How can we teach basic economics?

Economics is too important to be left to mathematicians.

In my years of formal education the subject of economics could be taken without advanced maths. To be sure, the student of “economics for gentlemen” was unlikely to become an expert econometrician, but could gain an understanding of basic themes of the subject.

That’s important. How otherwise to understand statements such as

A study by BBVA of 173 cases of fiscal squeezes in OECD countries over the
last thirty years concluded that demands on Spain are almost unprecedented.
They found only four such cases, and three were offset by devaluations.

or

There is near unanimity across the political spectrum that drastic
pro-cyclical tightening at this stage is unwarranted and dangerous. 

If you can’t understand this, you can’t understand some of the basics of the eurozone crisis.

Yet economics as a school subject is being captured by maths. That may be essential for a specialist economist. But how can you understand modern government if you’re not familiar with basic economic concepts?

How is modern education equipping students with such understanding?

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