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The Undercover Economist
- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
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A must listen if you love or hate Trump
- By Rob D on 04-19-17
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A Capitalism for the People
- Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
- By: Luigi Zingales
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment - paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism - on a country’s economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.
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Enjoyable but a tad predictable.
- By Kevin on 12-24-12
By: Luigi Zingales
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Supercapitalism
- The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the 1970s, and notwithstanding three recessions, the U.S. economy has soared. American capitalism has been a triumph, and it has spread throughout the world. At the same time, argues the former U.S. secretary of labor, Robert B. Reich, the effectiveness of democracy in America has declined. It has grown less responsive to the citizenry, and people are feeling more and more helpless as a result.
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Robert Reich for V.P. (of the U.S.)
- By Horace on 11-07-07
By: Robert B. Reich
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The Great Reversal
- How America Gave Up on Free Markets
- By: Thomas Philippon
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Why are cellphone plans so much more expensive in the United States than in Europe? It seems a simple question. But the search for an answer took Thomas Philippon on an unexpected journey through some of the most complex and hotly debated issues in modern economics. Ultimately, he reached a surprising conclusion: American markets, once a model for the world, are giving up on healthy competition.
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Eye-opening, but better as a book - a must-READ
- By Ash on 11-29-19
By: Thomas Philippon
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Equal Is Unfair
- America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality
- By: Don Watkins, Yaron Brook
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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We've all heard that the American Dream is vanishing, and that the cause is rising income inequality. The rich are getting richer by rigging the system in their favor, leaving the rest of us to struggle just to keep our heads above water. To save the American Dream, we're told that we need to fight inequality through tax hikes, wealth redistribution schemes, and a far higher minimum wage.
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While I agree with most of this book,...
- By Wayne on 12-30-16
By: Don Watkins, and others
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No, They Can't
- Why Government Fails - But Individuals Succeed
- By: John Stossel
- Narrated by: John Stossel
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The government is not a neutral arbiter of truth. It never has been. It never will be. Doubt everything. John Stossel does. A self-described skeptic, he has dismantled society's sacred cows with unerring common sense. Now he debunks the most sacred of them all: our intuition and belief that government can solve our problems. In No, They Can't, the New York Times best-selling author and Fox News commentator insists that we discard that idea of the "perfect" government - left or right - and retrain our brain to look only at the facts, to rethink our lives as independent individuals - and fast.
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Great Book, Must Listen
- By dan on 04-27-12
By: John Stossel
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Radical Markets
- Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society
- By: Eric A. Posner, E. Glen Weyl
- Narrated by: James Conlan
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Many blame today's economic inequality, stagnation, and political instability on the free market. The solution is to rein in the market, right? Radical Markets turns this thinking - and pretty much all conventional thinking about markets, both for and against - on its head. The book reveals bold new ways to organize markets for the good of everyone.
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Terrible Reader ruins this book
- By Brian W. Veit on 10-30-18
By: Eric A. Posner, and others
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Naked Money
- A Revealing Look at What It Is and Why It Matters
- By: Charles Wheelan
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Consider the $20 bill. It has no more value, as a simple slip of paper, than Monopoly money. Yet even children recognize that tearing one into small pieces is an act of inconceivable stupidity. What makes a $20 bill actually worth $20? In the third volume of his best-selling Naked series, Charles Wheelan uses this seemingly simple question to open the door to the surprisingly colorful world of money and banking.
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This is a beautiful audiobook, and well-narrated.
- By Thirsty Mind on 11-10-18
By: Charles Wheelan
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Free to Choose
- A Personal Statement
- By: Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, teamed up to write this most convincing and readable guide, which illustrates the crucial link between Adam Smith's capitalism and the free society. They show how freedom has been eroded and prosperity undermined through the rapid growth of governmental agencies, laws, and regulations.
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Fantastic
- By Erik on 01-21-08
By: Milton Friedman, and others
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I expected more
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Thought provoking
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Should have liked it
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Hidden Agenda
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Macroeconomics is hard
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I expected more
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Thought provoking
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Should have liked it
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Freakonomics
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Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives: how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of...well, everything. The inner working of a crack gang...the truth about real-estate agents...the secrets of the Klu Klux Klan. What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking, and Freakonomics will redefine the way we view the modern world.
