It’s now April 23 in the US, the official release day for Economics in Two Lessons. That’s nearly eight years after I started work on the book. I think it’s been worth the wait. The painful process has produced something better than I originally planned, with plenty of help from commenters here and elsewhere.
According to Amazon, the book is often bought along with Crashed, by Adam Tooze, which is great company to be in.
[Begin plug] If you’ve read and liked the book as it appeared here, this would be a great time to contribute a quick review [End plug]
John Quiggin 
Max would be pleased…
Max Planck
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck,
Born 23 April 1858
…energy is not infinitely subdivisible, but ultimately exists as discrete amounts he called quanta (Latin, “how much”) and with 2nd lesson “How much at what opportunity cost”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Planck
Pick an auspicious release date for china.
John, I am almost at the end of your book and I am really enjoying it. I find it very readible, well-written and I love the case studies, anecdotes that you use along the way. I will probably read it a second time, but at a slower pace so I can fully understand the arguments. I also love the further reading section. I ordered Adam Smith’s “the Money Game” last night based on your recommendations. Oh, and the chapter on externalities was masterful and thought provoking in the context of the inane election debate. Did you see how the LNP and their cheer leaders seized on that report by Warwick McKibbin that asserted that the cost of Labor’s policy would be $42 billion by 2030 (never mind that the economy will be worth $2 trillion by this stage). But what’s the opportunity cost of pursuing the LNP’s do nothing approach? On the point of opportunity cost, what’s the opportunity cost of the LNP’s tax give away (the Grattan Institute asserts that they need to find $40 billion of savings to pay for them, so again a stark example of opportunity cost). Interestingly I saw a LNP attack ad during the football last night that said, essentially, Labor is going to tax everybody and future generations are going to suffer. How does that even make sense? The crazy tax giveaways that Labor is proposing to cull will have to be paid for by future generations. Anyway, the point is that your book should be essential reading for anybody evaluating both sides’ policies. As you can see, the book certainly has me thinking.
JAF, thanks for these kind comments. You are absolutely right on the opportunity cost of the tax cuts. We will be paying the costs well before any members of future generations are old enough to worry about it.
@KT2 I trust the Chinese publishers know their feng shui (or book equivalent)
I got my kindle copy a few days ago