Habla Economese?

Okay, you made it through tax day. Everything’s going to be okay after all (I hope). For freelancers like me, the estimated tax business just keeps on coming. As soon as I take a sigh of relief, I’ve got another check to sign straight to the government. Which, honestly, I feel okay about these days. We’re in a tough spot, I actually respect and trust the president, and I want things like public education and health care to be prioritized using my hard-earned money.
Here’s something I don’t feel okay about: as I’ve been reading the last six months of economic news, I’ve become discomfiting aware of how scant my economic knowledge is. Truth be told, I never took micro or macro economics, but if I had, my guess is that I would want to take it again. As is, I just want to take it for the first time. I’m feeling grossly unprepared to analyze all of this bubble bursting, bailout, stimulus, IMF, GDP, and what the fuck.
This all came to a head because I was hanging out with Erin Smith who had co-organized the recent Legal Momentum panel (check out Kyla’s great post on it) featuring Heather Boushey, Linda Hirshman, Mimi Abramowitz, and Irasema Garza. Apparently our old pal Hirshman made a crack about the fact that she feels like feministing should stop posting pictures of our pets and start covering cold, hard economic news more often.
Monty isn’t going anywhere Linda, but you’ve got a point here. I have made an effort to talk about the economy (as have others on this blog), but I usually feel like I’m trying to speak a language I only went to one semester of classes in. In other words, my economese sucks.
So what am I going to do about it? Read Suzie Orman? Probably not. I don’t just want a personal finance guide and her vibe freaks me out. I want to really understand the big picture. Anyone have a book recommendation? I honestly don’t want to invest a huge amount of time in this economic education project, but I do want to feel equipped to understand what’s going on. Anyone else conquer feeling less than literate on the economic front and have advice for the rest of us?
And for funsies (sorry Linda), check out Kristin Wig’s amazing Suzie Orman impression: