The Wealth of Choices

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Over the past two decades, globalization, deregulation and digitization have produced sweeping changes in the way companies are organized and do business. For those wondering what the new economy offers the average consumer, Murray, the Washington bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal and coauthor of Showdown at Gucci Gulch, provides a lively and accessible primer that will orient readers confused by rapid changes and those trying to make the new economic conditions work for them. According to Murray, pervasive free-market competitive pressures force companies to court consumers as never before, offering more variety in their products and responding to consumer needs. In addition, easy-to-use methods of comparison shopping on the Internet have given consumers previously unavailable knowledge of prices and a level of bargaining power that approaches that described by classical economist Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations in 1776. If the good news is that consumers are now in charge, the less good news is that to wield their power they must first do their homework. To make the most of that bargaining advantage, Murray has developed a series of handy outlines of the opportunities he sees for personal empowerment in the workplace, education, investing, health care and retirement planning. And although much of what Murray says boils down to common sense ("you should be in a job that makes you feel like you are contributing"), his optimism about consumers' increased choice and bargaining power is infectious. Agent, Bob Barnett. First serial rights sold to the Wall St. Journal and Smart Money; 6-city author tour. (June) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

The "new economy" that Murray describes is one where the power of the individual has been enhanced by the widespread availability of information as embodied by the Internet. Murray, Washington bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, cautions that with such power comes increased accountability. Hence, he warns that while the new economy allows one to negotiate better prices on airfares, start a business with just a great idea, and even take charge of one's health, poor choices in careers, healthcare providers, and retirement investments are the individual's responsibility. As a primer to the new economy, the book covers investing, paying for education, starting a business, shopping, and handling privacy issues--all in a jargon-free manner. It is loaded with examples and anecdotes from the author's personal life. Entertainingly written, Murray's book is recommended for all public libraries and for academic libraries where the need warrants.--Lawrence R. Maxted, Gannon Univ., Erie, PA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

From The Critics

Books, with their here-it-is-in-black-and-white resistance to modification of any sort, are inherently old economy. This was perhaps a conundrum for Alan Murray in writing The Wealth of Choices, a game attempt at introducing to readers the ever-shifting contours of the new economy. How does one capture a revolution so amorphous as to defy definition?

Murray answers with a book that is itself somewhat amorphous - part memoir, part pep talk and part how-to manual. He engagingly recounts his own transition into a new-economy maven from his undergraduate days at the University of North Carolina to his current position as the Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau chief, and he shares many of his and others' experiences using the decision-making tools of the new economy. Mixed in with those anecdotes are do-it-yourself primers for readers venturing for the first time into the information age.

Murray's tour is informed throughout by the most visible facet of the new economy, the Internet. But the book is by no means about the Internet alone. What really unites the book's elements is the title's conceit; Murray argues that exponentially proliferating information - the wealth of choices - is shifting power from businesses to consumers across the board. As Murray writes, technology has made possible an economy that "puts power in the hands of the people by 1) vastly expanding their choices; 2) vastly increasing the abundance, quality and usefulness of the information they have at their disposal; and 3) forcing business to compete to please them." From that starting point, Murray lays the ground rules for smart consumer decision-making in every sector of the new economy - from educating your children to buying a car to developing, in Tom Peters' immortal phrasing, "the brand called You."

Clearly, the primary audience for the book is not savvy Internet CEOs or upstart MBAs. Murray is writing for regular people stuck somewhere between the economies and confused by the buzzwords of those closer to the cutting edge. With the aid of his research assistant, Keith Perine (now a Washington bureau reporter for The Standard), Murray scoured articles and Internet posts for case studies to illustrate his theories. In a more personal example, Murray recounts his frustration when his father contracted a severe infection while recovering from cancer-related surgery. Although his father survived the incident, Murray wishes he could have more easily found information on the hospital's infection rates, and he suggests that in the new economy, educated consumers would force such changes in medical disclosure.

As a Wall Street Journal editor, Murray's greatest expertise is obviously in the area of economic issues, and to his credit, the book touches on the numerous economic advantages of the information age without getting bogged down in terminology and far-fetched statistics.

While Murray admits his book is only a starting point, he could have enhanced its scope by delving into the multiple new-economy negatives mentioned only in the final pages. He gives short shrift to America's widening income gap, for example, and sidesteps the relative dearth of choices available to those without access to new-economy tools. In failing to provide the sort of revealing stories he found in every other sector, Murray missed an opportunity to make a real impact by suggesting ways to involve all consumers in the new economy, not just those with an Internet appliance in their kitchen.