SuperFreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

Even though I didn't really enjoy Freakonomics (at least when I first read it), I was instantly hooked on the Freakonomics podcast. There is nothing better than sitting on a train listening to well produced podcasts and just relaxing. And because last spring I had plenty of time to sit on Swiss trains, I also ended up listening to most of the Freakonomics podcasts, new and old. This in turn inspired me to read Superfreakonomics, which despite a name that still turns me off, is a fine work. Perhaps even better than its predecessor.

I still consider the podcast to be the best thing that Dubner and Levitt have done, however. For me, the biggest kicks come from the banter between the journalist and the economist, something that is unfortunately absent from the book. Superfreakonomics is by no means devoid of humor, the punch lines are simply better when voiced in turn by the two authors.

I won't be going into the details and stories that make up this work. It continues on the track that Freakonomics set the series on. Therefore, no real surprises to readers of the first entry. And just as before, it really works. I remember Dubner saying in an interview that the book has succeeded if it makes people feel smarter, and that goal has definitely been achieved.

Once again, however, I found the radio equivalent to be more memorable and better paced than Superfreakonomics. The podcasts are so well produced that if you put a camera in front of Dubner and his guests, I am pretty sure it could be shown on TV during Friday prime time (in Finland, at least). Superfreakonomics is great, as I already mentioned, but it probably won't induce heated café conversations between equally unknowleadgable soccer moms in the way that books by Malcolm Gladwell might. And perhaps that is a good thing.

When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein

I had to take a long breath when I saw the name of this book in the drafts folder of this blog. It has been almost three months since I finished When Genius Failed and in that time a lot has happened. I did an internship, I volunteered at a start-up event and, finally, took a little vacation. And now, with the title of the book staring at me from behind a monitor, I realize that I remember very little of what happened in this non-fiction finance thriller.

Or perhaps "thriller" is too strong a word. The main characters here are hardly relatable enough to raise feelings of empathy. These are men who have made fortunes through arrogance, guile and occasional backstabbing. They make a series of foolish decisions and are ultimately undone by what amounts to a combination of hubris and bad luck.

When Genius Failed is, apparently, considered a classic of a genre of non-fiction that I might describe as financial failure. So many distinguished books have been published in that category lately - Too Big to Fail by Andrew Sorkin and The Big Short by Michael Lewis to name a few - that I feel Genius barely makes it into the top ten today. This does not mean that it is in any way a bad work, on the contrary. It is only the competition that has upped its game.

When Genius Failed is the story of Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund that promptly fails to live up to any of the statements in its name. The highlights of the story include John Merriwether and Myron Scholes, executives of the company who held hallowed positions in finance hall-of-fame. They lost it all in spectacular fashion and Scholes, of Black-Scholes formula fame for those in the know, saw his Noble awarded work in finance greatly devalued. A nice read, but not one I would recommend to anyone off the top of my head.