Mark Skousen is a professional economist, investment expert, university professor, and author of over twenty-five books. He has taught economics at Columbia Business School, Columbia University, and Rollins College. Currently, he holds the Benjamin Franklin Chair of Management at Grantham University. In honor of his work in economics, finance, and management, Grantham University renamed its business school, "The Mark Skousen School of Business." Since 1980, Skousen has been Editor in Chief of Forecasts & Strategies, a popular award-winning investment newsletter (www.markskousen.com). He is also Editor of The Worldly Philosophers Club, a weekly e-letter (www.worldlyphilosophers.com). Skousen is a former analyst for the CIA, a columnist for Forbes magazine, and past president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in New York. He earned his PhD in economics from George Washington University.

"... offers practical advice on personal finance matters, earning, saving, investing and retiring, based on the breakthrough contributions of behavioural economics." (Pensions World, July 2008)"... you can pick up nuggets of insight into behavioural economics, game theory, the flat tax debate, auction theory (particularly good)...." (Financial World, June 2008)"... check out Mark Skousen's EconoPower.... The book shows how economics has come to influence every aspect of our life." (Sunday Times Ireland Edition, December 18th 2008)

• Foreword ixAcknowledgments xiiiIntroduction: A Golden Age of Discovery 1Part One: Personal Finance: Earning, Saving, Investing, and Retiring 15Chapter 1: Economist Discovers a Painless Way to Triple Your Savings Rate: The $90 Billion Opportunity 17Chapter 2: Modern Portfolio Theory: Can You Beat the Market? 25Chapter 3: Yes, You Can Beat the Market . . . with Less Risk 31Chapter 4: High-Return Investing: Lessons from Yale's Endowment Fund 41Chapter 5: How Chile Created a Worker-Capitalist Revolution 47Chapter 6: The Call for Social Security Reform 53Chapter 7: $4,000 a Month from Social Security? 57Chapter 8: How the Private Sector Solved Its Own Pension Crisis 61Chapter 9: The Four Sources of Happiness: Is Money One of Them? 65Part Two: Economists Enter the Corporate Boardroom 69Chapter 10: Improving the Bottom Line with EVA 71Chapter 11: How Ludwig von Mises Helped Create the World’s Largest Private Company 75Part Three: Solving Domestic Problems 81Chapter 12: Look, Ma’am, No Traffi c Jams! 83Chapter 13: Patient Power: The New Consumer-Driven Medical Plan 93Chapter 14: Back to Basics: Competition Enters the Classroom 103Chapter 15: Chicago Gun Show 107Chapter 16: Economists Catch Auction Fever 113Chapter 17: If You Built It Privately . . . They Will Come: The Economics of Sports Stadiums 125Chapter 18: Who Is Henry Spearman? Economics of the Mystery Novel 131Part Four: Solving International Problems 135Chapter 19: Eco-nomics Debate: Angry Planet or Beautiful World? 137Chapter 20: The Population Bomb: Economists Enter the Malthusian Debate 143Chapter 21: A Private-Sector Solution to Extreme Poverty 147Chapter 22: Poverty and Wealth: India versus Hong Kong 153Chapter 23: How Real Is the Asian Economic Miracle? 157Chapter 24: Whatever Happened to the Egyptians? 163Chapter 25: The Irish Economic Miracle: Can We Grow Faster? 167Chapter 26: The Marginal Tax Revolution: The Laffer Curve Goes Global 171Chapter 27: The Debate over Economic Inequality: The Rich Get Richer, and the Poor Get . . . 177Chapter 28: One Graph Says It All: The Development of the Economic Freedom Index 185Chapter 29: Amazing Graph: Economists Enter Sacred Ground 197Chapter 30: Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men: The Case for Religious Competition 201Part Five: Predicting the Future 205Chapter 31: New Yale Forecasting Model: Has the Irving Fisher Curse Been Lifted? 207Chapter 32: Forecasting Elections: Economists Do It Better! 213Chapter 33: What Drives the Economy and Stocks: Consumer Spending or Business Investment? 217Chapter 34: The Midas Metal: A Golden Comeback 225Chapter 35: Is Another Great Depression Possible? 233Chapter 36: Today’s Most Influential Economist? 239Chapter 37: Economics for the 21st Century 243Notes 247About the Author 265Index 267