Review: 'The Instant Economist' by Timothy Taylor

This review was written on 06th October 2020.
 
 
I started reading ‘The Instant Economist’ quite a while back. My Goodreads account says it’s been on my 'currently-reading' shelf since October 2019 but I’m sceptical – I’m sure I’ve carried the book to many a damp football session in Clapham long before then.

Anyway, the book starts off by introducing simple microeconomics concepts and then ramps up to discuss macroeconomics – we go from learning about basic supply and demand principles to discussing monetary policy, all in the space of around 250 pages.

There is a lot to like about this book. I had read two popular economics books before picking this up but this was the first that, while reading it, I had to close at times to think through the explanations, to work out whether a change in something would really lead to a change in some other thing, and to the same degree, as the author said it would. Most popular books on academic subjects aren't usually able to involve the reader, and the author, it often feels, is talking at you about something rather than discussing the topics with you and letting you work some things out for yourself as well. This book was different, as it really got me to think hard about what I was reading. Secondly, this was my first exposure to such fascinating concepts as ‘elasticity’, ‘externalities’ and ‘counter-cyclical fiscal policy’–after reading about this last one, I wondered what factors might prevent governments from employing it as much as they should or, rather, as much as I think (after reading one chapter on it!) they should–this is something I will try to read up on. Another marker of a good pop-academic book is that it should also lead you to ask important questions beyond its scope, and hence, seek out more resources to expand your understanding of the material.

This book is not something I would describe as a light read. The author’s arguments and explanations are very approachable for complete novices such as myself, but not lacking in subtlety, and you do have to pay attention and think through his logic and question his assertions. (In this, it reminded me of the Theoretical Minimum series on physics by Prof Leonard Susskind (one of the fathers of string theory) – ‘everything is made as simple as possible but no simpler’.) So, despite the book having a certain level of complexity, it’s nice that the author manages to discuss important issues which are apparent to non-economists as well, like poverty, welfare programs and inequality, and the environment and pollution. Moreover, he makes a very strong case for tackling these problems with nuanced policies which are an appropriate mixture of government policy and regulation, and free-market economics, as opposed to all-out, rather extreme options that, while trying to fix a particular problem, could create further issues.

My only issue with the book was its organisation though I really shouldn’t complain much. There were almost forty chapters covering just under 250 pages, so it didn’t feel like each topic was getting the detail it deserved. The lack of continuity between the chapters meant that I was not able to get into a steady flow while reading this, as the over-a-year reading time shows. But this was the compromise the author made–instead of an in-depth exposition on a specific topic, we get a wider scope of the material in which each concept gets explained briefly, but to a sufficient level that gives the reader a good enough idea of everything that enables them to go on to explore a topic of particular interest elsewhere. And in my opinion, the book does excellently in its objective of being a lively introduction to a broad range of ideas for the layperson that would otherwise be seen only in technical tomes and academic journals.
 

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