Monday's Child is Full of Links

1. The Band's song, "The Weight." I always wondered. An interview with the songwriter.

2. DJ Trump, songwriter for the Ramones.

3.  Many, and probably most, "market failures" are profit opportunities for entrepreneurs.

4.  All Bob's Money. By Remy, who is genius. Some background on why tuition's so high, also from Remy.

5.  Algorithms judge us, so know their rules.

6.  Viewpoint diversity in student affairs.

7.  A crowd-sourced "History of Political Science," from Emily Farris.

8. Play with Dad day.

9.  Boomers Partied, Xers Got the Hangover.

10.  Rules to protect the weak are almost always turned to oppress the weak. This woman has been punished enough. Protecting children does not mean punishing poor, overwhelmed parents when there is a freak accident. But it's a general problem: hate speech laws are being used to prosecute people of color who are angry at white male cops.

11. Beyond self-parody. John Bolton has evolved into pure energy.

12.  Yes, this is probably right. Repubs are going to vote "no" on impeachment in the House. That doesn't make them spineless. There's an election coming up.

13.  Rotten goat intestines as a drug-smuggling tool.

14.   This is hard to explain. Dude arrested for DUI. He ate his underwear, hoping it would absorb alcohol. And he only "blew" .08. Causality?  A new solution? Or just the sort of thing one does in Alberta on a Saturday night?

15.  Prop 187: Just keeps on giving.

16. The State is force. Actually, Trump is the logical extension of this. He is a Mafia boss, an expert in using force to get what is personally good for him.

17. Millenials want to try out socialism. Also, stick face in bag full of badgers. 

18. There is a strong strand of Progressivism that prefers purity to power. After all, if they actually take power, they'd be responsible. But jabbering about revolution and drinking in cheap bars is more fun than ruling.

Grand Lagniappe: Amb. Sondland was a big donor for Donald Trump. A photo of him during the campaign. Okay, no, that's Dr. Evil. But you have to look twice, right?

Monday's Child is Full of Links

1.  Division of labor and comparative advantage, when operating together, can transform societies. In fact, if division of labor is pursued to its limit, even comparative advantage disappears.

2.  Wealth is about a lot more than physical things that can be priced.

3.  Permission innovation case #4923: Silly Putty.

4.  The ritual sacrifice of valuable items and time have long been a feature of religious worship.  The difference is that now virtue requires that we keep it from being buried, and  we call it "recycling."

5.   This is mostly clickbait, since the drinking water is bottled and the tea and coffee are heated. But it is a little disturbing.

6.  Parking and the City.  Much of how we think about "free" parking is wrong, at least in large cities.

7.  We are ALL on double secret probation. And Dean Wormer can simply steal our property whenever he wants. That's the true nature of the state: creating a legal space for actions that, if undertaken by any private citizen, would constitute theft.

8.  Things we call "spices" actually mimic, or actually themselves are, antibacterial agents. That's why our taste buds are attuned to "like them." Saying "because they taste good" is no help. Taste is primarily a set of receptors for good and bad, correlates of biological fitness. Yes, sugar, salt, and fat can now fool us, because we can produce excessive concentrations of them.

9.  Wikifeet.

10.  Control, and stereotyping. Oh, and pattern deviancy.

11.  The butcher and the storyteller, and the Nobel Prize in 2018.

12.  Mexico has better ketchup.

13.  Don't worry that we collect all your data. We won't actually use. Unless, we feel like it.

14.  The high costs of not asking questions.

15. Did Hillary help Tulsi?

16.  When are religious exemptions morally required?

17.  Greg Gutfield is quite funny.

18. An obscure but interesting piece of St L Cards History.

19. Citizens of New Delhi are asked to stay inside indefinitely. I'm pretty sure that's not good.

20.  The WKRP Thanksgiving episode, or at least the excerpt from the end. I really think this is the best 4 minutes of television comedy ever.

