Hiking in Switzerland several years ago, I came across a trail that seemed to dead-end at a farmer’s gate. I looked around for a way to avoid the property, but there was none. Instead, the trail continued through the middle of the farm. I walked through the gate, side-stepping some livestock in the way (and…
Quick: What do you get when you mix a Nobel Prize winner with a MacArthur genius? You get this: “The claims of some heavy drinkers and smokers that they want to but cannot end their addictions seem to us no different from the claims of single persons that they want to but are unable to…
Quick quiz: If there are 1,000 people in a village, and 10% of them have contracted a new, awful disease called acute hotchocolitis, how many people in the village are sick? This is not a trick question; the answer is 100. An easy question for readers of Forbes. But ask the average American, and one…
Just a couple months ago, the nation watched as congress decided not to bailout American automakers, unconvinced that the three companies had sound plans for how to use such funds. Eager not to see any of these companies fail on his watch, President Bush came up with enough funds to tide the companies over for…
See my conversation with Dan Ariely, about behavioral economics, the limits of free markets, the desire to become Homer Simpson, and the joys of family arguments. The conversation takes place on his very entertaining website: Predictably Irrational.
Economist and lawyer Ian Ayres, or should I say, lawyer and economist Ian Ayres, hmm, . . . weighs in on Free Market Madness on his Freakonomics blog. Nice to see the words “hilarious” in a review, and not followed by a phrase like ” . . . in his ignorance.” Check out his post…
The key to good policymaking is to understand human nature. Want to increase how much money people save? You better know what they will do if you change the tax code. Want to reduce the threat of terrorism? All the security in the world won’t suffice if you don’t, at the same time, find ways…
On the Freakonomics blog recently, Ian Ayres reviewed my new book Free Market Madness, and singled out a story I tell there. Ian has written many books himself, so it isn’t surprising which story, of the many stories in my book, he discussed. He picked out a section near the end of the book, where…
“With luck, Ted Kennedy will be dead soon.” She uttered these words two minutes after expressing hope that the nation would rally behind Obama. A lifelong Republican, she had voted for McCain. I expect she harbored concerned about Obama’s terrorist pals and his anti-American pastor. But with Obama now newly elected as president, she was…
Not long before the presidential election, the Wall Street Journal editorial page warned its readers about what it called the attack of the killer Oreos. You have to admit it’s a pretty sensational image — of an Oreo silently stalking its prey, leaping upon an unsuspecting consumer. In fact, this is exactly the kind of…