Gene Epstein knows a thing or two about economic data. Before becoming the Economics Editor for Barron's in 1993, he was a senior economist at the New York Stock Exchange. Now in Econospinning, Epstein supplies readers with a book that attempts to cut through the veil of economic misinformation commonly reported in today's media.
Assuming no prior knowledge on the readers part, each chapter of Econospinning is structured around fairly simple propositions about the economy or about specific economic data—from tracking employment numbers to measuring corporate profitability—that are then contrasted with the distortions of today's media coverage.
Along the way, Epstein exposes bad reporting by the elite media, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Economist—and especially by The New York Times and its economics columnist Paul Krugman,
Epstein also deconstructs CNN newscaster Lou Dobbs’ coverage of outsourcing and globalization; the illusory connection between abortion and lower crime rates, and bad theories about the role of real estate brokers, featured in the bestseller Freakonomics; the treatment of the working class portrayed in Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed; and the sensationalized coverage of the employment report by CNBC’s "Squawk Box."
From the disputes over Social Security to misinterpretations of the unemployment rate, Econospinning points out the unfortunate lack of integrity that pervades mainstream economic reporting.
Gene Epstein (New York, NY) has been Barron's Economics Editor since 1993 and writes the column, "Economic Beat." A frequent speaker on the conference circuit, Epstein has been interviewed on CNBC, CNN, NJN Public TV, and BBC TV. He holds an MA in economics from the New School and a BA from Brandeis University.
The way the economy is interpreted can influence many things, from economic policy and business decisions to investment planning and trading strategies. Yet with general interest magazines devoting ever more space to economic issues, with books on these issues routinely making the bestseller list, and with hundreds of media outlets providing 24/7 coverage of economic data, it is harder than ever to separate the substance from the spin.
That's the finding of Gene Epstein, who should know a thing or two about the economy, having covered the subject for Barron's since 1993, when he became the Dow Jones financial weekly's first Economics Editor and began writing the regular column, "Economic Beat." Now, in Econospinning, Epstein cuts through the veil of economic misinformation commonly reported in today's media. Each chapter of Econospinning is structured around fairly simple propositions about the economy or about specific economic data—from tracking employment numbers to measuring corporate profitability—that are then contrasted with the distortions of today's media coverage.
Along the way, Epstein exposes loose reporting by focusing almost strictly on the elite media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and The Economist.Wherever relevant, Epstein expands on criticisms originally leveled against the reportage of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman by the paper's then-public editor Daniel Okrent. At the time, Okrent touched off a firestorm of protest from bloggers and credentialed professionals eager to defend their champion, even when his criticisms were more than transparently valid, as Epstein shows in painstaking detail.
Econospinning also devotes separate chapters to the coverage of outsourcing and globalization by CNN newscaster Lou Dobbs, whose slant on these topics Epstein finds to be jingoistic at bottom; to the bestseller Freakonomics, whose better-known arguments—on the connection between abortion and lower crime rates, and on the deleterious role of real estate brokers—are exposed as groundless; and to the semi-classic Nickel and Dimed, whose core thesis—that hard work by the working poor is a sucker's game—is easily disproved. The book also critiques coverage of the employment numbers by the CNBC-TV show Squawk Box.
As a corrective to certain key misconceptions about the economy and economic data, and as a series of lessons on how to discriminate between spin and substance, Econo-spinning is an informative, entertaining, and unforgettable read.
