Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Steven D. Levitt &
Stephen J. Dubner

Levitt's subtitle is, shall we say, a bit overly optimistic. In fact, Freakonomics, which I think by now deserves the epithet "runaway bestseller," addresses a number of specific questions synecdochic of life, the universe, and everything, pointing out the ways in which economic factors cross-breed to produce results that only the most whacked-out (or, in some cases, politically incorrect) mind could possibly have foreseen.

Levitt and Dubner open the book with one of its most controversial points-- legalized abortion leading to a sharp decline in the crime rate-- and only get more politically incorrect from there. In its released form, Freakonomics must have taken some serious guts to write-- that, or a complete lack of understanding of the current culture. Either way, the book comes off as being refreshingly irreverent (a term that here can be read as "incredibly offensive to a portion of the population who desperately need to be offended"), blunt to the point of brutality, concise, and exceptionally well-spoken. None of these are traits one expects from an economist, to say the least, which makes the book all the more pleasurable. It's good, dirty fun, exploring the seamier side of the lives of a number of different types of people, from real estate agents to crack dealers. Levitt draws lines in the data that no one thought to look for before, but when exposed, look like simple common sense; the reader of this book is liable to find himself saying "why didn't I think of that?" far too many times for comfort.

Very hard to put down, and one of the better pieces of nonfiction I've come across in the past couple of years. Highly recommended.