Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World

This book uses food as a bait to spur a discussion on macroeconomics. Some discussions, such as using bananas to discuss the impact of multinational corporations, flow well. However, in others the connection between food and economics seems forced. Each chapter starts with a food item, connects it to a topic in economics, and critiques the underlying economic theory. The critique is providing historical examples of where the outcomes were not as initially intended. The chapter ends by providing some suggestions for how to remedy the situation (generally with greater government regulation).

While the economic discussion is stellar and free of equations, the concepts are sometimes so oversimplified as to miss the inherent nuances, which may ultimately lead to suboptimal solutions. Each chapter is a stand-alone chapter, and there does not seem to be any effort to link them together into a coherence whole. While many facets of economics are discussed, the solution always seem to be more government regulation. Readers who distrust increased government regulation may not find the solutions as viable. However, the book is a nice look at how common economic assumptions are sometimes flawed and the reasons why application of these policies may not be as straightforward as economics may suggest.