freakonomics
How to Spend $150,000 on Scientology: The Larry Anderson Story
Adrian Chen · 01/24/10 09:36PMAnonymous Call Girl Author Belle de Jour Outed as 'Slutty Scientist' Costume Incarnate
Foster Kamer · 11/15/09 05:45PMFreakonomics Has Always Been Dumb
Pareene · 10/23/09 11:17AMMcSteamy Sex Tape Stimulates Economies: The Mystery Smoking Product, Revealed?
Foster Kamer · 08/22/09 05:15PMThe Fried-Chicken/Gyro Lobby Works Incredibly Hard These Days
Foster Kamer · 05/24/09 10:30AMWhy Walmart won't ruin the iPhone
Owen Thomas · 12/08/08 04:00PMBest Paragraph? More Like Third Quartile!
Hamilton Nolan · 04/15/08 04:21PMFreaknomics author Stephen Dubner says this is "The Best Paragraph You'll Read All Week." Really, Stephen Dubner? Perhaps you could use some more varied reading materials. Am I missing the genius in this standard-issue "I used to be a geek" narrative? Click to enlarge the graf (an intro to a column in the FT), which the superstar economist says is amazing and I, who took six years to finish my bachelor's degree, say is rather pedestrian. [Freakonomics]
Getting Truly Freaky with Economics
Sheila · 01/07/08 03:37PMFreakonomics author Steven Levitt and Columbia sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh are working on a new study about the economics of street prostitution in Chicago. Some preliminary findings: "During warm weather holidays, Washington Park attracts a number of family reunions which also happen to drive up demand for prostitutes."
Would New York's Economy Collapse If Nannies Were Paid On The Books?
Emily Gould · 10/24/07 10:45AMI-banker blogger Mijka Samora has done the math, and realized that hiring an illegal immigrant nanny, paying her lower wages, and paying her off the books "puts a cool $16,000 in after-tax dollars in your pocket every year." This "nanny arbitrage" is epidemic because, Mijka says, of "the widespread, if misguided, notion that 'everyone else does it', and in the conflicted satisfaction of helping an illegal make a living." But even though Mijka is obviously correct that monies saved by using cheap illegal labor are funneled back into the economy, his other arguments for why the city's fiscal infrastructure might come crumbling down if labor laws were actually enforced are less buyable.