Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):
Economics
- The More the Merrier: Population Growth Promotes Innovation, by Casey Mulligan
- Questioning a Chastened Priesthood, by Jeremy Clift
Finance & Development : “Jeremy Clift profiles psychologist (and 2002 Nobel Laureate) Daniel Kahneman.” Professor Kahneman is one of the “founding fathers” of behavioral economics.
Financial Crisis
- Did Bankers’ Pay Add to This Mess?, by Mark Hulbert
Mr. Hulbert provides a useful summary of current academic research questioning the role played or not played by executive compensation contract design during the financial crisis.
- TARP is Expanding; Housing Subsidies Too, by Jeffrey Miron
Dr. Miron explains why the Obama administration’s expansion of TARP is just a “…further bailout for the banks”, and how housing subsidies “will help generate the next crisis by encouraging homeownership among people who cannot afford it”.
Foreign Policy
- Afghanistan, September, 2009, from the Boston Globe’s “Big Picture” blogsite
Boston Globe: “Today’s entry is the first of a new regular feature on the Big Picture: a monthly focus on Afghanistan. From now on, I will post such an entry at least once every month as long as necessary. Violence in Afghanistan has reached its most intense of the eight-year-old war despite record levels of U.S. and NATO troops being sent to fight the Taliban. July and August were the two deadliest months to date for coalition forces, and September is already the 3rd-deadliest, with 38 U.S. deaths – 68 total including all coalition members. With an apparently resurgent Taliban and over 120,000 foreign troops on the ground, and a recent push for the U.S. to consider sending 40,000 more (beyond the additional 21,000 troops still committed but yet undeployed), the situation in Afghanistan could possibly become even more intense in the near future. Collected here is a one-month collection of photos related to Afghanistan for September, 2009. [Past entries in category Afghanistan] (43 photos total)”
Humor
Math and Philosophy
- Algorithm and Blues, by Jim Holt
New York Times: “A comic-book tour of logic, math and madness, populated by Bertrand Russell and other superheroes of philosophy.”