Assorted Links (9/29/2009)

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

Economics

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

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.

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

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

New York Times: “A comic-book tour of logic, math and madness, populated by Bertrand Russell and other superheroes of philosophy.”