What Happened To Boxing’s Golden Age? A Freakonomics Quorum
…the following questions: Will boxing ever again see a golden age in popularity, comparable to football and baseball today? Why are the 1920’s often referred to as a golden age…
Broadway operates on a winner-take-most business model. A runaway hit like Stereophonic — which just won five Tony Awards — will create a few big winners. But even the stars…
…the following questions: Will boxing ever again see a golden age in popularity, comparable to football and baseball today? Why are the 1920’s often referred to as a golden age…
Does the future of food lie in its past — or inside a tank of liquid nitrogen? Also: how anti-social can you be on a social network? This is a…
It’s an acutely haphazard way of paying workers, and yet it keeps expanding. We dig into the data to find out why.
She used to run a behavioral unit in the Obama administration, and now has a similar role at Google. Maya and Steve talk about the power (and limits) of behavioral…
…reliable at very high levels of intoxication. “A variety of professions that might be expected to show substantial skill assessing intoxication do not,” concludes Steve Rubenzer, the study’s author. [%comments]…
…reliable, this framework is a huge improvement,” writes Prager. “Especially when one learns that the drivers themselves will be city employees, and the buses will be monitored by GPS.” [%comments]…
…was WorldCom, whose assets just prior to bankruptcy were just over $100 billion.) On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve made a bridge loan to A.I.G., the largest insurance company in the…
…rogue trader. Explain that. A. I found the research fascinating, these evolutionary studies of the ways that species adjust their behavior when foraging for food. When they’re comfortable, they behave…
When he became chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai announced that he was going to take a “weed whacker” to Obama-era regulations. So far, he’s kept his promise,…
…scientific community doubt that current brain-based methods of lie detection are sufficiently accurate and reliable to use in forensic contexts, that has stopped neither companies from marketing fMRI lie detection…
…department-store Santa? In which we explore the various costs of being a woman. Meet LaSheena, a part- time prostitute … One million dead “witches” … The many ways in which…
New York City transit chief Janno Lieber thinks it’s more important to make trains and buses fast, safe, and reliable than to make them free. To get Plus episodes, you…
…you’d come up with yourself. (The most common iPhone password is “1234.”) Down the line, simple movements, like the way you shift in your chair, might also replace passwords on…
…beyond emotion reparations if some form of material compensation and/or policy change accompanies them. The most common motivator on the part of a person or institution apologizing is often twofold:…
…Freakonomics column examines the economic implications of a random series of ungovernable events: the weather. From rain in 19th-century Bavaria and its effect on the price of rye to predictions…
It boosts economic opportunity and social mobility. It’s good for the environment. So why do we charge people to use it? The short answer: it’s complicated….
…for Live and Cadaveric Organ Donations By Gary Becker and Julio Jorge Elias Jewish Medical Ethics: Monetary Compensation for Donating Kidneys By Richard V. Grazi and Joel B. Wolowelsky The…
…number of fields. Here’s a taste, in the form of a guest post. It’s very good, and to my mind, here’s the best passage: [W]here’s the churn in education policy…
In her new book The Two-Parent Privilege, the economist Melissa Kearney says it’s time for liberals to face the facts: U.S. marriage rates have plummeted but the babies keep coming,…
…people have responded via comments or e-mails. I am responding as best I can, a few per week. Ruth asked: From the advice column Annie‘s Mailbox: “Dear Annie: Do you…
…outward, allowing densities to plummet at the core as residents move further and further out into low-density suburbia and a very low-density exurban penumbra around that. The city of Paris…
…help ensure that one of the world’s largest solar energy projects is completed. We need smart capital to transform our energy sector and build a clean energy future. This is…
This morning the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its latest estimates of GDP. And there’s bad news, hidden in the details. Most analysts are focused on the fact that…
…of people have responded via comments or e-mails. I am responding as best I can, a few per week. Gareth Chantler asked: “Love as if you’ll die tomorrow, dream as…
…noting that compared to most empires in history, the U.S. is remarkably decent. (He does note, however, that our run as empire is approaching its end.) The most interesting stanza…
…some residential solar electricity fetches a price nearly four times its energy value. Much as the recent housing boom was undone by the sudden stop of seemingly interminable home price…
…of Modern Proverbs is the following: Throughout his 1983 campaign, [Edwin] Edwards entertained voters with such boasts as: “The only way I can lose is if I’m found in bed…
In her new book The Two-Parent Privilege, the economist Melissa Kearney says it’s time for liberals to face the facts: U.S. marriage rates have plummeted but the babies keep coming,…
