My dad sent me a great excerpt from Freakonomics. In case you are not familiar, Freakonomics is a publishing site which explores “the hidden side of everyhting” through economic eyes. The authors are Steven D. Levitt, the Alvin H. Baum Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist who lives in New York City. Through the site, they offer their insights on modern day issues using a spicy, smart and unusual economic angle. Their language is daily and fluent and you do not need to be an economics major to get the points. And there are points indeed.

In What the Bagel Man Saw, Dubner and Levitt discuss the very interesting journey of Paul F., an economist-slash-analyst with a taste for bagels that got sick of his cubicle life and turned his hobby to a full time job. His economic background has propelled him and his business to great success. More importantly, from our point of view, it has provided him with the tools to benchmark human behavior and specifically honesty (his system was based on trust) against objective parameters such as weather, corporate size, morale, salary rates etc. In addition to the objective study that is presented through this journey, Levitt and Dubner convey subtle cynicism and irony with respect to “commonly known truths” and the way they easily fluctuate and re-rationalize themselves in light of facts. The result is a unique economic study, social observation, philosophical discussion and simply an interesting story - all in one.

The site itself is a Jewel I wish I have discovered before. The book is on sale and the articles and writers blog are of course open. I warmly recommend.