Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Authors:  Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

The subtitle of this book might have been "The Rogue Economist Knows More Than Anyone Else About Everything Worth Knowing Because He's Smart and the Rest of Us Are Dunces." I never read "Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics," but it maybe a needed antidote to this shameless marketing piece. That's a little harsh. I was glad to learn how economists can use statistics to recognize cultural shifts and trends, but I found the authors' rants against "conventional wisdom" overdone, to put it mildly. I was unconvinced by many of Levitt's arguments that were supposed to be based on solid statistical evidence yet seemed to require large leaps of faith.

Read January 2006.