Acknowledgements for *Unbeatable*
My magnum opus is forthcoming in Spring, 2027 from University of Chicago Press
I just emailed the final version of Unbeatable: The Brutally Honest Case for Free Markets to the University of Chicago. I outlined the book in late 2021, and started work on in early 2022. It is definitely my broadest and least inhibited book — and in my judgment, the best-written and the best overall. When it finally comes out, I hope you agree.
Unbeatable releases in spring of 2027. To whet your appetite, here are the Acknowledgements.
Acknowledgements
I discovered economics in 1988, and the field has been supremely good to me ever since. Economics answered so many old confusing questions—and posed so many new confusing questions. Economics showed me a world of puzzles—and handed me a box of mental tools to help me solve them. Economics led me to an economically implausible career—a bona fide dream job for life. I get paid to think, talk, and write about this glorious, eye-opening subject—yet barely think about money. Best of all, economics introduced me to hundreds of fascinating friends. Our conversations, arguments, and camaraderie are a near-daily blessing. So edifying. So fun. So fulfilling.
In Unbeatable: The Brutally Honest Case for Free Markets, I try to distill the greatest insights I’ve gained after almost four decades in economics. While “ugly truths” is the foundational concept of the book, not all truths are ugly. I earnestly thank all of my hundreds of fascinating friends for helping me write this book. Whenever we talked economics, you taught me something vital. Even if we bitterly disagreed, I learned at the meta level.
In 1997, by the power of Tyler Cowen, I became an economics professor. He discovered me the summer before I started graduate school, and has been like a big brother ever since. Soon after, Robin Hanson, then Alex Tabarrok, joined us in Carow Hall. Now the four of us have worked under the same roof together for a quarter century, living and breathing the subject that is a father to us all. Scarcely a weekday has passed when Tyler, Robin, or Alex has failed to challenge my thinking, share a novel idea, or make me laugh. As much as I love economics, I love these economists more. I get a boost of energy every time I see their office doors ajar. No one has done more to raise my productivity than these three beautiful minds across the hall.
As usual, Tyler, Robin, and Alex provided precious candid feedback on my book. I also thank editor Chad Zimmerman, two anonymous referees, Jonah Franks, David Gordon, Tim Kane, Richard Hanania, and Ilya Somin for their comments and advice. Don Boudreaux went above and beyond with a careful line-by-line reading, and Eric Ma repeatedly used AI to help me search and destroy typos. Before I wrote a word, Nathan Goodman gave my book title. Nathan, you’re unbeatable! Yet more than anyone else, I thank Nathaniel Bechhofer, for hand-delivering the longest and harshest critique of the book. May you always keep your candor, Nathaniel.
Finally, I thank my family. Corina and Vali, my wife and daughter, are busy with their own projects, but not too busy to listen to yet another mealtime lecture on the danger of Social Desirability Bias. My elder sons, Aidan and Tristan, are now earning economics Ph.D.s themselves. While I doubt Unbeatable will reverse the decline of the subject I’ve taught you to love since you were toddlers, I hope I’m wrong. My current homeschooler, Simon, has rarely been out of earshot since I started writing the book. Thanks for touring the world with me all these years—and remember your training. Economics is not everything, but it is everywhere, my son.
Nicely done.