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Good, but be careful
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By: Steven D. Levitt, and others
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SuperFreakonomics
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SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such questions as: How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa? What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common? Can eating kangaroo save the planet? Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else.
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Just ok. Not sure if I believe it all though.
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With high stock and bond prices and the rising cost of housing, the post-subprime boom may well turn out to be another illustration of Shiller's influential argument that psychologically driven volatility is an inherent characteristic of all asset markets. In other words, Irrational Exuberance is as relevant as ever. Previous editions covered the stock and housing markets - and famously predicted their crashes. This edition expands its coverage to include the bond market, so that the book now addresses all of the major investment markets.
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Still Relevant After 21 Years
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Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we are all susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.
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An overly long Nudge in the right direction
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A million-copy seller, Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson is a classic economic primer. But it is also much more, having become a fundamental influence on modern “libertarian” economics of the type espoused by Ron Paul and others. Called by H. L. Mencken “one of the few economists in history who could really write,” Henry Hazlitt achieved lasting fame for this brilliant but concise work.
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The truth about Economics
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Who formed the first literate society? Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism? The Scots. As historian and author Arthur Herman reveals, in the 18th and 19th centuries Scotland made crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics - contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since. This book is not just about Scotland: it is an exciting account of the origins of the modern world.
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Eagerly Awaited Audiobook
- By Lulu on 09-01-16
By: Arthur Herman
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Capitalism and Freedom, Fortieth Anniversary Edition
- By: Milton Friedman, Rose D. Friedman, Grover Gardner - prologue
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How can we benefit from the promise of government while avoiding the threat it poses to individual freedom? In this classic book, Milton Friedman provides the definitive statement of his immensely influential economic philosophy - one in which competitive capitalism serves as both a device for achieving economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom.
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A poor execution of a great book.
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By: Milton Friedman, and others
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Think Like a Freak
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The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics changed the way we see the world, exposing the hidden side of just about everything. Now, with Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have written their most revolutionary book yet. With their trademark blend of captivating storytelling and unconventional analysis, they take us inside their thought process and offer a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems. The topics range from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain.
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Very little new material - deceptively short
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Superforecasting
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Overall
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Everyone would benefit from seeing further into the future, whether buying stocks, crafting policy, launching a new product, or simply planning the week's meals. Unfortunately, people tend to be terrible forecasters. As Wharton professor Philip Tetlock showed in a landmark 2005 study, even experts' predictions are only slightly better than chance. However, an important and underreported conclusion of that study was that some experts do have real foresight.
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Great for Experts
- By Michael on 02-20-17
By: Philip Tetlock, and others
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Predictably Irrational
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In a series of illuminating, often surprising experiments, MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking research, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities.
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Good lessons, mediocre science?
- By William Stanger on 02-24-09
By: Dan Ariely
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Debt - Updated and Expanded
- The First 5,000 Years
- By: David Graeber
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Here, anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: He shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods - that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.
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Transformative to the point of being revolutionary
- By James C. Samans on 08-14-16
By: David Graeber
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Why Nations Fail
- The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
- By: Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?
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Pros and Cons of "Why Nations Fail"
- By Joshua Kim on 05-01-12
By: Daron Acemoglu, and others
What listeners say about The Undercover Economist
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Paul Norwood
- 04-24-06
Everyone needs to know this.
