Blog #7 Economix

Michael Goodwin's book "Economix" is one my favorite books on the history of Economics. The book works like a Beatles song in that, on the surface they both can seem quite simple and straightforward. However, as you dig deeper you discover an incredible richness and lots of nuance. Perhaps that is one of the sure signs of mastery; to make the difficult look easy and to present something rich, complicated and multi-layered in a simple, easy to digest, readily accessible format.
Goodwin's book does an excellent job of showing us how we in America came to be a mixed economy. He also does an excellent job of laying out the economic policies and subsequent successes and failures of Socialism, 20th century political dictatorships, Keynesian economics and the laissez faire economic policies of Hayek, Mises and Milton Friedman.
The graphics really helped to compliment the narrative and to show the yin to yang historically pendulous swing of America's political and economic beliefs and policies.
Goodwin's section and chapter titles are excellent: "The Money Power (1865-1914)", "The Prophets of Liberty: Hayek and Friedman" and,  "The Revolt of the Rich (1980-2001)" do an excellent job of presenting powerfully compressed snapshots of key eras including their emerging technologies, political systems and consequently, economic policies. His "little guy" narrator functions quite effectively as an omniscient tour guide through the various trials and errors of  economic philosophies, practices and policies.