Economics, 3rd Edition

I have really enjoyed this course. Professor Taylor is very engaging and I find the material very interesting. As some others have pointed out, this course is introductory in nature, but I would think that this course would provide a great starting point for anyone interested in learning about economics.

very well done. It would be lovely to have a 2022 update

These series of lectures seem to have been designed for high school students. Most college graduates could read an introductory textbook on economics and teach it far better than Mr. Taylor. How The Great Courses selected him is baffling. Their vetting process needs to be improved. Do not waste your money or worse, your time.

This course is a good summary of a typical two-semester Introduction to Economics that one might encounter in a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program. It includes basic economic concepts (definition of money, supply and demand, and markets), Microeconomics (e.g., for individuals or businesses), Macroeconomics (e.g., a country’s economic policy), fiscal policy (e.g., government spending), and monetary policy (e.g., banking).

Dr. Taylor clearly enjoys his subject and he successfully conveys that enthusiasm to the student. He is clear without being simplistic. He does not display a conservative, liberal, Democrat, or Republican bias.

I used the video version. There are some visual aids that are useful but overall the course can be used audio only (e.g., while jogging or while driving a car) without significant loss of content.

A very approachable treatment of economics. I've listened to it more than once.

overall well done, with some shortcomings. Solid basic intro - s/b very helpful to any beginner, & even some useful refresher to lightly experienced. Some issues bothered me - more than once, Prof Taylor stated production always equals consumption. But, as a businessman, i know there's something called inventory. There was not 1 mention of inventory, its impact on the economy, how it's existence counters his statement. There was not one mention of the government's ability to print money & the impact of same. In lecture #29 he stated that a bank would go bankrupt if it's loan portfolio fell in value below the face value of the loans. He ignored reserves (though in lecture #30 he did touch on same - but didn't adequately address it), & he ignored the basic fundamental of a bank (any business) having equity, as a (common) protection against bankruptcy. Finally, though not his failing, the course is at least 15 years old - & thus doesn't include how the US has had very low inflation, low unemployment, low interest rates & generally sub par wage increases over the last 10+ years.l Also, because it's stale, it doesn't address an ascendant China - doing as well it it is under a dictatorship.

The chief weakness of this course has nothing to do with its contents in themselves: it is the fact that it was produced fifteen years ago (as I write this in 2020). The lectures on microeconomics suffer the least from this weakness, but even then, there is a moment when Mr. Taylor casually observes that the housing market, which at the time of speaking (2005) had been rising and rising, was due for a downturn. The lectures on macroeconomics, which make up the bulk of the series, suffer the most from obsolescence, because they make frequent reference to current affairs. E.g., at one point, Mr. Taylor mentions a forecast that the US national debt will be equal to its GDP by 2050: that has already happened, thirty years early. Mr. Taylor's treatment of the topic of inequality is extremely shallow and perfunctory. By confining his comparison to tranches of 20% of the population he gives no idea of the extreme concentration of wealth in a tiny part of the population in the US, and he seems to think that objections to inequality cannot have any basis other than subjective preference. He does not discuss deleterious social effects of extreme inequality—though, to be fair, he is giving these lectures several years before the publication of the work of Wilkinson and Pickett.

A couple of observations on the lecturer. First, Mr. Taylor tries to make some jokes. These moments are absolutely excruciating. I hope that if he redoes the course he will not try this again. Second, while I would never ordinarily mention a lecturer's mode of dress in a review, bad taste in clothing can be taken to such a degree that it is distracting. That is the case here, with Dr. Taylor's sherbet-colored shirts (unconcealed by any jacket) and matching neckties. Truly horrible to behold.

It takes the reader from the beginning and teaches them the basics needed to understand economics.