Assorted Links (8/27/2009)

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

The Economy

  • The 2010 jobs outlook, by Keith B. Hennessey

Health Care Reform

  • Obama’s Health Rationer-in-Chief, by Betsy McCaughey
    WSJ: “White House health-care adviser Ezekiel Emanuel blames the Hippocratic Oath for the ‘overuse’ of medical care.”
  • Work Disincentives in the Health Care Bill, by Casey B. Mulligan

Statistics

  • Statistical Slumps, by Ian Ayres
    Professor Ayres provides a very interesting essay about statistics in which he discusses a contraption called the Galton Box (which apparently is also known as the Quincunx) and how this relates to Pascal’s Triangle.  From there, he derives “a statistical standard for determining when an athlete was having a ‘statistically significant slump.’”  Good stuff!

Miscellaneous

  • Craigslist’s Business Model, by Donald Marron
    Here’s a quote from this essay (taken from Wired magazine’s article which Dr. Marron summarizes): “craigslist is one of the strangest monopolies in history, where customers are locked in by fees set at zero and where the ambiance of neglect is not a way to extract more profit but the expression of a worldview.”

Politics

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