(Portfolio, $27.95)
This recent addition to our new century’s growing “heap of pop economics books” never delivers what it promises, said Martin Sandbu in the Los Angeles Times. New York Times editorial writer Eduardo Porter vows early on to show how price is the deciding factor in every choice we make, but if that were true, why would anyone choose to lavish hundreds of hours on writing a book? Porter seems to want his thesis to work, but his readers will be glad that the majority of his anecdotes touch on times when prices “fail to steer our lives.” Not that Porter’s isolated insights can be trusted either, said Jonathan Last in The Wall Street Journal. He wrongly attributes the entire post–baby boom decline in U.S. fertility rates to women’s growing presence in the workforce, for instance. Occasionally, Porter hits on a striking proposition. But mostly his book is “a grab bag of liberal pieties” masquerading as economics.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Do smartphone bans in schools work?The Explainer Trials in UK, New Zealand, France and the US found prohibition may be only part of the solution
-
Doom: The Dark Ages – an 'exhilarating' prequelThe Week Recommends Legendary shooter adds new combat options from timed parries to melee attacks and a 'particularly satisfying' shield charge
-
7 US cities to explore on a microtripThe Week Recommends Not enough vacation days? No problem.
