Economix: How Our Economy Works (and Doesn't Work), in Words and Pictures Paperback – September 1, 2012

I’m not sure how and what sparked my interest in economics, perhaps it was Kathryn Tanner’s Economy of Grace or the fact that I’m disillusioned by both capitalism and communism or the fact that I am in near constant financial crisis (aka, the normal graduate student life and post-American-college-with-their-stupid-student-debt). Nevertheless, I am glad I read this.Economix came up as one of the most recommended introductions to the history of economics — according to Reddit. I appreciate how Michael Goodwin opens the book: he confesses that modern economists are, at times, beyond confusing and inconsistent and that primary sources are the way to go. When he went back to the original sources, the sources all the modern economists were quoting, he found that (1) primary sources were more often than not taken out of context and (2) primary sources had some faulty assumptions and ideals [like the Supple and Demand chart assumes an ideal economy with stagnant desires, resources, political climate, etc. In this sense, the Supple and Demand chart is a very flat, 2-dimensional model]. For example, laissez-faire (“let it be”) might have worked in a pre-industrialized, pre-technologically-advanced, pre-globalized country–but the success was short lived. Most 20th century communism models picked and choose what they liked from Marx (to his great frustration, assumingly). Reagonomics, tickle-down economics, and tax cutting the rich and major corporations pretty much ruined everything. So, along with Reddit, I cannot recommend this enough. Plus, the comic book form is amazing. The book, though, is not without faults, but as an introduction it is very informative.Economics is much more than just money — it is political, psychological, sociological, philosophical, and, agreeing with Tanner, theological. So, as much as I did not want to learn a lick of economics, as someone who wants to be a theologian, I must learn more economics: it is both exciting and dreadful.sooholee.wordpress

If you have even a tiny interest in how our economy works, you must give Michael Goodwin a chance. I was first introduced to Economix by a link to their explanation of free trade from their website (economixcomix.com), and was so intrigued that I had to give this a try.This book is a testament to finding alternative means of educating a general public on super complex concepts. The economy? Forget it! It seems like the professionals in Congress and on Wall Street don't even know what they're doing, so how could I ever hope to understand it? But Michael Goodwin has made the entire history of economic theory into something attainable by anyone who cares to try. Starting at the very beginning with Adam Smith and the birth of economic theory, Goodwin takes you all the way through America's history and explains every major historical event (including the last ten years on Wall Street) from an economic perspective.And in comic form! The recurring symbols for corporations as giant angry buildings, traditional economists as scholarly academics, and Wall Street investors as fat cat bosses add incredibly helpful visualizations that make abstract concepts much easier to grasp.I've already ordered a copy for my dad.Also: the Kindle version reads decently well on the iPad, but the Kindle App's panel zoom function isn't very smooth. I would have liked to scroll vertically with my iPad in landscape, but this book can only be read in portrait.

Economix is like economics 101 in pictures. And that's the problem. It does a good job covering all the well-known economists, from Smith to Marx, with Ricardo and Keynes as well. And it does a good job melding history into the mix too.But here's the problem: we live in an economic collapse, cleverly disguised by QEs, fraying social safety nets, and a looming shadow banking collapse that will expose the emptiness of the current system.Yet the author ignored several of history's proven solutions and sneaky riggings along the way, focusing on the theory at the expense of the real (except for FDR).For example, why is there no mention of Lincoln's original legal tender, which was debt-free money, U.S. Notes, aka Greenbacks? Or the Greenback Party which ran two presidential candidates?Why is there no mention of Henry George's insight into Land Rental Values (currently, as then, 1/3 of GDP) and how they could be used to fund government without penalizing productivity as now, and actually making use of resources, such as Land (classically meaning ALL nature's resources) more efficient? His prescription for Land Reform is simply to split up the large landholdings and have more people work them. George's solution was much more sophisticated, to collect the Rent on the value of the land, especially location, than distribute that back to the population whose demand created the value in the first place. Even John Stewart Mill recognized that the "Landlord makes money while he sleeps" and not through individual productive effort. And the original Articles of Confederation actually collected only the property tax, a crude kind of Land Value Tax - because it mixes what George called "improvements" into what was taxed, instead of just taxing the Land alone, but still a recognition of this form of taxation. Even the bible, and the Native Americans realized you cannot own what the Creator/Nature produced, but only rent it.Why is there no mention of State Banking, first begun in North Dakota in 1919, and which is practiced by 40% of the world's banks today, not coincidentally in the world's fastest growing economies? None of the countries practicing Public Banking had the kind of collapse that those who had reckless commercial banking had.Why is there no mention of the corporatization of towns and municipalities, and the creation of vast off-balance sheet governemnt accounts, where 10s of trillions are squirreled away in wall street investments, while services are paid from ROI (wait, weren't TAXES supposed to pay for services? When did we hire the government to be our investment manager?). ROI that is now insufficient due to the Ponzi scheme nature of the secondary markets? A simple examination of the CAFRs would have been very enlightening, as to where all our tax dollars really went since WWII, and why the stock market (and other secondary markets), really have little to do with corporate profits, and much more to do with diverted funds. There is now enough money in these CAFRs to provide a Basic Income Guarantee for every man, woman and child, and to help, or entirely, eliminate the need for taxes, forever.A good book, but the author needs to get his head out of the classic texts and really discover what's going on, a bit earlier than the last chapters. He acknowledges the final chapters, taking place after 1980, will be more controversial, but the controversy really extends a bit further back - to Henry George, Lincoln, and even to Baal, in Biblical times.I hope there will be a second edition with these additions, and others.The art is good B/W, and simple and easy to understand, often funny. That part gets 4 stars too.