Issue 32, Spring 2007

William A. McEachern, Editor

Economics for Dummies ... NOT!

From time to time in these pages, I evaluate offbeat resources students might use to help learn economics. The list has included Cliffs Notes for Economics, Economics of Encarta, The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, and, last spring, "Wiki Economics." I turn now to Economics for Dummies (Wiley Publishing, 2005) by Sean Masaki Flynn, an assistant professor at Vassar and a Berkeley Ph.D.

Beginning in 1991 with DOS for Dummies, the series now has more than 1,000 titles, including Golf for Dummies and Puppies for Dummies. Flynn's book follows the Dummies formula: paperback, black and white, short "get-in, get-out" stand-alone sections, non-threatening headings (e.g., "Supply and Demand Made Easy"), irreverent cartoons, and several "top-ten" lists. Editors also homogenize the writing by, among other things, addressing the reader as "you" and the author as "I," and avoiding the passive voice and the future tense. The target audience includes "high school or college students" looking for help with an economics course (p. 4).

Eighteen chapters and an 80-term glossary plus an index (but no chapter summaries) appear in 362 generously spaced pages. Professor Flynn generally displays a firm grasp of economics, good intuition, and much of what he writes is fine, but he seems hemmed in by the Dummies formula (who wouldn't be?). The material is fairly conventional, though the coverage is uneven. For example, there are twice as many micro chapters as macro chapters.

Since the Dummies series features top-ten lists, I'll offer my own top ten suggestions for improving Economics for Dummies. Given the sort of editorial meat grinder these books go through, most of my suggestions may be better directed at the editorial sausage-makers than at Professor Flynn.

1. Don't promise an "in-and-out," lateral presentation when you can't deliver. In the introduction, the author claims, "This book is set up so that you can jump in anywhere and understand what you're reading. For example: "Want to get the skinny on how the Federal Reserve changes interest rates to stimulate the economy and fight recession? Jump right to Chapter 7" (p. 6). OK, so I jumped to Chapter 7. But once there, I am stopped cold by this "tip": "If you haven't read Chapter 6, I encourage you to do so before tackling this chapter" (p. 124). Because much of economics builds on itself, the presentation must necessarily be more linear than lateral. Economics is not golf or puppies.

2. Don't claim in the title the book is for dummies, when it's clearly not. Of course, the selling point is that if this book is for dummies then surely a struggling student would find it helpful. But the title misleads. Again, in the introduction: "I wrote this book assuming some things about you: You're sharp, thoughtful, and interested in how the world works... You're not totally intimidated by numbers, facts, and figures. Indeed, you welcome them because you like to have things proven to you rather than taking them on faith..."(p. 4). So the author assumes the reader is no dummy, and some of the book reflects that. For example, the spending multiplier is relatively sophisticated and all seven of a firm's short-run costs get introduced. Ironically, the book's efforts to simplify matters often eliminate clarifying steps, making the results harder to follow, as with the AD-AS presentation.

3. Don't promise things will be easy only to have to backpedal when they're not. Once material becomes tougher than advertised, Flynn must reassure readers with such balm as "Before you start hyperventilating, let me explain what these things are" (p. 102). "Confused? Stick with me"(p. 129). And "If you think I'm speaking in tongues right now, bear with me" (p.142).

4. Careful with the trendy language. Words such as "hip," "bogus," and "gross" may have passed their use-by date. For example, Flynn writes that he doesn't like Cherry Garcia ice cream "because I think it's gross" (p. 153). Sounds like dated Valspeak.

5. Ditto with cute and funny. "Farmer Babbage grows cabbage." "[T]he LRAS is a vertical line-it isn't a curve at all! (Do you feel cheated?)"... "Still don't believe me? You're a tough audience. Keep reading-I'm going to convince you yet!" (p. 103).

6. Avoid simplification that borders on tautology. For example, "[T]he AD curve slopes downward...because there's an inverse relationship between the price level and the amount of stuff that people want to buy...The downward slope of the AD curve captures the fact that at lower prices people buy more"(p. 102). Such an "explanation" is indeed simple, but perhaps too simple.

7. Flesh out and update the book's web site. Flynn claims to offer a "huge amount of information" at the book's online site (www.learn-economics.com). This supplementary material is organized by chapter, but half the chapters offer nothing at all, and some of the rest need updating (Greenspan still heads the Fed, and at least one in six web links have gone dark).

8. Don't pander to students by stereotyping economists. According to Flynn (or his editors), this book offers the straight dope on economics, untainted by "some pinhead with a Ph.D." (p.4). Flynn also remarks that "...like most economists, I'm not actually very hip" (p. 289). The cartoons reinforce the economist-as-nerd stereotype.

9. In tables and figures, watch out for the little things. Small slips can confound students. For example, Table 3-2 identifies production possibilities by number, but the PPF in Figure 3-1, on the next page, identifies some of these combinations by letter and the rest simply as points. Figure 6-2 offers a stylized sketch of the business cycle, showing expansions as vertical portions of a wavy line-that is, expansions occur instantly. And the faint line in Figure 5-2 underscores one problem with printing only in black and shades of grey.

10. Oh, and one more thing: lay off the booze. Beer is one of three items in the "collegiate price index" (p. 88) and later serves as a key example in demonstrating a consumer's marginal utility (pp. 182-192). Although Flynn's consumer gets a stomachache from a ninth slice of pizza, even a tenth pint of beer yields positive marginal utility. No mention is made of the effects of so much alcohol, but ten pints would boost most anyone's blood-alcohol level to double the legal limit for driving. Call me a wet blanket, but large quantities of beer may not be the best example for the target audience-high school and college students.

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