1. Shermer's 'Mind of the Market' Reviewed in L.A. Times

Comment #116143 by rnortman on January 25, 2008 at 3:47 pm

I don't think the review seems so unreasonable (although I haven't read the work either). It's pretty well a synopsis of the book with a pinch of sarcasm and logical fallacy thrown in.

Whether the logical fallacies he tosses in there are justified depends on whether (a) he understood the book, and (b) isn't cherry-picking and taking stuff out of context. Neither of us have read the book ourselves, so we don't really know. But given the general tone of the review, I'm guessing that there's a little bit of misapprehension and misrepresentation going on.

2. Shermer's 'Mind of the Market' Reviewed in L.A. Times

Comment #116082 by rnortman on January 25, 2008 at 1:12 pm

Speaking of confirmation bias, the author of this review himself wrote a book about how free markets are broken and government regulation is required. This review doesn't read like a carefully considered rebuttal, but rather an incensed rant. Not that I'm defending Shermer's book, as I haven't read it and I happen to believe that sometimes free markets might need a little push here and there, but this review just doesn't seem credible.