I’ll start off by saying that Freakonomics and Weakonomics sound very similar.  Having first read this book a year or so ago I fell in love with the term.  Weakonomics, as a word, was inspired by Freakonomics; but the the two words have nothing in common.

The full title for the book is Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.  Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.  It was written by a pair of Steves, one an economist and the other a journalist for the New-York Times.  Those of you familiar with economics, know how boring the subjects of inflation, GDP, and yield curves can get.  Thankfully the authors know this and take economics to another level.  They would say that “if morality is how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work”.

The book deals with our perceptions and hypotheries and how the impact the world.  For example, in the mid 60’s Romania came under Communist control.  The dictator wanted to increase Romania’s prominence on the world stage, so he needed to increase the population.  Overnight abortion was banned and the birth rate doubled.  The problem was a lack of infrastructure to support this growth.  This generation of children did not get adequate schooling and were often plagued with hunger.  These are two factors that contributed to an increased crime rate in the country because the families were too poor and there was no work.  Obviously this had the opposite effect that the dictator wanted, making Romania worse than they were when he started.  When the abortion ban was lifted, the poorer families were now having less children, and the crime rate went down and literacy went up.  The authors presents no stance on abortion, nor do I, but they do acknowledge the correlation between legalized abortion and higher literacy along with a lower crime rate.

That’s exciting stuff.  Something that hit closer to home was the idea that teachers are cheating (my mom is a teacher).  Since nickelbee was enacted in 2001, there has been a direct relationship of student performance and teacher salary.  The economist that wrote this book systematically proved that teachers in Chicago had in fact cheated on the standardized testing of their students.  This gave them job security and kept their salary increasing.  I won’t go into the details of how he did this or how it relates to sumo wrestlers, so you’ll have to get the book to discover that.

This is just a small portion of the types of situations the authors investigate in this book.  I highly recommend this as a read for everyone.  Its just one of those books you have to read.

You’ll like this book if:
You like fascinating correlations.
You want a book you can pick up and read for 5 minutes.
You want to read what everyone else is reading.

You’ll hate this book if:
You don’t like statistics.
You’re ignorant to the definition of a bell curve.
You prefer your economics in CPI with a side of GDP.

By The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice.

categories: books, economics