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5th out of 10 books
—
3 voters
Armchair Economist: Economics & Everyday Life
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 pla...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
March 1st 1995
by Free Press
(first published 1993)
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عادةً ما يسعى الإقتصاد الى اثبات فرضياته بالرسوم البيانية والتحليلات المعقدّة .. لكن الامر مختلف مع هذا الكتاب الذي يقدم صور مجازية وقصص قصيرة واضحة وبسيطة الفهم ، وقريبة بالواقع. .
كل فصل من فصوله رحلة لحل لغز ما يستثيرك ويساعدك على فهم العالم بنظرة عالم اقتصاد ذكي وظريف ..
فيخلق الكاتب من خلال تحليلاته العديد من الاستفهامات - حتى ان كنت لم أتفق معه في بعض تحليلاته التي صُدمت وتعجبّتُ منها -، لكن لابأس ..فكم هو رائع أن تستكشف آراء جديدة،غير تقليدية ومختلفة عما ندرُسه في أساسيات الإقتصاد
من فصول...more
كل فصل من فصوله رحلة لحل لغز ما يستثيرك ويساعدك على فهم العالم بنظرة عالم اقتصاد ذكي وظريف ..
فيخلق الكاتب من خلال تحليلاته العديد من الاستفهامات - حتى ان كنت لم أتفق معه في بعض تحليلاته التي صُدمت وتعجبّتُ منها -، لكن لابأس ..فكم هو رائع أن تستكشف آراء جديدة،غير تقليدية ومختلفة عما ندرُسه في أساسيات الإقتصاد
من فصول...more
Abysmal, condescending, illogical and mean-spirited book on social economics. Absolutely no sources named for "statistics". The author seems to think that a significant number of people go to the movies solely to eat popcorn and that the benefits of recycling are outweighed by the fact that he doesn't feel like doing it.
Many, mostly brief, applications of economic theory written in a breezy manner. If you appreciate a small number of key concepts such as incentives, opportunity costs, and marginal costs, it's mostly intelligible, but the conclusions are not always obvious.
Tone can be a bit condescending. Subtext of "many lay people, and even purported experts in fields other than economics (e.g., politics, natural sciences.....), do not understand the correctness of what I am about to say", which gets a little...more
Tone can be a bit condescending. Subtext of "many lay people, and even purported experts in fields other than economics (e.g., politics, natural sciences.....), do not understand the correctness of what I am about to say", which gets a little...more
This was a book that I’d heard about from others, so I thought I’d give it a shot. It apparently was one of the first books bringing economics-colored lenses to the masses (it was published in 1993). Since then, there are books like Freakonomics that cover slightly different material, but also seek to bring certain types of perspectives and approaches to phenomena that a strong background in economics encourages. Since I’ve read a number of books like this already, I didn’t take as much from thi...more
Jan 16, 2012
Bruce
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
party hosts seeking conversation starter material
Recommended to my wife as Freakonomics’ better predecessor (Armchair Economist was originally published in 1993), Landsburg describes his work as “a chronicle of what [he] learned at lunch” (p. viii). Now, even granting the University of Rochester economics professor latitude befitting his choice of lunchtime companions, I was heartily disappointed to discover that the text indeed lives down to the author’s own humble description.
The tone is fine; Landsburg is chatty and informally fun. But each...more
The tone is fine; Landsburg is chatty and informally fun. But each...more
Most of the economics can be summarized in four words "People respond to Incentives".. This is how Landsburg commence this book which is full of bizarre riddles, solved by not so common economics principles.
The books take you on the journey where every chapter is like a riddle which compels you to think and exhaust your brain to the core. Landsburg basic premise is that "things and situations which look simple are actually much more complicated in reality."
However on various fronts I disagree wi...more
The books take you on the journey where every chapter is like a riddle which compels you to think and exhaust your brain to the core. Landsburg basic premise is that "things and situations which look simple are actually much more complicated in reality."
However on various fronts I disagree wi...more
I wasn't going to bother commenting on this book but in regard to some of the other comments I feel I must. Those that rated this book a 1 or 2 and then jumped into politically-motivated negative comments - shame on you. You are intellectually dishonest to yourselves and those that read these reviews. There is nothing in this book that pushes a political agenda unlike MOST of the more recent psuedo-economics books being published. What IS presented by Landsburg are sound, economic analysis and d...more
1 like · like · see review
I have to give this book a three since I did learn something, although I really hold it in remarkable contempt. For the first time ever while reading an economics book, I felt like I understood the contempt held for the 'dismal science'.
I feel like delving into this a bit. The author makes a claim that taxes don't add value to a society, because what you take from Peter, you pay to Paul, and in a sense of absolute value, it is true. If I have a million millionaires, who each earn 10 million a y...more
I feel like delving into this a bit. The author makes a claim that taxes don't add value to a society, because what you take from Peter, you pay to Paul, and in a sense of absolute value, it is true. If I have a million millionaires, who each earn 10 million a y...more
1 like · like · see review
It is a good book about how most people fail to apply basic economic principles in their lives. It's tone reminds me of the Black Swan, as author sounds condescending at times.
However, this seems appropriate given the general ignorance of basic economics demonstrated by media and by general public. No book is probably going to change this prevailing ignorance, but it is a worth pursuit.
Regardless, Landsburg presents an interesting material and a book was an enjoyable read.
