[gabrielroth]

A meta-comment on the answers to this question: For various reasons, a disproportionate number of HN commenters are fans of "Austrian School" economics. You'll see links to papers from mises.org, books by Murray Rothbard, etc. Without passing judgment on any of this work, if you're new to economics it would probably be helpful for you to understand that it's outside the mainstream.

To answer your question more directly (although only partially): Wikipedia is quite good on the major economic concepts and figures. I'd imagine that the Wikipedia article on any of the subjects you mentioned would be a good, brief, thoroughly hyperlinked starting point. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation, for example.

[chrismealy]

I'll pass judgment on Austrian economics: it's terrible. It's just tarted up right-wing politics. They start with the assumption that free markets are magic and from that they conclude that free markets are magic. Seriously, they're against empiricism. They assume they're right and don't bother to check their work. That's why as a research program it's never gone anywhere.

Austrians are just rightwingers who chose an economics to suit their politics. If people want to be rightwing that's fine. There's no reason to drag bad economics from the 1930s into it.

[toumhi]

Yeah, Wikipedia works to an extent. I feel it's easier to grasp a subject with videos rather than with reference material.

I've watched a few Khan academy videos about inflation/deflation, they're very accessible and explain the basics. I've read a few wikipedia articles but I think I've retained more from the khan academy.