It has a strange allure

Wow. Thomas Frank namechecks Mission of Burma AND totally goes off on American Higher Ed. I don't agree with it all, but I agree with a lot of it and it's an essential read.

Here's one slice to get you started:

Paying $250 for a textbook is more like it nowadays; according to one economist, textbook prices have increased 812 percent over the past thirty-five years, outstripping not only inflation (by a mile) but every other commodity—home prices, health care—that we usually consider to be spiraling out of control.

The explanation is simple. The textbook publishers use every trick known to the marketing mind to obsolete their products year after year, thus closing off the possibility of second-hand sales. What’s more, textbook publishing is a highly concentrated industry—an oligopoly—which means they can drive prices pretty much as high as they feel like driving them. Meanwhile, the professors who assign the textbooks and who might do something about the problem don’t have to pay for them.

The charmingly naive American student is in fact a cash cow, and everyone has got a scheme for slicing off a porterhouse or two.

The 5 most popular Angus KPC posts of 2012

The following were the five most viewed posts of mine this past year.

I am impressed. Two about economics, one about academics, one about sports and only one total goofball post.

Football: Stick a fork in it?

Me and LeBron's "what would the end of football look like?" piece in Grantland lives on as the horrific evidence grows.

The edited volume blues

People, you can't get something for nothing. If you are not yet where you want to be in academia, stay away from edited volumes, special issues of journals, festschrifts, and the like.

When cannons are outlawed....

Anytime I can legitimately post a Breeder's video, it's a good day. I guess I should feel bad about someone actually dying, but being taken out by a "homemade" cannonball cannot go un-mocked in my world.

Eyes wide shut

I am a big proponent of evaluating aid projects, but a bit skeptical of the grand claims sometimes made by the Randomista contingent. This paper about pseudo placebo effects in RCTs really caught my attention.

The Economy & Presidential Elections

"BHO is going to win in November DESPITE the economy, largely because Romney is a terrible candidate who is running an undisciplined, juvenile, brain-damaged campaign.

And that matters."

Thanks for indulging me and Mungo and we will endeavor to bring you even more gonzo-econo-blogging in 2013. We'll be back with more stuff.

We have met the enemy....

As a diagnosed Celiac sufferer, I am often asked to explain why I am not eating bread. When I do so, people often tell me something to the effect that they "couldn't live" without bread or some other wheat-based product. To which I often reply to the effect that if they had my symptoms, they'd never want to eat their beloved wheat-based food.

However, I think I may be very wrong about this.

 Check out the 8 minute prologue to this episode of "This American Life", where people eat nuts knowing they'll be headed to the emergency room, or bring an epi-pen with them when they go out for a shellfish meal.

YIKES!!

An ER doctor is quoted as saying "the ER is a virtual laboratory of dysfunctional behaviors and bad choices".

And that puts it into perspective for me at least. If some people spend a lifetime smoking or abusing alcohol or not dealing with their diabetes, of course there are going to be those who won't worry too much about poisoning themselves for a comforting meal.

Barack Obama comes out of the closet

Wow. President O is planning to ask for $1.5 Trillion in new tax revenues with no changes to Social Security and perhaps no changes to Medicare either.

Finally the bullsh*t is over and the cards are on the table.

You know, if this doesn't kick-start the economy, I don't know what will!!