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Nobel Prize winners in economics, Professor George A. Akerlof of Georgetown University and Professor Robert J. Shiller of Yale University, collaborate on a groundbreaking and innovative book that will make each and every one of you rethink the way you make economic decisions. Since the days of Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, the idea that free markets magically provide us with economic prosperity has been at the heart of economic theory. George Akerlof and Robert Shiller, authors of The Theory of Fraud, challenge this insight and argue that markets harm us as much as they benefit us. As long as they make a profit from the transaction, sellers will exploit our psychological weaknesses and our ignorance through manipulation and deception. Markets, by their very nature, are full of tricks and traps that traders lay for us, the «suckers» who fall into their net. In other words, they bait us and «phish» us. The theory of deception turns the spotlight on an innovative approach to economics, based on the idea that markets cause harm and benefit at the same time. Through dozens of stories, Akerlof and Shiller demonstrate how no one is immune to «phishing» in almost every area of life: we spend almost all our money and then worry about how we will pay the bills next month; the economic system soars to the top and then crashes to the bottom; advertising influences us more than we realize; money distorts our political systems; we pay exorbitant prices for gym memberships, cars, apartments and credit cards; pharmaceutical companies market products to us that are of no use to us, and sometimes even endanger our lives, outright. The Theory of Deception is a remarkable account of the role of manipulation and deception in each of these areas and many others. At the same time, it sheds light on a disturbing paradox: why, at a time when we are enjoying more prosperity than ever before, too many of us live in a sense of quiet desperation. The book also tells the stories of people who have stood up to economic manipulation — and explains how its impact can be reduced through knowledge, reform, and regulation