Really, it takes less math than common sense to understand economics.
Read Sowell’s works - not much math, at all, in those works, and they make infinitely more sense than anything the “experts” are saying.
It takes math to understand the theoretical framework of the economic models. The fact that Sowell does not show or use much math means that he has excellent intuition, and he can explain the models without the need of the math.
But he has to know the math behind the theory, which is the base of the model. For example, supply and demand are great and easy concepts. But there is a substantial theoretical framework which explain why the behave the way they do. Furthermore, we have to test the theories with data. You can do it one of two ways, through experiments or by gathering data. Either way requires some statistical model to prove whatever hypothesis you are testing, and that requires a mathematical model. So, you need math for economics. Good economists can summarize a complicated model in an easy to understand way.