Fat Kids, Unite

Angry Alex notes that, as a former fat kid, he has some sympathy for the wrong side. As a CURRENT fat kid, I may also.

Patrick blogs about a video. It's rather violent. Don't watch it, if you are going to get upset.

As a fat kid in a very poor school growing up, I was spat on, kicked, had my books thrown up in trees, etc. Pretty much every day.

Then one day I had my own "snapped" experience. Kid was spitting on his hand and wiping it on my shirt. I was quite strong and large, but wouldn't fight. But then I did. Drove a straight right into his stomach; since he wasn't looking and I caught him square, this was pretty tough for him. He dropped, started throwing up, and since he couldn't breathe choked on his own vomit a bit.

It happened one more time, but I didn't wait nearly as long before I punched him. He tried to duck, and I caught him on ear. Bright red, a little cut. He started crying.

And then nothing. Fat kids of the world, unite.

Cognitive Capitalism

Interesting study: thinking matters, so learning HOW to think matters. Conclusion: READ MORE KPC!

Cognitive Capitalism: The impact of ability, mediated through science and
economic freedom, on wealth

Heiner Rindermann & James Thompson
Psychological Science, forthcoming

Abstract: Traditional theories of economic growth stress the relevance of political, institutional, economic, geographic and historical factors. In contrast, human capital theories claim that peoples’ competences are the deciding factor in achieving technological progress leading to wealth. Using large scale assessments (TIMSS, PISA, PIRLS) cognitive competence sums for N=90 countries were calculated for the mean and the upper and low level groups and compared for their influence on GDP. Cross-national analyses applied different statistical methods (path analyses, bootstrapping), measures developed by different research groups, for different country samples and historical periods. All results underscore the decisive relevance of cognitive ability, particularly of an upper ability group creating an intellectual class with high accomplishment in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and which predicts the quality of economic and political institutions, resulting in economic affluence. Cognitive resources enable the evolution of capitalism and the rise of wealth.

Supporting this thesis, which I don't know much about.

Securities Trading of Concepts (STOC)

Securities Trading of Concepts (STOC)

Ely Dahan et al., Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming

Abstract: Identifying winning new product concepts can be a challenging process that requires insight into private consumer preferences. In order to measure consumer preferences for new product concepts, we apply a securities-trading approach where new product concepts are traded as financial securities: Securities Trading of Concepts (STOC). We apply this method because market prices are well known to efficiently collect and aggregate private information regarding the economic value of goods, services, and firms, particularly when trading financial securities. Our research includes the first application of securities markets to test potential new product concepts, and is the first to compare such an approach against stated-choice, conjoint, constantsum and longitudinal revealed preference data. In our research, we place STOC in the context of existing methodologies, as well as prior research on prediction markets and experimental economics. We conduct a series of experiments in multiple product categories to test whether STOC: 1) is more cost-efficient than other methods; 2) passes validity tests; 3) measures expectations of others; and 4) reveals individual preferences, not just those of the crowd. All results are confirmed, with the notable exception that STOC, as tested, does not accurately predict actual product market shares and price sensitivity. Our results also show that traders exhibit bias based on self- preferences when trading. Ultimately, STOC offers two key advantages to traditional market research methods — cost efficiency and scalability. For new product development (NPD) teams deciding where to invest resources, this scalability may be especially important in the Web 2.0 world where customers are constantly interacting with firms and with each other in suggesting numerous product design possibilities that need to be screened.

Nod to Kevin Lewis

Europe Rising: American Economics Hegemony Threatened?

Is the hegemony of American economists in "top" journals being threatened by our European colleagues?

"Internationalisation has meant a growing voice for Europe within the economics literature...Some Americans pooh-pooh Europe’s rise. Many new journals have started up in recent years, and European papers are far more common in their pages. But this cannot fully explain the fall in North America’s market share. Controlling for new journals, the share of European papers still rose markedly...Americans need not panic. Economists affiliated to North American institutions contribute 76% of articles in the top journals. They receive a disproportionate number of citations." [The Economist]
(Credit: The Economist) Nod to Kevin Lewis

They Couldn't Understand What He Was Saying....

A BRITISH man had surgery to reattach his testicles after his girlfriend allegedly bit them off, the Daily Mirror has reported...

Douglas had to call emergency services himself after the incident, but was in so much pain operators could not understand what he was saying. He needed emergency surgery and had to spend several days in the hospital recovering from the attack. (STORY)

Tommy the Brit notes: "And people wonder why I'm gay..." Not sure that is protection enough. Unless you think a man would not do this to another man, understanding the implication of the attack. I'm pretty sure the lady understood the implication of the attack pretty well.

Why the Pass for the Chosen One?

I often hear my righty friends complaining that the main-stream (drive-by) media gives Pres. Obama a pass, because he is the "Chosen One" and therefore above criticism. Well, yes, MSNBC may do that, but I think you have to see Rachel Maddow and co. as satirists, not actual news commentators. Because the fact is that some fine lefties are plenty critical of the Chosen One. Nat Hentoff, for example. (Yes, it's WND, but Nat is an honest lefty). My man Nat says:

Particularly telling – in view of President Obama's continuous contempt for constitutional limitations on executive powers – Alexis Agathocleous, a Center for Constitutional Rights staff attorney involved in its lawsuit, Aref, et al. v. Holder, et al., tells me:

"Designation of a control unit within the federal prison system regularly comes with due process. This includes notice of the allegations against you, an opportunity to refute those allegations and an appeal. But prisoners sent to the CMU receive no such procedural protections.

"They are not told in any meaningful way why they have been designated to the CMU, nor do they have a chance to challenge that designation. Additionally, there is no meaningful review process that would allow them to earn their way out.

"CMU prisoners are therefore indefinitely subjected to harsh deprivations – such as a permanent blanket ban on contact visitation with family and loved ones (far more severe than at the Supermaxes) – without procedural protections guaranteed by the Constitution." President Obama agrees.

So I missed an historic event: When was Barack Obama coronated?

If you think THAT is "giving a pass," maybe it's because you righties actually AGREE with proliferation of unconstitutional denial of due process, and basic human, rights to prisoners.

How about this NPR story? Not exactly cozying up to the administration. Here is Part 2 of that series.

What about The Nation? Hysterical lefties like that clearly are giving the Prez a pass, right? Not so much, actually.

Hentoff asks a good question: "There has been very little attention to these Guantanamo Norths in the press – print, radio, television (broadcast and cable), even the Internet. (Where are the websites of outrage? The Facebook pages of protest?)"

Well, my constitution-loving friends on the right... how about it? I'm thinking you only "love" the Constitution when it serves your narrow interests.

Education and Evidence

Teacher Incentives and Student Achievement: Evidence from New York City
Public Schools

Roland Fryer, NBER Working Paper, March 2011

Abstract: Financial incentives for teachers to increase student performance is an
increasingly popular education policy around the world. This paper describes a school-based randomized trial in over two-hundred New York City public schools designed to better understand the impact of teacher incentives on student achievement. I find no evidence that teacher incentives increase student performance, attendance, or graduation, nor do I find any evidence that the incentives change student or teacher behavior. If anything, teacher incentives may decrease student achievement, especially in larger schools. The paper concludes with a speculative discussion of theories that may explain these stark results.

