Goodwin - Economix

Charlie asked if I would consider
reviewing a new book they had coming out
called Economix by Michael Goodwin. My
first thought was, A graphic book on the
economythat sounds cool. But seriously?
How in the world can you take a subject as
complicated as the history of economics and
explain it graphically? Graphically is really
just another word for adult comic book,
right? For that matter, can you really make
learning about the history of the economy
easy and entertaining enough that people will
want to read it? As I was thinking about this, I met
another Today Show guest, Jeff Kinney,
author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series,
who was also published by Abrams. Kinneys
books had single-handedly gotten my seven-
year-old son, Jack, to love reading. I took a
picture with Jeff, asked for his autograph for
my son, and it hit me: Economix could be a
complete game changer. If you could write a
book that explains the history of the economy
and make that information approachable,
millions could benefit! The more I thought
about this, the more certain I became that
Economix could help tens of millionsif
it was any good.

I left the Today Show still
skeptical but also interested and excited
about the potential of how a book like this
could serve so many. A couple of weeks later, Abrams sent
Economix to my office to review. I had planned
to flip through it, then come back to it later. In
three hours I had read the entire book cover
to cover. All I can say is that I wish Id had
this book twenty-five years ago when I was
graduating college. Its simply phenomenal!
Economix does what I have never seen
done before: it breaks down the history of
global economics in a concise, easy, and
entertaining read.

Lets face it: even if you
love economics as I do, and you study this
stuff, it can be difficult and often boring.
Economix isnt boring; its the exact opposite.
Its eye-opening, exciting, and powerfully
educationaland, most important, a
fantastic, fast, and fun read. Economix is also a time-saver: you could
read ten books on the subject and not glean
this much information. Michael Goodwin
has done an exhaustive study of economic
history and then masterfully summarized
and explained it. Add in Dan Burr, who did
the most incredible job of illustrating the

prose, and youve now got the ultimate fun
crash course in the history of the economy. Its
almost not fair, when I think how lucky young
people are to get this book in their hands.
Youll get to benefit from this read without all
the pain and suffering that the rest of us went
through to learn this stuff. Im jealous.

But I
am also truly delighted and honored to share
this book and provide the foreword. I can tell you for a fact that this book
will be required reading for my two young
boys, Jack and James. I have taken multiple
economics courses in college and studied
personal finance for over two decades,
and Ive simply never seen the history of
economics explained this well. My sons will
have a leg up on their friends by reading and
understanding how economic issues affect
them and how economic forces have shaped
history and will impact their future. With the recent recession, weve learned
that the economy affects us all. What happens
in Greece in 2012 affects us on Main Street
and Wall Street in the USAbut why? The
Federal Reserve says interest rates will stay low
until 2014, but what can that do to our deficit,
job growth, housing, and on and on? How did