Economic Facts and Fallacies
Economic Facts and Fallacies

Author: Thomas Sowell

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2011-03-22

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 0465026303

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Thomas Sowell “both surprises and overturns received wisdom” in this indispensable examination of widespread economic fallacies (The Economist) Economic Facts and Fallacies exposes some of the most popular fallacies about economic issues-and does so in a lively manner and without requiring any prior knowledge of economics by the reader. These include many beliefs widely disseminated in the media and by politicians, such as mistaken ideas about urban problems, income differences, male-female economic differences, as well as economics fallacies about academia, about race, and about Third World countries. One of the themes of Economic Facts and Fallacies is that fallacies are not simply crazy ideas but in fact have a certain plausibility that gives them their staying power-and makes careful examination of their flaws both necessary and important, as well as sometimes humorous. Written in the easy-to-follow style of the author's Basic Economics, this latest book is able to go into greater depth, with real world examples, on specific issues.

Economics in One Lesson
Economics in One Lesson

Author: Henry Hazlitt

Publisher: Crown Currency

Published: 2010-08-11

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 0307760626

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With over a million copies sold, Economics in One Lesson is an essential guide to the basics of economic theory. A fundamental influence on modern libertarianism, Hazlitt defends capitalism and the free market from economic myths that persist to this day. Considered among the leading economic thinkers of the “Austrian School,” which includes Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich (F.A.) Hayek, and others, Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993), was a libertarian philosopher, an economist, and a journalist. He was the founding vice-president of the Foundation for Economic Education and an early editor of The Freeman magazine, an influential libertarian publication. Hazlitt wrote Economics in One Lesson, his seminal work, in 1946. Concise and instructive, it is also deceptively prescient and far-reaching in its efforts to dissemble economic fallacies that are so prevalent they have almost become a new orthodoxy. Economic commentators across the political spectrum have credited Hazlitt with foreseeing the collapse of the global economy which occurred more than 50 years after the initial publication of Economics in One Lesson. Hazlitt’s focus on non-governmental solutions, strong — and strongly reasoned — anti-deficit position, and general emphasis on free markets, economic liberty of individuals, and the dangers of government intervention make Economics in One Lesson every bit as relevant and valuable today as it has been since publication.

Thirteen Persistent Economic Fallacies
Thirteen Persistent Economic Fallacies

Author: E. Mishan

Publisher: Praeger

Published: 2009-04-30

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13:

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E. J. Mishan, an iconoclastic economist who has taught at such schools as the London School of Economics and the New School for Social Research, is in this volume a provocateur, smashing staunchly held beliefs of the right (free trade and common markets are good for the economy), and the left (local jobs are always lost when factories close down, pay disparity between men and women signifies discrimination). He also pokes holes in the accepted wisdom held by all, arguing for example that economic growth does not necessarily improve lives. Those who believe the fallacies Mishan exposes to the light of reason in this book are, however, neither ignorant nor careless. The fallacies are all plausible, and intelligent people can be forgiven for believing them. Mishan simply wants readers to see these thirteen popular, persistent fallacies for what they are: Humbug. Mishan's scintillating text is apolitical. In arguing that immigration does not benefit a country's economy, for example, he is not arguing in favor of restricting immigration. Rather, his goal is to test the assumptions behind the dearly held positions of both the left and the right or to expose what he calls the breathtaking fatuity that counts as wisdom these days. Mishan wants to interject common sense and logic into today's debates over the economy and, especially, the political arguments that translate into legislation that has a negative impact on people. Mishan's ideas breathe new life into debates gone stale by ideology. As he notes, the fallacies in this volume travel in the highest circles, from debates in Congress to the pages of the Wall Street Journal, Time, and The Economist. Most are things everybody knows. He hopes, therefore, to expose the concerned citizen to the shock-treatment of discovering that much of what passes for conventional economic wisdom is in fact fallacious. As the Economist pointed out in its glowing review of the first edition of this book, Dr. Mishan has written the perfect book for anyone wishing to start the study of economics.

