In one respect this is classic P.J. O'Rourke, irreverent, funny and trenchantly conservative.  If his style irritates you, this book will not soothe; nor will fans be disappointed.

But as with all his books (except A Guide to Bachelor Living) there is a serious intent, this time less hidden than usual, to explain economics to the non-economist.  To many this is a noble but doomed cause for which too many trees have already perished in vain.  But this book manages to explain economics far better than any other book I have read (including my ‘A' Level textbooks).

Does it simplify?  Of course it does.  Is it biased?  I would challenge any person to read this book and understand Keynesian theory any better than when they first picked the book up.  The same however could be said until recently about university textbooks and Monetarism, Public Choice Theory and the Austrian School; and the textbooks don't even make you laugh.

However the book does succeed in explaining economics in the common sense terms that the dismal science should never have left behind.  It does this by going around the world to different economies (for example "good capitalism" – Wall Street – and "bad capitalism" – Albania) and looking at what makes these places tick – or otherwise.  In between insulting the cooking and making jokes about local manners, he makes some surprisingly sharp points about economics.  A health warning for all the Anarcho-Capitalist readers, this man may believe in a smaller state, but he is fairly insistent that this state should firmly carry out it's responsibilities, however small.

This is definitely a better bet for an entertaining read than a book on the history of free banking systems.

James Spencer