If you haven't read Debt, the first 5000 years, do. I've managed to misplace my copy -- aha! just found it -- but it's among the most fascinating books I've found in 25 years on economics. That, Niall Feguson's Ascent of Money (the guy is in many ways an ass, but this is a pretty good book), Nassim Taleb, Nouriel Rabini, Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, The Ordinary Business of Life: A History of Economics from the Ancient World to the Twenty-First Century (Roger Backhous) -- hardly a page-turner, but a very good compendium of 3000 years of economic thought, and Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and Baroque Cycle have been very helpful to my understanding.

One of the values in these online discussions isn't the ability to convince others nearly so much as it is to hone and refine your own arguments. I'm not sure I'm even partially cogent yet, but I'm starting to stumble in a direction I like.