While I didn't take it as far as faux playing the market, reading/skimming my father's copy of The Wall Street Journal from 3rd through 12 grades, roughly all of the '70s, a period with very ... interesting economics, especially our worst post-New Deal in your face government interventions (Nixon's Wage and Price Controls, which were not lifted for petroleum or natural gas until Reagan, which created the "Energy Crisis" more than any OPEC embargo, then again, we were also allowed to own gold again), did me as much good as reading the books I've commented on in this thread.

Don't know if the WSJ is still a good source today, but "a steady diet" of one or more of these day to day sources and watching what they get right and wrong will do you a world of good.