Principles of Microeconomics (Marginal Revolution University)

The easiest place to start, because each idea arrives as a short video and most lessons end with a quiz, so you find out at once whether you followed the argument. Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok build from supply and demand through the topics that fill policy coverage: taxes and subsidies, price controls, externalities, monopoly, labor markets and asymmetric information. The price controls and tax lessons are the ones to watch before reading any story about rent caps or a new levy, since they show who ends up bearing a cost, which is not always the party that writes the check. No prerequisites, and the lessons work well in short sittings.