Naked Economics

Wheelan, C. (2002). Naked economics: Undressing the dismal science. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

This book was written by Charles Wheelan, a lecturer in public policy at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. In Naked Economic, Wheelan explains, in layman terms, many different aspects of economics and how they affect everyday people and businesses. He explains how capitalistic economies, as compared to communistic economies, work. He discusses how creative destruction, though detrimental to many workers and businesses, is a necessary process in a healthy economy and overall is good in the long run. He explains how the government plays an important role in the economy in such areas as dealing with externalities, which refers to the gap between the private cost and the social cost of a behavior. Government also provides public goods, which are not feasibly provided by the private sector. He also states that government’s inefficiencies affect the economy and that the less the economy is left to the government, the better off the consumer and the market economy will be. Other subjects discussed include, the importance of human capital, GDP, inflation, recession, unemployment, poverty, income inequality, budget deficits and surpluses, and many more subjects. This is a very informative book that would be good for all managers and most consumers to read. It skims a lot of information and does not go into detail but it does give the reader a good overall understanding of how the economy works and how it affects most everyone and every business.