Synopses & Reviews
The extensively revised and updated edition of Steven Landsburg’s hugely popular book.Steven E. Landsburg is well known for revealing the laws of economics that underlie our everyday experience and illuminate the entire range of human behavior. When cars are made safer, drivers become more reckless and accident rates go up. When a supply interruption causes gas prices to skyrocket, journalists point to the “obvious” exercise of monopoly power. Economists see just the opposite: If oil companies had monopoly power, prices would have been higher all along.
First published in 1993, The Armchair Economist attracted a large and devoted following. Now, almost twenty years later, this new edition includes contemporary applications of the eternal ideas of economic theory, firmly placing the book’s emphasis on today's concerns, including political strategies, interest rates, government deficits, Internet scams, the local foods movement, and the prices of everything from gasoline to college tuition. Several chapters have been rewritten from scratch to incorporate new material and new explanations of eternal ideas. Throughout, the basic principles of economics continue to surprise, delight, and edify.
Review
“This new edition of The Armchair Economist is a wide-ranging, easily digested, unbelievably contrarian survey of everything from why popcorn at movie houses costs so much to why recycling may actually reduce the number of trees on the planet. Landsburg valiantly turns the discussion of vexing economic questions into an activity that ordinary people might enjoy.” – Joe Queenan
Synopsis
The extensively revised and updated edition of Steven Landsburg's hugely popular book, The Armchair Economist--"a delightful compendium of quotidian examples illustrating important economic and financial theories" (The Journal of Finance).
In this revised and updated edition of Steven Landsburg's hugely popular book, he applies economic theory to today's most pressing concerns, answering a diverse range of daring questions, such as:
Why are seat belts deadly?
Why do celebrity endorsements sell products?
Why are failed executives paid so much?
Who should bear the cost of oil spills?
Do government deficits matter?
How is workplace safety bad for workers?
What's wrong with the local foods movement?
Which rich people can't be taxed?
Why is rising unemployment sometimes good?
Why do women pay more at the dry cleaner?
Why is life full of disappointments?
Whether these are nagging questions you've always had, or ones you never even thought to ask, this new edition of The Armchair Economist turns the eternal ideas of economic theory into concrete answers that you can use to navigate the challenges of contemporary life.
Synopsis
Revised and updated May 2012.In this revised and updated edition of Steven Landsburg’s hugely popular book, he applies economic theory to today’s most pressing concerns, answering a diverse range of daring questions, such as:
Why are seat belts deadly?
Why do celebrity endorsements sell products?
Why are failed executives paid so much?
Who should bear the cost of oil spills?
Do government deficits matter?
How is workplace safety bad for workers?
What’s wrong with the local foods movement?
Which rich people can’t be taxed?
Why is rising unemployment sometimes good?
Why do women pay more at the dry cleaner?
Why is life full of disappointments?
Whether these are nagging questions you’ve always had, or ones you never even thought to ask, this new edition of The Armchair Economist turns the eternal ideas of economic theory into concrete answers that you can use to navigate the challenges of contemporary life.
About the Author
Steven E. Landsburg is a Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester. He is the author of The Armchair Economist, Fair Play, More Sex is Safer Sex, The Big Questions, two textbooks in economics, a forthcoming textbook on general relativity and cosmology, and over 30 journal articles in mathematics, economics and philosophy. His current research is in the area of quantum game theory. He blogs daily at <>. For over ten years, he wrote the monthly "Everyday Economics" column in Slate magazine, and has written regularly for Forbes and occasionally for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. He appeared as a commentator on the PBS/Turner Broadcasting series "Damn Right", and has made over 200 appearances on radio and television broadcasts over the past few years.