Despite the many very good things about the Democrats winning the US congress there are some drawbacks as well, especially on economic policy. One of the things the Democrats want to do is to raise the minimum wage by a whole 40%. Gary Becker and Richard Posner expain why that is not a good idea:
An [...]
The CGD Development Blog reports on a Council for Foreign Relations initiative:
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has just kicked off a new online debate, The Effectiveness of Foreign Aid, with CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet and CGD non-resident fellow William Easterly as discussants. (This is not the first time Easterly and Radelet have [...]
Sachs recently responded to Easterly. Tyler has more discussion and Greg quotes another letter in the WSJ.
The BBC has an update on the case of HIV in South Africa with a sub-headline “A South African doctor should face a charge of unprofessional conduct for naming Aids on a death certificate against family wishes, officials say”. This is connected to an earlier post on South Africas HIV/AIDS policies. According to the article, [...]
Here’s a LA Times article on all my favorite economics bloggers, Tyler, Greg, Gary and the others (I wrote about them the other day). They (and even their daughters) are now sometimes stopped in the streets by fans for autographs, pictures or just to say hello.
Here’s a good thanksgiving story via Cafe Hayek:
After the Pilgrims had endured near-starvation for three winters, [Plymouth colony governor William] Bradford decided to experiment when it came time to plant in the spring of 1623. He set aside a plot of land for each family, that “they should set corne every man for his owne [...]
From the NYTimes, via MR:
LONDON, Nov. 20 — Perhaps only someone from Britain could genuinely believe that a personal ad beginning, “Baste me in butter and call me Slappy,” might lead to romance with an actual, nonincarcerated person.
But in the strange alternate universe that is the personals column in the London Review of Books, a [...]
A blog post on the Economist.com blog starts off with discussing why Iraq has gone so violent and then turns the discussion into the role of “institutions” in development:
This may not seem to have much to do with economics, but in fact it is very relevant to a related debate in economics: the role [...]
CGD on the impact of climate change on spreading of malaria. Basically, mosquitoes are very vulnerable to heat and the rising temperatures has caused them to spread to colder regions that were formerly malaria-free like Kenya’s high plaines and Russia.
The World Bank blog on the effects of institutions on economic growth.
From New Economist, the most [...]
What songs?
“… if I could have a second skin, I’d probably dress up in you.”
“… but if I did I would kneel down and ask him, not to intervene when it came to you..”
“… you know she’s half crazy, but that’s why you wanna be there..”
Now, one of the few drawbacks of Google is that [...]
