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The Undercover Economist Strikes Back
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The Undercover Economist
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Cameron Stewart
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Ever wondered why the gap between rich and poor nations is so great, or why it's so difficult getting a foot on the property ladder, or how to outwit Starbucks? This audiobook offers the hidden story behind these and other questions, as economist Tim Harford reveals how supermarkets, airlines, and coffee chains, to name just a few, are vacuuming money from our wallets.
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Required reading
- By calorie counter on 31-08-2019
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Why Nations Fail
- The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
- By: Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?
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Single minded attempt to prove a point.
- By steve on 27-08-2018
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Messy
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The urge to be tidy seems to be rooted deep in the human psyche. Many of us feel threatened by anything that is vague, unplanned, scattered around or hard to describe. We find comfort in having a script to rely on, a system to follow, in being able to categorise and file away. We all benefit from tidy organisation - up to a point. A large library needs a reference system. Global trade needs the shipping container. Scientific collaboration needs measurement units. But the forces of tidiness have marched too far.
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Interesting at times but long winded
- By E. Stamatakis on 20-08-2019
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Misbehaving
- The Making of Behavioral Economics
- By: Richard Thaler
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans - predictable, error-prone individuals. Misbehaving is his arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back down to earth - and change the way we think about economics, ourselves, and our world.
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interesting and entertaining
- By Rhetta on 17-05-2016
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Nudge
- Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness [Expanded Edition]
- By: Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we are all susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.
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very informative
- By kiara.fay on 30-06-2019
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Animal Farm
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Simon Callow
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Animal Farm is George Orwell's great socio-political allegory set in a farmyard where the animals decide to seize the farmer's land and create a co-operative that reaps the benefits of their combined labours. However, as with all great political plans, some animals see a bigger share of the rewards than others and the animals start to question their supposed utopia.
-
-
Classic book, weird music
- By Vivienne on 23-01-2019
-
The Undercover Economist
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Cameron Stewart
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever wondered why the gap between rich and poor nations is so great, or why it's so difficult getting a foot on the property ladder, or how to outwit Starbucks? This audiobook offers the hidden story behind these and other questions, as economist Tim Harford reveals how supermarkets, airlines, and coffee chains, to name just a few, are vacuuming money from our wallets.
-
-
Required reading
- By calorie counter on 31-08-2019
-
Why Nations Fail
- The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
- By: Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?
-
-
Single minded attempt to prove a point.
- By steve on 27-08-2018
-
Messy
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The urge to be tidy seems to be rooted deep in the human psyche. Many of us feel threatened by anything that is vague, unplanned, scattered around or hard to describe. We find comfort in having a script to rely on, a system to follow, in being able to categorise and file away. We all benefit from tidy organisation - up to a point. A large library needs a reference system. Global trade needs the shipping container. Scientific collaboration needs measurement units. But the forces of tidiness have marched too far.
-
-
Interesting at times but long winded
- By E. Stamatakis on 20-08-2019
-
Misbehaving
- The Making of Behavioral Economics
- By: Richard Thaler
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans - predictable, error-prone individuals. Misbehaving is his arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back down to earth - and change the way we think about economics, ourselves, and our world.
-
-
interesting and entertaining
- By Rhetta on 17-05-2016
-
Nudge
- Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness [Expanded Edition]
- By: Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we are all susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.
-
-
very informative
- By kiara.fay on 30-06-2019
-
Animal Farm
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Simon Callow
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Animal Farm is George Orwell's great socio-political allegory set in a farmyard where the animals decide to seize the farmer's land and create a co-operative that reaps the benefits of their combined labours. However, as with all great political plans, some animals see a bigger share of the rewards than others and the animals start to question their supposed utopia.
-
-
Classic book, weird music
- By Vivienne on 23-01-2019
Publisher's Summary
A million listeners bought The Undercover Economist to get the lowdown on how economics works on a small scale, in our everyday lives. Since then, economics has become big news. Crises, austerity, riots, bonuses - all are in the headlines all the time. But how does this large-scale economic world really work? What would happen if we cancelled everyone's debt? How do you create a job? Will the BRIC countries take over the world?
Asking - among many other things - what the future holds for the Euro, why the banks are still paying record bonuses, and where government borrowing will take us, in The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, Tim Harford returns with his trademark clarity and wit to explain what's really going on - and what it means for us all.
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- calorie counter
- 28-08-2019
Helps to understand the politics of economics
Beautiful overview of key economic concepts needed to run whole economies, with clear distinction between macro and micro economics, in the form of a conversation. Strong focus on Keynesian ideas, but other theories are discussed as well. Very nicely written and entertaining to listen to.
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- G. Blazys
- 25-07-2015
useful even for PhD economist
This is not one of those disgraceful economics textbooks, which present macro theories as some kind of truths or laws of nature. It is quite a comprehensive and coherent review of most important macro topics, which clearly hilights the complexity and uncertainty about how economy works and at the same time helps to form opinion about various macroeconokics issues.
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- Alistair Kelman
- 29-08-2013
The perfect book for that business flight
The best teaching comes from telling stories - stories about human feats, challenges which were overcome, where the art of the possible conquers all. Tim Harford in his lectures and his writing does this all the time - putting a human face on problem solving.
