The Economic Naturalist's Field Guide: Common Sense Principles for Troubled Times by Robert H. Frank

From the Publisher

Ask a dozen talking heads about how the economy works and what course of action we should take and you’ll get thirteen different answers. But what if we possessed a handful of basic principles that could guide our decisions—both the personal ones about what to buy and how to spend but also those national ones that have been capturing the headlines? Robert H. Frank, (a.k.a. the Economic Naturalist) has been illustrating those principles longer and more clearly than anyone else. In The Economic Naturalist’s Field Guide, he reveals how they play out in Washington, on Wall Street, and in our own lives, covering everything from tax policy to financial investment to everyday decisions about saving and spending. In today’s uncertain economic climate, The Economic Naturalist’s Field Guide’s insights have more bearing on our pocketbooks, policies, and personal happiness than ever.

Publishers Weekly

In the last year and a half, Americans have been bombarded with more economic jargon, theories and potential solutions to our nation's financial problems than any time in recent history, and many struggle to make sense of how all these concepts fit together. Frank (The Economic Naturalist), a regular economic columnist for the New York Times, has long been a voice of common sense, and in this latest work he attempts to group complicated concepts into a handful of easily understandable principles. Compiling some of his most cogent essays on economic subjects, Frank tackles topics as complicated and controversial as taxes and job creation, health care, borrowing, saving and investing. Unfortunately, although the essays themselves are amusing, enlightening, instructive and easy to understand, their groupings often look forced. While economic principles should be timeless, many essays were written as far back as 2000, and the subject matter is dated and less relevant to our current economic crisis than most readers might prefer. Despite the brilliance of the individual pieces, the whole is disjointed and fails to offer the reader the clear picture of the commonsense principles promised in the title. (June)

Sarah Statz Cords - Library Journal

New York Times columnist Frank (management & economics, Cornell Univ.) is no slouch at making often misunderstood economic precepts easier to grasp. This collection of Times columns is handily organized into thematic sections; Frank's writing sparkles, and the topics, which include health care and the subprime-mortgage crisis, are timely. However, many readers may find this more a political treatise than an economic one, as Frank's conclusions tend toward the progressive (he supports both the estate tax and a single payer health-care system). He explored such stances in greater depth in his earlier books, including The Winner-Take-All Society and Falling Behind, which housed more comprehensive and research-based arguments than this one. This book is best as a recreational read and may appeal to fans of Malcolm Gladwell; however, coming only two years after Frank's The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas, it's an optional choice.

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