From one of America's most distinguished economists, a short, brilliant and revelatory book: the fundamental ideas people most commonly get wrong about economics, and how to think about the subject better.

Economic Facts and Fallacies exposes some of the most popular fallacies about economic issues--and does so in a lively manner and without requiring any prior knowledge of economics by the readers. These fallacies include many beliefs widely disseminated in the media and by politicians, such as fallacies about urban problems, income differences, male-female economic differences, as well as economics fallacies about academia, about race, and about Third World countries.

One of the themes of Economic Facts and Fallacies is that fallacies are not simply crazy ideas but in fact have a certain plausibility that gives them their staying power--and makes careful examination of their flaws both necessary and important, as well as sometimes humorous.

Written in the easy to follow style of the author's Basic Economics, this latest book is able to go into greater depth, with real world examples, on specific issues.

Customer Rating:
Summary: The Book Your Friends Need to Read
Comment: Easy to understand, EVERYONE needs to read this book. Once again, Sowell exposes the fallacies (as he calls them) of many social and economic perceptions pushed by the Left. His points are simple and extremely relevant, backed up by several dozen factual references for each chapter. Perfect gift for your friends who refuse to concede the failures of Big Government social policies! This book should be a staple in your library.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking
Comment: Thomas Sowell is direct and to the point. He writes in a way that is easy to understand and very informative. This book should be required reading for everyone before they get a credit card or vote!

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Required Reading for candidates
Comment: My fantasy of having great wealth is to start a foundation that would give a book a week to every member of Congress, every state legislator, every government policymaker, every opinion columnist and every candidate. This would be the second book we'd give out. First would be Sowell's "Basic Economics." Yes, it might not do any good. I recently cited to a newspaper columnist Sowell's history of what happens to government revenues when you increase the Capital Gains tax (hint: the opposite of what's expected). The columnist told me those were "right wing facts" and he wasn't interested in any facts that supported business. Really. Too many people want to discard any facts that don't support their cherished illusions, preferring comfortable lies, which is why politicians of both parties get elected promising to do things that sound good, but hurt the majority of people they claim to be helping.

Reading Thomas Sowell would at least make it harder for them to do with a straight face. And if every voter read Sowell, it would be much harder for politicians to pander to their uninformed prejudice.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Economic Facts and Fallacies
Comment: Thomas Sowell is a remarkable writer. He explains economics and politics in such a common sense way. Thomas Sowell's books and articles in [...] are always refreshing to read.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Further your economic education
Comment: I decided that as a responsible citizen I should try to learn a few things about economics. I found that this book is a great aid in that endeavor. Dr. Sowell is a master in making the complex principles of economics easy for the layman. Although my favorite is his book, "Basic Economics," this book is an excellent further examination into some of the principles he brought up in that one. My favorites here were the chapters on college education, income disparity, and the third world. For those that wonder about some of the economic statistics that are so easily thrown around by the media--Dr. Sowell takes some of them on and clearly shows where they are wrong. Every informed citizen should read this book!

---