Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime? These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask but Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life;...

"We are only just beginning to reckon with our post-pandemic future. As political extremism intensifies, the great resignation affects businesses everywhere, and supply chain issues crush bottom lines, we're faced with daunting questions--is our democracy under threat? How will Big Tech change our lives? What does job security look like for me? America is on the brink of massive change--change that will disrupt the workings of our economy and drastically...

The author posits that successful democracies require balance between competitive markets, honest governments and local communities. Currently, as markets scale up, states scale up too; Rajan offers an alternative: strengthening local communities. "From one of the most important economic thinkers of our time, a brilliant and far-seeing analysis of the current populist backlash against globalization. Raghuram Rajan, distinguished University of Chicago...