Economy books, macro-economic outlook for amateur investors?

[piezoe]

So, Mr Volcker was "wrong" or, politely put, outdated.

This is a really great question, one that's been in my mind for some time. I have a fairly high opinion of Volcker, but he is not without his critics. I do know his experiment with trying to control the money supply ala' Friedman was apparently a failure.
As a matter of fact I am currently wading through a paper about Volcker entitled "What Remains of the Volcker Experiment" , by Benjamin Friedman, a political economist at Harvard. (Here is a link if your interested: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/bfriedman/files/what_remains_from_the_volcker_experiment.pdf

I might feel confident enough to comment later after I finish wading. In the meantime, I'd be interested in your own view.

 

[piezoe]

FWIW, in regard to my post #65 above, I just happened by serendipity to come across the official name of the prize given to economists and appearing in the the Press as the "Nobel Prize" or alternatively "The Nobel Memorial Prize" . The official named turns out to be:

"The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel" , it is stated that the prize is "administered by the Nobel Foundation."

 

[Darc]

Trader Vic's books are Economy, T/A and Trading.

(Victor Sperandeo)

 

[The_Krakenite]

Do any of you gentleman, professionals in the field and/or knowledgeable amateurs alike, have any particular economy books recommendations for an amateur investor trying to get a better understanding of how macro-economic factors influence the stock market(s)?

There have been many posted in the 'What are you reading' thread in the 'Educational Resources' forum.

 

[piezoe]

Thank you all for the feedback. I have a solid background in calculus up to (and including) multivariate calculus, but not a lot on stochastic calculus or statistics, random processes.
Once done with "The Intelligent Investor", and "The Dark Side of Valuation" i'll follow with "Principles of Economics" by Gregory Mankiw and "Secrets of Economic Indicators: The Hidden Clues to Future Economic Trends and Investment Opportunities" by Bernard Baumohl, "The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science" as well. There are lots of interesting suggestions but given a finite time and budget perhaps narrowing down to this would suffice for now.
This isn't really for trading or investing per se, not directly at least, though i hope that a better grasp of economy will have a positive impact overall in at least making more balanced and informed decisions, even if at an introductory level.
Once again thank you gentlemen for your time and suggestions, i truly appreciate it and hope that this information will also be of use to others in these forums.
All the best in your endeavors.

You've been given a lot of good suggestions. Once you have read one of the basic texts (Mankiw is good as any) you'll be ready to read Soros, who is someone who's knowledge of macro economics, banking and finance has informed his investing. Possibly the "Alchemie of Finance" would be a good place to start. Also a little book of his lectures at the Central European University is very useful in explaining markets. He gives, in this book and elsewhere, what in my opinion is the correct explanation for formation of market bubbles.

I think someone here has already mentioned that having a good grasp of Macroeconomic principles and Central bank monetary policy operations isn't particularly helpful to the short time scale trader, but it is very important in longer term investing.

There is a new basic economics text out by L. R. Wray and W. Mitchell that is the first basic text to get fiat money and central banking correct. All the others have errors here, particularly when it comes to explaining the so called "money multiplier". Sadly this text is expensive, like too many other texts these days.

 

[The_Krakenite]

Possibly the "Alchemie of Finance" would be a good place to start.

I remember Taleb cutting up this book and poking all sorts of fun at it. And I 100% agree with him.

Not sure what anyone here actually got from this book that was usable? Anything?

 

[nrstrader]

I would start with Hayek's Nobel prize speech, The Pretence of Knowledge.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1974/hayek/lecture/

There is the whole field of complex systems that is interesting but macro economics on a whole to me is 99% the pretence of knowledge.

W. Brian Arthur has wrote interesting books about viewing economics from the perspective of non-equilibrium complex systems.