-----------------------

The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Students, Teachers, and Schools

Thomas Dee & Brian Jacob
Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall 2010, Pages 149-194

Abstract: The controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) brought test-based school
accountability to scale across the United States. This study draws together results from multiple data sources to identify how the new accountability systems developed in response to NCLB have influenced student achievement, school-district finances, and measures of school and teacher practices. Our results indicate that NCLB brought about targeted gains in the mathematics achievement of younger students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, we find no evidence that NCLB improved student achievement in reading. School-district expenditure increased significantly in response to NCLB, and these increases were not matched by federal revenue. Our results suggest that NCLB led to increases in teacher compensation and the share of teachers with graduate degrees. We find evidence that NCLB shifted the allocation of instructional time toward math and reading, the subjects targeted by the new accountability systems.

--------------------

Starting the Wrong Conversations: The Public School Crisis and “Waiting for
Superman”

Katy Swalwell & Michael Apple, Educational Policy, March 2011, Pages 368-382

Abstract: The documentary “Waiting for Superman” has become one of those rare things,
a (supposed) documentary that generates a wider audience. It also is one of the more recent embodiments of what Nancy Fraser (1989) labels as the “politics of needs and needs discourses.” Dominant groups listen carefully to the language and issues that come from below. They then creatively appropriate the language and issues in such a way that very real problems expressed by multiple movements are reinterpreted through the use of powerful groups’ understandings of the social world and of how we are to solve “our” problems. This is exactly what is happening in education; and it is exactly what this film tries to accomplish. We critically examine the arguments and assumptions that the film makes, as well as how it makes them. In the process, we demonstrate how it elides crucial questions, contradicts many of its own claims, and acts to close off the kinds of substantive discussions that are essential for serious educational reforms.

Linkage and Lunkage

Some links:

1. The crack government of France reacts to nuclear problems... by arguing about parking. (Nod to L. Smith)

2. The NC Supreme C's decision on ballot access. Some thoughts in response to the NC Supreme C's decision. Article in the N&O.

3. Charter school's $125K experiment on 60 Minutes

4. Ed Glaeser is a very smart man. On whether the Tea Party should become A Fool for the City.

Getting Faculty to Retire

(Very) Senior faculty: How will we miss you if you won't go away?

It seems to me that tenure contracts should end at age 70. After age 70, you would revert to renewable five year fixed term contracts.

Because I hear that it is really hard to get some faculty to retire. (This is not a problem at Duke of course. All our faculty are highly valued, and welcome to stay as long as they want...)

An article from the VC.

(Nod to Angry Alex)

T-shirt

Angry Alex sends this link.

A t-shirt: "If I had a dollar for every time Capitalism got blamed for the problems caused by Government, I'd be a fat filmmaker with a baseball cap."

No More Drunk Drinking

Ed Cone notes that drunk drinking can be fun, but you gotta watch it.

And North Carolina officials warn against it.

Silicone Killed the Snake TV Star

I'm not sure what to say. Video.

It's a classic Hollywood story. Girl meets snake. Snake bites boob. Snake dies. Some commentary.

Not sure I buy the story. I'm betting she squeezed the bejezus out of the snake. Silicone is just not that poisonous. Also, if all the silicone leaked out, Ms. Fox is going to look somewhat...lopsided. Was this some kind of Garden of Eden thing, except it was the snake who bit the (apple)? And then the snake died? Tough justice.

(nod to Anonyman, who said it was too gross to watch, so he watched ten times)

(Just as I thought: Snake did not die.)

Republicans Should be Embarrassed....

I am a "plain meaning" fan, for the Constitution. Sure, the words have to be interpreted, and there is a large body of midrash to go with the Constitutional Torah.

But this is a problem with any contract, and judges are good at interpreting contracts when there is a dispute over meaning. That is ALL Constitutional law should be about: the meaning of the contract. And you can only change the contract with unanimous consent. As Rousseau put it:

There is but one law which, from its nature, needs unanimous consent. This is the social compact; for civil association is the most voluntary of all acts. Every man being born free and his own master, no one, under any pretext whatsoever, can make any man subject without his consent. To decide that the son of a slave is born a slave is to decide that he is not born a man.

Unanimous consent in a large nation is awfully tough. And so we have a process for deciding how to change the Constitution. Unless you change it, though, you are stuck with the original language, to which you have to attach meaning.

So, on the 2nd Amendment: These words clearly establish an individual right to bear arms. They also allow that aspects of this right can be regulated. Gun rights are subject to a lot more legitimate government regulation than speech rights. "Congress shall make no law" is much more forceful than "well-regulated." We have to argue about just how these two things interact. But the two clauses have plain meaning.

My friend Sandy Levinson wrote a great piece on the 2nd Amendment, calling it embarrassing. What he meant by "embarrassing" is that lefties try to ignore its plain meaning. If you don't like the 2nd Amd, you have to change it, pumpkin! (Sandy is no conservative, mind you. He is just honest and careful. A plain meaning guy, in other words.)

The "originalist" interpretation seems similar to plain meaning, but it is different. The orginalists want to argue that the Constitution implies not what the words say but what the Founders MEANT. From this distance, and with the problem of anachronism, it seems to me that originalism is impractical and bordering on absurd.

Worse, the Repubs want to have it both ways. Nice piece in New Republic from back in January, by Eric Posner:

The problem with originalism is that, however useful it may be as a form of criticism, it cannot support a positive program. During the 2010 election, Americans may have expressed anxiety about the size of government, but in general Americans adore big government and do not want to see it repudiated in the name of some abstract idea. Every political challenge to the New Deal administrative state has gone down in flames, and today Americans look to the federal government to protect them from terrorists, financial scams, economic downturns, environmental degradation, educational failure, poverty and sickness in old age, natural disasters, and foreign competition. As a governing doctrine, the small-government ethos of originalism does not have a constituency. And the public may soon realize that originalism is unlikely to end the politicization of the judiciary. As the Heller case showed, originalism just displaces political disputes among judges into a different idiom. Even as discussion about the original meaning of the Constitution becomes more common on the Court, the left/right division between Supreme Court justices will be plain as ever. This is especially so because originalism unsettles precedent, permitting both liberal and conservative justices to disregard earlier decisions that rub them the wrong way. In addition, as Republicans gain more power, their commitment to originalism will look ever more inconsistent. Institutional commitments in politics don’t run very deep. Republicans already championed federal marriage legislation, even though the Constitution gives Congress no power to regulate family relations; and during the Bush administration, constitutional constraints on executive power were forgotten. This will surely happen again the next time the Republicans take control of the government, and they can only hope that their earlier blandishments about the original understanding of the Constitution will have been forgotten.

(Nod to Kevin Lewis)

Very Interesting Description of Japanese Nuclear Problems

Great article. Very interesting and informative. Original source.

And the comments are fascinating, too.

(Nod to Mr. Overwater)

UPDATE: Interesting, but wrong, or so it appears. Updates from people who know what they are talking about (or else an elaborate hoax. I can't tell.)

Wow, nothing

Can anyone explain this? Zip, nada, bupkes.

This trial is actually a pretty big deal. Regardless of what you think of the Liberty Dollar (you might be a fan, or you might not), there should be SOME coverage.

Environmentalists are BAD for the Environment

John Tierney: The Man

“Efficiency advocates try to distract attention from the rebound effect by saying that nobody will vacuum more because their vacuum cleaner is more efficient,” Mr. Shellenberger said. “But this misses the picture at the macro and global level, particularly when you consider all the energy that is used in manufacturing products and producing usable energy like electricity and gasoline from coal and oil. When you increase the efficiency of a steel plant in China, you’ll likely see more steel production and thus more energy consumption.”

Consider what’s happened with lighting over the past three centuries. As people have switched from candles to oil-powered lamps to incandescent bulbs and beyond, the amount of energy needed to produce a unit of light has plummeted. Yet people have found so many new places to light that today we spend the same proportion of our income on light as our much poorer ancestors did in 1700, according to an analysis published last year in The Journal of Physics by researchers led by Jeff Tsao of Sandia National Laboratories.

