Just like the original, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s follow-up “sequel” is pretty much brain candy.  Superfreakonomics reads quickly and always takes the unexpected turn.

superfreakonomics Some people have criticized this book for spotty analysis, dubious morals, and even rushing to print without enough substantial content.  For me, I think the larger point is the “economic mindset” the book promotes.  As they state in the beginning, “people respond to incentives,” which can lead to some interesting behavior.  What I like about the Freakonomics books is they try and peel back that extra layer of data, ask that extra question, and pose another “what if?”

It’s not necessarily about the stories themselves (which you can see from the subtitle are wide-ranging and unrelated), but more about the analysis behind them.  And I thought the stories were pretty interesting too.

In one section, Superfreakonomics tackles the issue of global warming with the straightforward understanding that while it may be in our collective best interest to limit carbon emissions, it’s not in anyone’s personal best-interest.  Al Gore and Thomas Friedman are fighting an uphill battle that these economists are pretty sure they’re going to lose.  With that in mind, Levitt & Dubner propose a series of alternative actions that could help regulate the temperature of our planet and mitigate the risks of climate change, for a fraction of the social and economic cost of shutting down all polluting industries worldwide.  I guess I appreciated the positive spin: “If human activity is warming up the planet… human ingenuity [could] cool it down.”

So take the book for what it is — easy-to-read microeconomic analyses of interesting topics — and not for what it is not — the definitive scientific authority on any of those topics.

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