Charles Wheelan’s Naked Economics

In my first year of university, I took two economics classes. Even though I had no trouble getting A’s in those courses, I wish I had retained more of what I’d learned. At the time, I didn’t understand how interconnected this field is with reality. Economics is not just about money. It’s also about human behaviour, government, our quality of life, and how we can make the world better off in this non-zero sum game we call life.

Charles Wheelan’s book Naked Economics is like an Econ 101 textbook, except he doesn’t present math or graphs that would scare away the average person. As someone who loves mathematics and getting lost and confused in numbers, I still found his book to be a total delight as a casual read.

His explanations clarified many simple questions of mine, such as GDP per Capita, which is a measure of how productive a country is divided by the population. Capita is just a fancy way of saying per person.

He brilliantly breaks down complex ideas: how GDP is incomplete as it doesn’t consider certain costs such as environmental impacts. Thus, the requirement of Green GDP; How trade benefits all and has made everyone better off than at any other point in the history of civilization. In the words of John F. Kennedy, “A rising tide lifts all boats”; How growth is about incentives, proving economics cares about neurobiology, given that dopamine is a hormone for wanting, not reward, and why human capital is inextricably linked to economic productivity.

After finishing this read, I can say with 100% certainty, if I had to rewind time, economics is what I would’ve studied, if not as a major, absolutely a minor.

References

Wheelan, C. (2019) Naked economics: Undressing the dismal science. 3rd ed. New York, NY: WW Norton.