Sex, Drugs & Economics

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but it might tax your attention span
Review: Diane Coyle, the author of SEX, DRUGS & ECONOMICS, is a modern version of the attempt to add wit to economic wisdom, an effort which has been mildly successful since Veblen's THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS, but which is up to date ("rumor has it that the movie and TV industries would be nowhere without cocaine." (p. 12). Living in London, she is well aware of the chaos which results when a government attempts to try one approach, then another. In the case of trains, her chapter on Infrastructure starts with the trains used by "a Briton, a formerly publicly owned, then privatized national rail system appears to have brought the worst of both worlds. It seems to offer the certainty of delay and disruption together with the alarmingly high risk of death in an accident, all at high prices, and there is a vigorous debate as to whether it should be renationalized." (p. 50). The question, "How old is it?" is not the key to the confusion about items which are "a subject of perpetual electoral dispute." (p. 51). The whole world is old enough to break down, but economics keeps looking in the other direction.

This book is so modern, there is no doubt about who the author is or who she lives with. A ten-year-old member of the family is likely to puzzle out situations as well as more professional people in her life. The danger of earning a lot early in life, particularly in a life of crime, is described as a problem for people with short expectations: banking with too much excitement is common for "workers with careers that will probably not last very long, such as sports stars or dancers or perhaps bond salesmen, with a pay structure that gives them high earnings but for a relatively short period." (p. 5) On a psychological level, I thought that some humor could be found in her link of men, "only half of humanity," (p. 7) whose "spending on the sex industry is rising faster than incomes overall." (p. 7). Economically, we expect "the big growth will come in markets where demand is growing even faster than incomes as we become more and more prosperous." (p. 7). We tend to exhibit "behavioral economics" (p. 18). "While people as a whole are pretty bad at figuring out risks realistically, teenagers, like some middle-aged men, are more willing to take risks. Adolescents are trying to shape their independent identities as part of the transition to adulthood, and anybody in the throes of a midlife crisis is in search of a fleeting reminder of youth." (p. 19). Did I mention that the first two words of Chapter 2 are "Bill Clinton" ? (p. 8). Thoroughly modern times have trickle down attitudes that share farce with journalistic awareness in books like SEX, DRUGS & ECONOMICS, which is not "An Unconventional Introduction to Economics" in such a society, it is more like a guide to borderline and mainstream activities that make up a large part of the variety features in daily newspapers.

Seriously though, we should all be aware that transportation problems in Afghanistan prevent farmers in certain regions from obtaining cash for any product except the paste from opium poppies, and portions of the world are understood most easily if the free world capitalist bets are considered off, and bombers at all altitudes are going to determine what remains standing in areas that were previously considered prosperous. It is my understanding that the American Pentagon has been repaired, though this book notes that "Worldwide military spending fell from 3.6 percent of global GDP in 1990 to 2.4 percent in 1999, although the decline was concentrated in the industrialized and post-communist countries. . . . The worldwide peace dividend for 1999 may have been as much as [money amount]to [money amount]." (p. 181). Comparisons in this book could be to the worldwide market for illegal drugs. "One widely accepted United Nations figure is [money maount](bigger than the global oil industry), employing around 20 million people and serving 70 to 100 million customers. Perhaps half of the customers are in the United States, the biggest single market for drugs, as indeed for everything else." (p. 10). As everything else faces declining profits, due to a lack of excitement and "heavy debt burdens," (p. 10), expect "a substantial increase in drug production by developing countries" (p. 11) and I am expecting more U. S. military interest in "Columbia, Burma, or Afghanistan--although whether that is a cause or a consequence of the drug trade is not clear." (p. 11). The Taliban are coming back, too, though I did not find them in this book, which makes no attempt to appeal to people who support Taliban policies.

A unique aspect of this book is the attempt to treat tobacco settlement money due to the states as a tax in Chapter 10, Tax Incidence: Only People Pay Tax. "In a piece of deliberate obfuscation, what amounts to a new national tax increase of about [money amount]on a pack of cigarettes" is being paid to states which sued the tobacco companies, "imposing an apparently staggering [money amount]bill on the cigarette makers," in a deal worked out with lawyers getting payments estimated to have a present value of [money amount]. (p. 78). They aren't getting all that money already, though. Because most smokers are not likely to quit, buying the cigarettes at higher prices "would generate an estimated [money amount]in tax revenues to pay the lawyers." (p. 79). Lawyers working for the states had contingency arrangements, so it isn't like tax money to them, it is compensation for being legal superstars. Law has a lot of exceptions, and in this book, "the power of the American legal profession" is "the one exception to the general principle with which I began, that only people pay taxes. Because, of course, lawyers pay taxes, too." (p. 80).

