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Title: Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? A Fast, Clear, and Fun Explanation of the Economics You Need For Success in Your Career, Business, and Investments (An Uncle Eric Book)
ISBN: 0942617525
Author:
Richard J. Maybury
Publicate Date: 2004-05-15
Publish: 2004-05-15
List Price: $14.95
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $13.37
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $11.45
Amazon Merchant Price: $13.45
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Good book on basic economics - worth buy
Using LinkedIn I've recently connected with a friend from twenty years ago. We've exchanged some emails and will try to get together when he is back in town. When my friend learned that I had three daughters he recommended several books by Richard J. Maybury. I requested a couple from my library. The first one I got was What Happened To Penny Candy?
What Happened To Penny Candy? is a short book of 80 pages. It is a quick read. The book is structured as a set of letters from "Uncle Eric" to his nephew "Chris." In these letters the book explains the basics of economics. It does a good job. Over the last thirty years I've read dozens, maybe even hundreds, of books on economics. This book does a good job of covering the basics. I even learned a few things. For example I didn't realize that the reason quarters and dimes were lined with the little ridges on the side was to show if little pieces were clipped off the coin.
Richard Maybury, the author, writes from a strong Libertarian viewpoint. He explains why government manipulation causes problems. Someone who feels government is the solution to economic problems will not enjoy this book.
I'll return the book to the library and buy my own copy. I plan to have each of my daughters read this book. It is short enough that they won't fuss too much about having to ready a dry topic. Economics is an important subject, one that I want my daughters to master.
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2: Good Intro
Good introduction to the value of money; or what government does to decrease the value of money. Written to be accessible to youth and does a good job of putting economic ideas into readable prose.
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3: Focuses on Facts
This treasure of a book rises to the top amongst the scant Economics courses available for home education. Along with the Bluestocking Guide available to accompany it, Penny Candy provides all that is needed in a high school economics course and spares the reader the unnecessary fillers. Written in the creative format of correspondence letters, all the meaty issues are presented in a highly understandable writing style.
The Bluestocking Guide gives additional writings to amplify the chapters. Questions, essay assignments, and a list of supplemental movies and books make this a thorough and well-rounded course.
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4: Even better than "Economics In One Lesson"
I think this is the best book out there to help quickly spread a basic understanding of economics and therefore how the world works. The knowledge and importance per page ratio is the highest I have ever read. Even better than Harry Browne's intro to economics from his famous first 80 pages of "How you can profit from the coming devaluation" .
Pages 13 - 90 are the heart of the book. That is 77 pages that in less than 2 hours can take your average person from unfortunate ignorance to economic genius compared to your average economics college graduate.
Somehow someone needs to reach Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and get them to read this book and put a copy in every american household. That would really be the most charitable thing they could do.
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5: Great Book on Money and Inflation
The great thing about this book is that it's a great explanation of inflation. The bad thing about this book is it's a great explanation of inflation. Yes, I said the same thing twice.
When it was first written-1978-inflation was the major thing in American economics. Today it is still a major threat-but the social urgency over it has declined as the rate of inflation has waned over the years. Yet, I still give this book a 5 star rating because understanding inflation requires explaining money. This book explains money better than any other book I've read.
Understanding money is VERY important. It is not only the key to explaining inflation, but it is the context in which almost all business activity plays out. A good understanding business requires understanding this context. This book does a great job a laying out that context.
The writing style is down to earth and simple. The book is short, very entertaining (for an economics book), and has clearly defined chapters. The author has some good illustrations. I don't really mean the expected graphical illustrations-although it has some of them too. I mean historical illustrations: stories of how societies have used (and abused) money in the past. These stories not only buttress the author's arguments, but also anchor the lessons in tangible human drama.
I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in learning economics and/or business.
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