Category: Data Source

The bar-tailed godwit, a plump shorebird with a recurved bill, has
blown the record for nonstop, muscle-powered flight right out of the
sky.

A study being published today reports that godwits can fly as many
as 7,242 miles without stopping in their annual fall migration from
Alaska to New Zealand. The previous record, set by eastern curlews, was
a 4,000-mile trip from eastern Australia to China.

The birds flew for five to nine days without rest, a few landing on
South Pacific islands before resuming their trips, which were monitored
by satellite in 2006 and 2007.

Here is the full story. 

Commerzbank AG, Germany’s second-biggest bank, said yesterday there is “no active market” in the krona. The last quoted price was 340 per euro, compared with 122 a month ago.

Here is the link.  I’m starting to wonder if I should visit for a weekend; it’s one of my favorite countries.  Will they let me bring my own food?

Foreign banks account for 80 percent of the financial system in Mexico, 51 percent in Peru, 29 percent in Chile and 22 percent in Brazil.

Here is more on the general issue of international contagion.

Yes economists study this too:

We use the workplace experiences of transgender people – individuals
who change their gender typically with hormone therapy and surgery – to
provide new insights into the long-standing question of what role
gender plays in shaping workplace outcomes. Using an original survey of
male-to-female and female-to-male transgender people, we document the
earnings and employment experiences of transgender people before and
after their gender transitions. We find that while transgender people
have the same human capital after their transitions, their workplace
experiences often change radically. We estimate that average earnings
for female-to-male transgender workers increase slightly following
their gender transitions, while average earnings for male-to-female
transgender workers fall by nearly 1/3. This finding is consistent with
qualitative evidence that for many male-to-female workers, becoming a
woman often brings a loss of authority, harassment, and termination,
but that for many female-to-male workers, becoming a man often brings
an increase in respect and authority. These findings challenge the
omitted variables explanations for the gender pay gap and illustrate
the often hidden and subtle processes that produce gender inequality in
workplace outcomes.

Here is the article.  I’m not so sure this solves the identification problem, since it ends up looking at atypical individuals (those who switch to female may not be the same personality types as those who switch to male).  But, on this topic, what do I know?

I thank Zuzanna for the pointer.

With $310 billion in assets (hat tip Nemo), WaMu would be the biggest bank failure in history – in fact it would be larger than the previous top ten added together (although maybe not in inflation adjusted terms).

Here is the link.

In Fairfax County, about half of the homes for sale are bank-owned properties…

Fairfax County, of course, is one of the wealthiest (and stable) counties in the United States.  Here is the story, which shows Fairfax is one of the few places with a rebounding housing market.

…the total liabilities of
Deutsche Bank (leverage ratio over 50!) amount to around 2,000 billion
euro, (more than Fannie Mai) or over 80 % of the GDP of Germany. This
is simply too much for the Bundesbank or even the German state to
contemplate, given that the German budget is bound by the rules of the
Stability pact and the German government cannot order (unlike the US
Treasury) its central bank to issue more currency. The total
liabilities of Barclays of around 1,300 billion pounds (leverage ratio
over 60!) surpasses Britain’s GDP. Fortis bank, which has been in the
news recently, has a leverage ratio of "only" 33, but its liabilities
are several times larger than the GDP of its home country (Belgium).

The Fed has possibly been bailing them out too (not necessarily by intention), as it is likely that some of these institutions had heavy exposure to the weaker U.S. institutions.  Here is the link.  Those failures should also put the U.S. regulatory failures in perspective.  And what would happen if a big U.K. bank were on the verge of failing?  Would the Fed have to step in there too?  Contagion is contagion, as Aristotle once said…

The map is here.  It is more or less what I expected, namely the Northeast.  Virginia does fine, though we seem to be a state of open, disagreeable introverts.  The link shows you other state-by-state personality maps as well.  The pointer is from Arnold Kling, though I would have read it anyway.

I loved this post.  And here is my favorite part:

Ear Cleaners: Though not a part of the South Indian road market, these people are quite a force in North India.

Temple Priests: In many roads of India, temples
awkwardly jut out into the roads (they can’t be demolished as they will
cause an uproar in religious India). Priests either belonging to
neighbouring temple or dedicated to that temple start early morning’s
ablutions for the Gods. It is also common to see small temples for
Virgin Mary.

Here is a list of stuff worth more than its weight in gold, expressed in terms of price per pound:

Here is the link, with much more information.  Here is a short article on the market for rhodium.  Here is an earlier post on the economics of antimatter.  Thanks to Jen Smith for the pointer

In millions of metric tons:

Texas: 688

California: 394

Pennsylvania: 275

Ohio: 262

Florida: 256

Illinois, Indiana, and New York come next.  I didn’t know that Texas would rank so high on the list.  And it’s interesting that #3, 4, and 5 are among the major swing states in many presidential elections.  That’s not good news for a lot of reform ideas.

This information is from the fun to browse The Measure of America: American Human Development Report 2008-2009, a Colombia/SSRC book.

There is less happiness inequality today than in the 1970’s or 1980’s. And this has occurred despite large increases in income and consumption inequality. Betsey Stevenson and I spell out these facts in a lot more detail in a new paper, “Happiness Inequality in the United States,” forthcoming in the Journal of Legal Studies.

That’s Justin Wolfers, here is much more.  This is one reason — but not the only reason — why so many moral arguments from the Left fall on deaf ears when it comes to most Americans.  Of course happiness inequality is more fundamental than either income or wealth inequality because we care about outputs, not inputs.

By the way, here is a roof access cage ladder.

Or should I have called this post "The language subsidy"?  Anyway, here is the latest from David Albouy, courtesy of the NBER:

The wage differential between Francophone and Anglophone men from 1970 to 2000 fell by 25 percentage points within Quebec, but only by 10 points Canada-wide, largely because the wages of Quebec Anglophones fell by 15 points relative to other Canadian Anglophones. Accordingly, the Canadian measure of the Francophone wage gap better reflects the changing welfare of Francophones than the Quebec measure. Over half of the reduction in the Canadian Francophone wage gap is explained by rising Francophone education levels. In Quebec, the declining number and relative wages of Anglophone workers is best explained by a falling demand for English-speaking labour.

Here is the paper.

…domestically it’s more likely that those middle managers flying
incessantly are the ones who will be sitting up front rather than their
bosses, as roughly 90% of domestic first class seats are upgrades
awarded to frequent flyers rather than paid first class tickets.

That’s from Air Genius Gary Leff.

Some of them.  Buy this stuff!  Overall it looks like a net subsidy to toy-loving, camera-loving nerds and a tax on commuting parents with large families.

Hat tip goes to Patrick Appel.