Economic Explanations

I recently read Freakonomics by Steven Levitt. It does a great job of applying economic principles to explaining everyday events. It "explores the hidden side of everything." It's a rather grandiose claim, but so many things follow simple incentive reasoning that it really is interesting once you start thinking in that fashion.

Brian at Iowa Voice does a really good job of explaining the blogosphere in economic terms.

The Night Writer does similar work when doing the unthinkable and actually shopping for health care.