The Economic Fortune Telling Tent

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything was entertaining and Levitt's conclusions were logical - he's the 'golden boy' in a field of intelligent statisticians. Now that the software is available, and the data exists in accessible tables, anyone with a bit of creativity and knack for data analysis can parse through data sets and draw amazing (and even accurate) conclusions.

My problem with the book is: so what? Knowing what caused these events in the past, given the nature of the problems Mr. Levitt examined, doesn't shed much light on solutions or even valid forecasting of future events and trends. If he's as talented as the claims, why isn't he working on significant problems of policy or trending economic patterns rather than parlor tricks on the fringe of economic interest?

You'll enjoy it the way you enjoy magic tricks - amusing and amazing, but far from life changing.

The book.

The website.

The blog.