ABSTRACT
My task in reviewing this book will be made much easier if we agree at the outset that economics can be divided into two varieties: fiction and nonfiction. Economists who have a talent for fiction assume the existence of a self-regulating market mechanism that allocates the factors of productionland, labor, and capital-optimally among various possible uses, to produce an assortment of goods and services that best conforms to the preferences of consumers. Economists with this vision before them are deeply concerned about the efficient use of resources, the rational distribution of income, and maximum consumer satisfaction, all of which result from the operations of the self-regulating market. They are ready to sound the alarm at any inclination of government to improve things in the private sector. Nothing can be improved; government can only make matters worse.
