You might do better to check out other economists. Milton Friedman, for one. There are others.

The basics for economics is much simpler than most people would have you think.

Economics is like car repair.

Economics is like losing weight.

Like car repair: a lot of people try to make it more complicated than it is, because they are trying to sell you something. There is nothing wrong with learning the quantum physics of the electron, but it isn't much help if you are just trying to get a spark plug working.

If a car repair guy starts talking gobbledegook, there's a pretty good chance he's trying to get you to buy something you don't really need. Same with economists.

Like losing weight: There is just one way to reliably lose weight. Burn more calories, and take fewer of them in. Nobody likes this simple answer, which is why billions are made each year in bizarre and complicated ways to take off the pounds. Most of them promise a "free lunch," or some way to lose weight without having to really pay a price.

The characteristics of successful economics--capitalism, free markets, supply and demand, private ownership and the rest--are also relatively simple, but nobody likes these answers either, so they will work up something complicated, usually involving the same sort of "free lunch" that diet crazes offer. In this case, the idea that you can get goods and services without anyone actually having to provide them.