Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life

David Friedman has never taken an economics class in his life. Sure, he's taught economics at UCLA. Chicago, Tulane, Cornell, and Santa Clara, but don't hold that against him. After all, everyone's an economist. We all make daily decisions that rely, consciously or not, on an acute understanding of economic theory--from picking the fastest checkout tine at the supermarket to voting or not voting, from negotiating the best job offer to finding the right person to marry.

Hidden Order is an essential guide to rational living, revealing all you need to know to get through each day without being eaten alive. Friedman's wise and immensely accessible book is perfect for amateur economists, struggling economics students, young parents and professionals--just about anyone who wants a clear-cut approach to why we make the choices we do and a sensible strategy for how to make the right ones.

What sets his book apart from the rest is the use of realistic examples and not the usual textbook apples-to-oranges consumer preferences. Friedman discusses e.g. why is popcorn expensive in movie theaters, is it worth driving to a neighboring town for a bargain sale, who benefits from export duties on japanese cars and economic consequences of divorce.

All of this is rigorous but without mathematics. All of this sounds convincing: rationality assumption of consumers (or economic agents in general) is shown to produce miracles in economics. David Friedman, son of Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman, takes his axiomatic economics sometimes too far: for example, he believes, like his father, that destabilizing speculation does not exist. Reading Kindleberger's Manias, Panics and Crashes will cure anybody of this folly.

Friedmans text is lucid, the reading experience is exhilarating. If there had been economics books like in my youth, I would have become an economist (and not a physisct like David Friedman !)


It's an excellent book!   July 28, 2007
Igor from Silicon Valley
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

It's an excellent book. Although I enjoyed reading Freakonomics, "Hidden Order" is a much deeper and broader book in terms of issues discussed.
What I really like about it that in additional of covering existing issues, it helps to learn how to approach new problems.

The sad thing is although the book was written in 1996, we(and politicians, and TV/Radio talk heads) are still using the same uninformed reasoning during the discussions.

It would be great if the book became a required reading in the high schools and colleges.

After getting it from a library, I bought it for my friends.



Hidden Order: An AP Microeconomics Student's Perspective   January 21, 2004
sEnior (GA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book was easy to read, helpful, and gave interesting and unique examples for common economic theories. This is a great book to use in an AP class! Paired with our economics textbook, this reading explained the phenomena that we read about in the textbook.