Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics by P. J O'Rourke

The nation's leading political satirist traverses the world, exploring the power of money, ruminating on the world's varieties of capitalism and socialism, and offering his own hilarious primer on economics. 150,000 first printing. $150,000 ad/promo. Editorial Reviews Amazon.com Review A conservative, prosperous, American journalist gadding around the world laughing at all the ways less successful nations screw up their economy--this might not sound like the recipe for a great read, unless you're Rush Limbaugh, but if that journalist is P.J. O'Rourke you can be sure that you'll enjoy the ride even if you don't agree with the politics. Although Eat the Rich is subtitled A Treatise on Economics, O'Rourke spends relatively few pages tackling the complexities of monetary theory. He's much happier when flying from Sweden to Hong Kong to Tanzania to Moscow, gleefully recording every economic goof he can find. When he visits post-Communist Russia and finds a country that is as messed up by capitalism as it was by Communism, O'Rourke mixes jokes about black-market shoes with disturbing insights into a nation on the verge of collapse. P.J. O'Rourke is more than a humorist, he's an experienced international journalist with a lot of frequent-flyer miles, and this gives even his funniest riffs on the world's problems the ring of truth. From Publishers Weekly Having chewed up and spat out the politically correct (All the Troubles in the World) and the U.S. government (Parliament of Whores), O'Rourke takes a more global tack. Here, he combines something of Michael Palin's Pole to Pole, a soupcon of Swift's A Modest Proposal and Keynsian garnish in an effort to find out why some places are prosperous and thriving while others just suck. Stymied by the puerile and impenetrable prose of condescending college texts, O'Rourke set forth on a two-year worldwide tour of economic practice (or mal-). He begins amid the moil and tumult of Wall Street (Good Capitalism) before turning to dirt-poor Albania, where, in an example of Bad Capitalism, free market is the freedom to gamble stupidly. Good Socialism (Sweden) and Bad Socialism (Cuba) are followed by O'Rourke's always perverse but often perversely accurate take on Econ 101 (microeconomics is about money you don't have, and macroeconomics is about money the government is out of). Four subsequent chapters reportedly offer case studies of economic principles, except that Russia, Tanzania, Hong Kong and Shanghai all seem to prove that economic theory is just that. There's lots of trademark O'Rourke humor (you can puke on the train, he says of a trip through Russia, you can cook tripe on alcohol stoves and make reeking picnics of smoked fish and goat cheese, but you can't smoke). There's also the feeling that despite (or maybe because of) his lack of credentials, he's often right. O'Rourke proves that money can be funny without being counterfeit. 150,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; 26-city author tour. (Sept.) FYI: Also available as a Random House audio, $18 Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal In his latest, humorist O'Rourke (The Enemies List, LJ 4/15/96) sets out to explain economics, a discipline he says is little understood because it is (a) complex and (b) boring. As if to prove these points, when O'Rourke, normally a funny guy, goes nose-to-nose with hard-core economics things get complicated and, well, a little boring. He atones, though, with loopy observations about some of the have and have-not countries he visited in his research for the book. On Russia's similarity to the United States: To an American used to cute, fussy little Western Europe, Russia is like mail from home. News that your dog died, maybe, but news from home nevertheless. And on Tanzanian wildlife: The Cape Buffalo is just a cow, but a gigantic and furious one?the bovine as superhero, the thing that fantasizing Herefords wish would burst upon the scene between feed lot and Wendy's. Dull patches aside, this is not your father's economics text?it's way more fun. Recommended for all public libraries. -?Jim G. Burns, Ottumwa, IA Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist O'Rourke is supposed to be a conservative humorist. His new book starts out slow, partly because he seems to be straining to be funny. (These jokes are so strained, you could feed 'em to the baby and so bland the baby wouldn't sue for parental malpractice when it grew up.) Well, he is writing on a topic, economics, that he admits is pretty dull, theoretically, and when he turns to surveying practical economics by means of trips to places that exemplify different economic practices and their good and bad outcomes, he and we are both relieved. He starts on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to demonstrate Good Capitalism. Chaotic Albania is his example of Bad Capitalism, Sweden of Good Socialism (though O'Rourke doesn't believe in such a thing), and Cuba of Bad Socialism. After retreating to the didacticism of the opening chapters to review Econ. 101 for Kicks, he takes us to four places in economic flux: Russia, Tanzania, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. In each, he finds plenty of people affected by the changes who have something to say about them. If the joke quotient goes down, that of traveler's fascination rises considerably; so, correspondingly, does interest for readers (the later jokes are better, too). O'Rourke finishes with praise for free market capitalism, of course, but that shows him off as more a libertarian than a conservative, doesn't it? Whatever--the book winds up being pretty good. Ray Olson Review ...