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Fans of economist Milton Friedman--of whom I'm one--should count themselves lucky that Stanford historian Jennifer Burns has written a detailed biography of him. Based on intensive archival research that only [...]

Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality By Angus Deaton 271 pp.; Princeton University Press, 2023 Economist Angus Deaton was born and educated in Britain and [...]

The Rediscovery of Tobacco: Smoking, Vaping, and the Creative Destruction of the Cigarette By Jacob Grier 267 pp.; Jacob Grier, 2019 When I taught benefit-cost analysis at the Naval Postgraduate [...]

The Economist's View of the World By Steven E. Rhoads 312 pp.; Cambridge University Press, 2021 In the late 1980s, I wrote a fan letter to University of Virginia professor [...]

A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America By Scott W. Atlas, M.D. 352 pp.; Bombardier Books, 2021 Was the [...]

Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be By Diane Coyle 257 pp.; Princeton University Press, 2021 In her latest book, Cogs and Monsters, University of Cambridge [...]

When Politicians Panicked: The New Coronavirus, Expert Opinion, and a Tragic Lapse of Reason By John Tamny 286 pp.; Post Hill Press, 2021 John Tamny bravely describes the terrible and [...]

Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America By Conor Dougherty 288 pp.; Penguin Press, 2020 Finally, a book by a New York Times reporter who understands the crucial link between [...]

The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War By Robert J. Gordon 762 pp.; Princeton University Press, 2016 Northwestern University economist Robert [...]

Economics for the Common Good By Jean Tirole 576 pp.; Princeton University Press, 2017 In 2014, French economist Jean Tirole, chairman of the Toulouse School of Economics and the Institute [...]

The High Cost of Good Intentions: A History of U.S. Entitlement Programs By John F. Cogan 512 pp.; Stanford University Press, 2017 Currently, the U.S. federal government spends about $2.4 [...]

Driving the Future: Combating Climate Change with Cleaner, Smarter Cars By Margo T. Oge 351 pp.; Arcade, 2015 In the next few years, companies that sell cars and light trucks [...]

Love Canal: A Toxic History from Colonial Times to the Present By Richard S. Newman 306 pp.; Oxford University Press, 2016 Ask any American born before 1960 for an example [...]

Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few By Robert B. Reich 279 pp.; Alfred A. Knopf, 2015 Robert Reich, a former U.S. secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton [...]

Other People's Money: The Real Business of Finance By John Kay 336 pp.; Public Affairs; 2015 I can't give a AAA rating to John Kay's new book on finance; it's [...]

Deregulation, Italian Style LUIGI ZINGALES. A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity. BASIC BOOKS. 2.87 PAGES. $2.7.99. WHEN MILTON Friedman retired from the University of [...]

BRUCE BARTLETT. The Benefit and the Burden: Tax Reform-- Why We Need It and What It Will Take. Simon & Schuster. 260 pages. $26.00. BRUCE BARTLETT has gone through an [...]

NICHOLAS WAPSHOTT. Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics. W.W. Norton & Company. 355 PAGES. $28.95. VIRTUALLY EVERY economist in the world has heard of John Maynard Keynes. Many [...]

Alexander J. Field. A Great Leap Forward: 1930s Depression and U.S. Economic Growth. Yale University Press. 387 pages. $45.00. DURING WHICH decade did the United States make the greatest advance [...]

JEFFREY FRIEDMAN, EDITOR. What Caused the Financial Crisis? UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS. 360 PAGES. $29.95. THIS BOOK'S TITLE is appropriate. In it, various economists and financial experts address the question: [...]

BILL BRYSON. At Home: A Short History of Private Life. DOUBLEDAY. 497 PAGES. $28.95 I HAVE LONG ENJOYED Bill Bryson's books on travel. He has a rare ability to both [...]

Dean Baker. Taking Economics Seriously. MIT PRESS. 87 PAGES. $14.95 DEAN BAKER, A left-of-center economist who is co-director of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, is well known [...]

How likely is it that the world will warm not just by 2 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century, but by 11 degrees? What would happen to the [...]