“The implications of this research are important for those who care about global warming,” said Harry Saunders, a co-author of the article. “Many have come to believe that new, highly-efficient solid-state lighting — generally LED technology, like that used on the displays of stereo consoles, microwaves and digital clocks — will result in reduced energy consumption. We find the opposite is true.”

These new lights, though, produce lots of other benefits, just as many other improvements in energy efficiency contribute to overall welfare by lowering costs and spurring economic growth. In the long run, that economic growth may spur innovative new technologies for reducing greenhouse emissions and lowering levels of carbon dioxide.

But if your immediate goal is to reduce greenhouse emissions, then it seems risky to count on reaching it by improving energy efficiency. To economists worried about rebound effects, it makes more sense to look for new carbon-free sources of energy, or to impose a direct penalty for emissions, like a tax on energy generated from fossil fuels. Whereas people respond to more fuel-efficient cars by driving more and buying other products, they respond to a gasoline tax simply by driving less.

A visible tax, of course, is not popular, which is one reason that politicians prefer to stress energy efficiency. The costs and other trade-offs of energy efficiency are often conveniently hidden from view, and the prospect of using less energy appeals to the thrifty instincts of consumers as well as to the moral sensibilities of environmentalists.

(Nod to Anonyman and his candy-ass Prius)

Tsunami: Just awful

Remarkable, terrible pictures. Cleverly set up, so you can mouse over and see before/ after. (Thanks to the Blonde for the link).

Given how little warning they had, the government likely did the best that could have been done. That was a huge earthquake.

Amazingly, we now have "Tsunami warnings" here in NC, on the coast. Not really very helpful. "If you see a wall of water moving extremely fast, please try to run, even the land here is perfectly flat for about 15 miles." I guess there is the water receding, and the roar. But still, 5 minutes? There's one bridge off the island.

A bonus: you can buy a plagiarized paper, if you want.

Not a real warning. Just a sign that says that if there IS a tsunami, you need to run away. As this page notes there has been...only one tsunami in the Atlantic. Okay, there have been at least ten, but only one that caused actual damage. And that one was the 1755 Lisbon earthquake tsunami, which was admittedly a real son of a b***h: Voltaire thought of it as a metaphysical event, raising questions about God himself. An excerpt from Voltaire's poem responding to the Lisbon earthquake (and anticipating Pat Robertson being an idiot), straight out of Pangloss's playbook.

What crime, what sin, had those young hearts conceived
That lie, bleeding and torn, on mother’s breast?
Did fallen Lisbon deeper drink of vice
Than London, Paris, or sunlit Madrid?
In these men dance; at Lisbon yawns the abyss.
Tranquil spectators of your brothers’ wreck,
Unmoved by this repellent dance of death,
Who calmly seek the reason of such storms,
Let them but lash your own security;
Your tears will mingle freely with the flood.

Old Ben Barber loves him some Saif!

An amazing interview is here. Ben sure does not like anyone to think that he may be wrong about anything. Also, he has some very strange views about what a Ph.D. dissertation is. Here he is responding to plagiarism charges against his homie Saif:

It's a dissertation; I have read it. There are about 600 books quoted at length or paraphrased -- it's a doctoral dissertation; you're supposed to cite people! You're not allowed to have your own views

600 books quoted at length? Not allowed to have your own views?

YIKES!!

oh and by the way, check the second link. Home-boy plagiarized in a big big way!

Barber is a joke.

Fake ID Ownership in College

Fake ID Ownership in a US Sample of Incoming First-Year College Students

Norma Nguyen et al.
Addictive Behaviors, forthcoming

Objective: One way that underage drinkers procure alcohol is by using a fake ID. This study examined demographic characteristics and alcohol-related problems associated with fake ID ownership among incoming first-year college students.

Method: We examined baseline data collected as part of a web-based alcohol education program that had been completed by a large, cross-sectional sample of incoming college freshmen from across the US.

Results: Only 7.7% of incoming freshmen reported owning a fake ID. Multiple logistic regression indicated that the odds of owning a fake ID were significantly increased by intent to join or current membership in a fraternity or sorority (OR = 2.00; 95% CI = 1.64,2.44; p < 0.0001), having taken the survey after the start of fall classes (OR = 1.27; 95% CI = 1.01, 1.59; p = 0.04), reporting 1 heavy drinking episode in the past two weeks (OR = 1.28; 95% CI = 0.97,1.68; p = 0.01), reporting 2 or more such episodes (OR = 2.78; 95% CI = 2.10,3.66; p < 0.0001), experiencing external harms related to alcohol use (OR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.01,1.61; p = 0.01), and drinking and driving (OR = 1.34; 95% CI = 1.03,1.75; p = 0.03).

Conclusions: Fake ID ownership was associated with intent to join or current membership in a fraternity/sorority and with reports of heavy drinking episodes, alcohol-related problems, and drinking and driving. Fake ID owners and incoming college students seeking fraternity or sorority membership should be targeted for multiple interventions to reduce alcohol-related harms.

(Nod to Kevin Lewis)

Most Excellent

What a tremendous premise! Axel Leijonhufvud interviews Friedrich Hayek. The incomprehensible takes on the increasingly obscure. Who wins? Judge for yourself.

Best part was where FAH insisted that Axel call him "Slash." (Okay, that didn't really happen). (But it would have been cool.)

Grand Game: Bullet Train Edition

Amazing article in the NYTimes, on bullet trains. (Nod to Anonyman).

Worthy of the Grand Game. Pick your favorite part.

Anonyman went first: Best part is the last sentence in the article...

Now, with the collapse of the Florida route, it looks as if the nation’s first segment of true high-speed rail will be in an even unlikelier place — linking Fresno and Bakersfield, in California’s Central Valley, and scheduled to end construction in 2017.

I can see wanting to take a fast train OUT of either of those places, but not if your only option is to go to the OTHER of those places.

My favorite part: The "Mad Men" commercial they paraphrase, which I had not heard about.

Mad Men On Trains from Rich Sommer

My favorite line: "“I read a piece that said that in 40 years, gas is going to cost almost a dollar a gallon,” one says." That was 1965, when gas was $0.31 per gallon. Now, this is not a commercial about inflation, folks. This is about GASOLINE. So, what is the current price of gasoline (I figured $3.60 per gallon nominal) in terms of 1965 prices? The answer is... $0.58! Still nowhere close to a dollar. I can never tell if US PIRG is a bunch of idiots, or liars. But those are the only possibilities, for them to make an ad like this.

Anyway, your turn! What's the coolest part of the article? Don't hold back, there's plenty of fun for everybody!

Music update

Two things, people.

First Air Waves' album is out (or more accurately, I finally realized it was out) and it's terrific! Available from Underwater Peoples.

Here's the video for their song "Knockout".

Second, Kurt Vile's new album is out and it's amazing. It's called "Smoke Rings for my Halo".

Here's a video of Kurt playing "Jeus Fever" out in the freezing cold:

My Blackberry is Frozen

I have to admit, this made me think of frequent reader Shirley...


UPDATE: Just got an email from Shirley saying power was out and she had no internet connection. Made me spit tea all over my keyboard. Either it was a miraculous email, or perhaps the power and internet are working after all. (No, she does not have an internet enabled phone).

You can't make this stuff up

Over at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum reacts to Tyler's list of mistakes left wing economists often make, by making almost all of the mistakes!!!

