Good Economics introduction?

Could you good people point me in the direction of a good introduction to economics. I'm a natural sciences graduate, and I'm ashamed to say that I have little understanding of economics.

I'm wary of the fact that as Keynes wrote

"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."

Could anyone help me out?

by Thomas Sowell

Right after Bush proposed new steel tariffs, Sowell predicted that for every job that the tariffs would save in the U.S. steel industry, several jobs would be destroyed in U.S. industries that manufacured things from steel. Sowell's prediction came true. Bush wrecked the economy, and destroyed a huge number of manufacturing jobs. Ohio was one of the hardest hit states, but they still re-elected the dufus anyway.

I like the chapter on rent control. Proponents claim that it increases the avaialbility of affordable housing for low income people. But in practice, it does the exact opposite. Economists, even the most left leaning socialist ones, have acknowledged this.

http://www.noslaves.com/retraining.htm, top of page links

a couple of online tutorials I found worthwhile.

Econ 101 and 102, dunno but seemingly Paul Samuelson's texts
are the "bible" for econ ed. I forget what texts I used..

:-)

Thanks:)

my two favorites are Economic Reporting Review (ERR). You can sign up at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

http://www.cepr.net/index.html

A more general site for stats is at The Dismal Scientist

http://www.economy.com/dismal/
Read the crime...I mean business section of your local paper. It is amazing the amount of truth there. Business people need the straight dope so even thought the slant is toward the business person you can read it and figure out how it affects regular people too.
:kick:

than from anything. His body of work is large, pertinent and very readable.

I learned a lot of my economics over the past 30 years from the reading the Wall Street Journal. Lefties are only now beginning to realize that the news and background articles are terrific. They explain things on a level that is easy for the non-economics major to understand.

DON'T read the editorial page and their op-eds. There is a fire wall between this department and the rest of the newspaper. It's run by the worst kind of conservatives who are willing to lie about anything to advance their agenda.

...check out http://www.debunking-economics.com/

About.com online macro textbook

I only took three econ courses in college - and while I got a bit out of them - I think I get a lot more from reading current econ news.

You probably know more about economics than you realize.

A simple understanding of demand/supply curves and of elastic versus inelastic demand - also a smattering of theory of economic systems (stuff like ownership of labor) seems mildly helpful. I would assume this textbook covers at least the demand/supply curves.

Graduate econ is all math - (calculus, statistics and model building). My husband took this and was surprised how unrelated it was to undergrad macro and micro classes. I think it would be beyond me, but I don't think I'm missing anything. Instead it seems like some of this sort of technical data is just a way for some professional economists and analysts to baffle us with bullshit.

I also found this link recently and found it interesting:
Is the US Current Account Deficit Sustainable?(Stern EDU)