One of the greatest economics thinkers of the 20th century was the late Austrian economist Friedrich A. Hayek. He was Austrian in both senses of the word: he was from [...]

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics By Richard H. Norton 415 pp.; W.W. Norton 2015 University of Chicago economist Richard H. Thaler, probably the most important founder of 'behavioral economics,' [...]

A Better Choice: Healthcare Solutions for America By John C. Goodman 121 pp.; Independent Institute, 2015 If you think that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known [...]

Moral Hazard in Health Insurance By Amy Finkelstein, with Kenneth J. Arrow, Jonathan Gruber, Joseph P. Newhouse, and Joseph E. Stiglitz 146 pp.; Columbia University Press, 2015 In 1963 the [...]

How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life By Russ Roberts 251 pp.; Portfolio/Penguin, 2014 The great 18th century economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith published two major treatises during his [...]

TAMING THE BELOVED BEAST: How Medical Technology Costs Are Destroying Our Health Care System By Daniel Callahan 267 pages; Princeton University Press, 2009 For many years, Daniel Callahan, cofounder of [...]

Why Government Fails So Often: And How It Can Do Better By Peter H. Schuck 461 pp.; Princeton University Press, 2014 Peter Schuck's Why Government Fails So Often is one [...]

Humane and Pro-Growth: A Reason Guide to Immigration Reform Edited by Shikha Dalmia e-book; Reason Magazine, 2013 When I dug into Humane and Pro-Growth, I realized that I had fallen [...]

Simpler: The Future of Government By Cass R. Sunstein 260 pages; Simon and Schuster, 2013 Fresh off a tour as head of President Obama's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, [...]

Insurance and Behavioral Economics: Improving Decisions in the Most Misunderstood Industry By Howard C. Kunreuther, Mark V. Pauly, and Stacey McMorrow 329 pages; Cambridge University Press, 2013 A friend recently [...]

The Redistribution Recession: How Labor Market Distortions Contracted the Economy By Casey Mulligan 368 pages; Oxford University Press, 2012 Casey Mulligan's cleverly titled book The Redistribution Recession could have been [...]

Rich-Hunt: The Backdated Options Frenzy and the Ordeal of Greg Reyes By Roger Donway 180 pages; Atlas Society, 2012 Ayn Rand once provocatively referred to big business as America s [...]

The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life By Steven E. Landsburg 316 pages; Free Press, 2012 Steven Landsburg's The Armchair Economist is one of the best economics books ever written. [...]

Finance and the Good Society By Robert J. Shiller 288 pages; Princeton University Press, 2012 Finance and the Good Society, the latest book by well-known Yale University economist Robert Shiller, [...]

Borderless Economics: Chinese Sea Turtles, Indian Fridges and the New Fruits of Global Capitalism By Robert Guest 250 pages; Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 Bryan Caplan, my fellow Econlog blogger and an [...]

Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind By Tim Groseclose 292 pages; St. Martin's Press, 2011 Virtually all of us who identify ourselves as libertarians or conservatives [...]

All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis By Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera 380 pages; Portfolio Penguin, 2010 All the Devils Are Here is one [...]

Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us By John Quiggin 238 pages; Princeton University, 2010 In his book Zombie Economics, subtitled 'How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us,' [...]

THE RATIONAL OPTIMIST: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley 438 pages; HarperCollins, 2010 One of the strongest voices for reason and optimism in a congenitally pessimistic world was the late [...]

INTELLECTUALS AND SOCIETY By Thomas Sowell 416 pages; Basic Books, 2010 'Let's get my judgment of Thomas Sowell's new book out of the way first. There is not a single [...]

LEVIATHAN'S DRUG PROBLEM: Federal Monopoly of Pharmaceutical Regulation and its Deadly Cost By John R. Graham 49 pages; Pacific Research Institute, 2009 OVERDOSE: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation [...]

THE MICROSOFT CASE: Antitrust, High Technology, and Consumer Welfare By William H. Page and John E. Lopatka 347 pages; University of Chicago Press, 2009 In politics, no issue is ever [...]