21.  Prohibition in college sports is ending.

22.  This is how book reviews should be written.  We've gone soft. Bring back the savage book review.

23.  Turtles with swastikas. And a beluga whale playing some fetch.  (Made me wonder what the whale thought:  "Stupid human, you dropped your ball. Here it is. Please be careful." [human throws ball] "Wha....? Oh, man, these humans are even dumber than I thought." Goes after it; repeat)

24. The. Thing. Itself. Part 391,856.

25. Dopamine fasting. It's also called "graduate school," by the way.

26. Logical extension of Kelo: just let the developers take the land on their own, and cut out all the red tape. 

27.  His face really DID get stuck like that.

28. French bakeries closing, taken over by automation! Mon Dieu! Except that ACCCCCCCtually the total nuimber of bakeries is increasing, and what's happening is that in the smallest towns where labor costs are too high to sustain a bakery it is true that machines are providing a reasonably good--not AS good, but better than American grocery store bread--alternative. 


The Grand Lagniappe:  Unicorn Poutine, and the End of the World.  To be fair, this outrage happened in Toronto, because....well, because Toronto.

Wealth

Wealth is about a lot more than just physical things that can be priced....

Or so say I.

Monday's Child is full of Links!

1.  Febreeze.

2.  Hatin' on "Joker."

3.  The argument that Trump did nothing wrong. And....besides, Rick Perry made him do it.

4.  "P'owning the Lib/Fash" is not enough.

5.  "But Trump is really a libertarian." Or, not.

6.  I happen to think that, on net, Brexit is a bad idea. But reasonable people can disagree, and still be reasonable. Remarkable that such views make one a "fascist," for the left.

7. 30 years after the "Velvet Revolution" in Czech Republic.

8.  On the 100th birthday of JM Buchanan.

9. Self-censoring.

10. The very notion of economic "policy" is problematic.

11.  It's a good idea to learn to identify bad ideas.

12.  College libraries.

13.  Yankee fans at the playoff games all have their own trust funds and can't imagine having to WORK for a living. So they mock people who DO work.

14. Robots.

15. The bear cubs who locked themselves in the car and then blew the horn are big in India. Cuteness sells everywhere.

16. Making office hours less scary?

17. Stingy millennials. All that saving.

18.  Country music no longer exists. But, bluegrass abides.

GRAND LAGNIAPPE

It's a shame; P-Kroog had been doing better lately, sticking to international trade, a subject he actually knows something about. But this is just asinine. Debt is money that some actual people borrow, and use the money for narrow, selfish reasons. That money must be paid back by someone else, in this case by people who are not yet born and can't possibly be said to have consented.  The idea of "cost" to an entire nation is nonsense. The point is the distributional consequences, which Paul claims he cares about in other contexts.

I understand Paul takes himself seriously. But when he says stupid sh*t like this, how can anyone ELSE take him seriously?

Monday's Child is Full of Liniks

1.  Pumpkin Spice SPAM sold out in a few hours. I hope this means that they only made 4 cans of it. BUT....I don't think this means that. What is WRONG with you people?

2.  Swimmers and runners have different arm and leg muscle development, which makes sense. But they also have different heart development.

3. A Brit view of judicial REview.

4.  Tik-Tok.

5.  Markets and capitalism saved the whales.

6.  Why impeachment now?

7.  Interesting interview on Foucault, and the Austrians.

8. Learning by biking.

9. The horrible lantern fly invasion.

10.  Sex work is complicated. So is regulating it.

11.  Are we possessed by our possessions?

12.  Collective brain.

13. Boaty McBoatface.

14.  The China Gambit.

15. My paper on attention distribution as a measure of salience, in Public Choice. With Libby Jenke.

16. It's pretty straightforward. Protectionism is a huge tax increase. On American consumers.

17. A Twitter thread on history. Our rail system is built to accommodate a couple of horses' asses.

18.  Tipping in the gig economy.

19.  Cherry tariffs.

20.   Screaming babies in the air.

21. The Meaning of Life, in less than five minutes.

22. Nietzsche and the Meaning of Life, in more than five minutes.

23. Conservatives are useless. Again.

24. Remarkably tortured reasoning: ban vaping because some people use illegal black market capsules.  Should ban cars, because some bank robbers use them as getaway vehicles.

