StickYourNeckOut: Money/Maher/What Is Economics? -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 5/24/2006
Last Visited: 7/24/2008
by John Maher
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Book Cover: 'What Is Economics' by John Maher
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"This little book," writes John Maher, "is my response to the persistent difficulty of saying plainly what economics is and what it is not."
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Maher explicitly rejects the "sum of the parts" approach, pointing out that one can stand among the economically literate without knowing a thing about the balance of payments provided one understands the principles of specialization and division of labor and could, if pressed, apply them to geographic entities which utilize different monetary units.
If Maher had done no more than to question that list of topics which commonly passes for an economics course, he would have made a real contribution.
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In one delightful chapter Maher examines the provocative mystery of who pays for the "free" light bulbs formerly distributed by Detroit Edison.At the close of nearly every chapter, he posits a number of open-ended, "off-beat" questions along with answers which the author would venture plus those answers given by a poll of professional economists.These questions and answers give another, rather whimsical, yet insightful and very human, picture of the "economic perspective" at work.
The fourteen-page section on macroeconomics is a bit weak, and the section on accounting seems quite superfluous.I would like to have seen the author apply his perspective to the phenomenon of money which remains the greatest barrier to thinking economically.These, however, are very small faults of commission and omission.Dr. Maher has written a very good book—a must for every social studies educator, every student of economics, and every professional economist concerned with the teaching and learning of his discipline.
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John Maher, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Finance at Southern Connecticut State University, is a contributor to several standard economics textbooks and a world traveler and lecturer, as well as co-founder of and contributor to StickYourNeckOut magazine.
What Is Economics?by John Maher may be purchased online at the following booksellers.In each case, a search on "author" (John Maher) locates the book faster than a search on "title". (We tried it!)