Everything for Sale: the Virtues and Limits of Markets A Borzoi book: Amazon.co.uk: Robert Kuttner: Books

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Synopsis
A close-up look at the benefits and failures of a free-market economic system examines its impact on America's future.

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Markets accomplish much superbly. Read the first page

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9 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

2.9 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good counterpoint to the religion of the free market, 11 May 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets (Paperback)

Recently, the theologian Harvey Cox published a tongue in cheek article in the Atlantic Monthly comparing free market economics to a religious sect. Judging from the reaction to Kuttner's book, Cox's article was right on the money. The book's detractors make dismissive ad-hominem attacks on Kuttner's credentials, inaccurately portray the thrust and substance of his arguments to make them appear ludicrous, or simply assert that any one who is against pure free market ideology is no more than a heretical imbecile. One user's review here - the one that accuses Kuttner of "bloviating" - was lifted verbatim and without citation from the Reason magazine review of the book, hardly a non-biased source of information. It is a prime example of this form of criticism. Clearly its author and I did not read the same book.

I found Kuttner's book to be a reasoned argument against pure laissez faire. Kuttner intentionally aimed the book at the educated general reader and has hit that mark well. His intention was to present empirical examples of non-market interventions that produced better outcomes than market alternatives and he has done that. I challenge the free market critics of the book to address these examples, the book's substance, rather than its theology.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Proof that journalists know little about economics!, 4 May 1997

By A Customer

Kuttner proves the point that journalists, especially those writing about the economy, know little economics. He is the only person writing in the U.S. to claim that airline fares have actually increased since deregulation and that they were decreasing prior to 1978. Where he gets his figures are unknown, but the studies I have done show airline fares, in real terms, decreasing between 30 - 40% from 1978. He writes about finance issues yet understands neither the CAPM nor the efficient market hypothesis and therefore fails to make any reasonable argument against the capital markets. Are there really too many items being sold in the supermarkets? Kuttner seems to think so. He believes, like that wonderful sage Noam Chomsky, Americans are far too stupid to not be swayed into purchasing items they neither want nor have use for. Mass consumerism is going to destroy us. Bottom line - we must elect people like Kuttner, or those he endorses, giving them the necessary power over our lives in order to save us from ourselves. His statist ideology runs rampant through this bool.

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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Typical., 3 April 1998

By A Customer

As previous reviews have mentioned, Everything For Sale is little more than typical leftist diatribe packaged in muddled economics. William Grieder's One World, Ready of Not makes the same type of arguments but at least provides keener examples. If you want to read this stuff, go with Grieder's book. While it's reasoning is just as muddled, it does provide hundreds of colorful stories that are worth hearing. If all you want is the diatribe, you're better off saving your money and buying a copy of Adbusters magazine, which is cheaper.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A very useful refutation of free-market mumbo-jumbo
Free market zealots will find this book impossible to understand, because the author has a sophisticated ontological understanding of the human being that they can never have... Read more

Published on 9 Aug 2006 by Dr. Steppy

2.0 out of 5 stars Who does he think he is? William Greider?
A tepid defense of the new Robert Rubin/George Soros style of capitalism. Kuttner tries to balance the need of liberals to get filthy rich but also to pay token respect to... Read more

Published on 17 Feb 1999

1.0 out of 5 stars An ignorant rant
Kuttner relies greatly on an appeal to intuition and predjudice in this book, and with good reason; he is utterly unskilled in economics and profoundly ignorant of economic... Read more

Published on 6 May 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars a great book
I give this book a 15 out of 10. It is an important contribution to a debate currently dominated by mindless zealots (brainwashed by libertarianism, maybe?) of the marketplace.

Published on 21 Jan 1998

1.0 out of 5 stars Who put the huge bee in his bonnet?
Anyone reading Robert Kuttner's Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets will probably be left with one burning question: Who put the... Read more

Published on 7 Jun 1997

5.0 out of 5 stars Ah, what a relief--I'm not alone
Everything Kuttner says rings true to me. It makes sense. This is an important book.

Published on 6 Jun 1997

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Everything for Sale: the Virtues and Limits of Markets (A Borzoi book) (Hardcover)

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