The Economic Naturalist's Field Guide

Humans may be rational animals, but many of our decisions are poorly thought through. That's the main idea behind Robert Frank's latest book, which examines and challenges the economic choices we make. Narrator Patrick Lawlor's style is well suited to audiobooks that try to persuade and explain; he uses frequent rhetorical pauses and strongly emphasizes important phrases. That makes him a fine match for Frank's arguments, which are incisive and often surprising, even after one knows his political bent. Most items take only a few minutes to listen to--they are past columns from the NEW YORK TIMES--and they're well organized into an insightful, entertaining collection. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

May 4, 2009
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.