Really:

1. Suggesting that money matters in politics far more than the peer-reviewed evidence indicates.

I think the peer-reviewed evidence is wrong. It simply isn't able to capture all the dynamics of money in politics.

The comments are equally excellent until they start scrumming over social security. Here's an example:

His list of 10 mistakes made by conservative economists is much better.

Ahh, life is so sweet sometimes!

Jalen Rose: "Uncle Toms" at Duke

Jalen Rose said he felt like all the black players at Duke were "Uncle Toms." (His words, folks).

The interview.

My response, on the radio yesterday.

By the way, some facts:

Duke tuition + room/board: $52,000 6,400 Undergrads
African-American 10.3%
Basketball team graduation rate: 90%

Michigan tuition + room/board: out of state $49,000 (in state: $21,000)
51,000 Undergrads
African American 5.8%
Basketball team graduation rate: 44%

SNAP! Duke has far more African-American students, as a proportion of the student body. Tuition/costs are roughly the same. And Duke recruits students who have some chance of graduating. Michigan recruits some guys like Jalen Rose, who left early and had a fine NBA career. But they also recruit a lot of guys who take fake classes and are simply exploited as basketball cannon fodder. So, yes, it may be true that Duke recruits a different sort of player, the sort who has a chance of graduating with a degree. But I think it's more likely that Duke players are told they MUST focus on graduating, and that they have to work. Michigan players can just hope to have a career shooting off their mouths...like Jalen Rose.

I think Duke wins... AGAIN. Gosh it sucks to be you, Jalen!

(To be fair, the fab Five were equal opportunity losers. UNC kicked their ass for the 1993 championship, after Chris Webber did some sort of "travelling / call time out we don't have" dance move at mid-court. So it wasn't like the Fab Five only lost to Duke. Some video, to help you remember.)

Public Choice Memorial for Mel Hinich

The Public Choice Society meetings are this weekend, in San Antonio, TX.

I can't travel, because of my eye. But I got Neanderbill to read a statement in my stead. Here is that statement. (Also there is the Public Choice memoriam, written by four of us.)

For the Session on Mel Hinich for Public Choice
San Antonio, Texas
March 12, 2011

I first met Melvin at the Public Choice meetings at the Hilton in Pheonix, Arizona, in 1984, in a hallway at the hotel. He was talking to Peter Ordeshook (who was smoking), and the two of them acted as they always did: artlessly impatient. Did you have something interesting to say? If so, take your shot. But the weather or baseball scores didn’t get you far. Mel always wanted to talk about the work, what he had been working on or what he would be working on. Mel talked more than anyone else I ever met in academics.
But he could also listen. After I moved to UT in the fall of 1986, I realized that I had the chance to start a second “graduate school.” My background in public choice and spatial theory was shallow, and Mel set out to improve me. We went for long walks, often at noon or 1 pm, in the Austin heat, and would come back drenched in sweat. Then Mel would scribble on his blackboard for half an hour, with me taking notes, and then I would go try type things up.
I often got back to my office, and realized that Mel had made a mistake. The model didn’t work the way he said it did. So the next morning I would go to show him the mistake.
But often it wasn’t a mistake at all. Mel had simply skipped three or four steps that seemed obvious to him. Once he filled in the argument so I could see what he was doing, I went back to writing.
Sometimes in the last few years people come up to me at conferences and ask, “Has Mel ever written anything, or did you write it all?” Then they snicker, “In fact, has Mel ever READ any of your joint work?!!”
The truth is that Mel did not much like to write. And even less did he like to edit. Sometimes, it was frustrating, because I would give him a finished chapter for comments, and his entire response the next day was, “That was good! Now, let’s talk about submarines…” (Or Russia. Or Shakespeare. Or…)
But what is “writing,” exactly? In many ways, I was Mel’s typist, his Boswell. True, Mel said things and I wrote them down, and later typed them. But the order of our names, Hinich and Munger, on our three books and many articles, accurately reflects the contributions we made. Mel was, and is, first.
If I had not met Mel, I would have missed out on the excitement of discovery, and the sense of eager mental searching. Without his tutelage, I would never have become President of the Public Choice Society or editor of the journal. I wouldn’t be at Duke, and I might never have gotten tenure.
And without his friendship I would have missed out on the grandest times, biggest laughs, and deepest talks in my life. Mel had two great loves, particularly in his 50s before he had a number of illnesses. These loves were talking and eating. If you ever had a meal with him, you know that there was a sense of excitement, since you can’t really eat and talk at the same time. Would the winner be the unstoppable force, or the immovable object?
Well, the premise of the question turned out to be false. Mel could in fact eat and talk at the same time. And he could eat a lot, for hours in fact. He preferred eating at someone’s house, rather than going to a restaurant. This was partly because he didn’t like to waste money. But it was also because he would likely have kept the restaurant open past closing time. His appetites, capacities, and abilities were simply larger than life. I’m not sure we will see his like again.
The Sunday before he died, Mel called me at home to discuss the introductory chapter we were working on for the second edition of Analytical Politics, our Cambridge book. The first edition has been translated into Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Russian. I have now made very substantial progress on that book, and hope to finish it by May.
On that new edition Mel’s name will still be first, where it belongs, even though once again he didn’t write that much of it. I will always miss him.

College Applications

The Jacket (wearing a black t-shirt and a black shirt, but no jacket) interviews Andrew Ferguson about college applications.

(Nod to Biz of Life)

Funny guys, the dad and son.

"You know that scene at the end of 'Titanic'? All the motionless bodies lying face down? That was my son."

Obama's cabinet has not lost the capacity to surprise me

It's quite a group.

First there's Timmy G., Secretary of the Treasury AND tax cheater!

Second, we got to know Janet Napolitano, who excelled at closing her eyes and sticking her fingers in her ears while screaming "the system worked" when everyone could see that it didn't.

Third comes in aptly named Ray LaHood, who crucified Toyota in the press and didn't have the onions or the decency to even pretend to apologize when the rocket scientists basically cleared the company.

Finally and most recently, we now can celebrate the stupidity of Tom Vilsack! Yes, farm subsidies are inefficient but they're essential for the self esteem of "rural folk"?

Que bola de pendejos, no? And I haven't even mentioned Eric Holder!

None of them anticipated the dramatic price hike

So, there was this system that worked pretty well. Women got the drug Makena quite cheaply, and it was available from a number of different sources. $20 per dose, tops.

Then the government decided to "help." Who knew about conditions, safety? There needs to be a process, here. Let's regulate.

And now the price is $1,500 per dose. Many women won't be able to afford it. Here's the cool part: people are surprised.

More on the story:
KV Pharmaceutical of suburban St.Louis won government approval to exclusively sell the drug, known as Makena (Mah-KEE'-Nah). The March of Dimes and many obstetricians supported that because it means quality will be more consistent and it will be easier to get.

None of them anticipated the dramatic price hike, though — especially since most of the cost for development and research was shouldered by others in the past.

"That's a huge increase for something that can't be costing them that much to make. For crying out loud, this is about making money," said Dr. Roger Snow, deputy medical director for Massachusetts' Medicaid program.

"I've never seen anything as outrageous as this," said Dr. Arnold Cohen, an obstetrician at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.

"I'm breathless," said Dr. Joanne Armstrong, the head of women's health for Aetna, the Hartford-based national health insurer.

Doctors say the price hike may deter low-income women from getting the drug, leading to more premature births. And it will certainly be a huge financial burden for health insurance companies and government programs that have been paying for it.

The cost is justified to avoid the mental and physical disabilities that can come with very premature births, said KV Pharmaceutical chief executive Gregory J. Divis Jr. The cost of care for a preemie is estimated at $51,000 in the first year alone.

