy (as though that was one readily definable, easy-to-encompass in words, entity) works and should work. I think any book that trumpets a viewpoint, eg "low taxes good" here, should be honest enough to mark this out as editorializing. More especially since their own chosen examples of, eg, businesses seeking tariffs on imported goods to protect their market share presented without the expected free-trader's opprobrium, sorta gives the lie to the book's claims to being "commonsense" since this violates their own oft-reinforced (I fought myself hard to strive for neutrality I do not feel by changing the word from the judgmental but truthful "repeated") statements supporting "low taxes good."

The revisions undertaken post-COVID really ought honestly to have been labeled "post-China falling from favor." As a policy guide, not recommended, then. But for an economics explainer of how neoliberal economics wants you to think it works...modern research undermines the existence of the core neoliberal concept of "rational actors"...it's solid and as easy as it can get. All my stars for that useful quality.

Stay skeptical, then, and remember any time someone wants you to think a system is infallible, or "self-correcting," or "maximizing efficiency," they're not just factually incorrect but wrong. Plus almost guaranteed to be manipulating you for their own (however broad a definition of "their" you care to apply) benefit.

Common Sense Economics
💰📈📚

✨ Disclaimer ✨

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the authors for this digital ARC! As always, my recommendation comes with my honest review and touchy topics listed below to help you make an informed decision.

✨ Review ✨

In Common Sense Economics, the authors take fundamental principles of economics and break them down into easier to understand chunks.

Even though I love school and graduated summa cum laude, I received B’s and C’s in my college economics classes because I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Economics is an extremely difficult subject for me.

At one point, I had myself, my husband, my brother and sister in law, and one of our friends (who has a degree in economics) working to help me on an assignment and I still had no idea what was going on. The amount of questions I ACTUALLY answered with “I have absolutely no idea how to solve this problem,” is cringeworthy. To this day, I have no clue how I passed those classes…

…and this book actually made sense to me! I had to pause a few times to read slower and make sure I was understanding, but a lot of the examples are applied to relatable situations and rely on the psychology of people and the study of society, which DO make sense to my brain!

If you are wanting to learn more about the ways products, money, and people work together in our society, whether for personal reading or additional academic support, I recommend this book!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Content: 🍓🍓🍓

~I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.~

✨ Touchy Topics ✨
The reason for the 3 🍓 rating is I personally believe this book would benefit those aged eighteen and older based on typical development and interest level.

#bookreview #bookstagram #arcreview #releaseday #pubday #netgalley #commonsenseeconomics

Rating Scale:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: PERFECT. Probably cried
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Wonderful, just not top 10
⭐️⭐️⭐️: Good! Most books fit here
⭐️⭐️: Not really my cup of tea
⭐️: Basically DNF

Content Scale:

🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓: Squeaky clean!
🍓🍓🍓🍓: Appropriate for most readers
🍓🍓🍓: Heavy topics, likely 18+
🍓🍓: Intense scenes about heavy topics
🍓: Tread lightly

Common Sense Economics is a very informative book on what everyone should know about wealth and prosperity.
They offer insight into political processes and the many ways in which economics informs policy, illuminating our world and what might be done to make it better.
An excellent read. I found this book to be very motivating and informative.

Thank You NetGalley and William Morrow for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Common Sense Economics by James D. Gwartney; Jane Shaw Stroup; Dwight R. Lee; Tawni Hunt Ferrarini; Joseph P. Calhoun was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. I have reached the point in my life where it is almost too late to be studying books and economics, at least for myself. This book is a book to read to help understand the "big picture," of economics. It includes descriptions on the effects of COVID on the worldwide economy and on the workplace. The book, broken down into four "chapters" offers insight into political processes. It would be nice of the "leaders" read and understood this to make the world better. Economics is difficult to comprehend but this book makers it much simpler to understand.

4 Stars

A fun sweet read! Highly recommend.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for my ARC.

