After Freakonomics got popular, it was unbelievable how many interview requests/invitations I received. I don’t think I’m exaggerating in saying there were at least 10 per day for a year, or over 3,500 in that time. Now I get “only” three or four a day. Needless to say, I got really good at saying no, much to the chagrin of . . .
I was playing poker at Full Tilt Poker tonight when across the chat board comes an official-looking message saying that an employee of Full Tilt was arrested for stealing $200,000. The message says for full information go to http://www.fulltilt-cnn.com. (Don’t go clicking on things there until you read further!) The URL seemed fishy. So I went to Google News and . . .
I was at O’Hare airport yesterday and saw something very unusual: a person actually using a pay phone. Airports have enormous numbers of pay phones which, if you observe them, go virtually untouched. At best you will see a senior citizen using one from time to time (as I did yesterday). The pay phone is one invention whose time has . . .
News reports yesterday say the FBI is investigating an NBA referee who allegedly bet on games that he was calling. This is a perfect problem for an economist to answer with data, and the obvious man for the job is Justin Wolfers, who has written papers on NBA referees and on point shaving in basketball! Message to Justin: Freakonomics blog . . .
A few weeks back Dubner blogged about the video resume. Far more effective, it turns out, is the front-page resume. I have a good friend named Sally. Last week she won a $25,000 prize as “Nurse of the Year.” This week she got laid off! That made for a great story in the Chicago Sun-Times today. The new job offers . . .
Money magazine has a new columnist who simply goes by the name “The Mole.” I love the idea behind the column: an industry insider reveals the dirty secrets of financial planner misdeeds to the general public. I won’t blow his cover, but I know the guy who is writing it. He is smart and has interesting ideas. And, surprise, surprise: . . .
At least for me, there are not too many questions that would lead me to respond, “For $25 million, no way, but for $50 million I’ll think about it.” Twenty-five million dollars is so much money that it’s hard to think about what you would do with it. It sure would be nice to have the first $25 million. I’m . . .
AIDS in Africa is one of the gravest problems facing the world. Emily Oster has some of the most interesting ideas about AIDS in Africa. You can see and hear these ideas online, courtesy of the wonderful folks at the TED Conference.
While at this celebrity golf tournament, I met a lot of stars, from Kevin Nealon to Gale Sayers. None of them were as friendly as Super Bowl MVP Mark Rypien. He and I don’t have much in common. The one thing we share, I wish we didn’t. Just like us, he lost a young son named Andrew. The Rypien Foundation . . .
If you can’t figure out the answer to that question, you need some serious help. Thanks to the kindness of Jonathan Thomas, Martha Miller, and all the other fine folks at American Century Investments, I got the chance to play golf with Emmitt Smith, winner of Dancing with the Stars. Before that, he had some success in football as well. . . .
Over the weekend, the Washington Post published an article suggesting that much of the decline in crime in the 1990s may have been due to the reduction of childhood lead exposure after the removal of lead from gasoline and house paint. This is an intriguing hypothesis. There is evidence on an individual level that high exposure to lead is harmful . . .
For years, I’ve begged my wife to let me buy a gun. The only reason I want one is that, if an intruder enters my house and tries to terrorize my family, I would like to be able to defend us. The baseball bat under the bed just doesn’t seem sufficient to do the trick. Never mind that I am . . .
So much for the Hippocratic Oath. The latest terror attacks in the United Kingdom were apparently carried out by doctors. The specifics of the case are admittedly bizarre, but the general principle that acts of terror are often committed by individuals with high levels of education is not at all unusual, a fact I learned from economist Alan Krueger‘s excellent . . .
A young woman in England wants to sell something unusual to fund her college education. We wrote in Freakonomics about how the increased access to information provided by the Internet has helped consumers overcome the historical information advantage that real estate agents and life insurance salespeople have had. This is one case, however, in which information asymmetry is alive and . . .
Every thug in Nigeria needed a machete to help ensure that the general elections in the country were conducted “properly.” Take a guess what happened to the price of machetes after the election, according to Reuters. To be honest, though, I have a hard time believing this is true for the same reason that gun control laws don’t work. Machetes, . . .
