Mar 18
The Undercover Economist
The Undercover Economist, by Tim Harford, is a book that I’ve been meaning to read for a long time. It’s a book that tries to explain everyday things from an economic perspective and teach you about economics in a fun way. I like knowing a little about everything so it would seem like the perfect book for someone like me.
Unfortunately, in its quest to teach economics it kind of dumbs it down until it has little to offer anyone who has taken a basic economics class or thought hard about supply and demand for a while. The examples used are good examples for the situations described and really, this is the type of book everyone should be forced to read in high-school. It doesn’t, however, have much to offer the more advanced reader. Books like Freakonomics or Super Crunchers go deep into the details of certain interesting situations and explain the economics behind them well while giving you, if nothing else, something to talk about at cocktail-parties. The Undercover Economist doesn’t really leave you with much after reading it.
Its saving grace is that its short and a fast read so you won’t be wasting a lot of time, and who knows, maybe I am jaded by reading and thinking too much about economics? It does contain good lessons and information, but as I said, nothing that stuck to me as particularly insightful.
Filed under //
bookreview