25. Howdy Modi. 

THE GRAND LAGNIAPPE:

Dude wants to propose to his lady.  At the zoo is strange enough. But at the hippo pool? Okay, whatevs. But then Fiona Hippo decides to photobomb the shot of the actual ask.  I guess all the ladies of all species want to say "aw...." at the sight of some dude proposing in public. Well done, Fiona.

Monday's Child is Full of Links

1.  Inspection Paradox. Really interesting.

2.  Contractors v. Employees.

3.  What if it comes down to "gigs" v. "no job at all"?

4.  John Tierney: The case of the vapors.

5.  All too often, environmentalism is capitalism in disguise.

Monday's Child is Full of Links

1.  VAR in women's Copa Mundial:  You are not good.

2.   WWII bomb in a barley field.  In Germany.

3.  Kamala Harris is a cop, and a political cop at that.

4.  Nationalism.

5.  Garbage pickup in Italy, and then in Raleigh.

6.  What does "voluntary" actually mean?  I claim we need the concept of "euvoluntary."  And Ricardo G and I wrote this, which I'm pretty proud of.

7. In San Francisco, you can have marijunan, but not e-cigs.

8.  Robots and jobs. Written by a person named "Anneken," no less.

9.  Peter Singer shows he is actually committed to the principles of liberalism, because he is a utilitarian.

10.  The illiberal right.

11.  Tennessee Wine and Spirits Assoc v. Blair.

12.  Florida Man and his moods:  First, hungry.  And then, wanting love from pet snake.  (Yes, from 2015, but still....)

13. Animal control, out of control?   It appears to be real, though the charges may be dropped. To be fair to the AC officers, though.....the thing itself. It is actually the law.

14.  The worst contract ever. And today is Bobby Bonilla day!  8%. They agreed on 8%. The Mets management is unbelievably dumb.

15.   Trump wants him some parades.

16.  Predicting the future.

17.  The scolds are coming.

Grand Lagniappe:  Remy!

Monday's Child is Full of Links

1.  Asset Liquidation, small college specialty. (Markets in everything)

2.  Georgia and their primary problem....

3.  The thing, itself, in Phoenix.

4.  From my excellent Duke colleague Sarah Bermeo.

5.  The Facebook LIBRA.

6.  "She's Gotta Have It," Netflix version.

7.  Burns and White on the Fed Under Trumpism.

8. Trump's Iran "Deal".

9.  Regulating the Unicorns.

10.  Wow. Oberlin really screwed this up.

11.  There was no word. Then Gary Larson made one up. Now: Thagomizers are a thing. Really.

12. Micro-aggression hot-lines are perhaps not a great idea.

13.  "Expressive Behavior" by Arye Hillman.

14.  "Buchanan and the Nature of Choice," Lewis and Behal-Dold.

15.  Physical attraction is not a rational process. Whatever its current status, it was attached by evolved processes to reproductive success. Thus, if it is true that "Trans People Are Excluded From the World of Dating," it may well be that physical attraction is complex, NOT that people are bigots. And, of course, people may be bigots. Both things can be true.

16.  Amazon's "Tiny Kiosk."

17. It turns out that if you are good at Matlab you can do things like this. If you want some background....

18.  Are "food deserts" caused by limited supply, or narrow demand? The answer is both. But limited and narrow demand for unhealthy foods is by FAR the greater cause.  On the other hand, there is a big effect on demand from having means-tested subsidy.  "Good" food is a normal good, in other words.  Forthcoming in QJE....

