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