Is there really any educational meat to these two books or is it strictly like his columns where he will say things like "the political left has virtually no interest in the creation of wealth" or claim that the furor over illegal wiretaps is a "phony crisis"? Having read his stuff fairly regularly I know I will need to tie myself to the chair to keep from tipping over on my right side while I read Every time I'm about to admit how smart the man is I bump up against the question of how anyone as intelligent as he seems could possibly spend so much time writing partisan invective. So I guess my real question is are these really explanations of economics for the layman or just a few hundred pages of why I would be better off if GE and Exxon didn't have to deal with all these awful labor laws, environmental regs and product liability claims?