Rating: 
Summary: The dismal science made merry
Review: Things don't get better by making everyone in the world an economist. Republican Reptile and Party Animal O'Rourke knows this (he springs back from economic theory as fast as any other cigar-smokin' likker-swillin' party animal.) But in his travels around the world, O'Rourke has discovered some ancient wisdom to why why some societies are mean and poor, and some aint't: work a little bit and don't steal (and probably most important of all, don't get the government to steal for you.) This kind of wisdom has been written down for about 3000 years old -- the Ten Commandmants, for example, which are so easy nearly every dimwit in the world can memorize them. Don't kill, don't cheat, don't steal. And what happens? Hey -- society is as free and prosperous as it will ever be on Earth. O'Rourke is a funny writer with a witty turn of phrase. Even if you hate economics, you'll like this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Economics made funny
Review: Finding humor in economic principles in and of itself should qualify P.J. O'Rourke as one of the best satirical writers of our time. Of course, being P.J., he's going to come at it from a libertarian perspective. And, being P.J., he's going to travel around the world to check out his "theories" first hand. His prose reads like a much more controlled Hunter Thompson and his intellectual ideas do deserve some merit. And as for those rascally liberals he's always tweaking? Give 'em hell, P.J.!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely spectacular.
Review: This book is at least as good as P.J.'s previous best, "Parliament of Whores", a book that I didn't think could be topped. It is spectacularly funny, cogent and persuasive, and actually more than a little informative. It may be that you couldn't actually teach an economics course from it, but there are doubtless worse books to use that are being used for just that purpose; if you used this book to teach a beginning survey course in econ, you'd at least keep more of your students awake and paying attention than you would with most economics texts, and they'd certainly learn some basic principals from it.But of course, that isn't its purpose; its purpose is a) to make P.J. a bunch of money, (at which it's no doubt succeeding admirably), b) to be screamingly funny (at which it also succeeds), and c) to argue for the benefits of a free-market economy, (which it does very persuasively.) A must-read.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed sooooooo hard
Review: I try and read about three books per week, and this week was the Hunter S Thompson and P J O'Rourke week. Being a Libertarian they both appeal to me a lot. First of all the author does NOT claim to be a Nobel Laurette in Economics but simply a man who observes on his travels. The people who will hate this book will be the Politically Correct crowd. P J is one of the funniest men/writers around. If you are open minded and love America and love making money and are NOT jealous of people who like using real silverware, china, smoking fine cigars or who are doing better than you are then you will LOVE this book. He is the kind of man who is like the fly on the wall, looking at people and making notes. His take on Sweden was actually mild. Having had Swedish exchange students I felt he was much to easy on the pious Swedes. I read the review from the Canadian and laughed because I realized that in my area of California we have more MRI machines than all of Canada. Seems envy breeds contempt. Get the book for Dad for Mothers/Fathers Day or the thinking college Graduate. You will NOT be disappointed!
Rating: 
Summary: Sweden isn't really a socialist country
Review: In a socialist society, workers own and control the means of industrial production. P.J. O'Rourke calls Sweden a socialist country in "Eat the Rich", which shows he lacks an understanding of the most basic economic terms. What then, about this book, may we infer from that? So, O'Rourke visits a small Scandinavian country with an insanely lavish welfare system and a huge deficit, as well as astronimical unemployment rates, then a city in southeast Asia surrounded by communism and crammed with American investors. The New York Stock Exchange (the inner workings of which, as an example of the beauty of the free market, "scare" him) and a miserable third- world country in Europe with no system of property rights, and unrestrained capitalism is beautiful. Let's all go home and sift through our T-bills. Looking for some balance. Economic systems I would've liked to see P.J. O'Rourke analyze: Japan's, Germany's, Switzerland's (maybe he'd realize it's not the libertarian paradise he thinks it is), and Canada's.
Rating:
Summary: Remember your high-school economics textbook?
Review: Remember your high-school economics textbook? Me neither. Dry, dull, with all the punch and pizazz of flat beer. No, that's not right, flat beer at least still gives you a buzz. Wow, there's nothing as flat as a high school economics textbook, is there? That's part of what makes this book so interesting. Witty, observant, and based on observation of how economics actually works in the real world, not upon baloney pulled out of a hat. You can see how various forms of economic systems work, based not upon weak-water news reports, but a man who actually went there and figured out how things were happening, and why. One recurrent complaint I've heard is that P.J. maligns the British for turning Hong Kong over to China. How could they not, critics say, when they only leased Hong Kong for 99 years? But they didn't lease Hong Kong for 99 years. The city was awarded to Britain in the Treaty of Nanjing in 1849. The New Territories, a patch of mainland territory, was leased to Britain for agricultural purposes, but was eventually built up. When the lease on the New Territories was up, China declared their intent to reclaim the entire city, and the British, who haven't exactly been a phenomenal military power since they used themselves up in World War II, had no choice but to acquiesce. Sadly, I have to admit O'Rourke is losing his edge. He once found no such thing as a sacred cow, but now there ARE some things he doesn't consider fair game, free-market economics and libertarianism foremost among them. Still, he cuts through the bullhockey in a way those who want to teach us our economic philosophies too often fail to do effectively. A good primer in modern economics -- in ALL its ugly, bitching, querulous forms.
Rating: 
Summary: Sweden's Not So Bad
Review: I was really surprised how O'Rourke came away from Sweden without ripping their social democratic welfare state to shreds. He seems to have learned a bit about how a humane version of capitalism could work. For that reason alone the book should be required reading for all rah-rah American free marketeers. Much of the rest of the book is immediately forgettable. I was very disappointed with the chapter on Wall Street, a very lazy reporting job, and not at all witty.
Rating:
Summary: Best book read in a long time.
Review: Economic theory is based on ...theory, and is often wrong. O'Rourke, not a posterchild for higher education, skipped the classes and took a round the world tour to find which economic systems work and which don't. He visited Sweeden, Albania, Tanzania, Russia, Hong Kong, plus others and then described his experiences. In some places wild dogs ran the streets beneath his hotel room, in others people spent their day sleeping under their broken-down cars, and in most places alchohol was used liberally. I liked the book because I was an economics major and found real-world tour of economic systems refreshing. It was like touring another country each night without leaving my bedroom. The book was also really funny. Quite enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: P.J. is my favorite conservative
Review: I don't like conservatives, usually. I don't like to read liberal cheerleaders much either. P.J. blows holes in typical conservatives with his style, and sometimes too when his closet libertarianism peeks thru. He's one of the funniest writers of the 80s/90s - my biggest hope is that someday the left (or center-left) in America produces a cynical, foulmouthed S.O.B. journalist like P.J. in the 21st century!
Rating:
Summary: Required reading
Review: I agree with P.J....what's so bad about being rich
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