Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception

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		Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception
		Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception

Ever since Adam Smith, the central teaching of economics has been that free markets provide us with material well-being, as if by an invisible hand. In Phishing for Phools, Nobel Prize-winning economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller deliver a fundamental challenge to this insight, arguing that markets harm as well as help us. As long as there is profit to be made, sellers will systematically exploit our psychological weaknesses and our ignorance through manipulation and deception. Rather than being essentially benign and always creating the greater good, markets are inherently filled with tricks and traps and will "phish" us as "phools." Phishing for Phools therefore strikes a radically new direction in economics, based on the intuitive idea that markets both give and take away. Akerlof and Shiller bring this idea to life through dozens of stories that show how phishing affects everyone, in almost every walk of life. We spend our money up to the limit, and then worry about how to pay the next month's bills. The financial system soars, then crashes. We are attracted, more than we know, by advertising. Our political system is distorted by money. We pay too much for gym memberships, cars, houses, and credit cards. Drug companies ingeniously market pharmaceuticals that do us little good, and sometimes are downright dangerous. Phishing for Phools explores the central role of manipulation and deception in fascinating detail in each of these areas and many more. It thereby explains a paradox: why, at a time when we are better off than ever before in history, all too many of us are leading lives of quiet desperation. At the same time, the book tells stories of individuals who have stood against economic trickery--and how it can be reduced through greater knowledge, reform, and regulation.

网友对Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception的评论

装帧精美，印刷质量好，101元购入，感觉正好值这个价，本来已经在学校图书馆看完了中文版，感觉写的不错，又特别买了英文原版读一下。

非常不错 读书还是原版好

A disappointment for sure. My impression was that the authors didn't really intend to write a book but got talked into it and wrote short stuff about a variety of topics related to the basic theme. But the treatment of the topics is not clear and informative, though they are important topics.

The basic theme is that the philosophy of free markets is betrayed by very human traits that lead us to make economically unsound decisions. Of course this is true and there are some good illustrations found in this book. But I found no helpful insights into these uneconomic human traits other than to point them out.

Phools are those who make decisions that are economically unsound. Phishing is the act of taking advantage of the phoolish quality of others. But I found that the authors are trying to shoehorn certain important situations into this model where they don't fit well at all. Like Michael Milken and the junk bond era of the 80's. Regulations were such that abusers found a mechanism to profit handsomely while bringing harm to the overall economy as well as to the employees of companies that were raided. But that's not because anyone is a fool and subject to being exploited. Yet it is worthwhile to discuss what took place.

Other topics covered are politics, tobacco and alcohol, pharmaceuticals, the recent economic crash around 2008. And a lot about advertising in general, which is important to understand. The writing is sort of casual and might appeal to some but I found it poorly organized and lacking in clear content. Maybe the authors just tried to dumb down the material and aren't so good at that.

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