RECOMMENDED ECONOMICS READING I have recently received David Henderson's The Joy of Freedom and Charles Wheelan's Naked Economics. Extended comments likely in future. Too many deadlines (the Illinois Economic Association's student paper contest is tomorrow, and I'm session organizer) and too many distractions (a box of passenger car kits delivered today) to read these both tonight, as I am sometimes able to do.

Both books offer the observation that economics, as taught by most professors, isn't presented well, and the really challenging stuff (sex, death, and why the lines are longest at the rollercoaster) gets crowded out by 2000 definitions, arc-elasticity versus point-elasticity, tangencies and intersections, blah blah blah. One day, the profession will take the time to read and understand what Becker and Walstad, Siegfried and Hansen, et. al. have been telling us for years. Or not. Job Openings for Economist is chock full of position announcements with the usual boilerplate about equal opportunity, affirmative action, protected status persons encouraged to apply, oh yes, don't forget that solid publication record.