Essentially, this book is nice collection of little curiosities of life which seem to make no apparent sense but clear when we apply simple economic principles (mostly cost/benefit) to them. What's even more interesting is that all the examples and questions featured in the book come from term paper questions which the author had received after setting his students loose to go use economic reasoning to answer seemingly absurd daily occurences.
Some of the crackers include:
+ Why do drive through ATMS have braille keys on them?
+ Why do colour photos sell for less than black-and-white ones?
+ Why milk cartons are rectangular but soda cans are cylindrical?
and (for something closer to home)
+ Why do new luxury cars account for a higher proportion of automobiles sold in Singapore than in the United States?
This book should have been recommended reading for any introductory economics class as the examples are brilliant ones which first engage the curiosity and then answer it based on economic ideas. Definitely a must-read if you enjoyed Freakanomics also!
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