I just finished the last few pages of Freakonomics last night, and if you’re looking for an easy read to get your mind thinking in a different direction, this book’s for you. It’s not overly long, and it’s dumbed down so you don’t need a degree in economics to comprehend the details.

Steven Levitt is more of a rogue economist and you can see why he doesn’t fit into the typical ‘economite’ crowd.  Levitt looks for what is not present in a set of data instead of taking the data at face value.

Want to know why the crime rate actually fell in the 90’s when major economic experts convinced President Clinton that crime would rage out of control and throw our country into a tail spin?  You need to only look a decade or two earlier in history to figure it out, and it has nothing to do with gun control or law enforcement.

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?  And how much do your parenting skills really influence your child?

This book will get you thinking about the real cause and effect behind certain events, and also differentiate between which came first: Cause or Effect?

Freakonomics is a fairly easy read and is short enough to finish (~200 pages) on a transcontinental flight.  The book is short on data to back up Levitt’s claims, but unless your an economist yourself, that’s not such a bad thing.  There are, however, references a-plenty at the back of the book referencing the specific data set.

A good book, an easy read and it will definitely get you thinking.  It could be a bit longer, and the topics could be expanded a bit, but overall I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Check out the Freakonomics Blog.

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