sw’as

Last weekend I did some thing I haven’t done in a long time, read a novel from cover to cover in under two days. The book in question was Freakoncomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner which I got for my birthday. Having studied finance I’ve had a big enough taste of economics the know how much fun it can be^[1] and this book confirms it. Economics can be applied to anything and heaps of really cool observations can be made.

Freakonomics uses interesting questions to give you a lesson in economics and teach you something you might not have know. The questions answered (or explored at a minimum) are:

• What to school teachers and Sumo wrestlers have in common?
• How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real estate agents?
• Why do drug dealers still live with their Moms [sic]?
• Where have all the criminals gone^[2]?
• What makes a perfect parent?
• Perfect parenting, part II; or would a Roshanda by any other name smell as sweet^[3]?

Rather than reading a review of the book written by me which would likely be very boring, you should take my word that it’d a damn fine book which you would enjoy, then go to a book store or to your local library and get your hands on a copy. After that you should read it. Then you should let me know how right I was^[4].

If you don’t think you can bite off a whole novel worth of economics you could start with some smaller and almost as interesting articles around the web that have an economics bent. Phu over at (the wonderfully rebooted) If…Else has obviously had a bit of an economics binge this weekend himself because he has pointed out two such interesting articles.

1. Yes, the title was serious. I actually do think economics is fun. [↩]
2. This question has a seriously interesting answer, the book is worth reading for this question alone. [↩]
3. Wondering why there are so many parents giving their children really, REALLY stupid names in recent times? This section will give you an answer. [↩]
4. By the way, I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a great book. It is, after all, a New York Times Best Seller. [↩]