 | The Great Depression: America 1929-1941 by Robert S. McElvaine
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $6.00 Excellent history book - provides info and interpretation of why the US fell into depression and what was done to try and recover from it.
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 | Macroeconomics in Context by Neva Goodwin
Buy new: $34.80 / Used from: $24.99 An introduction to macroeconomics that covers both classical/orthodox theory and the limitations of those theories. Very readable even if you don't know any more economics than what comes out in the news.
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 | Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard
Buy used from: $4.95 Social policy and economics from a different perspective: that of maximizing happiness rather than efficiency.
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 | All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy (BK Currents (Paperback)) by Jared Bernstein
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $0.01 A great description of the difference between the current YOYO (You're on your own) attitude towards national problems vs WITT (We're in this Together). Both a critique of where we've gone wrong and examples of how we can restore common sense to government.
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 | The Economic Illusion: False Choices Between Prosperity and Social Justice by Robert Kuttner
Buy new: $27.50 / Used from: $0.75 Somewhat dated, but still pretty good insights.
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 | Money Makes the World Go Around by Barbara Garson
Buy used from: $2.20 A writer makes a deposit in a small-town bank, and then follows the path her money takes as it goes around the world.
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 | Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang
Buy new: $17.79 / Used from: $4.43 Very readable summarization of the difference between free market mythology and the actual history of how countries like the US became economically prosperous.
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 | After the New Economy: The Binge and the Hangover That Won't Go Away by Doug Henwood
Buy new: $16.95 / Used from: $0.87 Economic life in the Bush years. Not quite as good as Wall Street, IMO, but perhaps more readable. Again, lots of statistics.
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 | The Corporation
Buy new: $27.49 / Used from: $17.88 Inspired by the book by Joel Bakan, this documentary explores the effect of corporations on society. Probably the best economics-related documentary I've seen, and one of the best overall.
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 | Wall Street: How It Works and for Whom by Doug Henwood
Buy used from: $0.33 An explanation of the global economy you won't see in Forbes, backed up by lots of statistics. Helpful if you know some economic theory.
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 | Economics for a Civilized Society by Greg Davidson
Buy new: $97.95 / Used from: $66.49 A relatively short work advocating economic policies based on a combination of self-interest and civic values, as opposed to the contemporary political outlook of choosing one to the exclusion of the other.
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 | Bait and Switch : The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream by Barbara Ehrenreich
Buy used from: $1.55 Author Ehrenreich went undercover, posing as an unemployed middle class white-collar worker looking for a job. As she threads her way through career counselors, resume services, networking sessions, sales jobs with no salary or benefits, she finds herself no closer to a real job. Just the realization that there is something very wrong here.
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 | The Case Against the Global Economy: And for Local Self-reliance
Buy used from: $32.13 I'm only half-way through this collection of essays as I write this, but that first half was definitely worth reading. E.g., the essay by David Morris on free trade as a religion. Essays stress the downside of globalization and the upside of thinking locally. E.g., that community relationships are more important than buying products more cheaply.
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 | Enron: The Smartest Guys in The Room (2-Disc Set - WMVHD DVDs)
Buy used from: $28.99 Based on the McLean-Elkind book, this expose brings the Enron scandal to life, by concentrating on the people rather than the accounting. Leaves the viewer wondering how many other corporations share the Enron philosophy.
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 | The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 by Paul Krugman
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $7.80 Good analysis of the 1990s financial crises around the world, along with the current economic meltdown -- which Krugman labels as being governed by depression economics but which is not (yet) an actual depression.
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 | The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: Lessons from Japan's Great Recession by Richard C. Koo
Buy new: $30.60 / Used from: $24.00 Original analysis of depressions as balance-sheet problems. That is, as asset values drop, companies fall into a state of negative net worth, and compensate by paying down debt rather than maximizing profits, as orthodox economics says they should be doing.
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 | Maxed Out
Buy new: $14.49 / Used from: $7.98 How lenders target those least able to repay debt -- because that's where the profit is.
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 | Life And Debt
Buy used from: $24.95 The damage done to the Jamaican economy by World Bank and IMF policies intent on enforcing free trade at any cost.
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 | The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (Great Minds Series) by John Maynard Keynes
Buy new: $9.34 / Used from: $4.29 I hesitate recommending this book because it's virtually impossible to understand it in its entirety -- economists have been arguing about it since 1936. And Keynes, as an empiricist, changed his mind about various issues as the facts changed. But this book is the foundation of modern macroeconomics and probably anyone with an interest in economics can get something out of it.
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 | The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi
Buy new: $21.60 / Used from: $16.50 Some great insights buried in hard-core socioeconomics and English economic history.
Even if you skim over the historically detailed parts, you'll still come away with an understanding of why modern capitalism has never worked and can never work.
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 | Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Buy new: $12.95 / Used from: $5.93 The business practices of one of the world's most successful companies. Lately, Wal-Mart seems to have taken the criticism seriously and has taken some baby steps to clean up their act, but the DVD remains as a reminder that the world of Wal-Mart is probably not the world you want to be living in.
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 | Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
Buy new: $14.49 / Used from: $7.98 How the Iraq War has been a windfall money-maker for favored corporations, sometimes at the cost of American lives.
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 | The Post Corporate World: Life After Capitalism by David C Korten
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $1.45 Why a healthy market economy and modern mega-corporations are incompatible. Lots of ideas here on how to return the market to where it benefits the public, as opposed to the wealthy few.
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 | Orwell Rolls in His Grave
Buy used from: $14.43 A bit sledgehammery in its approach -- some images are repeated, and some numbers are suspect -- but still a chilling view of how corporations have been buying media in order to get their message across, while denying that outlet to their adversaries.
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 | The Take
Buy new: $26.99 / Used from: $18.66 How workers are taking back their jobs in Argentina, after the IMF-caused factory closings.
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 | The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden
Buy new: $12.21 / Used from: $1.62 Not an economics book, but I thought I'd throw it in -- as an example of how a popular proponent of the free market, based on a concept of man ever acting in his own rational self-interest, was unable to live up to her own principles.
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