Economics in Two Lessons

A masterly introduction to the key ideas behind the successes-and failures-of free-market economics.

Since 1946, Henry Hazlitt's bestselling Economics in One Lesson has popularised the belief that economics can be boiled down to one simple lesson: market prices represent the true cost of everything. But one-lesson economics tells only half the story. It can explain why markets often work so well, but it can't explain why they often fail so badly - or what we should do when they stumble.

As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson quipped, 'When someone preaches Economics in one lesson, I advise: Go back for the second lesson.' In Economics in Two Lessons, John Quiggin teaches both lessons, offering a masterly introduction to the key ideas behind the successes - and failures - of free markets.

Brilliantly accessible, this book unlocks the essential issues at the heart of any economic question.

'The best book to introduce you to economics.' - Ross Gittins, Sydney Morning Herald

'Anyone who wants to understand the real workings and real limits of real markets should read this book.' - Ingrid Robeyns, author of Wellbeing, Freedom, and Social Justice

'With apologies to Isaiah Berlin, Quiggin is a foxy hedgehog: He knows two big things, and these twin lessons - about the virtues and limits of markets - sustain a pioneering, persuasive, and even passionate case for democracy and the mixed economy. Make room for two lessons in your mind, and on your bookshelf.' - Jacob S. Hacker, coauthor of American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper