I included this book in my book: The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. www.100bestbiz.com. ( )

If you have read books like Freakonomics, Logic of life and want to start getting serious about economics, this book is great to start with.

Concepts of economics are explained with not a single graph in the entire book :), and in a very entertaining manner. ( )

Macroeconomics is really world politics; if you understand markets, incentives, and government and meta-government entities like the Federal Reserve and the International Monetary Fund, then you'll understand the news of current events. _Naked Economics_ is a readable, logical, and lucid explanation of these topics.

Don't be put off by the jacket blurbs. I was concerned that an economics book touted as "laugh-out-loud funny" would be another one of those fluff armchair-economics books that try to divert you by presenting one confounding and counter-intuitive puzzler after another (a la _Freakonomics_ and _More Sex is Safer Sex_). Those books can be entertaining, but I haven't found that they improve or deepen my understanding of politics and world events. _Naked Economics_, on the other hand, drives exactly at that deeper understanding. A side effect of being authored in 2001, it is eerily prescient about topics like auto-industry bailouts and courting deflation when you push interest rates around too much.

No, I wouldn't say this book is "funny." Instead, it's like getting a clear explanation of some obtuse topics from your cool, hip friend, in a way that makes you feel smarter when you've finished. ( )

I gave it a 4 for an economics book which is saying something , but this is not equivalent to a 4 for ....say ....an ANNE Rice novel. But as an economics book , this easily digestible primer , is not only informative but mildly amusing. The author explains the theories and tenets of economics without boring you to tears. I believe I have more of a complete understanding of economics as some of the blanks in my comprehension of this subject has been filled. I recall one of my first book adventure capitalist as a fun economics book that tauted free trade , but this book truly explains why it works. ( )

Lucid and amusing, Naked Economics provides an excellent, engaging introduction to the subject for the novices, math-phobes, and lovers of good writing among us. It's perfect for providing some conceptual understanding to those, like me, who remain curious about the workings of the world, yet whose formal education didn't take in what it should have. (Or who didn't take in what we should have, during them!) As the title playfully suggests, this is economics stripped of the impeding charts, equations, and graphs, leaving essential, exciting concepts visible in all their naked glory. They're bared to a point of great liveliness and accessibility.

I finished feeling a sense of comprehension I wish I could pay Wheelan for, far beyond the price of the book. Never again will my eyes glaze at a mention of the Federal Reserve; nor will I be confounded by the failure of certain bright and altruistic ideas I wanted to work; nor the success of peculiar, minor special interest groups; nor the continued dominance of McDonald's, to the detriment of the intriguing place next door (not that this one flummoxed me, but he does dissect it beautifully, in 'The Economics of Information'). Never again will I approach an economy dogged by the vague, yet dispiriting sense that within each only a fixed number of jobs does or could exist. And so on, ad infinitum.

I thought the chapter 'Trade and Globalization' especially illuminating, as Wheelan makes an excellent case for the benefits of international trade running both ways, even when they look disadvantageous to the poorer countries, or involve lost jobs in the wealthier. It's not without genuine downsides in the short term, and for individuals, which is neither minimized or overlooked; but he puts his points about the overall, long-term benefits with great clarity and good sense. I found that, like much else, not only lucid but bracing.

Much as I'll benefit by rereading (and reading other economics works), Naked Economics invites it, and lays enough groundwork that you can begin knowing nothing, and end not merely willing, but eager, to seek out more difficult books on the subject. ( )