Armchair Economist : Economics and Everyday

Witty economists are about as easy to find as anorexic mezzo-sopranos, natty mujahedeen, and cheerful Philadelphians. But Steven E. Landsburg...is one economist who fits the bill. In 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, the University of Rochester professor valiantly turns the discussion of vexing economic questions into an activity that ordinary people might enjoy.-- Joe Queenan,The Wall Street JournalThe Armchair Economistis a wonderful little book, written by someone for whom English is a first (and beloved) language, and it contains not a single graph or equation...Landsburg presents fascinating concepts in a form easily accessible to noneconomists.-- Erik M. Jensen,The Cleveland Plain Dealer...enormous fun from its opening page...Landsburg has done something extraordinary: He has expounded basic economic principles with wit and verve.-- Dan Seligman,Fortune

Introduction
What Life is All About
The Power of Incentives: How Seat Belts Kill	p. 3
Rational Riddles: Why the Rolling Stones Sell Out	p. 10
Truth or Consequences: How to Split a Check or Choose a Movie	p. 20
The Indifference Principle: Who Cares If the Air Is Clean?	p. 31
The Computer Game of Life: Learning What It's All About	p. 42
Good and Evil
Telling Right from Wrong: The Pitfalls of Democracy	p. 49
Why Taxes Are Bad: The Logic of Efficiency	p. 60
Why Prices Are Good: Smith Versus Darwin	p. 73
Of Medicine and Candy, Trains and Sparks: Economics in the Courtroom	p. 83
How to Read the News
Choosing Sides in the Drug War: How the Atlantic Monthly Got It Wrong	p. 95
The Mythology of Deficits	p. 106
Sound and Fury: Spurious Wisdom from the Op-Ed Pages	p. 116
How Statistics Lie: Unemployment Can Be Good for You	p. 127
The Policy Vice: Do We Need More Illiterates?	p. 138
Some Modest Proposals: The End of Bipartisanship	p. 146
How Markets Work
Why Popcorn Costs More at the Movies and Why the Obvious Answer Is Wrong	p. 157
Courtship and Collusion: The Mating Game	p. 168
Cursed Winners and Glum Losers: Why Life Is Full of Disappointments	p. 174
Ideas of Interest: Armchair Forecasting	p. 181
Random Walks and Stock Market Prices: A Primer for Investors	p. 188
The Iowa Car Crop	p. 197
The Pitfalls of Science
Was Einstein Credible? The Economics of Scientific Method	p. 203
New, Improved Football: How Economists Go Wrong	p. 211
The Pitfalls of Religion
Why I Am Not an Environmentalist: The Science of Economics Versus the Religion of Ecology	p. 223
Appendix: Notes on Sources	p. 233
Index	p. 237
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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Armchair Economist : Economics and Everyday Life

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