#357 overall
Economics (3rd edition)
The Great Courses
1 recommender · 2 threads · recommended in 2 years, 2013–2020 · score 1.4
A survey lecture series on introductory economics taught by Professor Tim Taylor, covering micro and macro topics including how money and banking work. It is sold as a set of audio or video lectures from The Great Courses.
Commenters recommend it as a listenable, well-explained overview of economics, with one saying it was checked out from the library for a commute and later bought after a sale.
Business, Finance & Economicsbeginnerpaidvideo lectures#introductory economics#macroeconomics#microeconomics#monetary policy#tim taylor
Recommendations by year
20062026
Technically the Government prints currency, money is created by banks. It is a subtle distinction that is often irrelevant in microeconomics but it is an important distinction in macroeconomics.
If you have idle time when you can listen to lectures on audio, I highly recommend "Economnics" by The Great Courses[1] (which is currently on sale for $70 bucks for the DVD edition) Chapter 29 covers just this topic and it's fascinating.
[1] https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/economics-3rd-editio...
This presentation confuses money and currency. That is unfortunate because there are principles of monetary policy (like how much currency is in circulation) which are being conflated with currency issues (like how hard it is to counterfeit).
Bitcoin is a currency, which through a number of exchanges, can be exchanged for money. Because it is not legal tender for any economy, its economic value is entirely controlled by currency exchange. That will always makes it less stable than currencies that are backed by an economic entity (a nation-state, or perhaps at some point a multi-national corporation).
This is important to consider because currencies that are backed by an economic entity are only as strong as that entity is with respect to the global economy. That is why the Italian Lire tended to hyper-inflate but the Euro does not. The difference is that the Eurozone economy is stronger than the Italian economy by itself is.
I can whole heartedly recommend that people interested in Bitcoin visit the British Museum's display of the history of currency, and to invest in understanding the reasoning that economists go through in order to make the statements they make. I can recommend this course by Dr. Taylor [1] from The Great Courses catlog, I originally checked it out from the library to listen to on my commute but bought my own copy when they went on sale.
[1] http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.asp... -- "Economics, 3rd Edition" by Tim Taylor.
What a great question! I hope I can help.
The biggest differences in economic debates are not between people who have different viewpoints. The biggest differences are between people who have actually studied economics and know what they're talking about, and most people, who are saying things that don't make sense, and basing most of their arguments on misunderstandings and wishful thinking.
I find that just reading a lot of "real" economics from real economists will usually make everything you read much, much clearer, whether you come at it from the "left" or the "right". I also tend to find that most economists are significantly to the "right" of the standard populace, which would make it even better for your needs. (This could just be my biased reading habits, but I think not - I have other thoughts on the subject but they're not for now).
Now, how can you go about reading real economists? The best way is to actually study economics, which you can do either via online videos (plenty of them available) or reading a textbook. I recommend Mankiw's "Principles of Economics" textbook, it's very readable.
If you don't have the time/inclination for reading a whole textbook, the next best thing is to read more "introduction to economics" books. A few that I highly recommend:
1. Basic Economics - Thomas Sowell. Brilliant book, was my first introduction to real economics. Most people will say it's heavily biased to the "right", so could be good for your usecase, but keep it in mind.
2. Naked Economics - Charled Wheelan. A bit shorter and lighter than Sowell, but a great book. I think it's a lot more balanced.
3. Great Courses courses on economics (audiobooks). A good one to start with is "Economics" by Timothy Taylor.
After this you can dive deeper into specific questions/areas you care about, e.g. there are brilliant courses by the Great Courses on how the stock market works, etc. Very useful to know what's actually going on in the world.