Okay, so yeah. Just looking for some basics.
For finance I would actually recommend something like the Dummies series. They have literally scores of titles on the subject, because they have entire books dedicated to specific topics, such as Bond Investing for Dummies and Commodities for Dummies, but they also have more general titles like Personal Finance and Investing. (In fact they actually combined those two into a single volume for convenience). Check out the list here.
That’s really a good start. That series is popular for a reason. They do a great job because the authors are specific to each subject, but the format of the book is done to maximize beginner comprehension. (Notice they also have foreign editions of some titles, like this one here is a UK edition…so you might see if they have one closer to home for you.)
If you get through a couple of those, that should give you a good enough foundation to follow what is being said on financial news. If you have a question about something specific, these sites should be able to help:
www.fool.com
www.investopedia.com (there is a great dictionary of finance terms here. Here’s an example)
www.teachmefinance.com
As for economics in general, see here. (at that link, you can click most of those images and be taken to a place to either download the book and/or purchase it. If it’s not obvious, look for the phrase “resources page”)
But be sure to check out these lists: