Are free market economies really based on fleecing the consumer? Is the U.S. economy truly just a giant free-for-all that encourages duplicity in our everyday transactions? Is everyone from corporate CEOs to your local car salesman really looking to make a buck at your expense? In Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don’t, economist and bestselling author John R. Lott Jr. addresses these and other common economic questions, confronting some of the misconceptions about markets created by the bestselling book Freakonomics. His comments came at a Cato Institute book forum August 14, 2007.

(See the full event: Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don’t.)