Phishing for Phools

The Economics of Manipulation and Deception

By: George A. Akerlof, Robert J. Shiller

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

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.

how can they be so smart and yet so blind?

this book is super helpful to get general exposure to the kinds of scams that are around so that you identify them when they're around you in your life, but while the authors are great at getting to the heart of the problem of what they refer to as a phish (a scam), they're really awful with their prescriptions about a solution. most of the solutions are just other scams. so they're very selective about the fishes or scams they will identify as such, and the scams that they're gullible toward. it actually reinforces the point of the book: Even the authors of this book can't help themselves, they fall for scams like we all do. well worth the listen, I'll probably return to it now and then.

Implodes the Keynesian Invisible Hand Myth

Equilibrium theory that injects reality into how the sophisticated phish the naive in most of not all industries

Great book.

It was a nice mix of finance and behavioral economics. Definitely worth buying. Five stars.

First class reasoning on marketplace deception

Shiller And Akerlof argue that the markets select for deception and they are incentivized to do this by flaws and biases in human reasoning. I agree with them. But I'm less optimistic than they are about the efficacy of regulators in counteracting the problems they describe. Reasoning flaws in regulators, ignorance of industry, and a different set of perverse incentives can make regulators do their forms​ of damage. I'd like to see them turn their attention to how to make regulators perform better.

Clarity about what and how we are deceived!

Great framing of a somewhat complex idea, and good use of relevant historical examples. Thank you.

More History Than Revelation

Any additional comments?

I have great respect for Robert J. Shiller. His Yale lectures gave me greater understanding and entirely new respect and perspective on our financial systems. This was not a bad book. But it was not the book I was expecting. There's a lot of very interesting history on some of the biggest financial scandals of the last century. There's some roughly explained concepts of human and social psychology. All interesting enough. But I felt it was greatly lacking in offering solutions to the problems it outlined. Lots of examples of things that were wrong. Some examples of people that made changes for the good. But as for practical advice for us, the general public for whom the book is supposed to help, it boiled down to... educate yourself.

I guess based on the critical reviews I was expecting a revelation and just got a, albeit interesting but not terribly profound, history lesson.

Also as a technical criticism, the reader's voice was easily tuned out and at times, particularly in the beginning, he sounded almost robotic.

Economics finally meets marketing...

Using scientific research, these distinguished economists acknowledge the importance of stories (marketing in general) on decision making. Information, and how it is presented (or hidden), is crucial in making people decisions that are not in their best interest.

Should be on every Economists reading list

Econ 101 readings tend to leave people with a certain image of the world (which has a lot of truth in it). Yet it misses some important nuances and downsides. This book is, therefore, a very nice read for everyone but especially economists. In a way, it allows you to see the discussion about (free) markets as a two-handed instead of one-handed one.

An OK book, interesting but lacking in places

This seemed to me like a perfunctory effort from two Nobel Prize-winning economists trying to churn out another book together. I understand and sharesome of the theoretical insights, but they are mostly neither new nor particularly insightful. The political bias is clearly visible, I was a little disappointed.

Incredible

Changed my way of thinking about the economy. Just a drop in the ocean, mainstream still explains 90% of decisions, but marks that 10% (and not 1%) should be thought differently