Adam's Fallacy
Adam's Fallacy

Author: Duncan K. Foley

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 0674027078

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This book could be called "The Intelligent Person's Guide to Economics." The title expresses Duncan Foley's belief that economics at its most abstract and interesting level is a speculative philosophical discourse, not a deductive or inductive science. Adam's fallacy is the attempt to separate the economic sphere of life, in which the pursuit of self-interest is led by the invisible hand of the market to a socially beneficial outcome, from the rest of social life, in which the pursuit of self-interest is morally problematic and has to be weighed against other ends.

20 Economics Fallacies
20 Economics Fallacies

Author: Tim Worstall

Publisher:

Published: 2014-07-01

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 9781907720963

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"Tim Worstall, always clear thinking, nails the myths that grow up around economics in this useful book. A terrific compendium of fallacies and their refutations." Matt Ridley, author of the Rational Optimist. This book is simply a discussion of those errors which I've had to repeatedly correct in this past decade of my writing about matters economic. It gets rather boring having to point out the same errors again and again: thus putting the explanations into one simple format handy for waving at people rather than having to trot out the same old explanation again. This book is an idiosyncratic look at a number of common economic fallacies and mistakes. It does not pretend to be be exhaustive, a thorough examination of all the mistakes that economics, both folk and formal, can become prey to. Rather, it's about those that I've come across and find that I have to continually point out the folly of. For example, the Labour Theory of Value has been around for a long time and forms the heart of the basic underpinnings of Marxism. Yet it was disproved at around the time that Marx was publishing Das Kapital: and it has remained wrong since then whatever the insistences of the ideologues. So there is a simple explanation of why that particular theory is wrong. On what is perhaps more my side of the fence, free market zealotry (and I confess to being a market zealot) it is also wrong to proclaim that free markets can and will solve every problem. This is not, sadly, so: there are times when interventions must be made, even times when something must be done and government is the only actor able to do that thing.

Economic Fallacies
Economic Fallacies

Author: Frederic Bastiat

Publisher: Simon Publications

Published: 2001-08-16

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781931541022

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This book, written by the celebrated nineteenth century French economist propagating free trade, reads as it was written yesterday.

Seven Deadly Economic Sins
Seven Deadly Economic Sins

Author: James R. Otteson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-04-08

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1108843379

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Compelling basic principles of economics every citizen should know to enable better personal decision-making and better evaluation of public policy.

How Markets Fail
How Markets Fail

Author: Cassidy John

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2013-01-31

Total Pages: 485

ISBN-13: 0141939427

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How did we get to where we are? John Cassidy shows that the roots of our most recent financial failure lie not with individuals, but with an idea - the idea that markets are inherently rational. He gives us the big picture behind the financial headlines, tracing the rise and fall of free market ideology from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan. Full of wit, sense and, above all, a deeper understanding, How Markets Fail argues for the end of 'utopian' economics, and the beginning of a pragmatic, reality-based way of thinking. A very good history of economic thought Economist How Markets Fail offers a brilliant intellectual framework . . . fine work New York Times An essential, grittily intellectual, yet compelling guide to the financial debacle of 2009 Geordie Greig, Evening Standard A powerful argument . . . Cassidy makes a compelling case that a return to hands-off economics would be a disaster BusinessWeek This book is a well constructed, thoughtful and cogent account of how capitalism evolved to its current form Telegraph Books of the Year recommendation John Cassidy ... describe[s] that mix of insight and madness that brought the world's system to its knees FT, Book of the Year recommendation Anyone who enjoys a good read can safely embark on this tour with Cassidy as their guide . . . Like his colleague Malcolm Gladwell [at the New Yorker], Cassidy is able to lead us with beguiling lucidity through unfamiliar territory New Statesman John Cassidy has covered economics and finance at The New Yorker magazine since 1995, writing on topics ranging from Alan Greenspan to the Iraqi oil industry and English journalism. He is also now a Contributing Editor at Portfolio where he writes the monthly Economics column. Two of his articles have been nominated for National Magazine Awards: an essay on Karl Marx, which appeared in October, 1997, and an account of the death of the British weapons scientist David Kelly, which was published in December, 2003. He has previously written for Sunday Times in as well as the New York Post, where he edited the Business section and then served as the deputy editor. In 2002, Cassidy published his first book, Dot.Con. He lives in New York.