Ask HN: How can I learn macroeconomics properly?

Here's a list of podcasts that touch on macro: - Eurodollar University - The Grant Williams Podcast - Grant's Current Yield - Hidden Forces - Inside Baseball with Old Chestnut - Keeping it Simple with Simplify Asset Management - Library of Mistakes - The Macro Compass - Macro Musings - The Macro Trading Floor - Macro Voices - The Market Huddle - Money Sense - On The Margin - Real Conversations - Real Vision Daily Briefing - The Rebel Capitalist Show - Super Investors and the Art of Worldly Wisdom - Wealthion

The best thing you can do is be open to hearing all opinion/theories. Some people will contradict others, but over time you figure out who is right and who is not.

In addition, I also watch a few indices in my stock app for a high level overview. These are the treasury yields, corporate credit spreads, dollar index, s&p 500, nasdaq, etc. I used to follow much more, but it's not needed for higher level macro.

The saying goes, "if you want three opinions, ask two economists looking at one set of data".

It sounds to me like you're interested in "financial economics" or "money & banking."

Having an interest in these topics myself, I find that they are less about macroeconomics as a whole, which, in the mainstream formulation, is about national income accounting, aggregate demand, general equilibrium, production functions, the business cycle, etc., and are more about the microeconomics of particular markets e.g. the market for money, the market for bonds. I'd have a solid grasp of microeconomics, and then learn national income accounting (`C + I + G + X - M = Y` i.e. the sum of consumption, investment & government spending, less imports equals the national income (GDP/GNP), as well as the capital accounts identities), some ideas about the business cycle and maybe a bit about aggregate demand. Then I'd dive into something purely about money and banking. You'll have the tools you need to think about how markets work, and ideas like the efficient market hypothesis should make sense (within the frame of the model).

I learned this stuff in school, so it's hard for me to give great concrete advice beyond topics, but I've heard good things about Sowell's "Basic Economics," Malkiel's "A Random Walk down Wall Street," and then a personal favorite of mine Vernon Smith's "Rationality in Economics." The latter is truly insightful, but might be difficult if you don't have some of the ground matter (e.g. "what are supply and demand?" "What is a firm?") covered first.

Honestly. Start with learning what very basic economics is - "Wealth of Nations", "Human Action", etc and then try extrapolating your perception based on mastery of the principles. In practice this means deciding for yourself.

Modern macroeconomics is an extremely controversial field to say the least and if you start from top (the propaganda-like crazy statements that both sides make), the result would be that none of the viewpoints would ever make any sense to you :)

Not "Properly" but I find Economics Explained on Youtube very educational and insightful, and to my limited knowledge quite balanced and well researched: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4AMrDcNrfy3X6nsU8-rPg