TY - BOOK AU - Landsburg, S. E. TI - The armchair economist: economics & everyday life SN - 978-1-4165-8725-5 U1 - e-book (SD) PY - 1993/// CY - New York PB - Free Press N1 - Includes bibliographical appendix and index N2 - 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 ER -