This is a basic economic theory book which is logical and substantiated. The reader has a very British accent, is entertaining but somewhat monotone. I recommend this book if you are a little rusty on economics. Most of us would be best to hear this to support our own political views or possibly to change our political views. The book also answers many questions; why are poor nations poor? Why is China so successful as compared to India? What happened to India previously? What are negative externalities? What are the problems with the American and British health plans and what is the best way to solve the insurance problem? He is both conservative and sometimes liberal, so we can say middle of the road. He is fair. Sometimes the book is humorous at least as much as an economics text can be.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Margaret
- 04-26-10
Not For High School Graduates
I was very disappointed in this book and want my 10 hours back....you can keep the money! was embarrassed for anyone who listens to this who doesn't know that supply and demand are basic to economics which is lectured about over and over again in this book. I was pulled in by the idea that essays were going to clue me in to stuff I didn't already know but this was not the case. Honestly, I was appalled at the dumb-downedness of this book and could have overlooked this if there were more than just a few interesting facts about products and how they are sold. Disappointed.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall
- S. Scarano
- 03-02-07
Required reading for voters!
Harford explains lucidly how the free market determines how resources are allocated, why it seems to work well much of the time, why it fails under some circumstances, and what sort of government actions would appropriately address those failures. Much of the latter half of the book is devoted to the effects of increased global trade, including a whole chapter on the miraculous success of China. I didn't find all of it well argued; for example, his argument that globalization is not significantly harmful to the environment was painted in broad strokes and not well-supported. But overall, this book is an enjoyable elucidation of the world's dominant economic model, and should be read by anyone who... well, votes.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- CyberMind
- 05-02-06
Excellent Insight
Very good treatment of the economic concepts that we often ponder but for which we have no definitive solutions. Using an inductive approach the author explains a simple model for defining scarcity and its effects and then applies it to a number of tangential yet relevant areas. Very mind expanding for the economically curious.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Tim
- 01-15-09
Deserves more than 1 listen
I listened to this audiobook over a year ago and can't believe how many things in life I've seen that ring true with what the author has to say in this book. I actually found myself re-listening to parts of the book - somethig I almost NEVER do!
Probably the most interesting treatise in the book is the discussion about why poor countries stay poor. Having traveled to Cambodia recently, and to Russia right after the fall of Communism, the things the author said about this topic really seemed to hold water. However, had I not read this book, I never would have seen the common thread between the two.
In some ways, this book reminds me of "Freakonomics", but seems more profound and well thought out.
Liked it so well, that I bought his other audiobook.
Only criticsim (and a small one) is that the author can tend to "overexplain" his position. But, it's a small issue - and the book's content and benefit easily transcend this issue.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Mary
- 09-07-10
Poor thought meet bad writing
I had heard that this book offers clear insights into economic theory. Nope, no insights, but that's largely because the author couldn't hold a critical thought in his head if his life depended upon it. I've read econ textbooks with more verve than this.
All this book offers is the disproven and simplistic pop theory called "supply side economics" but he adds the insult of political posturing badly masked as research. The narrator has a voice that will bore you to tears, then send you searching for a blunt object to pound the life out of your iPod. The insanely circular logic and the flat sentence syntax are not the machines' fault, but the author is probably in hiding. If not he should be, if only out of embarrassment at publishing this mess.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- W. Quigley
- 04-24-10
Well worth it
Really enjoyed his discussion about markets, both their power and limits. Harford doesn't try to explain too much with his theories, and the conclusions he does draw are well supported. If you like books like Freakonomics, you will like this as well.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- fred
- 06-28-14
The dismal science made a little less dismal
Making the dismal science a little less dismal is something the Undercover Economist has accomplished. As a fan of boring books, I found this one a little less boring. The biggest problem is that the recording was completed in 2005. Many aspects related to economics changed greatly post-recession of 2008 and therefore seem a little less realistic. The reader is excellent. I could listen to him read the phone book!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Noah Smith
- 03-03-14
Econ 101 in a book!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I would absolutely recommend this book. Listen to this book, and you can skip your undergrad Econ 101 course - you'll already know everything in it, without ever having to draw a single supply-and-demand graph.
What did you like best about this story?
Tim Harford is an incomparable master of clear and simple, yet effective explanation of difficult concepts.
Which scene was your favorite?
This book doesn't have scenes.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No; each section should be enjoyed on its own.
Any additional comments?
The sequel is great too!
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Overall
- Shaw
- 08-11-09
Its A Okey book
This book summarizes the economics around the world.
It was a good listen but expected more. It's not worth the price.
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