“A truly excellent book that explains where our pandemic response went wrong, and how we can understand those failings using the tools of economics.”
This book offers a crash-course in economics analysis through the applied case-study of the COVID-19 pandemic, to help explain everything from why the U.S. was underprepared for the pandemic to how economists go about valuing the lives saved from lockdowns. After completing this highly readable, fast-paced, and provocative virus-themed economic tour, readers will be able to make much better sense of the events that they’ve lived through. Perhaps more importantly, the insights on everything from the role of the price mechanism to trade and specialization will grant even those wholly new to economics the skills to think like an economist in their own lives and when evaluating the choices of their political leaders.