Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor - and Why You Can Never
Buy a Decent Used Car!

Nattily packaged-the cover sports a Roy Lichtensteinesque image of an economist
in Dick Tracy garb-and cleverly written, this book applies basic economic theory
to such modern phenomena as Starbucks' pricing system and Microsoft's stock
values. While the concepts explored are those encountered in Microeconomics 101,
Harford gracefully explains abstruse ideas like pricing along the demand curve
and game theory using real world examples without relying on graphs or jargon.
The book addresses free market economic theory, but Harford is not a complete
apologist for capitalism; he shows how companies from Amazon.com to Whole Foods
to Starbucks have gouged consumers through guerrilla pricing techniques and
explains the high rents in London (it has more to do with agriculture than one
might think). Harford comes down soft on Chinese sweatshops, acknowledging
"conditions in factories are terrible," but "sweatshops are better than the
horrors that came before them, and a step on the road to something better."
Perhaps, but Harford doesn't question whether communism or a capitalist-style
industrial revolution are the only two choices available in modern economies.
That aside, the book is unequaled in its accessibility and ability to show how
free market economic forces affect readers' day-to-day.

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