Sign-In
Cart
The Economic Mind: A Complete, Plain-English Guide to the Ideas, Debates, and Thinkers That Shape the World
Paperback
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN13: 9798197628336
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: May 19 2026
Pages: 390
Weight: 0.99
Height: 0.87 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: May 19 2026
Pages: 390
Weight: 0.99
Height: 0.87 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Every conversation about the economy (inflation, deficits, tariffs, inequality, climate policy, AI and jobs) rests on assumptions that come from a particular school of economic thought. Most speakers do not know which school. Most listeners do not either. That is the reason economics feels harder than it should. The Economic Mind is the book that opens up the arguments. In thirty-five short, plain-English chapters, Jordan Cole walks through the great economic thinkers from Adam Smith in 1776 to Kate Raworth in 2017, and the contemporary debates their ideas continue to shape. Each chapter presents one thinker (or one school) on its own terms, identifies the strongest objections, and shows how the framework applies to the policy questions of today. You will meet:
- Adam Smith - the moral philosopher behind the invisible hand
- Ricardo, Malthus, and Mill - the classical economists who built the discipline
- Karl Marx - the critic working from inside the classical framework
- Jevons, Menger, and Walras - the marginalist revolution that replaced labor value with marginal utility
- John Maynard Keynes - the response to the Great Depression that still shapes macroeconomic policy
- Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman - the counter-revolution that reshaped central banking
- Ronald Coase, Elinor Ostrom, and the institutionalists - markets, firms, commons, and rules
- George Akerlof, Michael Spence, and Joseph Stiglitz - what asymmetric information does to markets
- Amartya Sen - development as freedom, and the capability framework
- Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler - what behavioral economics changed
- Thomas Piketty, Daron Acemoglu, Mariana Mazzucato, and Kate Raworth - the modern frontier
Each chapter ends with a four-line Take With You memory card: the model, the thinker, the opposing view, and the modern application. Read the whole book straight through, or use it as a reference when you need to follow a specific debate. This is not a textbook. It is the book you wish you had been handed before your first conversation about the economy. It will let you follow real economic arguments, understand the logic of opposing schools of thought, and speak about economics with confidence. For anyone who wants to be intelligently equipped for the economic debates of the coming decade.
Also from
Cole, Jordan
Beat the Market: The Playbook of the World's 8 Greatest Investors Decoded for the Individual Stock Picker
Cole, Jordan
Paperback
$23.99
The Art of War for Business: A Practical Guide to Sun Tzu's Strategy in the Age of Competition
Cole, Jordan
Paperback
$21.59
Not What You've Been Told: A Republican Guide to Explaining Today's Most Controversial Political Issues
Cole, Jordan
Paperback
$11.99
The AI Side Hustle Playbook: From First Idea to First Dollar: A Clear Path to AI-Powered Income Streams
Cole, Jordan
Paperback
$22.79
The Generational Wealth Handbook: Teach Your Kids About Money So They Do Not Start From Zero
Cole, Jordan
Paperback
$19.19
The Everyday Millionaire Map: How Normal People Quietly Build Seven-Figure Net Worths
Cole, Jordan
Paperback
$23.99
Also in
Economics
Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
From $12.99
Family, Fields, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China's Social and Economic History, 1550-1949
Eastman, Lloyd E.
Paperback
$169.49
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shattered a Nation
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Hardcover
From $19.99
Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life
Mayyasi, Alex
Hosts of Npr's Planet Money
Hardcover
$26.99
1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World
Ahamed, Liaquat
Hardcover
$28.80
How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn't)
Moore Phd, Joseph S.
Hardcover
$28.80
Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal about How Markets Work
Roth, Alvin E.
Hardcover
$31.50
Capitalism for All: Inclusive Economics and the Future-Proofing of America
Bryant, John Hope
Hardcover
$26.60
What Happened to Liberal Democracy?: Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity
Acemoglu, Daron
Hardcover
$28.80
Soccernomics (2026 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Usually Win--And American Men Don't (Yet)
Kuper, Simon
Szymanski, Stefan
Paperback
$19.79
The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History
Williamson, Vanessa S.
Hardcover
$30.40
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Paperback
$21.85
The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity
Wu, Tim
Hardcover
From $17.99
Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York
Gottlieb, Dylan
Hardcover
$30.40
Market Wizards: The Next Generation: The World's Top Young Traders Reveal How They Beat the Market
Schwager, Jack D.
Coyle, George F.
Hardcover
$33.25
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shatteredâ a Nation (Large Print Edition)
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Paperback
$35.15
House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing
Baer, Justin
Hardcover
$29.25
The Middle-Class New Deal: Restoring Upward Mobility and the American Dream
Dickerson, A. Mechele
Paperback
$29.94
How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy
Keynes, Soumaya
Bown, Chad P.
Hardcover
$28.50
5 Steps to a 5: AP Microeconomics 2027: Practice AP Tests + AP Content Review + Digital Exams
Dodge, Eric R.
Paperback
$27.85
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
Acemoglu, Daron
Robinson, James A.
Paperback
$23.75
Who Gets What -- And Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design
Roth, Alvin E.
Paperback
$17.10
Freakonomics Twentieth Anniversary Edition: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Dubner, Stephen J.
Levitt, Steven D.
