Where Hammett and company's tales are sharp, grittily realistic, and driven by swarthy melodramatic plots, Stein's one mysterious foray into the Murder Mystery genre has little discernible plot, is distinctly un-swarthy, lacks melodrama, and for these reasons is perhaps far more realistic than Hammett et al. are held to be; _Blood_ clearly reflects the confusion we (I) feel in the face of traumatic events... the mind reels before the reality (which always lacks cliche and melodrama) of violence and leaves one (me) with nothing but an almost incoherent froth of language in one's (my) head, out of which occasionally bubble moments of "clarity": bits of facts and/or memories of incidents and characters which may or may not be accurate. Sometimes, too, the froth dissolves into moments of almost ritual invocation: "Lizzie do you understand do you understand lizzie": the mind reaching out to (hi)stries of past violence (the fall river axe murders, lizzie borden) to unsuccesfully but compulsively try to order and give meaning to the violence at hand.

Dazzling. The full effect of this book (the composition of "my take" on it which appears above) came only after weeks of letting the book sit in the back of my mind, as I moved back to pulp detective stories and on to other things.

It is classic Stein, a pure uncut jewelled antidote to the false-feeling closures of the usual mystery novel and the journalistic, faux-objective treatments of the violent throughout fiction, film, and (dare I mention) TV. A true refuge for the "thinking" person.

This absolute gem from 1989 should be updated and republished. I have resurrected it in relation to my reading on federal budgeting and the dangers of the deficit spending now in vogue in Washington (2002).

This is the best book I have read on the strategic aspects of the federal budget--needed reforms, key issues in allocation policy, using the budget to stabilize the economy.

Where the book excels is in its analysis of how the federal budget should be used to steer private sector outlays--as Osborne and Gaebler suggested, we must steer rather than row--guide the private sector rather than use taxpayer dollars for direct products and services.

In his discussion of priorities, the author focuses heavily on the lack of investment in education and the resurrection of education both public and private. As we enter the 21st Century largely ignorant as a Nation (of external realities, not at individuals), I cannot help but think that the time has come for the public to take charge of "political economy," and begin actively setting forth its priorities. Just this week, in The Washington Post of 27 February 2002, David Ignatius suggests that Washington has turned its back on the Nation. Seems to me that's pretty dangerous, but if the Nation allows itself to be ignored by Washington, then we have the government--and the federal spending priorities--we deserve.

Using opportunity cost, the laws of supply & demand, interdependent utility functions, and even the prisoner's dilemma to get to the bottom of the case, Harvard economics professor Henry Spearman tracks down the killer/killers of two high-society tourists at the Cinnamon Bay resort on the Caribbean island of St. John.

Interestingly enough, the foreword & afterword of the book both go into the economic possibilities of writing and publishing a mystery novel featuring an economist as the protagonist! Apparently, the possibilities looked good, since there's two follow-up Henry Spearman mystery novels out there, both of which I'm planning to take a look at once I get some free time in. Of course, I'll have to calculate the opportunity costs of other forms of recreation, the utility I receive from reading the other novels, etc. I have a feeling I'll receive a handsome profit out of the deal...

All told, "Murder at the Margin", if not exactly a great murder mystery, is a fairly interesting primer on the practical uses of economics, and makes for surprisingly quick reading!

'Late

It was the authors first effort, and being such it is not quite as good as the following two books, which I would rate at 4 1/2 and 5 stars. Still, it is a very good read.

If there are any general readers left with an interest in economics, they will enjoy this accessible and informative book. I teach macroeconomics to undergraduates, and hope to find a way of using this book as an important supplement to conventional texts.

Stein gives us a history of fiscal and monetary policy from the Depression to the first Reagan term. The third edition claims to be updated to the start of the Clinton administration, but this simply means that Stein has added a few articles he'd written for the AEI or for the Wall Street Journal. Essentially, though, the book's story ends in about 1983, with most emphasis being given to the period from 1968. (Stein was at one point chairman of Nixon's Council of Economic Advisors.)

It sounds, then, as though "Presidential Economics" has two strikes against it. First, Stein refers to the Reagan administration in the present tense, whereas today's students are impatient with any material more than a couple of years old. It's actually one of my hidden agendas, though, to help students understand that the world hasn't always been as it is today, and that it may well change again tomorrow. Stein's book--indeed, almost any historical treatment--can be used to make this point.

The second apparent drawback (at least, to those who share my leftish tendencies) is that Stein is a firm believer in what he calls the "old-time [conservative] religion". Yet, perhaps because he is so frankly of the right--and, of course, because he writes so well--today's typically conservative student may well find compelling Stein's arguments against Reagan's "economics of joy". The argument against (certain forms of) supply-side, or perhaps monetarist, positions might be regarded with suspicion coming from someone with progressive pretensions (like me), whereas Stein is more likely to get away with it.

Stein's historical treatment allows the instructor to parachute in more technical material at will--the Phillips Curve, perhaps, or ye olde Keynesian Cross--either from a standard text or from the instructor's own notes. In this way the various macro models are given social, even institutional, life, and don't just follow one another as a series of abstractions (as in "if this is Chapter 17 it must be a New Classical position").

The data series used in the text generally end in 1983, but learning how to update them would, in any case, be a useful exercise for the class. I also plan on requiring students to dig up media commentary from, say, the fifties, to compare and contrast it with Stein's narrative. Students must learn that not everything can be found on the web.

I've been unable to find any more recent books that cover the last two, post-Stein, decades. I'd even settle for something less fluent and articulate than Stein, if only it wasn't polemic in a narrowly partisan kind of way. So far, though, I've been unable to find anything. (Does anyone have any ideas?) Thus, in putting some flesh on the bones of economic theory--even if, in doing so accessibly, it remains demanding, since economics is never, in that sense, an "easy read"--Stein's book continues to be relevant and useful, even vital.

good book for the used price that you would pay, could make a great reference for papers