Speaking as someone with a degree in economics I can't think of any books that offer a good discussion on international economics (notwithstanding an economics textbook). I am familiar with some of the books suggested here, but for an overall comprehensive look at economics I'd have to recommend Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan (with all due respect to my fellow ET'ers. Especially the guy who suggested Green Eggs and Ham). It covers just about everything and it uses lot's of easy to understand metaphors so it's nothing like a textbook. Overall it's a fairly balanced and unbiased book. Which is hard to find on such a broad subject matter. Some chapters show an obvious right leaning bias, but it's no Ann Coulter.
i concur with claywilk... additionally this can be a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetary_policy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Keynesian_Economics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply as regards velocity however, things tend to get a bit nasty since the jury's still out on a number of aspects... tons of rather technical research papers, e.g. http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/fipfedgfe/1998-26.htm but no serious summary in layman terms to my knowledge...
Hello, hope you're finding the books that you need. I have ECONOMICS-THEORY AND PRACTICE, SEVENTH ED. there is also a study guide that accompanies authors welch & welch I bought them at amazon THEY ARE BASIC as in late high school early college
Just study history from a financial perspective instead of the romanticized one. Economic theories are nothing more than attempted loose predictions that rarely hold any value. Wealth of Nations is a good read. I also suggest Alchemy of Finance by Soros, you can actually observe his theory of reflexivity unfold on GOOG. BTW, people should not bash Karl Marx, he has some very good and well researched points about capitalist economies. A lot of his predictions are coming true as we speak.