Paperback
$18.99
It's on You: How Corporations and Behavioral Scientists Have Convinced Us That We're to Blame for Society's Deepest Problems
Chater, Nick
Loewenstein, George
Hardcover
$28.80
A History of the United States in Five Crashes: Stock Market Meltdowns That Defined a Nation
Nations, Scott
Paperback
$18.04
Broken Money: Why Our Financial System is Failing Us and How We Can Make it Better
Alden, Lyn
Paperback
$22.79
The Winner's Curse: Behavioral Economics Anomalies, Then and Now
Thaler, Richard H.
Imas, Alex
Hardcover
$28.50
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail
Dalio, Ray
Hardcover
From $14.99
How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World's Last Developmental Frontier
Studwell, Joe
Hardcover
$28.80
Blood and Treasure: The Economics of Conflict from the Vikings to the Modern Era
Weldon, Duncan
Hardcover
$30.40
Baby Steps Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth--And How You Can Too
Ramsey, Dave
Hardcover
$30.39
Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity
Marohn, Charles L., Jr.
Hardcover
$24.70
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
Duflo, Esther
Banerjee, Abhijit V.
Paperback
$18.99
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Ariely, Dan
Paperback
From $10.99
Financial Literacy for All: Disrupting Struggle, Advancing Financial Freedom, and Building a New American Middle Class
Bryant, John Hope
Paperback
$17.10
How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness
Roberts, Russ
Paperback
$16.15
The Invention of Infinite Growth: How Economists Came to Believe a Dangerous Delusion
Jones, Christopher F.
Hardcover
$30.88
Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom /]Cby Grace Blakeley
Blakeley, Grace
Paperback
$18.99
Abundancia: Cómo Construimos Un Mundo Mejor Abundance (Spanish Edition)
Klein, Ezra
Thompson, Derek
Paperback
$20.89
The Banker Who Made America: Thomas Willing and the Rise of the American Financial Aristocracy, 1731-1821
Vague, Richard
Hardcover
$94.95
Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet
Collins, Chuck
Hardcover
$26.59
Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence
Navarro, Joe
Poynter, Toni Sciarra
Paperback
$18.04
Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain
Dubner, Stephen J.
Levitt, Steven D.
Paperback
$18.04
The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism
Mattei, Clara E.
Paperback
$21.38
A Capitalist Manifesto: Understanding The Market Economy And Defending Liberty
Wolfram, Gary
Paperback
$18.00
Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead
Rogoff, Kenneth
Paperback
$19.00
The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations
Aghion, Philippe
Antonin, Céline
Bunel, Simon
Paperback
$18.95
Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World's Most Powerful Industry
Tan, Js
Redwine, Clarissa
Hardcover
$26.55
Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
Acemoglu, Daron
Johnson, Simon
Paperback
$20.89
The Mismeasurement of America: How Outdated Government Statistics Mask the Economic Struggle of Everyday Americans
Ludwig, Gene
Hardcover
From $17.99
The Great Global Transformation: The United States, China, and the Remaking of the World Economic Order
Milanovic, Branko
Hardcover
$28.50
Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
Hazlitt, Henry
Paperback
$19.00
9 Hábitos Japoneses Que Cambiarán Tu Vida / 9 Japanese Habits That Will Change Your Life
Rodríguez, Andrea
Paperback
$18.00
The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism
Gramm, Phil
Boudreaux, Donald J.
Hardcover
$28.50
The World Order - Our Secret Rulers: A Study in the Hegemony of Parasitism
Mullins, Eustace
Paperback
$33.75
Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead
Rogoff, Kenneth
Hardcover
$42.00
The World's Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (and What Would Make It Right)
Lynch, David J.
Hardcover
$30.40
Talking to My Daughter about the Economy: Or, How Capitalism Works--And How It Fails
Varoufakis, Yanis
Paperback
$14.00
Small Startup Cities: How to Build a Thriving Startup Ecosystem in a Small City
Halaby, Dominique
Paperback
$17.99
The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy
Leonard, Christopher
Paperback
$18.99
Credit to the Nation: Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and the Shaping of American Finance, 1873-1930
Kobrin, Rebecca
Hardcover
$42.00
Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000-2000
Mokyr, Joel
Tabellini, Guido
Greif, Avner
Hardcover
$59.93
Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy
Slobodian, Quinn
Paperback
$18.99
Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohammed Bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East
Cole, Matthew
Hardcover
$28.50
The Wealth of Nations: The Economics Classic - A Selected Edition for the Contemporary Reader
Smith, Adam
Hardcover
$16.14
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World: 10th Anniversary Edition
Ferguson, Niall
Paperback
$19.95
A Century of Plenty: A Story of Progress for Generations to Come
Bradley, Chris
Leung, Nick
Canal, Marc
Paperback
$17.99
Great American Investments: A History of the Bold Initiatives That Shaped a Nation
Ellis, Charles D.
Hardcover
$28.50
The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth: How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics
Smialek, Jeanna
Hardcover
$30.40
This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
Reinhart, Carmen M.
Rogoff, Kenneth S.
Paperback
$22.75
Bitcoin Is for Everyone: Why Our Financial System Is Broken and Bitcoin Is the Solution
Brunell, Natalie
Paperback
$18.99
Architects of Ruin: How Big Government Liberals Wrecked the Global Economy--And How They Will Do It Again If No One Stops Them
Schweizer, Peter
Paperback
$14.99
The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America
Kahrl, Andrew W.
Paperback
$19.00
AP Microeconomics/Macroeconomics Premium, Eighth Edition: Prep Book with 4 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice (2026)
Redelsheimer, James, M. a.
Musgrave, Frank, PH. D.
Kacapyr, Elia, PH. D.
Paperback
$21.84