Common Sense Economics provides clarity the complexities of economics. This book is easy to read and does a good job breaking down economics.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.
This is a good book for students and people who want to know how the world of economics works. It puts terms and theories in down to Earth examples and explains things in a way that is easy to understand and see in real life.
I would say the first part is mostly macroeconomics under the lense of a free market and has a neoliberal point of view.
The last part of the book I feel it has a better use for individuals as it touched the topic of personal finance. For people who are not necessarily in the world of investments it can give some general guidance on how to take care of your money.
I would have liked to see more of the new economic trends like Behavioral Economics or a deeper discussion on Green Economy and sustainable development but overall is a good book to start in the world of economics.

As someone with an MBA in Finance I enjoy reading about economics, so decided to review this book. It is well-written and would be a good introduction to economics for high school students or the average person without a great knowledge of the topic. They give lots of useful concrete examples, not just economic theory. I disagreed with the authors on some points, but overall found it to be a useful book.
I received an advanced copy from the publishers via NetGalley.

This was an interesting and informative read. The book is well written and researched. The topics covered are well developed and communicated in an easy to read manner. This is a good resource.

Thanks to the publisher for early access to this book. As a former employee of a large central bank, this book was an interesting overview of economic theory that is very approachable to readers at a variety of levels.

The authors cover a lot of ground in macroeconomics. While they claim this is common sense, there are still a lot of assumptions and conclusions based on a certain worldviews and political biases. For example, they say lower tax rates boost the overall economy. In this example, most argue that high tax rates reduce capital expenditures and expansion in hiring, etc. However, the authors give examples that show businesses make expenditures because high marginal tax rates (such as Britain’s 98 percent in the 1970s) actually boosted expenditures, boosting the economy because the tax savings paid for the expenditures. Likewise, common sense would tell you that a business owner will invest in an opportunity—buy equipment, hire employees—when the opportunity will make money, such as customer demand is increasing. Taxes will take a portion of the profit, but a big chunk will go into the business owner’s pocket or be reinvested for further growth. If a business owner has a money-making opportunity, and says to himself/herself, “Well, I’d do it if Congress would cut taxes” then that business owner is not showing common sense and is claiming to pass on business growth when demand is high.

There are a lot of platitudes in this book and reliance on the free market. They ignored their own discussion of how free markets led businesses to petition governments to restrict trade through licensing, certifications and other barriers for new entrants into the market space. They also ignored history that led to slavery for economic reasons, robber barons in the late 1800s as the Industrial Revolution heated up. Free markets meant low wages, unsafe workplaces, unsafe food, monopolistic pricing, and so on. Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the free market was also fooled by the “growth” of 1930s Germany and fueled Hitler’s militaristic expansion. Depending on abundance of resources, free trade can decimate national economies, or at minimum certain business sectors. We just have to look at how much of our consumer goods in the US are produced in China. Or as one person told me, “It costs me more to raise chickens in Haiti than the cost to import from the other side of the island, from the Dominican Republic.”

Surprisingly, they seem to totally ignore the work of Kahnemann, Tversky and Thaler who pointed out the irrational decision-making processes of consumers, business leaders and economists. Thaler mentions in an interview how even economists won’t drive 10 minutes to save $5 on a $400 item, but will drive that distance to save the same amount on a $20 item. The cost and savings are the same but the decision is different. Why? Anyone who pays attention understands that most of us in the real world don’t see common sense or rationality applied. But neither does this book.

An overview of the general economic principles offering key points on economics. This was more a refresher on economics for me. This is a quick read and flows well, might be good for younger students interested in economics.

ARC was provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review. Expected Pub Date: 30 July 2024
#NetGalley #CommonSenseEconomics

I used to, before I retired, teach college level economics, so perhaps this review is a little unfair. Also, I believe that the authors bit off more than they could chew. Their idea was to write an introductory economics textbook that was suited for HS and college level students, and while they succeeded admirably in their first task, they failed miserably in their second effort. This book is excellent for kids who are studying economics in HS, but it is too jejune for students who are in college.

Really breaks down the concepts of economics in a way that is understandable to the layman. This book is a good introduction and will be perfect for a first-year course at the high school level.

Read in a day, great actionable advice and really easy to digest, which usually isn't the case with these types of books. I'm glad I heard such good things because I don't think I would have picked this up otherwise, but am better for having read it!