Everyday Economics Made Easy - Grace Wynter

Author: Grace Wynter

Genre: Nonfiction, Economics.

Rating: 3 stars.

Reading this book reminded me a lot of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s 'Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.' Before the author and his team jump up in excitement (or wonder in confusion at what could connect economics and astrophysics), let me reproduce an excerpt from my review of the above book:

“The book aims at providing a “foundational fluency” in astrophysics. It certainly succeeds in that. But you must understand that this is Astrophysics 101, not Science 101. There’s a lot of “foundational fluency” that you already need to have in physics and astronomy before you pick this up. In other words, keep in mind that the title is not 'Astrophysics for Beginners' but 'Astrophysics for People in a Hurry'.”

I can simply tweak a few words of the above paragraph and give you the review for this book. In short, this is not Economics 101. Now comes the long version of my review.

Economics primarily assumes rational behaviour from an irrational species and is based on “all things being equal” in a dynamic environment where hardly anything is equal. Despite this, economics is probably the only social sciences to have as widespread a relevance and impact in the real world as the core sciences. As such, we cannot ignore economics and everyone needs to have at least some knowledge of it.

The book aims at providing “economic concepts in small, easily digestible pieces” and this aim is almost entirely met. (The problematic word is “easily”.) The content is really good and comprehensive. Beginning from basic economic systems and concepts such as demand and supply; the development of economics through the decades through the viewpoints of prominent economists; the practical side of economics such as taxes and its social impact; to more macroeconomic issues such as recessions and economics policies, the book tries to cover as much of economics as possible in order to maximise your utility. (See what I did there? 😛)

As someone who is more than familiar with the basics and even some advanced economics, I found the book quite interesting. It is very practical and sometimes, even humorous. There are plenty of quotes, “quick tips”, and trivia to lighten the topic and increase the impact. I enjoyed these additional info boxes even more than main content.

However, I wonder if the book justifies the claim of ‘everyday economics made easy.’ A major part of the main content (that is, not counting the add-ons such as trivia, brief bios of economists, quotes and the like) is very dense. The problem begins right at the start. When you want to spread an everyday understanding of a subject feared by the general public, you don’t begin with a historical listing of famous people associated with the subject and their economic theories! That’s the easiest way to either put people off the book or scare them away from the subject itself. The book doesn’t ease into day-to-day economics but dives in at the deep end and for most of the journey, stays at the deep end. There are case studies to help you understand the topic better but these too will work only if you have a certain grasp over the essentials.

In other words, I don’t think this book can work for a person who knows nothing about economics. It will click better with those who have already studied economics at some time in the past, have forgotten the basics and are looking for a resource to refresh their knowledge.

The last two years have been like the world has never seen. While humankind has been through many pandemics before, this was the first pandemic of the information age, where fake news went viral and genuine news was left unseen, where panic caused people to buy toilet paper in reams and fear made many stay away from vaccines. It is at such a juncture that economics and economic thinking is more necessary than ever before. This book does help in that aim, but as I said, you need to have grasp over the subject first.

I wish the approach of the main content of the book would have been more layperson-friendly, such as in “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything” or even in “The Undercover Economist.” The content in the text boxes is outstanding but a book can’t be read for the added textboxes alone. The tagline of the book—“ A Quick Review of What You Forgot You Knew“—makes its intention clear but I wonder how many will read that tagline before picking up the book as the title claims something else.

My thanks to Wellfleet Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “Everyday Economics Made Easy”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.