Economics isn't necessarily a bad degree to study from a career perspective; it's just that, as you say, the content that one is taught is nonsense. Your point about indifference curves brings back some hilarious memories of convex R2->R exponential functions maximised with respect to a linear constraint, as if discrete and individual human actions can be distilled into continuous and differentiable functions!

The books that really changed my views on economics were Rethinking the Great Depression by Gene Smiley, FDR's Folly by Jim Powell, and of course Vox Day's most excellent The Return of the Great Depression. I highly recommend the latter in particular, his writing style is very readable and yet very precise.

Regarding Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis, the problem that I have with it is that it's a logical contradiction in terms. It argues essentially that instability arises from stability, which is a logical contradiction. The hypothesis fails to truly explain what causes the instability in the first place- debasement of the currency, or its modern equivalent, central banking. Frank Shostak's Mises.org article provides a very good examination and refutation of the hypothesis itself: mises.org/daily/2787

As far as I know, economics is actually a pretty good degree, so as long as you use it to get all the math's material out of it, and stay away from shit like indifference curves. One lad I know got into a statistics and actuary course from economics and is doing pretty ok for himself. but the actual content is fucking horseshit.

True economics is Austrian with Steve Keen/Financial Instability Hypothesis material thrown in. Likin the blog, added yous to the roll.