The major impression I had was of this creep talking to various professors at Harvard. I remember thinking: "if I worked at Harvard as a prof. and someone lectured me this way, I'd sucker-punch him." Little did I know that this was preminiscent of economist Larry Summers' behavior (and faculty response) at Harvard!
One notable thing about "The Fatal Equilibrium" is the arrogant stupidity of the authors. The murderer -- an anthropologist -- is caught because he (allegedly) faked his data. In the real world, say the authors, the number of coconuts that it takes to buy a canoe should be the same on the same island at the same time. Since the anthropologist's data don't fit this economic principle, he faked it; he must not have visited the Pacific island where the data came from at all! Of course, this totally ignores quality differences between canoes.
As my wife says: you can be ignorant or arrogant, but the combination of both is crossing the line.
This crappy book is part of a series, including "Murder at the Margin." They come with instructors' manuals and other ancillary materials, hoping that profs. use them in their classes. -- Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles