Wed 20 Dec 2006
Freakonomics ( You know,“How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?”) was named as one of the most over-rated books of 2006 in Prospect Magazine. Nominated by Dr. Diane Coyle, a freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury, she says,
Economics as freak show. Depressingly, this seems to be the only way to gain a wider audience for the empress of the social sciences, other than multinational bashing.
And Realtor bashing too, of course.
December 21st, 2006 at 10:14 am
Naw, realtor bashing is still cool.
I’m left-handed, fat, and a Realtor — just got “kick me” tatooed on my derrier to make it easier, the taped one kept falling off
December 28th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
I just finished this book and I have to say that it is without a doubt an overrated book. I finished it despite becoming more and more skeptical as I read it. I didn’t even bother to give it a bad review on my blog, it doesn’t even deserve that much attention. I usually take pride in giving books away after I’ve read them. This one went to the street with the Christmas wrapping and fruitcake.
December 28th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
If you write something outrageous and have some figures and fancy graphs, refuting the findings sounds like sour grapes. Mathematicians and statisticians, even appraisers and real estate agents, know how easy it is to manipulate statistics, if one wants to prove a certain point, and if you go in with a certain attitude or point of view, guess what, you can “prove” anything.