19.  No apprentice.

20. Aged, living alone.  Say "Hello in there."

21. Bustin' outta "whale jail."

22.  The future of policing is private?

23.  Libra may have been born under a bad sign....

24.  Hal Varian, and kale.

25.  The urge to DO something.

26. Medieval sexualizing.

27.  Anaxagoras:  The Moon Rocks.

28.  The way of carnal lust: Medieval nuns and sexual governability

29.  Texas water politics.

30. If a woman's body is a crime scene, that's not decriminalization.

Grand Lagniappe: The LMM had an "important" birthday this week.  Happy rainbow!

Monday's Child is Full of Links

1.  My closet is in the cloud.

2.  Divorce in the UK. Deciders, not sliders.

3.  Calling out Chelsea.

4.  If you're worried about stocks, buy a house.

5.  Dem candidates on housing.

6. I understand that AirBnb presents regulatory challenges. But this dumb sh*t is clearly not the way to go.

7.  On a "national divorce."

8.  How a "foreign correspondent" might cover the scandal on US college admissions.

9. Instagram: Hive of conspiracy theorists?

10. Did capitalism save Sweden?

11.  Dune.

12.  Is capitalism sustainable?

13.  Little tiny baby fox puppies.

14.  This is from May 2017. But the wall STILL won't work.

15. The best argument for capitalism is the grocery store. It seems mundane, but it's pretty great.

16. A panda trying to get into a hammock.

17. Witch Windows....

18. Clearly, I live in a bubble. Had never heard of Scruff. Reducing all sorts of transaction costs.

19.  The end of significance.

20.  The Electoral College is just federalism.

21.  Zoning and "political capitalism."

22.  Mother Russia.

23.  Guy writes article where the tl;dr is "If you are an idiot like I am, you should drop FB."

24.  Escaped Wallaby Walkabout would be a great name for a band.

25.  The EC is okay, but it's not worth defending at all costs. It is, in fact, an anachronism.

26.  In Tomorrow 3.0 I talk about "saltation" as an alternative to separation. But it's not really happening.

27. How many chuggas before the first choo?

Grand Lagniappe:

Monday's Child is Full of Links

1.  Eternal employment.

2.  The nanny state gets all real.

3.  I do want to thank all you kids. Yes, I'm already rich and all. But it's good of you younglings to pay for all my healthcare anyway. We just need more of you. I plan to be expensive.

4.  The Momo hoax. Local news is an active participant.  Including the ridiculous talking heads at WRAL, our home news fabricator here in Raleigh.  Embarrassing.

5.  Famines no longer exist, unless there is a war or a state uses famine as a weapon of genocide. Capitalism is not the only reason, but it's a big part of the reason this is true.

6.  Now that Amazon is up to 5% of the retail market, they must be broken up. Wait, what? That's 5%, folks. Not 50%, just 5%.

7.  He's tall, he's rich, he's got good hair and creamy white skin. Why should Manafort have to be in some icky jail? Well, because he's a $^&%*^&% criminal, for one thing.

8.  Tipping flight attendants. But it's only on in-flight purchases. I tip in the Sky Club. Why not in the sky?

9.  On Ilhan Omar. To her credit, criticizes Obama.  Good for her.

10.  I'm not sure people who advocate socialism "don't understand" what socialism is. But I know that we disagree about what socialism is.

11. "The Walk" was not good.

12.  Researchers, or corporate allies?

13.  The dishwater of orthodoxies.

14.  Facial recognition.

 15.   W F Buckley.

16.  Aid to Venezuela?

17.  Not sure this is real. But it says....something. Not sure
just what.

18.  Images of the divine.

19. I'm not sure this is on the up-and-up. Twice? Same store?

20.  People who believe in magic always want to destroy technology, because they think it's magic.

21. Occupational licensing. If we can't get rid of it, perhaps we can just start it in prison?

22.  This is interesting. CNN recognizes that war increase new viewership, perhaps? Because it turns out....

23.  Luxury car subscription.

24. My Duke colleague Jack Knight, on political science. 

Grand Lagniappe:  Remember how you drew cars when you were 5 or 6? It lives.