Category: Web/Tech

1. Symposium on inequality, including Acemoglu and Sumner.

2. China (Afghanistan) photo of the day.

3. Has digital music stopped growing?

4. Ip Man.

5. Critique of Myers-Briggs:"Due to these legitimate criticisms of the MBTI and its unscientific underpinnings, the test is rarely used in clinical psychology. I did a literature search on PubMed and discovered that, interestingly, many of the published studies of its practical utility come from nursing journals. Many of the other publications pertain to relationship counseling and religious counseling. Normally, this is a red flag. When you see a topic that purports to be psychological being used in practically every professional discipline except psychology, you have very good reason to be skeptical of its actual value."

6. The economics of the Davos conference.

7. How we subsidize banks (and see Krugman, to resolve this, one question is how well the expectations theory of the term structure in fact holds).

1. More recommended public choice readings, of a different slant.

2. Chronic pain and its relief.

3. Women prefer larger governments.

4. Paul Samuelson as investor.

5. Virginia = Poland; comparing U.S. state economies to countries.

6. Buildings on rails?

7. Reihan Salam reviews The Great Stagnation.

1. Which economists signed "repeal and replace"?

2. French response on why France succeeds.

3. Man made bombs to clear snow.

4. Journal of Universal Rejection.

5. Interfluidity: on Star Trek, Scott Sumner, and everything else.

6. Undercover work, literally.

1. Taking a test helps cement your learning.

2. Communist Monopoly game, called Queue.

3. Threats against Francis Fox Piven.

4. "This study may be true but it is hard to know because the study that served as the counterfactual was never able to get published :)" Link here.

5. Why wages are sticky.

6. Markets in everything: human cheese; "soft and spreadable…"

7. Bob Barr, former LP candidate, now representing Duvalier.  Say it ain't so.  It's so!

1. Elevator shame.

2. You are probably less popular than your friends.

3. The decline of American economists.

4. America's most bizarre taxes.

5. Claims about the neurology of music.

6. Nick Rowe makes sense on ZMP workers.

7. "When a billion pianos sound, no one can hear you scream."

8. The rise and decline of Borders.

1. Austin Frakt on why not cut the doc fix?  (How much would the total supply of medical labor fall?)

2. Via Chris F. Masse, why are CEOs so rarely fired?

3. The real agricultural revolution.

4. 44,000 units is now enough to have the #1-selling album.

5. My view of "ACA repeal."

6. On taking oneself too seriously.

1. Mandatory menu labeling may not work.

2. New results on intelligence and attractiveness.

3. Honduras is considering Romer's "charter city" idea, here, and here (both in Spanish).

4. Why aren't more people buying into the high-risk health insurance pools?

5. The endgame for the euro and what the Germans are thinking (see also the first comment, and by the way Crooked Timber has an entire symposium on Germany).

6. Who are the best Chilean poets?: RB on literature and exile.

7. The division of labor.

8. Robin defends uploads, Lee responds.

9. Scott Sumner on the dangers of a gold standard; I agree completely.

1. Are more Portuguese experimenting with drugs?

2. Kevin Drum is not an economist but his explanation has many fine features.

3. Titles.

4. Dog bites man.

5. How to speed restaurant service?

6. Good Scott Sumner post on unemployment and output.

7. Obama' regulatory announcement: a good analysis.

1. Is this evidence against Heckman?  This?

2. More on the Hispanic paradox and life expectancy.

3. How to order Indian food in Hindi (video).

4. Paul Collier reviews Dambisa Moyo's statist prescriptions for America.

5. How much value do scientific superstars carry?

6. How much of libertarianism is cheap talk?

7. MLK day.

1. Virginia isn't the South any more.

2. Where people buy their hair.

3. Ezra considers issues of mandates and regulations (contra my earlier claim of "underreported").

4. Unemployment rates by profession.

5. Pecuniary externalities in Berlin lead to non-pecuniary externalities in Berlin: "…wealthy newcomers to districts like the now fashionable Prenzlauer Berg have been treated to an often weekly ritual of car torching."

6. Did the hard core left disappear from the blogosphere?  If so, why?  I believe this post is quite wrong but it is thoughtful and interesting and worth the read.

1. Juan Cole on Tunisia.  And is Jordan next?

2. Via Chris F. Masse, Peter Thiel loves New Zealand.

3. Hugo Mercier on Bourgeois Dignity.

4. Harvey Mansfield on many topics, always a bracing read.

5. Who got the wage gains?

1. Best documentaries of 2010?

2. Southeast Asian comparisons.

3. Why are there so few Filipino restaurants outside of the Philippines?

4. Faux pas at Elle, Bollywood edition.

5. Is China already the world's largest economy?

6. Critique of brain uploads.

1. Port-au-Prince, before and after.

2. Brad DeLong, slouching toward Zero MP workers.

3. Interview with Ronald Coase.

4. Markets in everything: fake marijuana plant.

5. New Haiti photos.

6. Estonia vs. Spain, a must-read.

7. A business model for 50,000 naked men (safe for work).

1. Interview with a student of Bartok's (good).  And the top 20th century composers?

2. China bans Andrew Gelman's Bayesian statistics textbook.  This guy caught it too.

3. First chapter from Portfolios of the Poor, an excellent book on poverty.

4. "I, Toaster"? (TED talk).