<p>I won't waste too much time giving you the details of my situation, but I, for a number of reasons, have felt a desire to become acquainted w/ the basics of business, economics, and finance. In college, I am a Classics major doing the pre-med reqs as well. Given that, I haven't really taken any econ or business classes. I know things like "read the WSJ" or "read the Economist". What I'm really looking for are recs for books that would offer a from-scratch, ground-up approach to the very basics of these fields. I'm open to any and all suggestions. They can be textbooks or otherwise. I just want to get acquainted with the terminology and whatnot involved, because I am largely clueless at this point. Any help you could give would be great. Thanks.</p>
<p>Easy. If you want to read a textbook from scratch it has to be a book that motivates you to read it. you HAVE to get Macroeconomics Principles and Applications and Microeconomics Principles and Applications by Marc Lieberman and Robert E. Hall (they wrote both of those two books). It is by far the best written textbook I ever read. Be sure to get the 2006 update, if you can't, the 2005 one will be fine. I own the 2006 Macro and the 2005 Micro and Had no problems with either. Lieberman was my professor and he said he wrote those books with his friend (Hall) because they were really no other good intro economics books out there. They also wrote a book called 'Economics' but I can't attest to the depth of that. </p>
<p>Looking ahead, I don't know much about more advanced books. However, someone recommended a book called 'Macroeconomics' by Ben Bernanke and a few other guys. Once again, for a more intermediate book I'm the wrong person to ask but that I can recommend. As for finance etc. Go on Finance.google.com and watch those video's daily on the bottom of the page. as well as any news that comes up. Also <a href="http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/%5B/url%5D">http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/</a> is a great resource. As well as Marketwatch.com and other reputable online publications. (WSJ, etc). For finance stuff, there are a few ally's to go down. I can't recommend any books at this point as the ones I know of are very specific. But <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_finance_topics#Financial_markets%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_finance_topics#Financial_markets</a> is a great place to go. You an always google topics to find other info on them. So you don't really need to buy a book, alot of this info is online but if you can find a good one go for it. </p>
<p>Lastley, there is a great business library in midtown NYC (i don't know where you live) that you can check out.</p>
<p>Macroeconomics by Abel, Bernanke and King.</p>
<p>Yes, I totally agree with the above posters.</p>
<p>But I feel like once you get the basics, you should try and find an internship to further your understanding. I mean when I took finance classes, it didn't really click in until my internships.</p>
<p>if you want to get into business in general more, than start reading business week or got to their website <a href="http://www.businessweek.com%5B/url%5D">www.businessweek.com</a></p>
<p>Read business best sellers until it gets repetitive. Then buy textbooks.</p>
<p>I've been researching this stuff lately and some good books/resources i've found:</p>
<ul>
<li>Irwin's guide to using the Wall Street Journal</li>
<li>The Secrets of Economic Indicators: Hidden Clues to Future Economic Trends and Investment Opportunities (2nd Edition)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.investopedia.com%5B/url%5D">www.investopedia.com</a>, tutorials, beginners</li>
</ul>
<p>Invest in the stock markets. Really, when it is your money at stake, it is so much easier to force yourself harder to figure out what the hell moves the markets. </p>
<p>(I am taking the shallow view of generalizing your 'Finance + Econ' desires as the equivalent of wanting to enter possibly the corporate world. Not something like the World Bank.)</p>
<p>^Actually that’s a good point. OP: Are you interested in understanding the various conflicting theories of economics being discussed by the great economic thinkers, or are you interested in learning the amount required to get rich by betting on equity markets, or are you interested in learning just enough to get a job at a big company with above average pay and benefits?</p>
<p>To be honest, eventually somewhere in between the last two options....could go either way...</p>
<p>In that case I recommend what icebox4 said. Disregard my comment about the macro texbook by abel bernanke and king. Put your own money on the line. Not a vast sum, but enough to make you disciplined in your research and decision making.</p>
<p>That will do for equity and for corporate finance at least. Commodities, fixed income, foreign exchange, and pretty much everything else will require an understanding of econ so if you ever get horribly bored with the mundane workings of corporations, then that would be your next step.</p>
<p>There are so many ridiculous books out there about how to get rich quick by betting on equity. The truth is, if it really was so easy these people wouldnt be wasting their time writing books.</p>
<p>it is not easy at all to invest in equities. i think that's the first lesson everyone gets when they first play the game.</p>
<p>As far as equities go- a great behavioral piece is Kenneth Galbraith, "The Great Crash" 1929. It's a must for any investing environment. Also this is probably more in line with one of those get "rich" quick books but William O'Neil of IBD has a collection of great books that help immensely with the technical side of things. I believe the best investing book on this earth is Jon D. Markman "swing trading". And another great read is Jesse Livermore's, "How to trade stocks". I also follow a blog by Tim Knight, he's the founder of prophet.net, he is currently and usually short biased, but you can learn alot from him. Good luck.</p>