Summer Reading for 2010-2011

You will be reading, at minimum, three books this summer in preparation for next school year. Everyone will read Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, but the other two involve some choice.

Choose one:

• Friedman, Thomas L. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005.
• Levitt, Steven and Stephen Dubner. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. New York: William Morrow, 2005.

Choose one:

• Friedman, David. The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism, Second Edition. New York: Open Court Publishing Company, 1989.
• Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom. New York: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
• Gwartney, James and Dwight Lee. Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005.
• Landsburg, Steven. Fair Play. New York: Free Press, 1997.

The purpose of the readings is to give you a firmer basis in the background of both macro- and micro-economics. Not reading the books or merely skimming them only hurts you. I have read them and understand them; you have not and do not. I am not someone who believes in frivolity or inefficiency, so I am not assigning these readings just to assign something. Please take them seriously.

Should you have questions as you read through your books, feel free to email me questions and I will try to answer as quickly as possible.