Comment by zanezone
6 years ago
Get some conflicting ideas. Two great, short books are The Mystery of Banking by Rothbard (available for free here: https://mises.org/library/mystery-banking) and Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt (free here: https://fee.org/resources/economics-in-one-lesson/). They both conflict quite substantially with the mainstream and might open up a whole new line of inquiry for you.
If you're going to read Hazlitt, do us the favor of reading John Quiggin's recent followup "Economics in Two Lessons":
https://www.amazon.com/Economics-Two-Lessons-Markets-Badly-e...
"Since 1946, Henry Hazlitt’s bestselling Economics in One Lesson has popularized the belief that economics can be boiled down to one simple lesson: market prices represent the true cost of everything. But one-lesson economics tells only half the story. It can explain why markets often work so well, but it can’t explain why they often fail so badly—or what we should do when they stumble. As Nobel Prize–winning economist Paul Samuelson quipped, “When someone preaches ‘Economics in one lesson,’ I advise: Go back for the second lesson.” In Economics in Two Lessons, John Quiggin teaches both lessons, offering a masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes—and failures—of free markets."
To add to this, Understanding Money Mechanics (https://mises.org/library/understanding-money-mechanics-0) is a fantastic “comprehensive overview of the theory, history, and practice of money and banking, with a focus on the United States.”
I highly recommend it, especially because it was written recently so it provides understanding behind contemporary banking procedures, practices, and econometrics.
And keep in mind that both of these are Austrian/libertarian takes on things - with important insights, no doubt, but then balance it with some more conventional and maybe even some left accounts.