This week’s EconTalk is with Michael Lewis, author of Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, and The Blind Side. We talk about the hidden side of baseball and football, and a bunch of other stuff—the movie business, the corrupt nature of college football, the tragedy of the inner city and the seen and the unseen.
One of my favorite parts is when Lewis explains why Billy Beane (General Manager of the Oakland A’s) gave him such incredible access and shared his trade secrets that Lewis revealed in Moneyball. Lewis says that Beane didn’t think any one in baseball would read the book or take it seriously, an expectation that was basically right. But Lewis says that Wall Street people read the book (because of Liar’s Poker) and some of those people knew baseball owners and told them they needed to stop paying so much attention to their scouts and pay more attention to statistics.
Next week’s EconTalk guest is Robert Lucas talking about growth.