Freakonomics Blog

Crime as Elevation

Jun 11, 2010

Prostitution peaks in San Francisco.

---

This Is What Keeps Dilbert in Business

Jun 11, 2010

What to do when the preferred printer is farther away?

---

Nassim Taleb on the Crisis

Jun 11, 2010

Taleb calls the financial crisis a “white swan.”

---

Watch What You Draw

Jun 10, 2010

Liars may betray their actions through drawing.

---

Ode to Lifecycle Investing

Jun 10, 2010

Ayres and Nalebuff coauthor a poem.

---

Does AT&T's New Data Plan Make You Think of an Israeli Daycare Center?

Jun 10, 2010

It does for one reader.

---

Toward an Ethical Economics of Food Policy

Jun 10, 2010

A speech by William Masters.

---

Time Is Relative

Jun 9, 2010

What “time zone” do you inhabit?

---

Closing Time?

Jun 9, 2010

Can – and should – we do more to control alcohol?

---

The Cleansing Effect of Recessions

Jun 9, 2010

Surviving a recession can make some businesses stronger.

---

How Twitter-Based Was Iran's Twitter Revolution?

Jun 9, 2010

Not very, according to one writer.

---

What Car Thieves Think of the Club

Jun 8, 2010

It can be a useful tool…for the thieves!

---

The Anti-Malarial Bug Zapper

Jun 8, 2010

Nathan Myhrvold demos his anti-malaria laser at TED.

---

Do We Really Want to Hear Someone Say 'I Was Wrong'?: A Guest Post

Jun 8, 2010

Kathryn Schulz on being wrong.

---

Why Would Major League Baseball Prohibit the Trading of Draft Picks?

Jun 8, 2010

Jimmy Golen weighs in.

---

The Kids are Alright

Jun 7, 2010

Today’s kids take less risks than the kids of the early 90s.

---

Window Washing

Jun 7, 2010

Organizing window washing production.

---

Roald Dahl and the Word Redunculus

Jun 7, 2010

A Freakonomics contest winner.

---

Asymmetric Penalties for the Double Technical

Jun 7, 2010

A strategy for the Lakers.

---

Where Oil Spills Happen All the Time

Jun 7, 2010

Oil spills in the Nigerian delta.

---

Quotes Uncovered: The Marx Brothers and Proverbs

Jun 4, 2010

Fred Shapiro traces the origins of popular quotes.

---

Bring Your Questions for Rational Optimist Matt Ridley

Jun 4, 2010

Science writer Matt Ridley will respond to reader questions.

---

Al and Tipper: What Does It Mean?

Jun 4, 2010

The Gores belong to the most often divorcing generation in US history.

---

The National Debt Gets a Big Donor

Jun 4, 2010

Hint: it wasn’t us.

---

A Freakonomics Quiz on Redonkulous New Words

Jun 3, 2010

Where Levitt read a 30-year-old printing of this absurd word?

---

When Suicide Pays

Jun 3, 2010

Is a hidden incentive leading workers at a Chinese tech factory to kill themselves?

---

A Better Way to Match Exchange Students and Schools?

Jun 3, 2010

Dan Hamermesh solicits your advice…

---

When Don't Sanctions Work?

Jun 2, 2010

Will sanctions work in Burma?

---

What Do Mimes, Ladies Night, and Voluntary Taxes Have in Common?

Jun 2, 2010

An interesting politician in Colombia.

---

Organic Agriculture: A Solution to Global Warming?

Jun 2, 2010

Calculating organic’s footprint isn’t as simple as it seems.

---