Prior to releasing his book Economix in 2012, writer Michael Goodwin took a bunch of volumes on the economy, moved to India, settled in and did extensive research on the economy. For over 2 years, Goodwin combs over theories by noted economists such as Adam Smith, Keynes, Friedman, Ricardo. Even less conventional 'experts' like Marx and Engels are explored in this graphic novel exploration of how money makes the world go round.
Along with the theories, Michael Goodwin examined how those theories impacted the markets and society as a whole in practice in business; both public and private. To do this, the author has a global look at economics. But being an American, Goodwin's focus in this book is the American economy. And boy did the United States make a ton of blunders when it comes to money.
Goodwin does a fairly decent job just recording the facts. But it's hard for anyone to give a balanced, straight line approach without putting too much of yourself in a book such as this. I could only read this book in small chunks, considering how infuriating a lot those blunders made me. I would say that the author presents 'just the facts' about 70% of the time with about 30% emotions and opinions running the narrative.
As for the visuals, it's a mix of line graphs, cartoon and caricature. Tasked with all of this is artist Dan E. Burr (Presidential Misadventures). The line graphs went over my head. I'm strictly a bar graph and pie chart man myself. I thought the cartoons had that unifying feel as noted years ago by Scott McCloud. The caricatures, while definitely something you might see on the Jersey Boardwalk, captured the images of 300 years of politicians, dignitaries and economic experts pretty well.
As I mentioned earlier, this book was not something I could consume in just a couple of days. It took me almost the entire month of July, 2022 to complete it. There was a lot of theory, a ton of history and a gigantic amount of injustice. Economix made me think a lot about the spending of cash; how I spend it; and how changes in the regime shifts our cash flow. Being a school teacher in a specialized subject, I'm scared to death about losing my funding and my job in the wake of the mid-term election and 2024.
My eyes are also opened quite a bit to the amount of excess being put upon our world. It moved me so much that I'm ready to cut my spending, live more sustainably and stop buying things I don't need. And then I saw the new line of comic book tees available for sale on Facebook...
Guess I've got a long way to go before I change the world.
Worth Consuming! - But it surely will infuriate you from time to time!
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
Completing this review completes Task #11 (About Business) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.
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