"Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime? These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life--from...

Presents a statement and defense of capitalist economics, first published in the late eighteenth century by Scottish scholar Adam Smith.

What if there were one book that could help you do nearly everything in life cheaper, better, and faster? Show you how to remove hairspray baked onto a curling iron. How to make white shoes look like new. How to make gourmet coffee without the gourmet price. How to keep your cat out of your houseplants. And hundreds of other things. Cheaper, Better, Faster is all the best advice you've ever heard, collected into one handy volume. Every tip is short,...

Rachel Hollis is sounding a wake-up call. She knows that many women have been taught to define themselves in light of other people--whether as wife, mother, daughter, or employee--instead of learning how to own who they are and what they want. With a challenge to women everywhere to stop talking themselves out of their dreams, Hollis identifies the excuses to let go of, the behaviors to adopt, and the skills to acquire on the path to growth, confidence,...

In this fun, erudite, and often moving book, Cass R. Sunstein explores the lessons of Star Wars as they relate to childhood, fathers, the Dark Side, rebellion, and redemption. As it turns out, Star Wars also has a lot to teach us about constitutional law, economics, and political uprisings. Sunstein tells the story of the films wildly unanticipated success and explores why some things succeed while others fail. Ultimately, Sunstein argues, Star Wars...

Nobel Prize-winning economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller challenge the widely accepted precept that free market economies provide us with well-being, as if by an invisible hand, explaining how sellers exploit the psychological weaknesses and ignorance of consumers, harming them.

"When Freakonomics was first published, the authors started a blog--and they've kept it up. The writing is more casual, more personal, even more outlandish than in their books. Now they've gone through and picked the best of the best. Here, they ask a host of typically off-center questions: Why don't flight attendants get tipped? If you were a terrorist, how would you attack? And why does KFC always run out of fried chicken?.--From publisher description....

Combined technology spending in today's global economy now tops {dollar}4.2 trillion dollars, a number larger than the gross domestic product of most nations. This rising global "Technology Economy" is most certainly a driving force in business today. In this program, IT benchmarking expert, Dr. Howard Rubin, introduces us to "Technology Economics," and explains how by "recognizing, mapping and understanding the interaction of technology investment...

Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you'll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo's clients have lapsed (and...

What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In this wotk the author analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back...