“An expert must be BOLD if he hopes to alchemize his homespun theory intoconventional wisdom.”

“The conventional wisdom is often wrong.”

“But in both instances, the dissemination of the information diluted its power. As Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once wrote, "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”

“Information is a beacon, a cudgel, an olive branch, a deterrent--all depending on who wields it and how.”

“Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work, wheareas economics represents how it actually does work.”

“A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything.”

“In a complex world where people can be atypical in an infinite number of ways, there is great value in discovering the baseline. And knowing what happens on average is a good place to start. By so doing, we insulate ourselves from the tendency to build our thinking - our daily decisions, our laws, our governance - on exceptions and anomalies rather than on reality.”