I went down a similar road with curiosity and little prior knowledge.

I'll say some of the best resources I found were macroeconomic textbooks on specific economic subjects.

For example I really enjoyed this one for understanding how the fed and the central banking system works broadly.

https://www.amazon.com/Central-Banking-Sustaining-Financial-...

At a higher level though one of the few non-textbooks I would reccomend is Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty. It's an introduction and history of many topics and an enjoyable read.

https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Twenty-First-Century-Thomas-P...

Book recommendation: Piketty's Capital[1] is still the single best resource for understanding why income inequality and the concentration of wealth have been so pronounced over the past several decades. There are ample citations, footnotes, and references to meticulously researched data sets.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Twenty-First-Century-Thomas-P...

The central thesis of Piketty's Capital[1] is that inequality is a core feature of capitalism. He backs this with meticulous research[2] into centuries of wealth, income, and tax data. You can argue about what is the "right" level of inequality or with the policy recommendations (that massive government interventionism via a global tax on wealth is required). However, the results and data are solid.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Twenty-First-Century-Thomas-P...

[2]: http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/capital21c/en/Piketty2014Fig...

This interview with Paul Krugman discusses why the United States is becoming an oligarchy with increased inherited wealth. He reviews the book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" by Thomas Piketty. A few years ago, Piketty published detailed statistics on income inequality over the last century. In his new book, Picketty considers his data on wealth inequality since the French revolution. No other economist or social scientist in history has had data as comprehensive as this, so you can imagine Piketty has a few interesting things to say.

The interview is a fine, but Piketty's book with historical data is great:

http://www.amazon.com/Capital-Twenty-First-Century-Thomas-Pi...