The Undercover Economist

By: Tim Harford

Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Author of the extremely popular "Dear Economist" column in Financial Times, Tim Harford reveals the economics behind everyday phenomena in this highly entertaining and informative book. Can a book about economics be fun to read? It can when Harford takes the reins, using his trademark wit to explain why it costs an arm and a leg to buy a cappuccino and why it's nearly impossible to purchase a decent used car. Supermarkets, coffee houses, airlines, insurance companies, and more are sucking money from our wallets. To protect ourselves and our bank accounts, we must better understand why companies do what they do.

©2006 Tim Harford (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC.

Critic reviews

"The book is unequaled in its accessibility and ability to show how free market economic forces affect readers' day-to-day." (Publishers Weekly)

Insightful Read

I enjoyed this book's insights into what really makes our society tick. It goes beyond the popular conclusions into the basics of motivation and structure. Worth it!

Pretty solid

This book was a class requirement for one of the courses in my MBA program. Great overview and intro of economics. It provided me some solid insights into the primary principles of economics.

Eye opening!

Love this book, it opened my eyes to the world of economics and how it touches all of us. I’m not an economist but found this a great book that spoke in easy terms and analogies to help understand the concepts and principles of economics.

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.

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.

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.

economics rules!

A great read, which uncovers many things about the world that will clarify them for the ordinary reader, and even for the ordinary economist (like myself).

Great book sounds need improvement

The storyline and content were great. The sound quality needs to improve. You can hear the narrator breathing the entire time.

Solid fundamentals, interesting interactions, poorly aged conclusions

Very much enjoyed the basic principles of macro economics and the well thought out system interactions. Some conclusions on technology, globalization and trade have aged poorly. Tim Hartford is a clever man, with great writing ability, but no prophet

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.