Lately, I’ve become increasingly interested in economics. It’s not that I want to become an economist, but market principles are useful in many areas. What’s especially interesting is that back when I was a student, I had no interest in economics at all. In fact, I failed my second-year exam miserably and had to retake it in August. But by the time of the retake, I knew the material inside out. Perhaps that’s when my gradual interest in reading about economics started.
The book Economics: The User’s Guide by Ha-Joon Chang came highly recommended to me by various platforms (“you might like this”) and colleagues alike. Supposedly, it covers everything. The book certainly has a strong marketing presence. The author is originally from South Korea but currently lives and teaches in Cambridge. He’s consulted for many well-known banks, and the president of Ecuador almost worships him.
Besides teaching at one of the most renowned British universities, the author is also passionate about writing books on economic topics, and many of them become bestsellers.
But enough about the author—let’s talk about the book. As the title suggests, in Economics: The User’s Guide, Ha-Joon Chang attempts to tackle the impossible—explaining everything about economics. He doesn’t just cover the workings of modern economics; to help understand it, he provides an overview of the history of capitalism and briefly describes all the existing economic schools.
And here lies what I think is the book’s main flaw. In his pursuit of a comprehensive explanation, the author delves into excessive detail. As a result, the book loses its target audience. If it was intended for those who are already “in the know,” they likely already understand much of the material and don’t need such explanations. But if it was meant to make complex ideas accessible to the general reader, it also fails in that respect. Someone like me quickly gets bogged down in the sheer volume of specific details. Honestly, I struggled to get through the descriptions of all the economic schools and their differences, even though I had already read about them before.
On top of that, the language is very dry—closer to an academic paper than popular science. It’s a strange experience; the subject itself is interesting, but getting through all the dry facts to reach the interesting knowledge is tough.
In the end, I finished the book, but with great difficulty. Some of my acquaintances got stuck halfway through about a year ago and still can’t finish it.
As for engaging popular science, I’d recommend the more unconventional Hoolinomics by Alexey Markov, which I’ve already written about. For a more detailed treatment, Economics by McConnell and Brue is still my top pick (and funnily enough, that’s the textbook I used to prepare for my retake back in 1996).
My rating: 2.5/5
