Super Freakonomics
If, say, Australia decided overnight to eliminate its carbon emissions, that fine nation wouldn't enjoy the benefits of its costly and painful behavior unless everyone else joined in. Nor does one nation have the right to tell another what to do. The United States has in recent years sporadically attempted to lower its emissions. But when it leans on China or India to do the same, those countries can hardly be blamed for saying, Hey, you got to free- ride your way to industrial superpowerdom, so why shouldn't we?
Super Freakonomics
In the follow-up to his best-selling book, Freakonomics, Steven Levitt applies economic theory to more nontraditional topics, including solutions to global warming and the price of oral sex. Host Scott Simon talks with Levitt about his new book, Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance.
SuperFreakonomics is the band to which Tracy (the Mother) belongs. It was formed by her and a few of her college friends while attending Columbia Business School. The name is a portmanteau of the Rich James song "Super Freak" and the book Freakonomics written by economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner. Additionally, the sequel to Freakonomics was titled Superfreakonomics.
A couple of weeks ago, before the publication of Superfreakonomics, the follow up to the bestselling Freakonomics by New York Times "Freakonomics" columnists, we were contacted by the publisher to get early word out. We posted a video and immediately began hearing from the scientific community that their work had been badly misrepresented to support a position on not reducing carbon emissions to reduce global warming. We posted a follow up piece, warned the publisher and because of that, a response was forced on the "Freakonomics" blog.
Whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically, Levitt and Dubner show the world for what it really is--good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, superfreaky.
The New York Times bestselling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling more than four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world.Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with Superfreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find that the freakquel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first.SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such questions as:How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa?What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common?Can eating kangaroo save the planet?Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is-good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, super freaky. Freakonomics has been imitated many times over-but only now, with SuperFreakonomics, has it met its match. 041b061a72