This audiobook is for you if:
You consider yourself to be a serious person, concerned about the way of the world, unhappy about lives being wasted through deprivation, poverty and idleness;
You enjoy listening to the output of BBC Radio 4 (and particularly to the BBC Today programme, "More or Less"and new programmes like "The Philosopher's Arms");
I wondered when I bought it why it needed two narrators when novels etc can make do with just one. But the interchange of question and answer, explaining matters by the use of Socratic debate, really demands two voices and Cameron Stewart and Gavin Osborne do it justice as narrators. Tim never uses jargon unnecessarily and it is always explained in simple terms.
This is the idea audiobook to listen to after you turn left at the top of the stairs and settle into your aircraft seat. Get the steward to fix you a long drink, let everyone else watch the highly edited action movies and chill out to a tour de force. It will teach you that the modern macroeconomist needs to be a renaissance man - and that is a really good takeaway.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful
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- F Gibb
- 29-09-2013
The Only Thing Missing is Tim's Delivery
This is a truly wonderful book.
It is funny, yet clear. It breaks up complicated ideas, and makes them understandable- with the clever use of ridiculous analogies and preposterous scenarios.
My only gripe is this- why didn't Tim Harford read it himself? I love his delivery in 'More or Less'- his radio show on Radio 4. He has great comic timing, and is a wizard at the straight faced presentation of the absurd. Cameron Stewart was not bad, but Tim H would have excelled, and I couldn't help subconsciously translating the lines spoken by the CS into TH's voice.
But if that's my only complaint, then you haven't got much to worry about. Do yourself a favour- get this, and be entertained and educated at the same time.
Highly recommended!
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
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- John Owen Byrne
- 28-01-2014
Where's Tim???
Good introduction to Macro Economics - just what you'd expect of Tim Hartford. However, why not have him actually read the book? You have an author who is brilliant on the radio and then have someone else on the audiobook?? Why? The narration is not bad - annoying that the 'instructor' voice is more posh than the 'student' but would have been better with Hartford.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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- Dave N
- 14-10-2013
Good content, dodgy narration
If you are familiar with Tim Harford from Radio 4's "More or Less" then you will almost certainly find the content of this book to be of his usual high standard. Unfortunately, you'll then almost certainly be really disturbed by the bizarre choice of narrator to play his part in the audio book. The content is great - a sweeping overview of macro economics for those of us who are interested in the big picture but weren't totally sure about the difference between fiscal and monetary policy or why money printing might sometimes be a good thing. But the narration jarred so much it detracted significantly from my enjoyment. Why the publisher decided someone sounding like a poor pastiche of Geoffrey Palmer at his poshest and most patronising was the ideal voice replacement for Tim was a good idea is totally beyond me. The stilted, contrived conversation between the overbearing narrator and the middle-class and modern "you" is beyond irritating and spoiled my listening quite dramatically. I finished the book (because the content is excellent) but I doubt I'll be able to listen to it again.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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- Andrew Wilkin
- 05-09-2013
Mindblowingly Complex Subject Distilled
Would you consider the audio edition of The Undercover Economist Strikes Back to be better than the print version?
This works as audio book with the back and forth between two narrators. It is difficult to see how this could have the same impact in printed format.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Undercover Economist Strikes Back?
Digging for chocolate, how does this relate to a modern economy. In fact what really is money, how much is it worth, and what is the impact on your life - so what has chocolate got to do with it all - Tim Harford spills the coins.
Which scene did you most enjoy?
The story of a small island that used stones for currency, and a stone of about 2ft wide was about the price of a pig. So what happens when it is too big to move the stone, you trade notes as to where you left your stones. Sounds absurd right? But that's what we do now....!
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Left confused, bewildered, mind blown by the complex web of interactions and implications.
Any additional comments?
I generally choose books by what I can learn to apply in life somewhere, the insights. Whilst it may be about macro economics, you can definitely learn to cut through the chaff and rhetoric that is in the media each and every day and used by those who manage our governments.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-06-2019
Too much to take in
Love the idea of it however easy to digest as a audio book as lots of technical areas that need revisiting and not easy on audible
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- Anonymous User
- 04-06-2019
entertainingly insightful
accessible to all as well as digging a bit deeper, this was a thouroughly entertaining listen.
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- AA
- 19-02-2018
Fantastic!
Speaking from the point of view of a mathematician, it’s remarkable to see an economist explaining abstract mathematical ideas with greater clarity than any mathematician I’ve seen.
If you are interested in reading this book, I would recommend you read/listen to “The Undercover Economist”, which discusses microeconomics, first. Although not necessarily a prerequisite, I think it make this book a fair bit easier to follow and understand.
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- Chris W.
- 11-12-2017
Bill Phillips bio alone was worth the cost
like the original it's not a bad start and the detail is useful, but I don't want run an economy...I would like to understand something about inequality in a free market and some ideas about how we do a better job, but not to be.
Much like the undercover economist the end is rushed. There is work to do, but perhaps the author is bored?
re' performance, the double act doesn't work, but it's just an observation.
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- fiyi
- 09-12-2017
Macroeconomics for a general audience taught entertainingly by an ideology free economist
Loved this book as much as the Microeconomics book "The undercover economist" by the same author.