The armchair economist : economics & everyday life /

Includes bibliographical appendix and index.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface to the Second Edition vii
Introduction xi
I. WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT
1. The Power of Incentives: How Seat Belts Kill
2. Rational Riddles: Why U2 Concerts Sell Out
3. Truth or Consequences: How to Split a Check or Choose a Movie
4. The Indifference Principle: Who Cares If the Air Is Clean?
5. The Computer Game of Life: Learning What It’s All About
II. GOOD AND EVIL
6. Telling Right from Wrong: The Pitfalls of Democracy
7. Why Taxes Are Bad: The Logic of Efficiency
8. Why Prices Are Good: Smith versus Darwin
9. Of Medicine and Candy, Trains and Sparks: Economics in the Courtroom
III. HOW TO READ THE NEWS
10. Choosing Sides in the Drug War: How the Atlantic Monthly Got It Wrong
11. The Mythology of Deficits
12. Unsound and Furious: Spurious Wisdom from the Media
13. How Statistics Lie: Unemployment Can Be Good for You
14. The Policy Vice: Do We Need More Illiterates?
15. Some Modest Proposals: The End of Bipartisanship
IV. HOW MARKETS WORK
16. Why Popcorn Costs More at the Movies: And Why the Obvious Answer Is Wrong
17. Courtship and Collusion: The Mating Game
18. Cursed Winners and Glum Losers: Why Life Is Full
of Disappointments
19. Random Walks and Stock Market Prices: A Primer for Investors
20. Ideas of Interest: Armchair Forecasting
21. The Iowa Car Crop
V. THE PITFALLS OF SCIENCE
22. Was Einstein Credible? The Economics of the Scientific Method
23. New Improved Football: How Economists Go Wrong
VI. THE PITFALLS OF RELIGION
24. Why I Am Not an Environmentalist: The Science of Economics versus the Religion of Ecology
Appendix: Notes on Sources
Index
About the Author
Endnotes