"FREAKONOMICS a Rogue Economist Explains the Hidden Side of Everything"

Book Review:

This book by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner caught my eye while perusing through the book piles at Costco. I've never really been a fan/student of Eonomics. I believe that has everything to do with the teacher and not the student. It was the only class in high school where I received anything less than an A. My one downfall, and my teacher was the principal who was replacing another teacher. And it was a terrible introduction to a subject that can be quite fascinating.

This book is bringing me back to the interest of Economics... not necessarily the numbers, but a more in depth look of what causes the phenom of the numbers - ergo; the incentives that creates the force behind the numbers. It's a more humanistic and psychological dig through human nature and what motivates us.

Levitt is a heralded young economist, graduated from Harvard undergrad, PhD from MIT, MBA from University of Chicago and won the John Bates Clark Medal (awarded very two years to the best American economist under 40).

He begins the book with 5 fundamental ideas (that are intriguing):
1. Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life
2. the conventional wisdom is often wrong
3. dramatic effects often have distant, event subtle, causes
4. experts (from criminologists to real estate agents) use their informational advantage to serve their own agenda
5. knowing what to measure and how to measure it makes a complicated world much less so

First of all, I love the title... how can Freakonomics sound boring? This book is exceptionally well written, with difficult and sometimes complex ideas explained clearly and with fun examples and analogies. For example, Levitt begins many of his discussion with riddles: "what do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime?

Finally, an economist who attempts to understand the driving motives behind what makes humans tick, ergo the economy with it, not just providing graphs and numbers with mathematical equations to explain it. Excellent read!