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"Charles Wheelan Tells It Like It Is" would be an equally appropriate title for this fucking awesome overview on all things economic in this world. As someone who's read more than a few of the popular economics books currently glutting the market, and as a economics major in college, I was skeptical that this book could teach me anything I didn't already know or entertain me with wry anecdotes. What surprised me was actually that: the wry anecdotes and useful explanations such as what "fast-track authority" or "human development index"actually mean.

Less Freakanomics-y (quirky case studies) and more a broad overview of how economics applies to everything in our, well, economy, reading this book was the mental equivalent of cabinet refacing. All of the explanations were already there in my head but just needed to be re-articulated in a clever, clear writing style a la The Economist. From explaining the economic structures of the most basic transaction to those of the financial markets, Wheelan forced me to rack my brain for the left-wing rebuttals to his logical explanations of why trade protectionism is bad, why sweatshops are good (the problem with sweatshops apparently is that there aren't enough of them), and why a growing economic pie really is important to the small slice eaters. Try as I might, I couldn't argue with most of his points. They were clear, simple, interesting, and thankfully humorously self-deprecating.

Once I realized that I was going to give this book a full goodreads review, I found myself picking up my pad and pen every other page to try and appropriate some small revelation as my own. Perhaps I was learning by example as this book is chock full of thrilling (yes, thrilling) examples of the pioneering work of a multitude of visionary economists. A truly good read.