Ross Gittins is the economics guru of Australia. He has the extremely rare and enviable knack of making economics relevant, accessible and, most importantly of all, interesting. And Ross is a man on a mission. He wants to help us to understand just how the economy around us works, and more importantly, to help us take control of our lives, do less of what doesn't satisfy us and more of what does. Sound simple? Sound appealing? You bet.

While the very word 'economics' strikes fear in the hearts of many, as the great English economist Alfred Marshall puts it, economics is the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life. And it's this ordinary business of life that Ross Gittins wants to explain to us: be it to do with work, leisure and the shortage of time; homes and housework; buying and saving; parents and their kids; kids and their education; not to mention our happiness and the things that may threaten it - crime, taxation, health and ageing. Economics is the stuff of life, our life, and we need to understand it.

Written in his trademark friendly and accessible style, Gittinomics sums up all the things Ross wants to share with us after more than 30 years as an acclaimed economic journalist on The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Gittinomics is for everyone who's never really understood economics, but was too embarrassed to admit it. Go on, what have you got to lose?