When Freakonomics.com was launched in 2005, it was essentially a blog (c’mon, blogs were a thing then!). The first Freakonomics book had just been published, and Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt wanted to continue their conversation with readers. Over time, the blog grew to have millions of readers, a variety of regular and guest writers, and it was hosted by The New York Times, where Dubner and Levitt also published a monthly “Freakonomics” column. The authors later collected some of the best blog writing in a book called When to Rob a Bank … and 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants. (The publisher rejected their original title: We Were Only Trying to Help. The publisher had also rejected the title Freakonomics at first, so they weren’t surprised.) While the blog has not had any new writing in quite some time, the entire archive is still here for you to read.
The article profiles Quest to Learn, a new school in New York that will teach exclusively with video games. At Quest to Learn, “children learn by doing — and do so in a way that tears up the usual subject-based curriculum altogether.” This fall, for example, students will spend time as ancient Spartans and learn about history, geography, and public policy.
In Bangladesh, a country whose power shortages are particularly severe during its hot summers, it doesn’t make much economic sense to dress up in a stuffy suit and then crank up your office’s AC to stay cool. That’s why, to cut down on air-conditioning use, the prime minister ordered a new dress code for the country’s civil servants: no more ties and suits – just simple, short-sleeved shirts. Casual Fridays every day shouldn’t be too difficult to enforce.
A local artist paints landscapes and various Austin sights, including the Texas Tower (the university’s main building). He must pay the university a flat fee per year for the right to sell paintings of University property, emblems, or even anything containing the burnt-orange color. All are copyrighted. Also, if his sales rise above a certain level, he must pay the University 10 percent of his extra revenue.
According to Google Books, it’s the year Raymond Chandler’s Killer in the Rain was published, along with Stephen King’s Christine and a landmark biography of Bob Dylan — not to mention the Italian editions of Freakonomics and Super Crunchers.
In Detroit, the average price of home sales is less than what you’d pay for a good used car. UCLA economics professor Matthew Kahn points out that you can buy 100 Detroit homes for the price of one house in Westwood in L.A.
A new article in The American Prospect looks at the progress of New York City’s ambitious anti-poverty initiative, Opportunity NYC. The program is based on Mexico’s successful conditional cash-transfer program, Oportunidades.
A while back, I invited readers to submit quotations for which they wanted me to try to trace the origins, using The Yale Book of Quotations and more recent research by me. Hundreds of people have responded via comments or e-mails. I am responding as best I can, a few per week.
It seems the recession may be good for your health. A new paper by Stephen Bezruchka in the Canadian Medical Association Journal confirms that economic recessions in the 20th century actually led to declines in mortality.
Let’s say you are currently running your own shady investment scheme. Perhaps you, like Madoff, have anticipated many times over the day that you would be exposed. And yet you haven’t yet been. Do the current revelations about the S.E.C.’s ineptitude give you comfort, believing the agency is congenitally incapable of rooting out fraudsters unless they confess to their own sons, or are you more frightened today than you were yesterday, believing the agency cannot possibly perform any worse than it has in the past and that your days are numbered?
For all the anxiety surrounding the spread of swine flu, some of the most effective flu countermeasures are also the cheapest and simplest: social distancing (keeping about three feet away from potentially infected people) and washing your hands.
Deuteronomy 23:25-26 reflects the limits on altruism:
When thou comest into thy neighbor’s standing corn, then thou mayest pluck ears with thy hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbor’s standing corn.
Joining a growing number of people who are selling their burial plots for some extra income, Elsie Poncher is auctioning her late husband’s crypt on eBay, hoping to use the proceeds to pay off the $1.6 million mortgage on her house in Beverly Hills.
James McWilliams is an historian at Texas State University-San Marcos who has appeared on this blog before. He writes to tell us that he was driving in Austin when he passed a (presumably) homeless man holding up this sign:
Sales of antidepressants remain brisk in spite (or perhaps because) of the recession. Slate reminds us of a decade-old study suggesting that widespread use of mood-lightening drugs could fuel irrational exuberance on Wall Street.
A reader named Ben Muschel of Flushing, N.Y. (that’s where Citi Field is), writes in with a question that he admits is trivial.
Jim Lynch, who owns a Hummer dealership in Chesterfield, Missouri, has begun selling guns and ammo alongside the vehicles.
With almost every major automaker working on one, electric propulsion may finally be poised to break out. Or is it?
Jeff Ruby, a food writer for Chicago Magazine, claims that eating only burgers for 65 days made him stupid. He says he experienced difficulty concentrating, confusion, and forgetfulness, and that “saturated fats had eroded the connections between neurons in my brain.”
If Adam Smith were alive today, he might rely on InvisibleHand for his online shopping. The service, a Firefox add-on, notifies users if a product is available for less elsewhere, eliminating the need for price-comparison websites. The invisible hand never worked so quickly.
Economists see markets at play everywhere. Even in your romantic life. Indeed, I’m one of the worst guests that you can invite to your wedding. Why? Because while most of your guests are listening for your love story, I’m listening for your contract.
The library on board the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz is well-stocked with Freakonomics as part of its Navy Reading Program. According to Flickr user Roxanne Darling, it’s the most-read book on the ship.
The average American spends about one hour at meals, and about the same time grazing– eating as a secondary activity to something else (very often leisure). But how does this differ across the population? Those whose time is valuable — who have a high wage — have an incentive to multi-task, to graze rather than devote their full time to meals.
As people who hate meetings, we were particularly taken with one paragraph from this wonderful piece on the unlikely success of Craigslist.
More than 52,000 bicyclists have been killed in bicycle traffic accidents in the U.S. over the 80 years the federal government has been keeping records. When it comes to sharing the road with cars, many people seem to assume that such accidents are usually the cyclist’s fault, a result of reckless or aggressive riding. But an analysis of police reports on 2,752 bike-car accidents in Toronto found that clumsy or inattentive driving by motorists was the cause of 90 percent of these crashes.
It’s got the pharmaceutical industry worried enough to fund a major study to identify the factors in rising placebo potency. Drug companies could be victims of their own success in this instance: we’ve become so convinced of the power of modern medicine, it works even when we’re off the pill.
I have been participating in a fantasy football league for the last few years with many former college econ majors as well as two econ Ph.D. students. We are all still very plugged in to economic policy debate too. Anyway, we all pride ourselves on having amusing or clever team names. This year, with the current economic crisis, I thought a team name related to economics (in the academic or popular sense) would be appropriate.
The Chronicle of Higher Education raises an interesting question: should professors be tweeting with their students? Or is it a poor substitute for face-to-face interaction?
The confusing spectacle of Judge Posner blogging about macro continues. His latest missive appears particularly misguided.
A new study by Angus Deaton uses an expansive dataset to analyze the determinants and benefits of religiosity around the world.
One of the people you’ll meet in SuperFreakonomics is a remarkable physician at Washington Hospital Center (WHC) named Craig Feied. He has had a hand in many technological innovations that are pushing medicine, hard, into the future (or at least the present).
You want to listen to Freakonomics Radio? That’s great! Most people use a podcast app on their smartphone. It’s free (with the purchase of a phone, of course). Looking for more guidance? We’ve got you covered.
Stay up-to-date on all our shows. We promise no spam.