That's wonderful. Here's another example of that kind of reasoning: Dying of thirst is painful, and it involves...well... dying. So it's worth $250 per cup of water to avoid that. So give me a monopoly and let me charge $250 per cup of water. I'll have a slogan: "Water: It's Worth It!"

Folks: it's simple. Regulation is by and large designed, implemented, and continued because it benefits a few large corporations. The idea that regulation is supposed to help citizens is laughable. I'm surprised anyone is still surprised.

Why would anyone think that THIS TIME, this time it will be different?

Sounds like a description of Obamacare: "None of them anticipated the dramatic price hike"

(Nod to BJH)

Maurtius: Paradise Not

Every time I wonder to myself, "Could Joe Stiglitz sell out his considerable talents as an economist any more than he has?", Joe goes and shows that, YES HE CAN.

Mauritius--Paradise. What can the US learn from this tiny island nations?

We can learn that capital is berry, berry good ting to hov, mon. (No, Mauritius is not in the Carribean, sue me). But, when the Mauritianians want a big night out, they go to...Madagascar.

Also, the reason the Mauritius doesn't have American problems is that they don't have the American government. I say we give them Joe Biden, and throw in Fanny and Freddie for a player to be named never.

Anonyman writes: "Having been there, I can say that it's nice, for a 3rd world country. But it's still basic, and basic infrastructure is - well - basic. When you arrive and go through customs you wait in line and a guy behind a tiny desk looks at your passport, and then stamps it. That's all, no computer, no questions, nothing. When I remarked how primitive it was they guy next to me said, in all seriousness, that it's much more modern since they got A/C in the airport.

The best part was that there is a highway across the island, but no overpasses. So every time there is an intersection you go through a traffic circle at 60 mph. It was terrifying, but not in a good way. I was about to vomit after the first one, sort of like when you at the amusement park.

So nirvana? Not really. But a great excuse to visit there as an "economist talking guy." "

Happiness is a Warm...Republican?

Two maps. You draw your own conclusion.

First, happy. Darker orange is happier, lighter is sad.

Then, Congressional districts that elected a Republican in 2010 (red is Repub, of course):


The happiest man in the US, in terms of statistical prediction. The scoop:

The New York Times asked Gallup to come up with a statistical composite for the happiest person in America, based on the characteristics that most closely correlated with happiness in 2010. Men, for example, tend to be happier than women, older people are happier than middle-aged people, and so on.

Gallup’s answer: he’s a tall, Asian-American, observant Jew who is at least 65 and married, has children, lives in Hawaii, runs his own business and has a household income of more than $120,000 a year. A few phone calls later and ...

Meet Alvin Wong. He is a 5-foot-10, 69-year-old, Chinese-American, Kosher-observing Jew, who’s married with children and lives in Honolulu. He runs his own health care management business and earns more than $120,000 a year.

That man is clearly a Republican.

(Nod to Anonyman, who once thought he was a Republican, but decided he hated being happy...)

Whole Foods!

The new North Raleigh Whole Foods opens March 16!

4.96 miles from the Rancho d'Munger.

Poor Angus.

But, help is on the way! It's the "Wrath of Grapes," or the Grapes of Wrath backwards, sort of.

Silly

Three silly things. Before you click: which one is the Onion?

1. Burglar showers, homeowner returns, burglar calls cops. Says he was afraid homeowner had gun! "I'm in the shower! There's a man with a gun in the hallway...what? No, it's his house, I'm robbing it. What? R-o-b-b-i-n-g, yes...Well, I needed a shower!"

2. Naked therapist. Says the therapist: "There's something about a naked woman that helps a man to really focus."

3. Tomato shaped like a duck. I like how they put a yellow duckie in the picture, just in case you don't know a "shaped like a duck" actually means.

Answer: I lied. They are all three real, if you can call them real.

Not What Metal, But What Factors

US Mint is soliciting public comment...sort of.

What new metals should we use in minting coins?

Except that they don't really want to know about metals. They want to know what factors we should use in deciding what metals.

The United States Mint is not soliciting suggestions or recommendations on specific metallic coinage materials, and any such suggestions or recommendations will not be considered at this time. The United States Mint seeks public comment only on the factors to be considered in the research and evaluation of potential new metallic coinage materials.

Welfare or Insurance?

Bob Samuelson and Mark Thoma are at it again. Samuelson claims that Social Security is welfare, while Thoma says that it's just plain old insurance. He repeatedly compares it to fire insurance.

Let's start with a list of "Why Social Security is NOT like fire insurance":

1. It pays off the same amount whether you need it or not.

2. The "premia" are not risk based in any meaningful way.

3. If you don't "buy" it, you go to jail.

4. There is only one company that "sells" it.

5. The "insurer" can unilaterally change the terms of both the premia and the payouts with no recourse for the "insured".

Ok, so it's not really insurance. Then what is it?

Well it's two distinct components. The first is the payroll tax, the second is the retirement benefits. The payroll tax falls on the relatively young, and the benefits are paid to the relatively old.

The confounding problem is that many people believe the payroll taxes they pay go to fund the benefits they will receive, which is completely untrue. The payroll taxes go to pay current expenses of the US government. They are just a tax on labor. The government is spending every penny of those payroll taxes to pay for current expenditures. There is no meaningful economic sense in which the current payroll taxes can even be said to be exclusively funding the current retirement benefit payouts!

Going back to the (bad) insurance analogy, the insurer is free to use your premia to buy fighter jets and space shuttles!!

So, is Social Security welfare then? Well the payroll tax component certainly isn't. The retirement benefits part certainly is.

But I will say this; it's a type of welfare that I think we should have! Not in it's current form, but as a means-tested safety net, and without the strange fiction that it's financed by the payroll tax.

Keep a modified (for the poor only) safety net, drop the payroll tax.

Replace the revenue by cutting spending elsewhere (you're on your own President Karzai!!).

A 12.4% tax on labor is a dumb tax in an era where we are worried about employment and middle class incomes and sending social security checks to Warren Buffett and Bill Gates is, if anything, even dumber!

Sweet Home Mississippi?

All hail to the State, with Patriotism so great, that less than 20% of its residents even have passports!

I was very proud to see that roughly 1/3 of my fellow Okies have passports.

Represent!!

Hat tip to LeBron, who grew up in New Jersey, that cesspool of disloyalty!

Wow! The Stuff Matt Y Knows!

The "Knowledge Problem" is a famous one in economics. Even a famous blog to go with it.

But there is NO KNOWLEDGE PROBLEM for Matt Yglesias. He knows all. Ay, marry now, unmuzzle your wisdom, sirrah!

Two tweets from this morning:

"I want to call it the rentier's fallacy: "If you don't let me overcharge, GDP will fall!" "

and

"Pharma frowns as consumers get access to useful medicine at close to market price: LINK"

In both instances, there is a correct price (Matt modestly calls it the "market price," but in fact it is the Yglesias Price, the price of God). Greedy, terrible people want to charge something other than the Yglesias Price.

But we must smite them! Price controls on rents, and force pharma companies to sell at marginal cost!

What, a shortage? Smite them again, for being greedy!

That's a lot of smiting, when it is the conceit that regulators (or bloggers!) think they know the correct prices that's causing the problem.

(I recognize that Michael G cringes, but my point is that I don't know the correct price, and neither does Matt Y. If you want to make an argument for rent control, it can't be about "overcharging." It just can't).

Should movies be subsidized?

Michael Kinsley says no. Interfluidity says yes.

