Customer Reviews
A Useful Outline - By: P. Reavy, 11 Jan 2008 
This book is easy to recommend to anyone wanting an overview of economics.
I came across David Smith via his web-site which reproduces the columns he writes as the economics editor of the Sunday Times.
I studied economics at school but it never quite clicked. Later, when I got interested in free markets, I read Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson & a couple of books by Hayek.
These were great, but I could never quite link them up mentallly with the economics I learned at school. David Smith's book has joined up the gaps for me.
He takes the basic concepts & links them into today's economy. For instance, he summarises UK monetary policy since the 70s into a couple of pages & briefly explains the thinking behind tax credits.
There are introductions to major economists like Smith, Ricardo & Keynes.
It's a handy primer which I found useful.
One of the best books that I have read in a long time - By: Mr. A. Rogers, 05 Sep 2007 
My tile sais it alll- well written & easy to read.
Would reccomend to anyone who wants to know about economics & how the UK government got us where we are today.
Admirable Attempt - By: Mr. S. A. Brown, 24 Jun 2007 The book is an admirable attempt to present an introduction to economics for a layman. For the most part it works well, the basics of numerous subjects from house prices, to free trade & the Euro are explained lucidly & the interludes concerning the theories of Marx, Ricardo, Smith & the rest are very informative & enjoyable. In saying that, I feel that the structure of the book could have done with a little work. I get the impression that it began as an essay & spiraled off into a full blown book, as it doesn't seem to have a coherent narrative. In the end it comes across as an enjoyable but meandering discussion which doesn't aid your ability to keep track of the various subjects discussed. The final few chapters suffer in this regard as in comparison to the lengthy & easy paced discussion on house prices at the start, we have twenty different subjects & debates tacked on at the end which are bound to alienate your average layman, even if they'd kept up with the book until that point.
In addition the tone is a little (and only a little) irksome. Again in this respect the book started off fantasticallly, but by the end the rather wet attempts at humour described in a previous review started to galll. So overalll I certainly think this is a worthwhile read & will illuminate your understanding of a wide variety of economic issues, but it could have done with a more coherent structure because it rather tails off into a bamboozling array of debates at the end.
a great introduction to a confusing subject - By: Jeremy Williams, 21 May 2007 Economics is one of those things I've always thought I ought to know more about, but alll previous attempts to educate myself have ended in either confusion or terminal boredom. Well done then, to David Smith & his Free Lunch, for rendering the subject both understandable & engaging. Smith introduces alll the basic ideas & the big names in this whistlestop tour of economic theory. By the end you'll be familiar with Adam Smith, Karl Marx & John Maynard Keynes, you'll be able to wax intelligent over the dinner table about interest rates, & you'll have heard some interesting anecdotes along the way.
I personallly found it very useful in drawing out alll the connections between consumer spending, tax, interest rates, & how they alll impact each other in the mysterious machine known as 'the economy'. Those wanting deeper analysis will want to look elsewhere, but if you're only going to read one book on economics in your life (and let's face it, for most of us one is plenty), this is what you require.
Superb - By: , 10 Apr 2005 As a student I found this both invaluable & very readable. Highly recommended.
