‘Required reading...it brings the power of economics to life’STEVEN D.LEVITT AUTHOR OF FREAKONOMICS.

‘Reading this book is like spending an ordinary day wearing X-ray goggles’DAVID BODANIS

Ever wondered why the gap between rich and poornations is so great, or why it's so difficult to get a footon the property ladder, or why you can't buy a decentsecond-hand car？This book offers the hidden story behindthese and other forces that shape our day-to-day lives,often without our knowing it.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 Who Pays for Your Coffee?

2 What Supermarkets Don't Want You to Know

3 Perfect Markets and the 'World of Truth'

4 Crosstown Traffic

5 The Inside Story,

6 Rational Insanity

7 The Men Who Knew the Value of Nothing

8 Why Poor Countries Are Poor

9 Beer, Chips and Globalisation

10 How China Grew Rich

Notes

Index