Economics Without the Boring Bits

Tejvan Pettinger is the editor of www.economicshelp.org and is a contributor to the Economic Review. He lives and works as a teacher in Oxford, and originally studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.

• ECONOMIC ERRORS: Lump of labour fallacy Luddite Fallacy Broken window fallacy Sunk cost fallacy Fallacy of composition Zero-sum games This time it's different (why bubbles reoccur) POLITICAL QUANDRIES: Tax cuts Government debt Immigration Presidents responsibility Trickle-down Inflation Exchange rates Bail-outs Recessions WHAT YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT...: Division of labour Raw materials Economic forecasting Farming and agriculture Rational consumers Deflation Free riders Monetary policy ECONOMISTS: Adam Smith John Maynard Keynes Milton Friedman Gary Becker Paul Krugman YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH BY INDULGING IN...: Fighting wars Trade wars and trade retaliation Propping up farming or heavy industry Cutting inflation too much Acquiring lots of money Free trade Eating too much chocolate cake ECO BOMBSHELLS: Nature Shared resources Air travel Markets and global warming Fat taxes are fair Protecting the environment will create jobs, not destroy them Recycling is good BUSINESS MYTHS: Ticket touts are bad There is greater value on diamonds than fresh water Workers are only motivated by money It is unfair that airlines keep changing the price of tickets The UK and US economies should be more balanced Consumer boycotts of sweatshop factories Are multinationals the great wealth creators?