Interfluidity is quite right that subsidies will increase the supply of movies, and seems to consider that a good thing.

I have to differ. The motion picture industry is a huge rent seeking contest that is socially inefficient, just like professional sports. A large number of people dedicate themselves to trying to get a desirable position and the vast majority of them will (a) fail, and (b) be quite unprepared to do something else.

Increasing the number of movies, just like expanding a professional sports league will most likely draw many more people into the rent seeking contest than it will provide positions for, thus making matters worse.

Los Angeles and New York are already teeming with waitress / cab-driver / hobo "actors" and "screenwriters" who are smart, talented individuals, well prepared for jobs they'll never get and generating large social losses by not having gotten a more general preparation and more productive jobs. Do we really want to encourage these kinds of wasteful outcomes in New Mexico and Michigan as well?

Occupations that generate rent seeking contests should be taxed, not subsidized!

We should be nudging people OUT not in to the motion picture industry.

Some Visionaries Fail, But Not All Failures are Visionaries

Had a conversation in Germany once, with a quite sensible man. We discussed the large number of solar panels on nearby homes. Germany, as I have written, has a climate where the sun is visible for about 90 minutes, some time in late July. That's it for the year.

I said it was not rational to force people to invest in solar panels.

He crowed, triumphantly, that it WAS rational, because of the enormous subsidies from the EU and the German government.

I stared at him, and tried (gently) to point out that he was ASSUMING it was rational. The fact that an activity is subsidized just means that the state takes your money at gunpoint, and agrees to give part of it back if you agree to do something you otherwise would not do.

In this case, only an idiot would put solar panels on houses in dark, snowy, cold Germany. Unless "the government" pays you to do it. But the government is bribing you with your own money, to do something that no sensible person would do. Yes, subsidies change the incentives. So does slavery.

My friend actually laughed, and said, "You economists. You never want to take anything on faith!" As if faith and religion were a big part of the lives of the German people. Or as if faith meant that installing solar panels at a cost per kw/hr that is triple the generation costs of other available technologies actually made sense, instead of being a boondoggle for the "Green Industry" pirates who run the EU like a whipped dog.

Anyway, a great story (shared by the Blonde) about faith-based energy policy in California. Just so many excellent little nuggets in this story. Glad to see that Californians can be just as ridiculously faithful as Germans can.

Game Theory: Nuts?

John Nash, Game Theory, and the Schizophrenic Brain

Donald Capps, Journal of Religion and Health, March 2011, Pages 145-162

Abstract: This article focuses on John Nash, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994, and subject of the Award winning 2001 film A Beautiful Mind, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1958 at the age of 29. After presenting an account of the emergence, course, and eventual remission of his illness, the article argues for the relevance of his contribution to game theory, known as the Nash equilibrium, for which he received the Nobel Prize, to research studies of the schizophrenic brain and how it deviates from the normal brain. The case is made that the Nash equilibrium is descriptive of the normal brain, whereas the game theory formulated by John van Neumann, which Nash’s theory challenges, is descriptive of the schizophrenic brain. The fact that Nash and his colleagues in mathematics did not make the association between his contributions to mathematics and his mental breakdown and that his later recovery exemplified the validity of this contribution are noted and discussed. Religious themes in his delusional system, including his view of himself as a secret messianic figure and the biblical Esau, are interpreted in light of these competing game theories and the dysfunctions of the schizophrenic brain. His recognition that his return to normalcy came at the price of his sense of being in relation to the cosmos is also noted.

(Nod to Kevin Lewis)

********************

Dr. Laing and Game Theory

(From which I conclude: (1) it is possible to misuse game theory for fun and profit; (2) British psychiatrists have appallingly bad hair; and (3) American psychiatrists have no hair at all)

Which is the Onion?

One, and ONLY one, of the following stories is from the Onion. The other two are actual "stories." That is, they were reported as true.

Try to guess before you click or mouse-over. See if you get it right: which one of these is the Onion?

1. New health study: staring at woman's breasts is excellent for heart health.

"Five-hundred men participated in the German study. Half were told to refrain from looking at breasts for five years, the other half were told to ogle them daily.

The study found the men who stared at breasts more often showed lower rates of heart problems, a lower resting heart rate and lower blood pressure.

The authors of the study recommend that men stare at breasts for 10 minutes a day."

2. Glad you are out of Libya. But what were you thinking?

State Department officials charged with evacuating nearly 200 Americans from Tripoli last week shepherded the U.S. citizens aboard a ferry, assessed their need for medical attention, and then asked them what the hell they were doing in Libya in the first place.

"We are pleased these Americans are now out of harm's way, but, really, why would anyone want to go to Libya?" a U.S. official told reporters, offering a list of more than 20 countries that are safer, more fun, and "just seem like more logical places to take a vacation" than the repressive North African country.

3. NC Zoo adopts "Snotty the Snot Otter" as their official mascot.

"It made sense when the organizers of a North Carolina festival suggested that the state zoo here adopt a mascot to promote clean rivers.

Except that the creature in question is the snot otter. Formally known as hellbenders, which is not much better from a public-relations standpoint, snot otters are giant, slimy salamanders that lurk under big rocks...

Already up and wriggling is the mascot, Snotty, a big-tailed lizard look-alike with brown skin, beady eyes and stubby teeth.

He made his debut—with mixed results—at the New River Celebration in Laurel Springs, N.C., this past summer.

"There was really just one kid that was kind of scared of me," says Ben Stanley, 20, a student at Randolph Community College here who helped create the Snotty costume and wore it at the festival. "Most of the kids were just running all around me; one actually tried to pull my finger off." (Ed's Note: at the Munger house, the whole "pull my finger" thing is a bad idea)

(nod to Angry Alex)

(UPDATE: Pablo is right, of course, in comments. A hoax. Not even the Onion, just an everyday garden variety urban legend. I should have known. But since a newspaper carried it...anyway, ONE of the above is real, and TWO are hoaxes)

Official toothpaste of the Mount Pelerin Society

proven 98% effective in stopping partial differentiation!!

Soccer is just plain nasty

Good news on the jobs front

192,000 net new jobs last month. Unemployment falls to 8.9% (still a LONG way to go).

Both numbers beat the consensus forecasts.

33,000 net new jobs in manufacturing.

December job growth was revised up by 31,000 jobs and January job growth was revised up by 27,000.

Recycling Fail

Ann pretty much nails this, I'd say. Nice. On Wisconsin.

Some stuff I have done on recycling, verbally and written.

Taking care of Thomas

Two incredible take-downs of Thomas Friedman.

One is literary, and here's a sample:

But there are other critical factors integral to an understanding of my bollocks theory on the Middle East. Here they are:

MY MOUSTACHE – Americans have never really appreciated what a radical thing I did in growing a moustache, long the symbol of Arab male virility. I’m convinced that when Arab men catch a glimpse of my moustache as they bring me my breakfast in my hotel they are inspired and say to themselves: “Hmmm. Let’s see. He’s middle-aged. I’m middle-aged. He’s slightly tanned. I’m roughly the same colour. His name is Thomas. My name is Hussein. He is a prick. I sometimes act like a prick. He is not president of the United States. I am not president of the United States.


and one, my friends, is culinary:




both are awesome

Hat tip to BR!

IRP vs. Ysursa

Victory is ours.

Or victory is the 1st Amendment's, I guess. But still, I was the expert witness for the plaintiffs, in this case Idaho Republican Party.

Newspaper article. Check the comments.

Court decision. Win! We win!

Very interesting issue: are parties private organizations, able to decide how they select candidates, subject only to nondiscrimination restrictions? Or can the state decide?

