Category: Uncategorized
Economists who support the arts
Hi Tyler (we are Facebook friends),
I am working on a blog posting for my new blog (www.wormwood-and-honey.com) and I want to write about instances where economists supported the arts in some special way. So far I have four cases: Professor Norton T. Dodge and his support of the Russian avant grade artists; Professor Alexander Gershenkron for his great review of Nabokov’s abominable translation of” Eugene Onegin”, Professor Gregory Grossman at Berkeley for inviting and supporting the Polish poet Alexander Wat who dictated his great book “My Century” while visiting there; and lastly, John Maynard Keynes for his support of theater, ballet and dance. Could you think of other cases? Or articles/books on the subject?
Thanks,
Julian Berengaut
Richard Caves collects Picasso, Bill Landes collects Charles Burchfield, and William Baumol did a good deal of wood sculpture, but I do not know that any of them have served as patrons of living artists. Assar Lindbeck also works as a painter, as does Robert Mundell. Spencer MacCallum (not an economist but he has written on economic issues) has been an important patron and promoter of Mexican pottery, and my own patronage efforts in Mexico are discussed in my book on the economics of Mexican art.
Roderick Deane is a New Zealand businessman, economist, and a supporter of New Zealand artists. Marie-Josée Kravis is an economist and also a patron of the arts, mostly for Canadian artists I believe. Georges Menil, of the Menil family, is an economist in Paris. Wayne Cox (not an economist) writes on tax issues and has been an important supporter and collector of Jamaican Intuitive art. Henry Kaufman is an economist who has donated a good deal of money to the arts. Henry Raeburn painted a portrait of 19th century economist Francis Horner, but it was paid for by Horner’s brother rather than by Francis. Maybe there was a Beckerian or Coasian bargain behind the scenes.
Richard D. Bodig was a singer, scholar of Renaissance music, and also an economist. How about this headline?: “Jazz singer Olesya Yalunina on how jazz freed her from a career in economics.” Stephen Dubner used to play in a rock band.
That is what comes to mind. Who am I missing?
Assorted links
1. A new discussion of the world’s most walkable cities.
2. Drone University.
3. New and much longer list of economists for Romney. (I am happy to run the same for Obama, by the way.)
Assorted links
Assorted links
1. Via Chris F. Masse, robot stand-ins for professors.
2. Is the falling U.S. birth rate a temporary or permanent demographic shift?
3. Response to Orszag on competitive Medicare bidding.
4. Keeping Indian roots music alive.
5. The Chinese electricity numbers are scary.
6. “The fact that I don’t hear more people delivering the same clear message suggests to me that we don’t have enough objective observers.” Link here, that is James Hamilton, “Federal Receipts and Expenditures.”
Assorted links
1. MIE: sun-safe swimwear, and the forward march of progress.
2. Funny old photos, sometimes of wrongdoers.
3. Claims about hoboes, some of them speculative.
4. Data on Chinese nationalism.
Very good sentences the culture that is Iceland
Seven-year-old Jón Haukur Vignisson unexpectedly won the highest score among non-professionals in the annual national ram groping tournament organized by the Sheep Farming Museum in Hólmavík, the Strandir region in the West Fjords, last weekend.
The article is short but interesting throughout, every line a gem and the site has a puffin ad too. Perhaps the hat tip should remain anonymous but I can assure you the person is excellent.
Here is a photo of Hólmavík.
Assorted links
1. The economics of Spanish football clubs.
2. William Thurston, On Proof and Progress in Mathematics, and his obituary is here. He seems to have been a special thinker.
3. “Studies in pre-commitmentphobia,” best article title I’ve seen in a long time.
4. New statistics for predicting (U.S.) football outcomes.
5. Speculative claims about the possible abduction of Boris Spassky.
6. The psychological dispositions of self-identified libertarians (a research paper).
Garbage landfills around the world
In Germany zero percent of the garbage goes into landfills, and two-thirds goes for recycling/composting. The same figure is one percent in the Netherlands and Austria, with sixty and seventy percent respectively going to recycling/composting.
In Spain it is 52 percent to landfills, and in the United States it is 68 percent, with 24 percent going for recycling/composting.
That is from the recent book by Edward Humes, Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash.
Assorted links
Assorted links
1. The truly important use for drones.
2. Peter Orszag on competitive bidding for Medicare.
3. Comments from an Irish burglar, and Caplan defends Bastiat.
4. The culture that is Finland, don’t miss the tag at the end.
6. What levels of immigration would be needed…?
7. Dean Baker on how much housing policy could have helped.
That’s a lot of links for today but they are worthy.
The Hispanic high school graduation rate is increasing
The number of young Hispanics enrolled in college, which surpassed black enrollment for the first time in 2010, jumped to almost 2.1 million last year, from about 1.3 million in 2008. That is partly a product of a swelling Hispanic population, as well as the increased rate of college attendance.
But it also reflects a fast-rising high school graduation rate. In the 1990s, fewer than 60 percent of Hispanics 18 to 24 had a high school diploma, but that figure hit 70 percent for the first time in 2009, and 76 percent last year.
Here is a bit more.
Assorted links
1. Who dies from Russian roulette?
2. Interview with the new GMU President, Ángel Cabrera.
3. Lawrence Summers on government growth (very good piece), or try this link, and a Reihan follow-up.
4. Sokurov’s Faust will be out on DVD soon, it has received rave reviews.
5. Updated results on right to carry laws, and Medicaid seems to improve black child mortality but perhaps not white child mortality.