kcontreary
Posts by this author
February 6, 2009
Robert Barro is interviewed in The Atlantic about his views of the stimulus plan (see also a recent WSJ piece here). All in all, he is not a fan:
The Atlantic: And I take it from the Wall Street Journal piece you wrote last week... well, the piece is just specifically about measuring multipliers,…
October 13, 2008
The 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics goes to Paul Krugman "for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity".
I think this will come as a surprise to many, particularly since he's winning it alone. Most economists guessed he would win it someday, but assumed he would share it with…
September 17, 2008
Scienceblogs is heading toward its one-millionth reader comment, and to celebrate bloggers are throwing millionth-comment parties all across the globe. The London edition will be held on Saturday, September 20th at the Calthorpe Arms. Starting from 7:00 PM, readers in the London area can join…
September 3, 2008
Okay, Jake or anyone else out there with medical training--is this for real? Apparently there may be a new syndrome whereby young men suddenly and inexplicably die following police arrest. The phenomenon is being compared to a similar one wherein wild animals up and die upon capture, and may have…
August 14, 2008
One of my students in LSE's summer school microeconomics class sent me this video. At least I know something's sinking in when I talk about things happening on the margin...
June 24, 2008
This is a bit old, but in case you haven't seen it...
A few weeks ago, Jake wrote a post about the importance of teaching during grad school. I couldn't agree more--some of my best experiences in grad school to date have been in front of a classroom of keen undergrads, their young minds yearning…
May 31, 2008
A cat hit by a motorcycle in Port Harcourt, Nigeria allegedly turned into a middle-aged woman. Good thing there were lots of people around to kill a second cat-person and beat the accident survivor into a confession of witchcraft.
What could be described as a fairy tale turned real on Wednesday in…
April 19, 2008
The occasional 7-dwarf orgy notwithstanding (and you cannot convince me it never happened--I just know there was a night with a full moon and an opportunistic bottle of peach schnapps...), when most Western fairy tales end with "and they all lived happily ever after", they mean a prince and a…
January 11, 2008
I just want to say before I start that I wrote this whole post by myself, and the parts I didn't write are correctly attributed to the proper sources.
Jacob Hale Russell, writing in 02138 Magazine (Harvard's alumni magazine), discusses some disturbing trends in academic writing. Specifically, he…
January 8, 2008
From my hometown paper, the one and only New Orleans Times Picayune.
Deion Dedeaux sensed that sixth grade at Martin Behrman Elementary in New Orleans would be full of possibilities. A new school. A chance to improve his grades. A teacher who seemed like a father.
And no girls.
"You know girls…
January 8, 2008
When I was a kid, my father was notorious for two sayings, both of which came out when one of us kids wanted something we were told we couldn't have. The first saying was "life ain't fair," and I guess comparing your toy box to your best friend's is as good a way to learn that one as any. The…
December 12, 2007
...but how you give matters quite a lot, it would seem. Just in time for the season of giving (and, of course, drinking oneself silly on eggnog), I'd like to share my holiday reading list, which is coincidentally heavy on that subject (giving, not eggnog). Fortunately for me, it's a loooong plane…
November 13, 2007
Someone who really should know better sent me the video below the fold. The best thing about this video is the content. The second best thing about it is the horrifically bad British accents the actors are putting on.
I don't know anything about the gold standard either, and I have a sudden…
October 15, 2007
Sigh, the weak dollar is killing me over here in London. But if Marty Feldstein says it's a good thing, I guess I'm in no position to contradict him.
October 14, 2007
Ask anyone who's spent any time in a strip club, and one of the things he will almost certainly not mention is the ovulatory state of his favorite gal. But, according to a recent paper by Geoffrey Miller et. al., how much money he spent on her may have more to do with where she is in her cycle…
September 28, 2007
Socrates gave us the foundation of modern philosophy when he claimed that his only wisdom was in knowing his own ignorance. By implication, of course, everyone else was even stupider than he and just didn't know it, believing they were thinking/acting with all the information available and all the…
September 12, 2007
The Fraser Institute has put out its annual report on Economic Freedom of the World -- a score and rank measuring "the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries support economic freedom". It's basically a rundown of countries based on how much (or little) they embrace free trade,…
September 9, 2007
Who knew anybody, much less the Economist had an opinion on whether or not Belgium should exist?
One question: if Belgium goes through a 'velvet' divorce, who gets custody of the chocolate?
August 23, 2007
Every now and then, it behooves us to stop listening to the shouting heads on television and look at some numbers. A new study by the Pew Hispanic Center shows that Latino immigrants are moving up the economic ladder, out of low-wage jobs and into middle-wage employment.
The survey uses the hourly…
August 15, 2007
As Winston Churchill once said: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." While still humorous in its construction, this statement is hardly controversial in this day and age, when most of the world is (at least in name)…
July 18, 2007
As an American living in Europe, I am at times accutely aware of the differing levels of religiosity between my country of origin and my current residence. But an article from this past weekend's edition of the Wall Street Journal suggests that the disparity may be starting to decrease. Surveys…
July 14, 2007
Anyone who has traveled in Europe before and after the introduction of the euro can appreciate how easy tourism is made by the common currency (haggling with the guys in money change booths was never my idea of vacation). But a recent paper by Benn Steil in Foreign Affairs goes even further,…
February 28, 2007
Over at The Frontal Cortex, Jonah has a blog referring to a WSJ article impugning economic jurisdiction in questions outside the traditional bounds of economics. Specifically, the article cites a paper recently publicized by Cornell University claiming to establish a causal link between early…
December 28, 2006
A 17-year-old man under suspicion for attempted murder is refusing to have a 9-mm bullet removed from his forehead. Prosecutors claim that the bullet, which is lodged just under the skin, could prove that the man was involved in a shootout with a used car-lot owner after taking part in a gang-…
December 10, 2006
The Economist has a thought-provoking article out on the implications of "green" food. The newspaper takes on the recent trendiness of organic, fair trade, and locally-produced food, arguing that these practices may perpetuate or even worsen the global status quo they set out to remedy.
On…
December 8, 2006
Falling under the broad category of "papers I never thought I'd see written" comes this article by Hammad Siddiqi about the social norm of leaving the toilet seat down and whether or not it represents a Nash Equilibrium. He models the situation in terms of a two-player, non-cooperative game with…
December 6, 2006
A favorite professor of mine once told me that it's always impressive to start with an example from the 18th century. So in deference to him and with a nod to Jonah Lehrer's forthcoming book, I'd like to mention Goethe's anticipation of one of the pillars of auction theory, as elaborated in an…