I recently read the book “Economics: The User’s Guide” by Ha-Joon Chang (116 UAH in electronic form).
I sincerely wanted to start understanding economics better. I read it; I didn’t end up understanding it much better. But there were interesting bits in the book.
About how the imperialists (Britain and accomplices) waged economic wars in Asia for centuries, using all kinds of vile methods and actual wars to push through their interests.
About how in the International Monetary Fund the U.S. has veto power, i.e., you could say they run the IMF. The IMF gives loans in exchange for political control over a country.
International trade is, 80% of the time, transnational corporations moving stuff from one pocket to another. And a corporation can skillfully regulate imports and exports with itself. For example, buy ordinary hammers at 800 dollars apiece. Or buy a Toyota car for 200.
Foreign direct investment, at best, has no effect on a country’s economy, and sometimes makes it worse. Because any politician is ready to dance for an overseas investor and tailor the laws in favor of the investor, not the country.
Free trade is a noose around the neck of developing countries (hello, association with the EU!). For a country, it’s better to buy its own products, lower quality and more expensive, than foreign ones that are better quality and cheaper.
You won’t learn economics from this book, but you can pick up a lot of facts. Recommended as light bedtime reading.