Saw him interviewed on Colbert.

Seems like an interesting geek :-)

Is that like ergonomics except this is like helpful
tools for freaks? I would be greatly interested!!

Read the book...an excellent and compelling read. I recommend it.

loved that book.

Freakonomics is OK but a bit 'obvious'. Paul Onerod (I'm pretty sure that's the name) wrote a book a few years ago called Butterfly Economics which I thought was better, and A Brief History of Economic Genius by Paul Strathern (which I read under the U.K. title 'Dr Strangelove's Game' was brilliant.
I'd recommend Paul Stathem's book to anyone who wants a sharp critical view of this 'discipline'.

Sorry - the reference for that book is: 'Butterfly Economics A New General Theory of Social and Economic Behavior'. By Paul Ormerod (Pantheon Books) "” and it came out 'ages' ago, in 1998.

Sorry, again. there's another book that's worth reading in this line of things too:

'Voltaire's Basatrds' by John Ralston Saul.

It's been called a "jeremiad on the evils of contemporary rationalism" "” which is a really good way to get me interested. It is a cracking piece of work, originally published in 1992 but still punchy and very very relevant.

If you don't know this book, it's a rewarding read. There's a reasonably coherent review at: http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/saul.html

This review criticises Saul's lack of solutions; my criticism would be that he didn't see the coming in the most insanely wealthy parts of the world of celebrity economics, in which money has become separated from value and is worshipped and sought for an existence that is supported only by the imagination.

The next step, I'd predict, is a slide of western wealth structures into negative equity, and that, rippling out like a run on the bank. will generate negative equity everywhere as the illusions rupture; economic power will reconnect with productivity at some point. We may yet see bank managers queuing at the food banks.