This could be the most accessible and compelling introduction to free-market economics since Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson. Certainly economics has rarely been this fun! The socialists and Keynesians of the world will hate this book and make it a target of their venom. But if they read it, they might learn something.
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This book is sure to become a hot seller, and a major source of controversy on campuses. A previous book in this series landed on the New York Times bestseller list. How splendid to think that with this book, the Austrian perspective is receiving yet another boost in public life.
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Barron's writes: "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism (Regnery, 2007), by economist Robert P. Murphy, contains more economic wisdom in its fewer-than-200 pages than the average principles textbook several times its length. In clear and often irreverent prose, Murphy makes a compelling case for the unfettered free market..."
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Some topics covered:
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Why central planning has never worked and never will.
How prices operate in a free market (and why socialist schemes like rent control always backfire).
How labor unions actually hurt workers more than they help them.
Why increasing the minimum wage is always a bad idea.
Why the free market is the best guard against racism.
How capitalism will save the environment — and why socialist countries were the most polluted on earth.
Raising taxes: why it is never "responsible."
Why no genuine advocate for the downtrodden could endorse the dehumanizing Welfare State.
The single biggest myth underlying the public's support for government regulation of business
Antitrust suits: usually filed by firms that lose in free competition.
How tariffs and other restrictions "protect" privileged workers but make other Americans poorer.
The IMF and World Bank: why they don't help poor countries.
Why the industrial revolution was the biggest boon for the middle class in human history
Plus: Are you a capitalist pig? Take the quiz and find out!
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Breezy, witty, but always clear, precise, and elegantly reasoned, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism is a solid and entertaining guide to free market economics written from the perspective of the Austrian School.
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Murphy deploys all his abundant talents here, and to spectacular effect. Paperback, 206 pages.