Freakonomics

I was quite sure I could finish with Freakonomics this year (see my blog on 11 December) because I brought it with me to Chiang Mai - and it was such an enjoyable reading that I went through, from cover to cover, during the flight.

The book was a layman's summary of a few somewhat unrelated papers by Stephen Levitt, a Chicago economist.

I shall not elaborate the content here - you should really experience yourself. Although many of us have the impression that research in economy is related to tax, stock market, GDP, and other similar big topics, I agree with Levitt it is really the small bits on micro-economics that most of us find interesting.

Alas, even Adam Smith (began in the field of philosophy and) was flourished by his wealth of data in micro-economics before he could put up an overall picture in the Wealth of the Nations.

And, for an amateurish lover of wisdom like myself, there is no necessity what so ever to have an overall picture - I'm overjoyed to appreciate another piece (actually several pieces) of ingenuity.