Good Wine in a Dumb Bottle

Freakonomics, a Review.

Book Title: Dumb

Book Subtitle (A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything): Dumber

Chapter Titles: Really Dumb

Italicized text: An obnoxiously effusive paean to the first author, presumeably written by the second. This stuff would make Rush Limbaugh or a Rap Star blush.

The rest of the book: To my surprise, very good, packed with interesting tidbits of information giving insight to much of ordinary life. One prominent theme is the way information and circumstance lead to incentive structures different from the ostensible ones. Examples include explaining how it can pay a real estate agent to get the buyer to offer a lower bid or why it can pay Sumo wrestlers to throw matches.

Sometimes the discussion involves the results of applying statistical methodology to unconventional subjects (drug dealer earnings, honor system bagel sales) and sometimes just a rousing good story (how Superman helped rout the Ku Klux Klan).

I recommend it. Skip anything in italics unless you have good control of your gag reflex.

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