Phishing for Phools
The Economics of Manipulation and Deception
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Phishing for Phools
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Narrated by:
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Bronson Pinchot
About this listen
Ever since Adam Smith, the central teaching of economics has been that free markets provide us with material well-being, as if by an invisible hand. In Phishing for Phools, Nobel Prize-winning economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller deliver a fundamental challenge to this insight, arguing that markets harm as well as help us.
As long as there is profit to be made, sellers will systematically exploit our psychological weaknesses and our ignorance through manipulation and deception. Rather than being essentially benign and always creating the greater good, markets are inherently filled with tricks and traps and will "phish" us as "phools".
Phishing for Phools therefore strikes a radically new direction in economics based on the intuitive idea that markets both give and take away. Akerlof and Shiller bring this idea to life through dozens of stories that show how phishing affects everyone in almost every walk of life. We spend our money up to the limit and then worry about how to pay the next month's bills. The financial system soars then crashes. We are attracted, more than we know, by advertising. Our political system is distorted by money. We pay too much for gym memberships, cars, houses, and credit cards. Drug companies ingeniously market pharmaceuticals that do us little good and sometimes are downright dangerous.
Phishing for Phools explores the central role of manipulation and deception in fascinating detail in each of these areas and many more. It thereby explains a paradox: why, at a time when we are better off than ever before in history, all too many of us are leading lives of quiet desperation. At the same time, the book tells stories of individuals who have stood against economic trickery - and how it can be reduced through greater knowledge, reform, and regulation.
©2015 Princeton University Press (P)2015 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Phishing for Phools
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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- VALANTIN
- 08-04-16
1 good insight, a long and dull list of examples.
The authors explain with a very long list of examples how free market is bound to exploit our weakness.
The book is not well structured in my opinion and the dull narration makes it hard to keep interest.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 17-12-17
very good book
if you are interested in behavarioul economics do read. it starts off a bit boring but then reiterates powerful principled.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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- RJM
- 09-06-21
Hardwork from two great minds
Akerlof is my intellectual hero. His work shows imagination and is often off-beat and novel. Shiller is more of a grafter, grinding down hard problems with a once formidable intellect. Both have Nobel Prizes, so the bar is set high.
The problem with "Phishing for Fools" is that it tries to wrap some subtle behavioural ideas and their implications around a slogan - Phishing for Fools - that doesn't quite work. It is way too long and could have been condensed into a powerful shorter book that would have added lustre to the author's stellar academic credentials. I wanted to like it, but I couldn't.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Adrian J. Smith
- 28-09-17
A revolution in behavioural economics
An interesting study of behavioural economics with an interesting take against the now widely discredited notion that markets tend toward equilibrium.
Rather than positing that all trade is good for me, good for you, the book examines the ubiquitous, though not too often discussed, phenomena, that many transactions are good for me, bad for you.
Akerlof and Shiller use the analogy of "the monkey on one's shoulder" and examine a variety of scenarios in modern life, through the often difficult to cancel gym memberships, to the discrepancies between popular perceptions on smoking (almost universally regarded as unhealthy, and by many as dumb) but the equally harmful practice of alcohol consumption, which is not nearly as frowned upon as smoking.
Another interesting aspect of behavioural economics is the targeting of black customers by user car salesmen as they are aware that blacks are less likely to already be in possession of a vehicle, thereby having less mobility to shop around.
While this may be similar in scope and idea to Freakonomics, there are subtle differences., and not just the authors of this book being Nobel Laureates.
A key strength of Phishing for Phools is the examination of the causes of the crash of 2008, and how they liken the selling of faulty loans and toxic mortgage backed securities as the psychological manipulation of grocery sellers convincing customers to buy bad avocados.
Overall, Phishing for Phools is an important book in a behavioural science and economic revolution. We need very much to change our thinking to become responsible adults who live within our means and not lead reckless lives of economic speculation.
The only flaw is that one can get occasionally lost.
Phishing for Phools is an eye opener, and an important work in behavioural economics.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-02-21
Interesting but limited
A well written and researched book ... but the scope is limited and it is (as the authors acknowledge) very US focused.
The narration is best described as low risk - uninspiring on the one hand but not unduly off-putting or irritating.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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- Alex
- 31-01-21
Better late than never
30-second review:
Nice to see mainstream econ finally taking psych/behavioural seriously in equilibrium. But practical people are unlikely to find anything very surprising in this book — the surprise and shame is that mainstream econ has taken so long to get here.
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