However, this seems appropriate given the general ignorance of basic economics demonstrated by media and by general public. No book is probably going to change this prevailing ignorance, but it is a worth pursuit.
Regardless, Landsburg presents an interesting material and a book was an enjoyable read.
The Armchair Economist is - in my opinion - a must read for everyone who is evenslightly interested in how economists see the world, what reasons can be for the outrageous price at movies and other important questions.
Some people claim that the author has a rather condescending,even blood-boiling style, and well, sometimes you can say he has.
But all in all it shows you how the economical thought process handles problems, and some interesting facts.
A warning - the book is simply economics, and w...more
Some people claim that the author has a rather condescending,even blood-boiling style, and well, sometimes you can say he has.
But all in all it shows you how the economical thought process handles problems, and some interesting facts.
A warning - the book is simply economics, and w...more
Landsburg does everything in his power to justify the low opinion those untrained in economics have on the subject. He defends these ludicrous, over-the-top rational expectations/new classical/chicago hodgepodge and presents it as "the" economics. Simultaneously, his examples abound in pretty complicated concepts that require extensive explanation (for example, the Ricardian Equivalence, Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, and Coase's Theorem) yet he dedicates a page or so in passing to introduce it...more
Good detail. Easy to understand. Very enlightening about some of the economics issues that you thought you understood. Even the news agencies, politicians, and others that should know about this stuff are getting it wrong. Great economy starter.
Popular economics from before when popular economics was popular. Incentives matter, but it's often popular to disregard them to avoid cognitive dissonance. If you don't like questioning your beliefs, you probably won't like this book.
Good one. Not as thorough as he ought to be in his analysis of many issues. He seems to like being clever more than he likes being right. So he'll come up with a clever way to twist a topic without giving any more depth to the conversation and then moves on feeling smart. I'm left saying "...yeah, but what about..." over and over.
A fun and thought provoking read. It's sometimes a little quick in it's explanation of things, but that's ok. Funny to read the negative reviews of this book, most from environmentalists, behaving exactly as the author describes them.
Unlike his latest (More Sex is Safer Sex), Armchair Economist logically develops many of his counterintuitive ideas. He also discusses the philosophy of economics throughout the book, but notably in the second section ("Good & Evil").
The Armchair Economist is a nice, easy read about some everyday questions that economics can shine an interesting light on. It stays a lot closer to traditional economics than Freakonomics, for example, but I still think it is pretty accessible.
I liked this book better than Fair Play, mainly because Landsburg admits that he doesn't have all the answers to the questions he brings up. Moreover, where he has an answer, he tends to refer to it as the best explanation he's come up with so far. I real...more
I liked this book better than Fair Play, mainly because Landsburg admits that he doesn't have all the answers to the questions he brings up. Moreover, where he has an answer, he tends to refer to it as the best explanation he's come up with so far. I real...more
If this book doesn't make you want to be an economist, nothing will. Much deeper and interesting than Freakonomics. My favorite chapter is on why popcorn costs so much in movie theaters.
I chose this book because Tim Harford cites some interesting parts of it in "The Undercover Economist." "The Armchair Economist" is generally pitched at a higher level, with Landsburg using core economic principles to argue some unconventional points. This was a little frustrating, since he assumes an above average grasp of economics, and he doesn't spend much time defending or explaining his key assumptions. Still, his tone is great, snarky and professorial, and his arguments, right or wrong, r...more
This books sucks ass. Don't read it. You'll waste your time.
I bought a paperback copy at the airport. It sucked so bad, I ripped it in half and threw it away.
I bought a paperback copy at the airport. It sucked so bad, I ripped it in half and threw it away.
A great, easy-to-read book about economic principles. I know this sounds impossible to write in the same sentence, but this book on economics is very fun to read!
An easy read for a book about economics. I didn't agree with all of the economic analysis, but it was a thought provoking book. Had to read it for econ 110 at BYU.
This book was incredibly difficult for me to understand. At one point, I actually threw it down on the ground and walked away. But I picked it back up, and skipping one chapter, completed the book. My son recommended this book to me. I did learn a lot about what economics actually is. I understood about a fifth of what the author was trying to teach about economic theory, but still found myself listening to news reports differently using the little bit of knowledge I gleaned from reading. This I...more
This guy is a moron. Get up out of your armchair and actually think and reason, don't spew opinions and claim them as rational thought/fact.
Through "Freakonomics" I found this book in Amazon and the review there make it look a very good book to add to my "To Read" list.
I read the chapter about popcorn, funny..
This book is basically Freakonomics for grown-ups--just as clever, insightful, and fun to read, but it gives the reader a bit more credit and defends its assumptions much more carefully.
The book's central idea is the overarching principle of economics--that people respond to incentives, and that we ought to pay attention to the incentives people confront when we want to influence their behavior.
For casual readers, it's an excellent balance of depth and digestibility, and it contains the ideas th...more
The book's central idea is the overarching principle of economics--that people respond to incentives, and that we ought to pay attention to the incentives people confront when we want to influence their behavior.
For casual readers, it's an excellent balance of depth and digestibility, and it contains the ideas th...more
another book on everyday economics. fascinating.
Great book on Economics before Freakonomics.
Fun read on the economic principles of life
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“Selling is a painful necessity, buying is what makes it all worthwhile.”
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“[Economics] is all about observing the world with genuine curiosity and admitting that it is full of mysteries”
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Nov 07, 2008 07:03pm