Book Report: Economix by Michael Goodwin

Looking for a primer on economics that’s not all addled economics gobbledy-gook that reads like Milton Friedman and puts you to sleep? Well, this graphic text book might be what you want if you want to understand socialism and capitalism and communism and any of the other ism trends.

Mr. Goodwin makes it very clear in concise and amusing language, who was Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Milton Friedman, and John Maynard Keynes and what they espoused…and what happened to a variety of governments and societies when any number of world leaders were influenced by their theories.

A major portion of the book discusses the changes in economic theory in the west and particularly the United States during the 20th Century and into the early 21st Century. It was published in 2012 so we don’t really get a glimpse of what has transpired since then. So of course FDR and LBJ and Reagan and Clinton and GWB and Obama have starring roles along with their economic advisors and the fed chairs of the period.

So for most of us, we have lived through these periods or had parents who did. That makes it rather interesting in hindsight and actually rounds out some of the modern American history that we studied along the way.

As I said, there is some humor here. The author pokes fun at himself and sometimes at the content. And he warns you when he’s going to get a little political…and yes this probably leans a bit further left than some of our readers. But it was a lot of fun to read and learn something at the same time. And the illustrations are as informative as the text and illustrate the points with a little sass as well. AND there’s a website if you want to catch-up!

So, I recommend this if you want to get a general overview on economics and government and recent history…and a laugh or two.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have been friends with the illustrator, Dan E Burr, for 50 years or so and we worked together at a number of establishments. And he’s provided a number of editorial cartoons to Blogging Blue over the years.

Share:

Related Articles

1 thought on “Book Report: Economix by Michael Goodwin

Comments are closed.