Here it begins. BadEconomics is compiling chapters for a reader on common bad economics topics. We are going to do this crowd sourced here.

How will it work? I'm not too sure really... I'm envisioning a book highlighting some common economic mistakes as documented on reddit and popular press/media. And providing a nice pop-economics reason and a little learning experience wrapped together. Think in the style of popinomics writers like Tim Hartford, Steven Landsburg and the like.

But to get started, let's use this post to start threads for different topics. The rules of the game are this

1: top level posts should address a proposed "chapter" of the manuscript. Top level posts of similar topics will be merged in the case of overlaps or divided in the case of topics too broad.

2: provide a brief description of the topic - both the economic subject (e.g. "comparative advantage", "supply and demand") AND the BadEconomics. Try to avoid Strawmen and provide links to posts here or elsewhere showing that there is indeed a general surplus of BE on the topic.

Top level posts can be brief for now. But they should have at least a description/abstract on the topic. Later, once we have some traction, I will take the top ranked posts here and create a new post.

Use lower level posts to add sources, comments, discussion.

This isn't for general discussion. Go to the discussion thread for that. Only top level comments outlining or describing a specific chapter.