50 Economics Ideas You Really Need To Know by Edmund Conway

Before talking about the book 50 Economics Ideas You Really Need to Know by Edmund Conway, we would like to say a few words about the original author first. Edmund Conway, born in 1979, is a well-known British journalist. He worked as a correspondent for the Daily Mail and served as the economics editor for the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph. At present, he is the economics editor for Sky News and Sky Group’s 24-hour television news service.
This book has been translated into Myanmar by U Kyaw Win, a writer specializing in political and economic affairs. The book contains (1) The Basics, (2) The Movements, (3) How Economies Work, (4) Finance and Markets, (5) The Issues, and (6) Alternative Economics, and the readers will have to read a total of fifty chapters.
In the translator’s preface titled Approaching Economics with the Mindset of a Cowboy, he explains his own mistakes. The first thing the translator mentions in his preface is the mistakes and twists in his own educational life. It is something he often reveals when delivering literary talks. He again repeats here: “Five to almost six years after completing grade 10, the subject I studied was medicine. But when I graduated, my major was Chemistry. For a living, I taught English tuition classes, and now I write about politics and at the same time, I also write about economics. Therefore, I no longer know what sort of creature I really am.
The translator also mentions why he became interested in the economy. It reads that when he was in grade eight, he read Lenin’s The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism. With the little understanding he had, he became curious. Since he was particularly drawn to the political economy section of that book, he continued reading economic literature, and later began seeking out books on the capitalist economy to read.
Regarding the 50 Economic Ideas book, he writes that after returning to Yangon in the early 2000s, he read Edmund Conway’s book. Since it explained everything from basic economics to 21st-century issues, it deeply attracted him. Liking it so much, he directly translated more than 80 per cent of it and combined it with some of the knowledge he himself had learned, to make the subject more accessible to readers like himself who were distant from economics. He regularly submitted these translations to The Opportunity Journal, which was being published at that time. However, when he reached 40 chapters, he had to pause for a while. Now, he has completed the remaining ten chapters and published the full collection.
He also admits that he has added the book with his own limited understanding of economics. His intention is simple- to make the subject easier for ordinary people like himself. However, he worries that his goodwill might turn into trouble. Since he has only concepts of a cowboy in economics, his additions may contain mistakes. “If there are errors, please correct me,” he respectfully requests from knowledgeable readers. And if anything in this work appears incorrect, uninteresting, or boring, he asks that readers not blame the original author, but all the flaws are entirely his own shortcomings.

GNLM