Really excellent primer as to why thinking in Econ 101 terms isn’t just simplistic, it’s bad for society as a whole. Kwak does a great job breaking down why economics is far from a hard and fast science and treating the American economic consensus as orthodoxy is a net negative for our body politic. While he definitely seems in favor of more social democrat policies, I thought he managed to critique American economic policy pretty objectively. Ultimately, his issue seems to be with anyone thinking we’ve got human behavior all figured out and that the market can solve all our woes. In this climate, those questions aren’t just important to raise, they’re essential.

A somewhat dry exploration of an important concept, Economism is ultimately frustratingly better at explaining the positions it argues against than at making the case for the alternatives. Kwak does a good job of explaining the worldview he calls Econ 101, efficiently describing the fairytale that comes from naively applying basic supply and demand theory to very complex real-world problems. Unfortunately, Kwak is on far less firm ground when it comes to explaining how these naive stories are at best incomplete, and more often quite incorrect. He offers a mix of more nuanced economic theories and real-world stories that's well targeted, but not as well told, coming across as drier and more equivocal than the overly simple stories he's attacking. This is not a fatal flaw, and ultimately the book offers valuable explanations of where and how economism doesn't explain what it claims to -- and who benefits from this. I think the book is valuable for someone who already accepts its basic premise and who wants to arm herself with more solid arguments. But it's not going to convince many who are on the fence, and it doesn't offer the rhetorical power to drive a call to arms.

About how traditional economy taught in school and nailed down in press articles and current politics is ... wrong. It's simplistic and monomaniacal and leads to poor results (inequality, financial ruin such as that in 2008, poverty etc.). About how the wealthy hijacked the political and economic system by using economics to justify their success, claiming that minimal wages are bad, increase in taxes are the worst, free trade is just for all and free medical care is horribly wrongheaded.
Beautiful explanations about how the simplistic supply/demand model does not fit real life, about how mathematical equations fail to explain people's urges and their blind spots.
"What rules the world is ideas, because ideas define the way reality is perceived" (says a Mr. Irving Kristol quoted as motto somewhere in this book). The simplified models of economy are just that - ideas, which should be up for debate as most sociological issues are; because economy is a social science after all, meaning it's irregular and unruly and creates pockets of unlawfulness if left on its own. Enjoyable reading!

The author, James Kwak, writes out an easy to follow set of examples about why economic policy is failing in this country. Economism is the term used for applying a very simplified of Econ 101 principales to everything in the world. The assumptions made by policy makers are distorted by simple thinking and a simple graph. The world of humans is messy and does not follow any consistent set of rational rules. My take is Economism is trying to make human psycology a set of logical rules. Unfortunately hilarity doesn't ensue, it is inequality.

The most hurtful part of the book, for me, is the fact that Economism thinking is social engineering over the last several decades. The corporations & rich wanted to change the mindset after World War II, that the New Deal was bad for capitalism. So they put together Economics schools to "educate" business leaders and even circuit court judges on what supply and demand means. We have a screwed up system because the masses want an easy sound bite understanding of a complex thought. The rich ensure that the Economism tilts policy thinking in their favor, thus giving justification of why the minimum wage is bad & health care for all will destory the country.

Evidence shows that a high minimum wage will benefit society and the rest of the developed world shows us what happens when everyone has access to good health care. Inequality was lowest when taxes were the highest in the US. Money flowed into education and infrastructure. Low taxes do not make anything magical happen, other than to widen the gap between rich and poor.

The book should be essential reading for any policy maker in the country. It would open their eyes to why current economic policies will generally fail. Why competition within health care makes everyone worse off. Why the 1% and the elite economics schools are lying about how humans and money actually work.

Read the book and gain a clearer perspective on how the world actually works. The author's writing style is fluid and not bogged down with dry academic jargon. My impression he made sure he could have the widest audience understand the points he puts forth.