South African reader David Drew pointed me to this report, stating that one of South Africa’s political parties has called for an investigation of the “extremely suspect” March 3rd South African National Lottery after it yielded a record nine jackpot winners (as opposed to the typical 0-3 winners). The evidence given to support claims that the drawing was rigged is . . .
I have no idea what effect pornography has on you, but veterinarian Kannikar Nimtragul hopes that a daily dose of X-rated videos will do the trick on his client. (For an economist’s take on the effects of porn, see this earlier blog post.)
Companies like Gallup do surveys all the time on a wide range of issues: Who do you intend to vote for in the next election? What issue are you most worried about? Do you approve of the job George Bush is doing as president? Are you in favor of higher taxes? While we’ve expressed skepticism about the answers people might . . .
Given my father’s medical specialty, you might think I’m referring to intestinal gas. Actually, though, I am talking about the kind of gas you put in your fuel tank. In a recent study, researchers at the University of Illinois have calculated how much extra gasoline is being used each year because Americans weigh more and thus require more fuel to . . .
Last year we blogged about the fascinating study written by economists Ray Fisman and Ted Miguel analyzing the patterns of parking violations among diplomats to the United Nations in New York. They find that diplomats from high corruption countries have more unpaid parking tickets, as do diplomats from countries that are more anti-American. Armed with that information, try to guess . . .
My friend and co-author Roland Fryer, an assistant professor at Harvard, has just been promoted. Usually, for an academic, that would mean getting tenure. For Roland, it is a little different. He’s been named a CEO — not Chief Executive Officer, but rather Chief Equality Officer for the New York Public Schools system. You can read about it in this . . .
It seems that there are few things more fun than playing massive multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft. I don’t play these games, but an incredible number of people do, investing significant amounts of time and money in them. Last week, the New York Times Magazine published an article on what it seems to consider the dark side . . .
For a long time I have felt the price of gasoline in the United States was way too low. Pretty much all economists believe this. Greg Mankiw blogged back in October about the many reasons why we should raise gas taxes. The reason we need high gas taxes is that there are all sorts of costs associated with my driving . . .
My dad claims he reads this blog. I guess now we will figure out whether he is telling the truth or not. Here is an article from Discover magazine highlighting some of my father’s greatest contributions to science. (If you never click through anything on this blog, this is definitely the link to follow.) Links to a few of his . . .
What a difference a day makes. I blogged yesterday about my first foray into World Series of Poker action. It started and ended very badly, with me failing to win a single hand. Who knows why I signed up for another day of punishment at the hands of the poker pros the very next day. The structure of this tournament . . .
We came to Vegas so my wife, Jeannette, could play in the Ladies Event at the World Series of Poker. It is my dream for her to win, and she kindly humors me with it. She played well, but got no cards — or, that’s what she says at least. She outlasted a number of big name pros, but went . . .
Associated Press reporter Robert Tanner writes an article today stating that evidence strongly supports the conclusion that the death penalty reduces crime. As with most media coverage of controversial issues, there is a paragraph or two in which the other side makes its case. In this instance, the lone voice arguing against the efficacy of the death penalty is Justin . . .
It might surprise you to learn that more members of the Freakonomics Fan Club hail from New Jersey than any other state. Well, actually, all of the Freakonomics Fan Club members are from New Jersey. All two of them. Except for my mother, Janice and Carole Szelich (president and co-president of the fan club) are the most loyal fans we . . .
There are not many strong incentives for individuals to provide great customer service. There may be small financial rewards that accrue if customers routinely tell an employee’s supervisor what a great job they did; but if someone owns the business, the rewards are greater because positive word of mouth will generate new customers. Not surprisingly, many reports of great customer . . .
Before reading further, take a guess at what the five most popular baby names for boys were last year in the U.K. If you can guess No. 2, you are bloody brilliant. If you are like me and not so bloody brilliant, you can find the answer here. (Hat tip to Matt Hawke.)
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