Another Good Economics Book: The Price of Everything

I've been hard put to recommend an economics book aimed at the layman, because I don't read many of them myself.  However, here's a wholehearted recommendation: Russ Roberts's The Price of Everything.  The book is written as a novel, though with lots of didactic conversations.  The book conveys very well how the economy really works. 

I confess that as a young professor, I emphasized the analytical tools that were complicated and neat.  Those would allow the student to eventually understand how prices coordinate production.  Roberts gets right to the heart of the matter, without the graphs and equations that I used to love to teach.  What's more, he adds the insights of Hayek, Nobel-winning insights that turn out to be far more important than the technical parts of economics.  Along the way, Roberts weaves in an interesting little mystery with interesting characters.

I bought the book as a birthday present for Mrs. Businomics, who has picked up a lot of economics through proximity, but has asked for a basic read on the topic.  After she finished it, I picked it up and really enjoyed it.

The other good economics books I've written about:

Don Boudreaux's 10 favorite economics books.

Greg Mankiw's reading list, with a few of my comments thrown in.

My comments on two books that appeared on Mankiw's reading list.

If you want to connect the dots between economics and your business decisions, also check out Businomics: From the Headlines to Your Bottom Line–How to Profit in Any Economic Cycle.