This advocate for "independents" thinks its a bad idea. Ma'am, parties are private organizations. If you want to vote in a primary, register as a member of that party. And of course you still get to vote however you want in the general election.

In North Carolina, we allow independents to vote in party primaries. But Dems can't cross over and vote for Repubs. Why would Coke execs get to sit on the board of Pepsi and make marketing decisions?

More soon...

Safety first

If you are going to talk politics with an Ibex, be sure to wear your glasses!

What's in a name?

Well according to Thomas Friedman, President O helped kick start the Arab awakening simply by having the middle name Hussein:

“Hmmm, let’s see. He’s young. I’m young. He’s dark-skinned. I’m dark-skinned. His middle name is Hussein. My name is Hussein. His grandfather is a Muslim. My grandfather is a Muslim. He is president of the United States. And I’m an unemployed young Arab with no vote and no voice in my future.”

Journalist, please!

Loaded Questions: The interrogatory culture that is Germany

In an otherwise enlightening interview with Barry Eichengreen, I had to stop a couple times to compose myself after cracking up at the way the Speigel interviewer posed questions.

Here's my favorite:

Is there any desire in US political circles to do something about this problem? Just last December, President Barack Obama extended the Bush administration's tax cuts to 2012, even though tax cuts for the super-rich do nothing to stimulate the economy.

and another good one:

Are people in the US willing to save at all?

One more for the road:

Despite the current crisis, the economic fundamentals in the euro zone are still stronger than those on the other side of the Atlantic. Why are bond traders scrutinizing Europe but not the US?

Where have you been all my life?

Great story about the precariousness of coaching in the NBA:

According to the Boston Herald, Celtics coach Doc Rivers was quite impressed with the debut of former Thunder starting center Nenad Krstic.

When Krstic pulled down two offensive rebounds on the team's first possession, Rivers reportedly turned to assistant coach Lawrence Frank and asked, “Does he do that all the time?”

Frank, who coached Krstic during his early days, replied: “If he did, I'd still be in New Jersey.”

I enjoyed the Nenad Krstic era in the OKC, even though he always seemed slightly bemused/confused on the court.

Paradoxically, getting Perkins and losing Nenad might make Scott Brooks' job LESS secure. Now with a real center (assuming he gets and stays healthy), the Thunder have one less excuse and lack of results now will cause the fickle finger to more likely be pointed at Scotty.

And, make no mistake about it, the Thunder coaching staff are either weak on the Xs and Os or else weak on getting the players to execute the Xs and Os.

The Africa paradox?

While walking Mr. Tooty this morning Mrs. Angus and I were discussing why Americans visiting in Africa so often conclude that Africans are intrinsically more "joyful" and don't care about material things.

She suggested an analogy to the literature showing that people have a very hard time predicting the emotional consequences of being in unfamiliar, unfavorable situations.

For example, healthy people overwhelmingly say they'd be unhappy with their life if they lost a limb or were in a wheelchair, but people actually in those situations often report that they are happy. Here is a recent example regarding people with "locked in" syndrome. There is a term for this phenomenon; the disability paradox.

So maybe, when rich Westerners visit in Africa, they project their expectations of how happy they would be if they lived in the situations they see onto the local people. When these local people demonstrate that they are actually happy, it causes cognitive dissonance and the westerners attribute the paradox to some intrinsic otherness or lack of materialism, rather than recognizing that external circumstances do not determine happiness.

I am NOT saying poverty is a disability, I AM saying that the phenomenon of inaccurately predicting happiness in unfamiliar, adverse situations may apply more broadly than just to cases of physical disabilities.

Sheen-Gadhaffi Quiz

This is actually quite interesting. I got a 4 of ten, worse than random.

The quiz: who said it?

(Nod to Timmy G)

Women Do More Work Around the House...and the Senate!

The Jackie (and Jill) Robinson Effect: Why Do Congresswomen Outperform
Congressmen?

Sarah Anzia & Christopher Berry
American Journal of Political Science, forthcoming

Abstract: If voters are biased against female candidates, only the most talented,
hardest working female candidates will succeed in the electoral process. Furthermore, if women perceive there to be sex discrimination in the electoral process, or if they underestimate their qualifications for office, then only the most qualified, politically ambitious females will emerge as candidates. We argue that when either or both forms of sex-based selection are present, the women who are elected to office will perform better, on average, than their male counterparts. We test this central implication of our theory by studying the relative success of men and women in delivering federal spending to their districts and in sponsoring legislation. Analyzing changes within districts over time, we find that congresswomen secure roughly 9 percent more spending from federal discretionary programs than congressmen. Women also sponsor and cosponsor significantly more bills than their male colleagues.

*******************************

Who Does More Housework: Rich or Poor? A Comparison of 33 Countries

Jan Paul Heisig
American Sociological Review, February 2011, Pages 74-99

Abstract: This article studies the relationship between household income and housework time across 33 countries. In most countries, low-income individuals do more housework than their high-income counterparts; the differences are even greater for women’s domestic work time. The analysis shows that the difference between rich and poor women’s housework time falls with economic development and rises with overall economic inequality. I use a cross-national reinterpretation of arguments from the historical time-use literature to show that this is attributable to the association between economic development and the diffusion of household technologies and to the association between economic inequality and the prevalence of service consumption among high-income households. Results for a direct measure of technology diffusion provide striking evidence for the first interpretation. The findings question the widespread notion that domestic technologies have had little or no impact on women’s housework time. On a general level, I find that gender inequalities are fundamentally conditioned by economic inequalities. A full understanding of the division of housework requires social scientists to go beyond couple-level dynamics and situate households and individuals within the broader social and economic structure.

(Nod to Kevin Lewis)

Tower of David in Caracas

Tower of David: Amazing.

(Nod to Anonyman)

What I've been reading

Red Plenty by Francis Spuford. At its core, it's a narrative of the rise and fall of linear programming as the salvation of the Soviet system! It is funny, sarcastic, insightful and highly recommended, though I have to say it is a very weird book.

The Impenetrable Forest by Thor Hanson. A peace corp volunteer gets assigned to gorilla habituation in Uganda in the early 1990s. I started it because we are going to Uganda this summer, I finished it because it is a fantastic book!

Werewolves of Montpellier, by Jason. On Will W's recommendation I tried this graphic novella, something I'd never had read on my own. I have since bought 3 more of Jason's "books".

The Big Short, by Michael Lewis. If you only read one book on the crisis, or even if you only read one book all year, this should be the one!

The Washington Monthly loves its readers

It loves them so so much:

"Strange as it may sound, to get a grip on costs, we should in many cases be hiring many more bureaucrats—and paying more to get better ones—not cutting their numbers and freezing their pay. Because in many parts of government, the bureaucracy has already crossed that dangerous threshold beyond which further cuts can only mean greater risk of a breakdown. Indeed, much of the runaway spending we’ve seen over the past decade is the result of our having crossed that line years ago—the last time there was a Democrat in the White House, a divided government, and calls for slashing the federal workforce in the air."

Yes, people, they really said that "much of the runaway spending" is a result of having too few Federal bureaucrats! Talk about pandering to your audience.

This is just so far out there that no one can really take it seriously right?

Wrong!!!!

Everybody Wing Chau tonight!

If you've read Michael Lewis' book "The Big Short" (and if you haven't you are really missing something good), you know that he comes down hard on a particular trader named Wing Chau.

Well hot on the heels of Brat Pitt buying the movie rights to the book, Mr. Chau has decided to sue Lewis for defamation.

