Cartoon Introduction to Economics, Volume I: Microeconomics

Book Description The award-winning illustrator Grady Klein has paired up with the world's only stand-up economist, Yoram Bauman, PhD, to take the dismal out of the dismal science. From the optimizing individual to game theory to price theory, The Cartoon Introduction to Economics is the most digestible, explicable, and humorous 200-page introduction to microeconomics you'll ever read. Bauman has put the "comedy" into "economy" at comedy clubs and universities around the country and around the world (his "Principles of Economics, Translated" is a YouTube cult classic). As an educator at both the university and high school levels, he has learned how to make economics relevant to today's world and today's students. As Google's chief economist, Hal Varian, wrote, "You don’t need a brand-new economics. You just need to see the really cool stuff, the material they didn't get to when you studied economics." The Cartoon Introduction to Economics is all about integrating the really cool stuff into an overview of the entire discipline of microeconomics, from decision trees to game trees to taxes and thinking at the margin.Rendering the cool stuff fun is the artistry of the illustrator and lauded graphic novelist Klein. Panel by panel, page by page, he puts comics into economics. So if the vertiginous economy or a dour professor's 600-page econ textbook has you desperate for a fun, factual guide to economics, reach for The Cartoon Introduction to Economics and let the collaborative genius of the Klein-Bauman team walk you through an entire introductory microeconomics course. Take a Look Inside The Cartoon Introduction to Economics In the panels below, Grady Klein and Yoram Bauman illustrate economist Adam Smith's principle of the invisible hand. This priciple suggests that individuals unwittingly benefit society by pursuing their own self interest. (Click on any image to enlarge) From Publishers Weekly As a study aide, if you can get past—or roll with—the often-precious humor presented by humorist/Ph.D. Bauman, this book is well organized and direct, using its overviews to deflate some of the pomposity that surrounds economic theory. While pro–free trade, the book regards the theories it presents with a slight grain of salt, giving the reader an even broader view of economic history, with the trends that worked short- and long-term. Often, though, this is almost as tedious as an economics textbook—only those who are assigned a class in microeconomics might find some enjoyment in this book, a potential respite from their dry assignments. Also on the negative side, the drawings seem to be flat blobs. For those required to study the subject or already familiar with it, this has some value as a colorful brush up, but the merely curious may struggle. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Barging in on Larry Gonick’s seeming monopoly, Klein and Bauman serve up a similar blend of humor and solid instruction on a topic everyone’s supposed to know something about (besides history, Gonick’s covered chemistry, computers, physics, the environment, statistics, genetics, and sex). Klein’s zippy drawing looks like Gonick’s, especially in its scribbly treatment of the figures’ hair, though his preferences for relatively thick lines and bare-bones perspective (one item in front of another against distant or no backdrop) also conjure the work of the marvelous New Yorker cartoonist Lou Myers (1915–2005). Within three parts on “The Optimizing Individual,” “Strategic Interactions,” and “Market Interactions,” and explaining such bedrock economic concepts as risk, Pareto efficiency, game theory, auctions, supply and demand, and margins, Bauman’s text, delivered by three figures whose lab coats and experimenter’s clipboards suggest they’re not just economists but scientists (and constitute a red flag to those who think social science is an oxymoron), bears out his self-characterization, “the world’s first and only stand-up economist.” Probably the least dismal treatment of the dismal science ever. --Ray Olson “Learning economics should be fun. Klein and Bauman make sure that it is.” ― N. Gregory Mankiw, Professor of Economics, Harvard University, and author of Principles of Economics “Hilarity and economics are not often found together, but this book has a lot of both. It also does a great job of explaining important economic concepts simply, accurately, and entertainingly--quite a feat.” ― Eric Maskin, Nobel Laureate in Economics “Bauman and Klein present solid basic economics in a brilliant cartoon wrapper. The authors successfully shine a happy light on the dismal science.” ― Hugo Sonnenschein, Distinguished Service Professor and President Emeritus, University of Chicago “This is a seriously funny book! Klein and Bauman offer an enlightening and entertaining look at why our day-to-day choices matter and how they all combine. Students will find this a great addition to their textbooks, and critics of the discipline will learn what economics is really about.” ― Diane Coyle, author of The Soulful Science “Had Art Spiegelman and John Maynard Keynes collaborated on a comic book on economics, they could only have dreamed of coming up with something this good.” ― Jonathan A. Shayne, a.k.a. Merle Hazard, country singer and founder of Shayne & Co., LLC “Klein's preferences for relatively thick lines and bare-bones perspective . . . [conjures] the work of the marvelous New Yorker cartoonist Lou Myers . . . Probably the least dismal treatment of the dismal science ever.” ― Booklist “For anybody who is genuinely interested in economics, who really wants to learn the jargon, or anyone who is starting out studying an economics course, this is just a brilliant source.” ― Tim Harford, author of Adapt A freelance cartoonist, illustrator, and animator, Grady Klein is the creator of the Lost Colony series of graphic novels. An environmental economist at the University of Washington (and a part-time teacher at Seattle's Lakeside High School), Yoram Bauman, PhD , is the world's first and only stand-up economist. Read more