Rating:
Summary: Blah...more of the same
Review: Good book. It's just Gary Becker kind of stuff really.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, an easy-to-read book about economics
Review: If you think economics is really the "dismal science," then Diane Coyle, a Harvard-trained economist who lives and works in London, is out to change your mind. And what a job she does in her new book on the basics of general economics. This work is indeed an easy read on a complex subject but Coyle never insults the intelligence of her readers and fully intends to explain in a readable style exactly what the study of economics is all about.

Right at the beginning, Dr. Coyle tells us precisely what she intends her book to do: "This book aims to demonstrate that economics is essentially a particular way of thinking about the world that can be applied to almost any situation affecting individuals, companies, industries, and governments." Then, to make sure we all understand that the study of economics is not just for the professional or the academic but has a broader horizon, she insists that economics is "the subject for you whatever your interests and concerns" and that her objective is "to provide a new light and refreshing appetizer that might satisfy delicate appetites but also encourage some readers to develop a taste for more."

One of the things that makes this book so appealing is that Dr. Coyle uses our ordinary life experiences to allow us to grasp many of the major concepts of economics. She does discuss sex and illegal drugs and how economics applies to them, but she also has chapters on sports, music, energy, auctions, war games, movies, the Internet, weather, and other common topics with which we are very familiar, all utilized as a means to introduce, explain and describe various technical terms and concepts at different points in the book.

For instance, the first chapter of the book, titled "Sex: Can you have too much of a good thing?," introduces the concepts of "demand" and "supply," as well "inelastic supply of labor" and "product differentiation." Chapter 2, which is about illegal drugs, introduces the concepts of "market," "externality," "price elasticity of demand," and "cost-benefit analysis." A later chapter on sports explains the concept of "economics of scale," while the chapter on music explains the idea of "marginal cost," and the chapter on immigration explains the concept known as the "lump of labor fallacy." Furthermore, she provides an excellent description of the concept of the "public good" in the chapter on disease, and her discussion of this concept will be of particular interest to libertarians and classical liberals.

There are a few things I found particularly helpful during my reading of this book. The most important to me as a general reader was that the major terms and concepts of economics were set in boldface type as they were introduced in the text. This meant I paid particular attention to them as I was reading and realized they were important to understanding what was being said. Next in importance, at the back of the book is an appendix outlining and explaining the "Ten Rules of Economic Thinking," a section I thought helpfully summed up many of the main points expressed in the text. Finally, a glossary is provided which further explains and expands the major terms and concepts used throughout the book. I wish this sort of format was used more often in books on otherwise difficult subjects. And of course the book includes the usual bibliography (with many Internet websites also provided) and a well-organized comprehensive index.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Most books about economics tend to be rather dry and technical. Not this one. Diane Coyle writes with humor and grace, infusing her erudition into lively prose, never burdening the reader or demanding that you patiently suffer through academic digressions. She views economics not as a subject but as yoga; it's not a bunch of stuff you ought to know but rather a way of learning and reflection. Coyle manages to touch on all of the major contemporary economic issues - literally, sex, drugs and rock and roll - and to make it clear how economic logic relates to such phenomena as sexual behavior, drug taking, war, fashion, major league sports and the Internet. This is an interesting, amusing book by an excellent author, both saucy and unconventional. We know that it might not help you make a lot of money - it's not that kind of book - but believes that it will make you richer in other ways.

Rating:
Summary: econ 101/102 would've been much more interesting with this!
Review: While reading through the chapters of this book, I regretted the fact that it was published just a year after I had taken my first introductory classes in college economics. Damn, how I missed such fun and enlightening reading! Coyle's book serves well to supplement any introductory course in economics, but it's also overall an enjoyable read.
She discusses topics that are often overlooked by professors due to their controversial and sometimes mundane nature. Nevertheless, these topics are precisely what keeps general readers interested. Not only are they controversial, but more importantly they apply to what's going on in current events and the real world. For instance,she explains (from an economist's perspective) why sex sells and why the gov't should adopt a more libertarian policy towards the sale of drugs as influenced by the law of demand.

For those who are expecting a thorough and complete formal introduction to economics using this books, don't keep your hopes up. There are no illustrations, no graphs, no general economics equations or calculations included in this book. Coyle mostly introduces economic terms in this book and describes various situations in the real world to which they can be applied (think CD sales, internet copyright infringement, sex, drugs, environmentalism, sports, almost anything you want to know about pop culture). There is even a glossary of terms in the back.

The reason why I gave this book 3 stars is because of the disappointing take on social policies that she prescribes in the end. From her arguments, I can sense a bias that she appears to be a rigid advocate of free-market capitalism. For example, she explains why child laborers are better off working at such unfair conditions because the corporations provide them with work; thus, work under conditions of exploitation is better than no work at all. But she leaves things at this. When she tackles a social issue such as the one I had described, she often leaves a void. She doesn't leave any alternatives and somehow imposes this tragic reality on what is to become of society. For this particular chapter on social injustice and the third world, I suggest reading Philip McMichael's Development and Social Change along with this book so that you'd have a more specific idea of what I am talking about when I said "alternatives."