Freakonomics Revised and Expanded Edition: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Paperback – April 22, 2020

Freakonomics is a gutsy, fascinating, post-modern book even if you might not like some of the conclusions. According to the authors, there is no unifying theme, only the `thread' of people chasing incentives. In other words, it is about the effect money has on people. To put it even more simply, a guy named Paul the Apostle once famously said: `Money is the root of all kinds of evil'.Economics is called the `dismal science' because it is all about numbers, but in the hands of a rogue economist like Steve Levitt, with help from NY Times writer Steve Dubner, it yields some probable answers to a lot of questions. Why has crime decreased even though the population has increased? Why is a real estate agent in such a hurry to sell your house at a lower price, and does he do the same for his own house? How about sumo wrestlers, school teachers, on-your-honor donut clubs? Are they cheating too?I'm not giving away any secrets in saying that Roe V. Wade, the 1973 ruling making abortion legal, is declared to be the cause of crime decrease in recent years; it is very well known that the book says this. Levitt does a masterful job of shooting down the `conventional wisdom' theories of strong economy, aging of the population, gun issues, etc., to finally show that abortions among certain segments of the population has reduced the criminal population. Very simply, there are a lot of criminals who were never born because of Roe V. Wade. Although I am 100% pro-life and remain so regardless of any book, I have to agree with his conclusion. Levitt re-iterates that the study of economics has no moral base and doesn't ask any moral questions, and, in fact, asks no questions at all. He also says that people are more comfortable with root causes they can touch or feel now and not far reaching causes from the past, and I can't argue with that. I was impressed with his right-brained mentality.Levitt also tackles some sensitive issues like how unique `black' names seem to hold back the carriers of those names. Does it cause racial prejudice or is it a consequence of racial prejudice? There was a fascinating chapter about the most popular `white' names and `black' names according to the racial and economic backgrounds of the different population segments. He gives charts of the actual names even according to amount of education of the mother, or the age of the mother at her first childbirth. Also, we see that some sets of names chase other sets of names, and those other sets of names consequently move on.You'll find, if you read the book, how important `information asymmetry' or information hoarded by experts is. Is someone who is handling your money keeping your best interests or his own best interests in mind? (Three guesses!!) He gives plenty of examples in the book. I can give you one that I'm personally familiar with (not in the book because it is so obvious). Financial advisors like to get their clients into loaded funds, which essentially provide an extra commission to them; independent outfits like Morningstar will tell you never to get into loaded funds because they are a rip-off. There is nothing illegal about that but it shows you how knowledge asymmetry can work against you when you trust an `expert'.I was impressed how Levitt thought and his methods of coming to his conclusions, how he could do `regression analysis' on a topic by `controlling' for certain variables to screen out data `noise'. Thankfully, he doesn't get too technical on us, though he does give us some idea of his methodology. I think it's ingenious how he got economics to give up such useful information, and was able to explain it in a non-technical way.It was a gutsy book and a fascinating read.

The subtitle of this book is a very apt, if slightly exaggerated description: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Steven Levitt is certainly a rogue economist in that he uses the concepts of economy to look at many 'givens' in a completely new way. The results are often startling and thought provoking, although he certainly doesn't look at everything-at least in this book.Most of us probably suffered through economics in school and the thought of reading a book about it when we don't have to does not sound like fun. Levitt, however, takes this science and spins it on its head, making it both entertaining and informative. By taking economic theory and applying it to everyday questions Levitt comes up with some theories that sound improbable and then proceeds to prove them. Many of his theories may cause some consternation; most outrageous of all is the idea that the reduction in crime over the years has less to do with more police and far more to do with the Roe v Wade decision.This book was very entertaining, written in an engaging style. My biggest complaint is the New York Times article reprints at the end of the book, which basically re-hash what we have already read. The book is also too short and since I hated economics is school I find it ironic that I could want more!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. What an interesting concept -- we have zillions of bytes of data; we just need to ask it the right questions! Fascinating and a fun read. I found the information very approachable. I credit the "marriage" of an economist and a writer with pulling this off. Some bits were a bit repetitive. But I will have to go buy the second book.

There is a difference between what people say or think they do, and what they actually do. When you strip away the accepted societal bias, you find interesting results. This book looks at the reality of how humans behave. It is in the same vein as Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture.So if you'd like to know how or when Sumo wrestlers would fix a match, or why crime decreases 20 years after abortion is made widely available, this is the book for you. Once you understand how to observe the world with the long-view lens, you will gain more skill in discernment. It's a great read.