[a] funny, insightful book. -- National Review, Cristopher Rapp ...a delightful collection of anecdotes and one-liners. Those who insist on leavening their entertainment with social significance can always watch public television. -- The New York Times Book Review, Peter Passell Mr. O'Rourke brings to the task a keen eye for ironic detail and an aphorist's wit.... a charming read. -- The Wall Street Journal, James Taranto From the Back Cover In P. J. O'Rourke's classic best-seller Parliament of Whores, he attempted to explain the entire United States government. Now, in his most ambitious book since, he takes on an even broader subject, but one that is dear to us all-wealth. What is it? How do you get it? Or, as P.J. says, Why do some places prosper and thrive, while others just suck? The obvious starting point is Wall Street. P.J. takes the reader on a scary, hilarious, and enlightening visit to the New York Stock Exchange, explaining along the way stocks, bonds, debentures, commodities, derivatives-and why the floor of the exchange is America's last refuge for nonpsychotic litterers. P.J. then sets off on a world tour to investigate funny economics. Having seen good capitalism on Wall Street, he looks at bad capitalism in Albania, views good socialism in Sweden, and endures bad socialism in Cuba. Head reeling, he decides to tackle that Econ 101 course he avoided in college. The result is the world's only astute, comprehensive, and concise presentation of the basic principles of economics that can make you laugh, on purpose. Armed with theory, P.J. ventures to Russia in a chapter entitled How (or How Not) to Reform (Maybe) an Economy (If There Is One), and discovers that Russia is a wonderful case study-unless, of course, you're Russian. P.J. then goes to Tanzania, a country rich in resources that is utterly destitute, before arriving in Hong Kong, which even as the British prepare to hand it over to the communists is a shining example of how unfettered economic activity can make everything from nothing. P.J. ends up in Shanghai, observing a top-down transition to capitalism, a process he describes as if the ancient Egyptians had constructed the pyramid of Khufu by saying, 'Thutnefer, you hold up this two-ton pointy piece while the rest of the slaves go get 2,300,000 blocks of stone.' P.J.'s conclusion in a nutshell: the free market is ugly and stupid, like going to the mall; the unfree market is just as ugly and just as stupid, except there's nothing in the mall and if you don't go there they shoot you. Excerpts from Eat the Rich You buy stock because you think other people will think this stock is worth more later than you think it's worth now. Economists call this - in a rare example of comprehensible economist terminology - the 'Greater Fool Theory.' Speaking of folly, you can also invest in the commodities market. This is where you buy thousands of pork bellies and still don't know what you're going to have for dinner because, in the first place, you're broke from fooling around in the commodities market and, in the second place, you're not completely insane. You didn't actually have those pork bellies delivered to your house. What you did was buy a 'futures contract' from a person who promises to provide you with pork bellies in a couple of months if you pay him for pork bellies today. You did this because you think pork belly prices will rise and you'll be able to resell the delivery contract and make out like a . . . perhaps 'make out like a pig' is not the appropriate simile in this case. Of course, if prices fall, you've still got the pork bellies, and won't your spouse be surprised? The New Russians are an amazing bunch. The men wear three-piece suits with stripes the width and color used to indicate no passing on two-lane highways. The neckties are as wide as the wives. These wives have, I think, covered their bodies in Elmer's Glue and run through the boutiques of Palm Springs, buying whatever stuck. Omnipresent amid all the frenzy of Shanghai is that famous portrait, that modern icon. The faintly smiling, bland yet somehow threatening visage appears in brilliant red hues on placards and posters and is painted huge on the sides of buildings. Some call him a genius. Others blame him for the deaths of millions. There are those who say his military reputation was inflated, yet he conquered the mainland in short order. Yes, it's Colonel Sanders. The example of efficiency that economists usually give is guns and butter. A society can produce both guns and butter, they say, but if the society wants to produce more guns it will have to - because of allocation of resources, capital and labor - produce less butter. Using this example you'll notice that, at the far reaches of gun-producing efficiency, howitzers are being manufactured by cows. And this is just one of the reasons we can't take economists too seriously. Praise for Eat the Rich: A keen eye for ironic detail and an aphorist's wit.-The Wall Street Journal A funny, pungent paean to the glory of free enterprise-Kirkus Reviews [O'Rourke's] brilliance is that he gets right to the heart of things.-The Boston Phoenix