The Undercover Economist
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.83 (580 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0345494016 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 265 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-12-20 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Tim Hartford's next piece will be about this breakthrough discovery Tim Hartford's next piece will be about this breakthrough discovery, after having had an epiphany that water is wet. This isn't an "undercover" economist, but an obvious one.. "Good, fun and interesting." according to A Customer. My brother recommended it. He's the family expert, I liked it very much and learned a lot. Not sure if applicable to everyday life. But worth the 6 hours reading.. Good illustration of marginal return and why it matters The Undercover Economist works well as a layman's introduction to economics, if you know nothing at all about the discipline. If you do know a bit about the field, it's less valuable but still a fun read.Hartford discusses at length and with many examples key concepts such as marginal return and comparative advantage. One of the more enlightening chapters is about how new technologies that make the whole world richer can also make investors poorer by causing an investment bubble with unrealistically high expecations for returns. Hartford is writing of 19th century railroads, emphasizing that the internet did not change economic theo
Critics agree that the book will grip readers interested in understanding free-market forces but disagree about Harford’s approach. All rights reserved. Some thought the author mastered the small ideas while keeping in sight the larger context of globalization; others faulted Harford for failing to criticize certain economic theories and to ground his arguments in political, organizational structures. “The economy isn’t a bunch of rather dull statistics with names like GDP (gross domestic product),” notes Tim Harford, columnist and regular guest on NPR’s Marketplace, “economics is about who gets what and why.” In this acclaimed and riveting book–part exposé, part user’s manual–the astute and entertaining columnist from the Financial Times demystifies the ways in which money works in the world. From his book I found out why there’s a Starbucks on every corner and how not to get duped in an auction. The book addresses free market economic theory, but Harford is not a complete apologist for capitalism; he shows how companies from to Whole Foods to Starbucks have gouged consumers through guerrilla pricing techniques and explains the high rents in London (it has more to do with agriculture than one might think). Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.. Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics“A playful guide to the economics of everyday life, and as such is something of an el
While the concepts explored are those encountered in Microeconomics 101, Harford gracefully explains abstruse ideas like pricing along the demand curve and game theory using real world examples without relying on graphs or jargon. All rights reserved. Harford comes down soft on Chinese sweatshops, acknowledging "conditions in factories are terrible," but "sweatshops are better than the horrors that came before them, and a step on the road to something better." Perhaps, but Harford doesn't question whether communism or a capitalist-style industrial revolution are the only two choices available in modern economies. From Publishers Weekly Nattily packaged-the cover sports a Roy Lichtensteinesque image of an economist in Dick Tracy garb-and cleverly written, this book applies basic economic theory to such modern phenomena as Starbucks' pricing system and Microsoft's stock values. . That aside, the