Nalebuff and Ayres are at their best in exploring "Idea Arbitrage," a tool for applying one solution to a host of other problems and yielding day care at IKEA, corporate vanity stamps, and library coffee houses. Some promising concepts, such as the technique of leveraging mistakes to create new solutions, are not as clear as others. Overall, the authors make an entertaining case for the idea that innovators are made and not born. --Barbara Mackoff

Nalebuff and Ayres are at their best in exploring "Idea Arbitrage," a tool for applying one solution to a host of other problems and yielding day care at IKEA, corporate vanity stamps, and library coffee houses. Some promising concepts, such as the technique of leveraging mistakes to create new solutions, are not as clear as others. Overall, the authors make an entertaining case for the idea that innovators are made and not born. --Barbara Mackoff

Straightforward advances a thesis that is at once simple and groundbreaking: to make real progress at the central flashpoints of controversy--marriage rights, employment discrimination, gays in the military, exclusion from the Boy Scouts, and religious controversies over homosexuality--straight as well as gay people need to speak up and act for equality. Ayres and Brown take aim at both the hearts and minds of the general public, focusing on strategies that can change the incentives and therefore the behavior of the recalcitrant.

The book is peppered with stories about real people and the decisions they have faced at home, in church, at work, in school, and in politics. It is also filled with creative legal and economic strategies for influencing public and corporate decision-making. For example, Ayres and Brown propose the development of a "fair employment mark" to help companies advertise inclusive employment policies. They also show how a simple pledge to vacation in states that legalize gay marriage can create powerful incentives for legislatures to amend their marriage laws.

Engagingly written and sure to spark debate, Straightforward promises to change the way America thinks about--and participates in--the gay rights movement.

There is a new Chapter Eight on Contract Dispute Resolution: Some Alternatives to Courts. This Chapter introduces the student to dispute settlement by agreement, including through mediation, and dispute settlement by private adjudication (outside of the courts), including arbitration.

There is a new subsection in Chapter Four, The Bargain Relationship, which deals with Assent in Electronic Contracting. Building on an analysis of the so-called "Gateway" problem, this subsection reviews current legislation on electronic contracting and features a recent decision by the Second Circuit (the Specht case) on "click wrap" licenses.

Section 2 of Chapter Five, Avoidance of the Contracts, reviews the recent decisions in California holding that one-sided arbitration clauses in consumer or employment contract are unconscionable.

Section 3 of Chapter Five on Illegality features updated materials on cohabitation agreements, surrogacy contracts, and promissory fraud related issues.

Section 1 of Chapter Nine, Third Party Interests, has a recent case on the assignability of rights created by structured settlements that, in turn, implement judgments in tort cases. This affords an opportunity to review the provisions of Revised Article 9 of the UCC and the common treatment of agreements prohibiting assignment.

The provisions of Revised Article 2, Sales, which is scheduled for final approval at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Law Institute are incorporated into the text and problems.

Relevant provisions of the U.N. treaty on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods and the UNIDROIT Principles of International Contracts are identified and discussed where relevant.

Nalebuff and Ayres are at their best in exploring "Idea Arbitrage," a tool for applying one solution to a host of other problems and yielding day care at IKEA, corporate vanity stamps, and library coffee houses. Some promising concepts, such as the technique of leveraging mistakes to create new solutions, are not as clear as others. Overall, the authors make an entertaining case for the idea that innovators are made and not born. --Barbara Mackoff

Coates is now the recognized expert on French wines and his recent books on Bordeaux and Burgundy are current best sellers. This is the one book that covers ALL of France and is a recommended staple for Society of Wine Educator's and Master of Wine examinations.