These guys are really truthful at their promise stated in the introduction, they really address the topics in search of truth, without fear nor favoring any position, even if this means being bold and politically incorrect with an honesty rarely since these days. As they explain, "...the economic approach isn't meant to describe the world as any one of us might want it to be, or fear that it is, or pray that it becomes - but rather to explain what it actually is."
They indeed let the numbers speak, to the point that this sequel has a couple of chapters that will end up annoying both the religious conservatives and the dogmatic environmentalists. The former might be quite offended by the chapter explaining the economics of prostitution, and the latter by the rational and common sense criticism of climate change as presented by the religious-like advocates, including Al Gore.
The analysis of prostitution from the point of view of microeconomics is quite humorous and cleverly avoids vulgarity, and you will be surprised to know the reasons for today's lower prices for the "tricks" as compared to the market in the early 1900s. The final chapter even documents the first scientifically documented case of monkey prostitution. Nevertheless, along these "irrelevant" discussions, Levitt and Dubner managed to intertwine several interesting findings, such as the real reason for women's lower earnings as compared to men with similar education.
In regard to their harsh criticism to global warming presented in Chapter 5, do not be confused, they are not "deniers" or "skepticals" in the pejorative sense. They are against the radical religious-like advocates, who are oversimplifying the complexity of climate science and exaggerating the consequences under the prevailing imprecision inherent to climate science, and proposing solutions that will have significant global economic impacts. In particular, Levitt and Dubner are very critical of climate models. They sarcastically assert that as compared to the most sophisticated climate models, "...the risk models used by modern financial institutions seem quite reliable - but, as recent banking meltdowns have shown, that isn't always the case." (see page 168).
After discussing the limitations of climate models, they present quite a case for low-cost geoengineering solutions to avoid the catastrophic consequences of global warming, if they will ever materialized, and thus avoiding the sacrifices and life style changes that are being expected from citizens of developed countries under the current proposed global warming solutions, and also without hindering the improvement of living conditions of citizens of developing countries. Quite a bold and politically incorrect chapter! You really have to read this chapter with an open mind to judge the merit of the arguments and the freaky solutions presented. I believe this chapter alone justifies reading the book, and makes this follow-up quite a good sequel.
PS: As expected, Levitt and Dubner have been ferociously attacked in the blog sphere by the usual climate change advocates, with smear attacks included. See the Freakonomics blog at the NYT for the authors rebuttal and clarifications. And the climate bunch wonder why they are being compared with a religion.
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Reviews with images
Very thoughtful & counterintuitive
It provides one of the best discussions on global warming I ever claim across, giving credence to the deniers. Their abilities to look at the mundane things from a different angle is really impressive.
Top reviews from other countries
Guadalupe Solis
Superfreakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Reviewed in Mexico on March 17, 2020
