All who vote should learn some basic economics. We hear economic arguments in poltical discourse so often it is a same more people don't understand the fundamentals. Take, for example, Cap and Trade. Cap and Trade is a policy solution to the problem of externalities associated with energy consumption. In non-economic terms, before C&T there is no financial incentive to pick a greener energy source if it costs exactly the same as a less green source. C&T is a way to combat this by auctioning off the amount of pollution allowed by companies in the US as a whole. If a company wants to produce more dirty energy, they can. It will just cost more becuase they have to buy more carbon credits, the credits that allow them to produce pollution. This cost gets passed on to consumers by making dirtier fuels more expensive. In other words, now there is an incentive to use greener fuels.

This kind of free market solution to pollution is exactly the kind of thing addressed by the fundamentals taught in this textbook. If you're curious about politics and want to know more about economics, I highly recommend this book. Don't try to learn economics from newspapers or blogs. Instead, learn it from an economist. Buy their textbooks! That's why they write them! ( )

I learned a lot from the book, without ever once feeling preached at.

(Full review at my blog) ( )

http://malaysianatheist.blogspot.com ( )