Enjoyable high level economics course

Good course for a refresher or introduction with broad but reasonably high level content. Deliver is engaging, enthusiastic and sometimes entertaining. Originally delivered around 20 years ago some aspects are a bit dated or lack more recent developments. However, if this is taken into account when listening the historical context adds an extra dimension of interest.

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Economics as it should be taught...

If you could sum up Economics, 3rd Edition in three words, what would they be?

Economics explained, understood

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

Which scene did you most enjoy?

N/A

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

GW Bush's tax cut policy as an example of the difficulty of discretionary fiscal policy drove the point home.

Any additional comments?

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1 person found this helpful

great audio book

loved it. Timothy Taylor is awesome, his explanations are clear and he makes it interesting and engaging to listen to.

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Listen if seeking an understanding of economic.

A whole lot of information, gives a lot of clarity on American centered economic issues and how the US economy affects the rest of the world.

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Introduction to Economics

I think it is very difficult to give an over view of economics in a short course although this is a good attempt. For an economics novice like me it would be better if historical examples were given as well as a bit more on the people behind economic theory eg Keynes and Freedman. A comparison between theories would have been helpful to provide analysis. I feel this should have been longer than the current length. It did leave me wanting a bit more of an explanation.

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Very good introduction to the dismal science

I came to this course slightly skeptical because of the topic. Economics is a subject that uses graphs and formulae a lot and so can tend to not lend itself well to audio without video. However, Prof. Taylor does a brilliant job of avoiding these issues. When a graph is unavoidable (e.g. supply and demand), he describes it simply and it is very easy to get what he is saying. As for equations, I think there are only two in the course and they are extremely simple and he explains them in words very well.

The course is split between micro- and macro-economics. The first half is micro- so people and businesses and how we interact. This section was incredibly interesting, but I found a lot of it was already in my brain due to Planet Money podcasts. However, hearing the actual definitions and a wealth of examples made the ideas much more solid and understandable.

The macro- side was absolutely brilliant. The lectures were written before the '07 crash but the theory remains incredibly relevant. This course left me with a much better understanding of the global financial situation, and the differing opinions on how to sort out the various problems. There are even a couple of painful moments where he mentions in passing important causes of the crash and how they concern him!

Economics can be a dry subject. I would definitely not suggest sitting down and listening to these lectures in bulk. However, if you want to understand the news, how businesses think and how you should act with regards to your economic environment, this is a perfect place to start. The Prof also does keep the mood light. I certainly will be looking at the other economics great courses to see more in depth topics.

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8 people found this helpful

Good introductory reference/guide to Economics

The 36 lectures (each around 30 minutes) are nicely laid out/presented. Timothy nicely provides structure by starting with the usual microeconomic lectures (lectures 1-18), then this transitions to macroeconomics/international economics in lectures 19-36.

I say he gets it right when explaining economics issues/topics, by providing the definitions and the details first, then the case studies/examples towards the tail-end of the lectures. This made it easy to review the topics afterwards in the guide and capture the key points.

If you want learn some solid foundations about the economy and become an individual with some economic knowledge to contribute to the debate, look no further than these lectures.

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Excellent

Excellent, comprehensive package, very well delivered. Understandably focused on the US economy as a vehicle for example, but wholly relevant to all and with plenty of international reference.

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Economics turns out to be interesting

A fantastic course and a lot more interesting than I expected, the course came out in 2006, so before the 2008 crash, and is thus quite optimistic about certain things. The first half is about micro economy e.g. how salaries are set, how supply and demand operate etc. This was my favourite part and very eye opening and easy to understand. The second half is about macroeconomics i.e. the economy as a whole so tax policy, trade policy, government policy etc, the second half helped me to understand a lot of issues that we face every day and the tradeoffs that are involved, this side is a bit harder to understand and thus sometimes a bit dry, but it's extremely important stuff and the professor explains it very clearly.

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Good introduction

As a beginner to economics I found this to be a good introduction to the subject. It's mostly easy to understand (though with a few more confusing lectures) and I definitely feel I know a lot more than I did when I started. I now read news articles relating to the economy and at least somewhat understand what they're talking about. I think this is a good foundational course to get started which I will build on with other resources.


I was disappointed to see no mention of other possible economic systems, but as far as I'm aware that's par for the course for a lot of economics lectures. It was also quite dry at times and could have benefitted from more examples of how people are affected in the real world to keep it more engaging. It also feels a bit dated sometimes since it's from 2005, and it's VERY US-centric.


Overall it was worth listening to though.

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