length: (cm)23.1 width:(cm)16.2
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坦白讲,在阅读这本书的过程中,我经历了一段从困惑到领悟,再到重新困惑,最终豁然开朗的完整心路历程。它的难度在于,它不迎合读者的认知舒适区。它会不断地提出“你需要跳出你习惯的思维定势”,然后给你提供工具让你去实现这种“跳跃”。书中的图表制作非常专业,虽然没有花哨的颜色,但每一个坐标轴的设定,每一个数据的选取,都充满了深意。我甚至开始期待每周的经济数据发布,因为我总能联想到书中的某个模型将如何捕捉和解释这些新出现的信息。这本书的价值,不在于它能否告诉你明天股市是涨是跌,而在于它是否能让你建立起一套坚不可摧的、能够抵御噪音干扰的分析世界观。读完后,我感觉自己的“经济学肌肉”得到了极大的锻炼,那种对事物本质的探究欲望被彻底点燃了。它让我意识到,真正的洞察力,往往来自于对那些最基本假设的不断质疑和重新检验。
评分我得说,这本书绝对不是那种你可以在周末的午后悠闲地翻完的读物。它需要你投入时间,更需要你投入精力去“搏斗”。我至少在三处地方,不得不暂停阅读,去查阅一些更基础的经济学理论的背景知识,才能确保自己没有遗漏作者的任何一个论证环节。这本书的结构设计非常巧妙,它不是线性的,更像是一个螺旋上升的迷宫。每一章看似独立,实则又相互支撑,后一章的内容往往会以一种更复杂的形态,重新映射和印证前一章中提出的某个微小假设。这种结构上的精妙,体现了作者深厚的学术功底。更让我印象深刻的是,书中引用的数据和案例,都非常具有时效性和地域代表性,它没有仅仅停留在对西方成熟市场的分析上,而是试图建立一个更具普适性的分析框架。这使得书中的结论不仅具有理论上的美感,更拥有强大的现实指导意义。它让你明白,即便是最看似随机的市场波动,背后也隐藏着可以被理解的逻辑链条。
评分这本书的作者,明显是一个不满足于现有理论框架的探险家。他敢于挑战一些被奉为圭臬的传统观点,并且提供了令人信服的替代性解释。这种批判性的思维贯穿全书,让人读起来非常痛快。他不是那种为了反对而反对的愤世嫉俗者,他的质疑基于扎实的计量分析和严密的逻辑推导。我特别喜欢他处理“复杂性”问题的方式。在很多经济学著作中,面对现实的复杂性,作者往往选择简化模型,从而牺牲了部分真实性。但这本书似乎找到了一个平衡点,它承认了复杂性的存在,却依然能从宏大的叙事中抽取出清晰的脉络。特别是关于系统性风险累积过程的描述,我感觉自己像是在高空俯瞰一场精心编排却又随时可能失控的庞大机器的运转。这种宏大叙事与微观机制的交织,是这本书最令人着迷的地方。它对那些试图用“直觉”来判断经济走势的人,无疑是一剂清醒剂。
评分这本书,说实话,拿到手的时候我其实没抱太大期望。封面设计得挺中规矩矩的,没什么特别抓人眼球的地方,那种典型的学术著作风格,让人第一眼看过去就觉得“哦,又是一本需要啃硬骨头的书”。但我还是抱着试试看的心态翻开了第一章。最开始的几页确实有点挑战,作者似乎对一些基础概念的阐述非常严谨,毫不留情地抛出了大量的专业术语和复杂的模型推导。我的进度慢得像蜗牛爬行,经常需要停下来,对照着好几本参考书才能勉强跟上他的思路。坦白讲,有那么几次我差点想把它束之高阁,转而去读点轻松愉快的小说了。但不知怎的,总有那么一两句话,一个精妙的比喻,像是黑暗中微弱的灯光,让我忍不住想再往前走一点。尤其是当他开始用那些看似晦涩的数学工具去剖析现实世界中那些最令人困惑的经济现象时,那种豁然开朗的感觉,简直让人上瘾。这本书的厉害之处在于,它不是简单地罗列事实或观点,而是构建了一个完整的逻辑体系,让你在不知不觉中,思维的框架被重塑了。它强迫你去思考“为什么是这样”,而不是满足于“它是这样”的表象。
评分这本书的阅读体验,如果用一个词来形容,那就是“沉浸式”。我发现自己常常在读到一些关键章节时,会不自觉地放下书,走到窗边,盯着楼下的车水马龙或者街角的人群发呆好久。不是因为我读不懂,而是因为作者提出的视角太犀利了,它像一把手术刀,精准地切开了我们习以为常的那些经济活动的表皮,露出了底下运作的复杂齿轮和驱动力。这本书的行文风格非常独特,它不像某些畅销书那样试图用煽情的语言或夸张的故事来吸引读者,它的魅力是内敛的,需要你去挖掘。作者似乎对读者的智力持有高度的尊重,他从不绕弯子,直奔核心。这种直接性,一开始可能会让人感到压力,但一旦适应了,你会发现这才是最高效的交流方式。我特别欣赏其中关于信息不对称和理性预期那几章的论述,那种将抽象理论与市场失灵的案例结合得天衣无缝的处理方式,简直是教科书级别的示范。读完后,我对日常的新闻报道和财经评论的理解深度,都有了一个质的飞跃,不再是人云亦云,而是能看到背后的结构性力量。
评分属于「幸亏这辈子读过!」级别的超超级好书>_<
评分属于「幸亏这辈子读过!」级别的超超级好书>_<
评分属于「幸亏这辈子读过!」级别的超超级好书>_<
评分属于「幸亏这辈子读过!」级别的超超级好书>_<
评分属于「幸亏这辈子读过!」级别的超超级好书>_<
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