Elizabeth R. (esjro) - , reviewed on 4/19/2020 + 947 more book reviews

In "An Economist Walks into a Brothel," Allison Schrager demonstrates through real life examples how an understanding of different types of risk and risk management strategies can help people make better decisions. Each chapter opens with a profile of someone whose work involves some form of risk (professional poker player, prostitute, celebrity photographer, etc.) and that interview is a launching point for discussion. This format works well, as it makes the concepts easy to understand for someone without a background in economics.

This book came out a year ago this month, but reads like it was written in a much different time. The intro talks about how this is a wonderful time to be alive as there are no major short terms threats to the human race, and the economy is booming. Fast forward to a year later when COVID-19 changed all that. It is also amusing that one of success stories featured in one of the chapter is the CEO of Carnival Cruises.

The author took a risk when writing this book that life would be the same a year later. This serves to illustrate one of her points: when discussing risk, there is always a chance that the unlikely will happen.

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