Which? Are you talking about the link in the link in the link I gave…here? You really followed the link chain, huh?
Yeah, Sowell is pretty good. Basic Economics is good, as well as his follow up Applied Economics. Frieman’s Capitalism and Freedom is usually the recommended default standard. His Free to Choose is also good, but you might get more out of the TV series it was basically a print version of.
However, it must be noted that Friedman was a monetarist, and therefore much of his recommendations for banking and monetary policy are flawed. As general free market economists, adherents of the Chicago School are good about most areas, but differ greatly from Austrians in some important areas. (For some resources on these differences, see here.)
I would say you’d definitely get a lot out of Friedman’s lectures and conversations. The way he formulates arguments and the responses he offers to common statist questions are excellent. You’ll gain not only from hearing the arguments presented, but also from his style and delivery. Friedman was a master conversationalist and debater, and I think everyone can stand to learn from him in this respect.
Indeed it was this clip that really pushed me into my own journey. I would say Friedman is probably the closest thing to Ron Paul as far as having a philosophical impact on the masses and bringing the ideas of freedom into the limelight.
But as far as books go, I think your time would better spent with other material. I’m not saying you wouldn’t get anything out of reading Friedman, and if you have any inclination at all to do so, by all means do it…but if you’re really just interested in learning good economics, there are plenty of other superior resources available. (And of course everyone’s time is limited, and books are decent-size time commitment.)
I recently offered a couple of lists for recommended reading here and here, but more recently I compiled a bit more of a categorized list for someone that I’ll reproduce here:
Basically you can just pick from whatever category you’re interested in, and go down the list in that category until you’re ready to jump to a new category. Then you can jump back and pick up where you left off in each list as you move around from subject to subject.:
For general economics:
Lessons for the Young Economist (available for free download)
Economics in One Lesson (available for free download)
How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes
Economics for Real People (available for free download)
For politics:
(in this order)
Beyond Democracy & Anatomy of the State
Money and Banking:
(in this order)
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal
The Creature from Jekyll Island
general Capitalism/history:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism
The Case for Legalizing Capitalism
In Defense of Global Capitalism
For more, be sure to check out the “reading lists” link toward the bottom of The Ultimate Beginner meta-thread.
Very good! You’ve been doin some reading
For more on this you can refer to