This book appeared on a list of 100 influential science books for the millenium, published in The American Scientist.

Sowell is an economist, and from some other mentions of his name, is very convinced of the correctness of capitalism and markets. His thesis is that the market is the most efficient means of summarizing and transmitting the knowledge that individuals need when they make decisions about trading off one benefit for another. It does this by pricing goods and services against a single standard currency, so that the benefits of antipollution devices, for instance, can be compared to the benefits of fuel economy in cars. Sowell is against any form of government intervention in the markets, arguing that regulators have a vested interest in perpetuating their own organizations, and do this by markedly increasing the cost of obtaining knowledge of the relative benefits of different courses of action. Regulators and the judiciary tend to present choices among economic alternatives as "package deals" that do not allow incremental tradeoffs to take place among the various potential outcomes. Outcomes are rights rather than goods with a cost. The cost of knowing the actions of regulators is so high that only special interest groups are willing to pay for this knowledge, and to therefore attempt to influence regulator's decisions. A very stimulating book, well argued, but single-minded in its rejection of government intervention in all things. ( )