Economics
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Thursday, February 11th, 2010I normally don’t write short posts, but this was too funny (and sad) not to mention. A Chinese court recently upheld an 11-year sentence for a scholar for “inciting to subvert state power.”
Here is what he did:
At the end of 2008, he co-authored a document calling for stronger civil rights and an end to Communist […]
Guard Labor: Why is Inequality Bad?
Thursday, February 4th, 2010Inequality is a hot topic these days. But why is inequality undesirable? Does it just violate commonly held ideals like fairness and equality. Or, does it do more and actually shrink the economic pie? Economist Sam Bowles argues the latter. The following article describes Bowles’ beef with inequality. (HT Marginal Revolution).
Bowles offers a key reason […]
Paradox of Choice
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009A friend of mine, an aspiring ecologist with a blog of his own, sent me a link to Barry Schwartz’s 2005 TED talk on the paradox of choice. Schwartz, a psychologist, has written a book with the same title that I have not read. The video is entertaining and thought-provoking. Schwartz argues that too much […]
Ethics of the Truth
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009A video circulating around the internet is disturbing. An aspiring NFL cheerleader had a negative reaction to a season flu shot. It activated dystonia disorder. If you haven’t seen the video you should look it up on YouTube. Note: Video previously embedded was removed from YouTube.
YouTube comments express skepticism, compassion, but most of […]
Secret Menus
Thursday, September 24th, 2009As happy as I am with the buzz generated by my last post, I feel the need to update so new visitors are greeted with something a little more upbeat. A post about fast food and cable television (the keys to a good life) seemed to fit the bill.
Tyler Cowen recently blogged about secret menus […]
Rape Statistics: 1 in 4?
Friday, September 11th, 2009My university recently hosted a forum on rape for female college students. They emphasized that rape is a serious issue on campus using statistics. Fact: 1 in 4 college women have either been raped or suffered attempted rape. At least that is what women’s centers at colleges around the United States claim. That’s scary high. Too […]
Hot Dog Pricing Paradox
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009Over Labor Day weekend I visited Chicago and spent Sunday afternoon watching Boston pummel the White Sox. Walking into the ballpark I had noticed a stand selling premium Chicago-style hot dogs with all of the fixings. While I was tempted, the ballpark level prices dissuaded me. Fortunately, on this particular day the ballpark was running […]
Lessons from My Laundromat
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009In the current hard economic times, most businesses have been lowering their prices. Burger King reduced the price of their daily specials from $4.50 to $3.99. Car companies are offering to forgive your monthly payments if you lose your job. Frito Lay is putting more chips in their bags for free. However, I’ve also noticed […]
Economics in Wired: Two Articles Worth Reading
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009I came across two recent articles in Wired that I found really interesting. Here’s a brief overview and commentary:
Tech Is Too Cheap to Meter: It’s Time to Manage for Abundance, Not Scarcity
It costs Netflix about a nickel to stream a 2 hour movie to your PC. Wired editor Chris Anderson argues that data storage and […]
When Signaling sends the Wrong Signal
Monday, June 22nd, 2009Google became the world’s most popular search engine by radically increasing the relevance of search results. It was able to do so by rewarding sites that received a lot of links from other sites. Links from popular sites were worth more than links from obscure sites. The popularity, or rank, of a site became known […]
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