His complaint contains some interesting parts, for example:

"Wing Chau and his immediate family are Chinese immigrants. His father, Muk Loong Chau, fled Chairman Mao’s China in 1953 to make a better life for his family in America—to pursue the American dream. Mr. Chau was born in Hong Kong, where the family was waylaid for many year while awaiting a visa. Eventually, the family immigrated to Rhode Island, where his father took various jobs at Chinese restaurants, usually working six days per week."

Michael Lewis! You should be ashamed of yourself!!!

Here is more on the complaint and here is more on the saga of Wing Chau.

And here is something I've not been able to get out of my head since I read the Wing Chau portion of "The Big Short":

Okay, One for the Critics

I generally have little patience for the haters who want to blame America's collective and individual giant fat asses on fast food in general and Mickie D's in particular.

But...I have to admit the anti-oatmeal bitching is pretty much on target.

Tried it myself:

1. Asked for no cream and no sugar. Got both.
2. Took it back. Was assured that could be done. Got both again.
3. Took it back. Manager came over. No, turns out can't be done. Can redo without sugar if I really WANT to, but cream is already mixed.
4. I just left it on the counter, and left.

McDonalds insists you can customize, but it's actually not true.

California

An allegory of California government at work. (Nod to Timmy G)

The truth about the public sector union kerfuffle

Look people, this one is simple. Public sector unions are a taxpayer funded Democratic party vote and money machine. For that reason Democrats love them and Republicans hate them. Now the Republicans have the upper hand and are trying to do something about it.

Everything else in the debate is BS (perhaps the Oscar for BS could go to these geniuses who claim that taxpayers don't pay for the compensation of public sector workers).

So it doesn't matter if you can find a study saying public employees are over or under paid or have higher or lower benefits. It doesn't matter if you compare apples to apples or apples to hedgehogs. It doesn't matter if the unfunded pension liabilities are mostly structural or cyclical.

This is just straight up political payback. I wonder what the public sector union bosses expected would happen if the Republicans ever figured out what was going on and got hold of enough political power to do something about it?

Anarchy in the UC

Hayekian anarchism

Edward Peter Stringham & Todd Zywicki
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming

Abstract:
Should law be provided centrally by the state or by some other means? Even relatively staunch advocates of competition such as Friedrich Hayek believe that the state must provide law centrally. This article asks whether Hayek's theories about competition and the use of knowledge in society should lead one to support centrally provided law enforcement or competition in law. In writing about economics, Hayek famously described the competitive process of the market as a “discovery process.” In writing about law, Hayek coincidentally referred to the role of the judge under the common law as “discovering” the law in the expectations and conventions of people in a given society. We argue that this consistent usage was more than a mere semantic coincidence — that the two concepts of discovery are remarkably similar in Hayek's thought and that his idea of economic discovery influenced his later ideas about legal discovery. Moreover, once this conceptual similarity is recognized, certain conclusions logically follow: namely, that just as economic discovery requires the competitive process of the market to provide information and feedback to correct errors, competition in the provision of legal services is essential to the judicial discovery in law. In fact, the English common law, from which Hayek drew his model of legal discovery, was itself a model of polycentric and competing sources of law throughout much of its history. We conclude that for the same reasons that made Hayek a champion of market competition over central planning of the economy, he should have also supported competition in legal services over monopolistic provision by the state — in short, Hayek should have been an anarchist.

(Nod to Kevin Lewis)

I'm Pretty Sure This is the EYM's Gig

Don Q

Raoul writes: "Not sure why this made me think of you..."

Looks Heavy, Feels Light, Less Filling?

A number of "write your own joke" opportunities here...

The Brightness-Weight Illusion: Darker Objects Look Heavier but Feel Lighter

Peter Walker, Brian Francis & Leanne Walker
Experimental Psychology, November/December 2010, Pages 462-469

Abstract: Bigger objects look heavier than smaller but otherwise identical objects. When hefted as well as seen, however, bigger objects feel lighter (the size-weight illusion), confirming that the association between visual size and weight has a perceptual component. Darker objects also look heavier than brighter but otherwise identical objects. It is uncertain, however, if this association also has a perceptual element, or if it simply reflects the fact that, in English at least, the same verbal label (light) is applied to both surface brightness and weight. To address this, we looked for a brightness equivalent of the size-weight illusion. Paired-comparison judgments of weight were obtained for balls differing only in color. Based on vision alone, darker objects were judged to be heavier. When the balls were hefted as well as seen, this association was reversed (i.e., a brightness-weight illusion), consistent with it having a perceptual component. To gauge the strength of the illusion (in grams), a white and a black ball (both 129 g) were each compared against a set of mid-gray balls varying in weight. When the balls were hefted as well as seen, the white ball felt approximately 8 g heavier than the black ball, a difference corresponding to 6.2% of their actual weight. Possible environmental origins of the association between surface lightness and weight are considered.

(Nod to Kevin Lewis)

Clueless white people

Aaaargh!!!!!

Why do so many white people love to take photos like this one???

That's LA Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw and wife with a group of Zambian orphans.

Even worse than the picture are his quotes. On Tosh.O there is a frequent segment called "is this racist"?

Well try this on for size:

“The people, as long as their basic needs are met — they’re not starving and they have shelter — are such a joyful culture,” Kershaw said.

“You come home and you see people striving to get more money, more cars, bigger houses and more possessions, thinking that will make them happier. You go to Zambia, it helps put things in perspective. You realize where happiness comes from, and it’s not from material goods.”

Ah yes, Africans are "joyful" and not materialistic. They don't want money, cars or big houses. I guess his evidence for that was that they didn't already have them?

I guess it's good that there are so many poor people in Africa. We need them to teach life lessons to self absorbed moronic celebrities!

Belated RIP for Escalade

Massive baller Troy "Escalade" Jackson died last week. He was a phenomenon to be sure:

I never knew that he was Mark Jackson's little brother. More here.

Hat tip to LeBron!

Elections Have Consequences: Dems Reap the Whirlwind

Barbara Boxer explains to Senator Inhofe that elections have consequences.


And of course, Jefe Obama got him a slice of that:

In Washington's current state of dysfunction, everyone has a favorite hyper-partisan moment. House Republican Whip Eric Cantor's moment came at a White House meeting with congressional leaders on day three of the new Administration. He handed President Barack Obama a list of ideas to fix the economy. Pointing to a small business tax-cut item, Obama said: "We disagree on tax policy." When Cantor tried to justify his own position, Obama responded: "Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won."

But inexplicably the elected officials in Wisconsin trying to prevent a vote are brave and "love democracy." Nancy Pelosi unmuzzles her great store of wisdom:

"I’m very proud of what they are doing,” she said. “They’re standing up for the rights of America's workingmen and -women to have a voice at the table about their jobs and their futures, so yes, I support them.”

Working people have a voice at the table because their representatives wet themselves and run away and hide like scared punks? Here I thought elections had consequences, ma'am. In fact, I think you told us we had to pass legislation so that we could find out what was in it, right?

The fact is that Wisconsin is broke, and their government is broken. Nice piece in Reason on this. The business of the Democratic party is taking money at gunpoint and using it to overpay people for public jobs...so those people are forced by self-interest to vote Dem.

This means of buying support has long been the tactic of every dictatorship, of course. But WI, and CA, and OH, are NOT dictatorships. They are republics, and the voters are trying to fix things while there is still time.

Now, I agree that the Repubs in WI are grossly overplaying their hand. Attacking unions this way is way out of line, and they are going to pay for it.

Just. Like. The. Dems. Did. on health care. So spare the indignation, Dems. You taught 'em how to do this.

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. Hosea 8:7