Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately:

Economics for (and by) 10th Graders – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com

nytimes.com

“An economics primer written by 10th graders.”

Bounding the Price Impact of the New Home Buyer Credit

caseymulligan.blogspot.com

“1.6 percent is still less than the housing price increase reported by Case-Shiller over the most recent twelve months. So, even if a 1.6 percent impact were not exaggerated, housing prices would have been stable or increasing over the past year even without the credit.”

Sculpture Made by Bees

www.neatorama.com

“Dutch designer Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny made a sculpture of Jesus that was completed by bees. He erected a sealed glass container with his mold inside. Libertiny then released 40,000 bees who worked on the honeycombed surface of the mold.”

France Loses; Warren Buffett Wins : NPR

www.npr.org

“Berkshire Hathaway sold an insurance policy that would have paid $30 million if France won the World Cup.”

The Classroom Still Matters – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com

nytimes.com

“Classroom instruction beats the internet in a new paper.”

Drop Argentina from the G-20

www.american.com

“The G-20 heads of state will gather June 26 and 27. One issue that should be on the agenda: Argentina’s unsuitability to remain a G-20 member.”

Arthur Levitt: A Missed Opportunity on Financial Reform – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt asks: How could Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have escaped the Democrats’ attention?”

John Yoo: Democrats and the McChrystal Fiasco – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, John Yoo says that Democrats during the Bush years egged on military resistance to Bush’s war policies, further increasing distrust between civilian and military leaders.”

Notable & Quotable – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Max Boot writing yesterday in Commentary magazine’s Contentions blog on General Petraeus replacing General McChrystal in Afghanistan.”

American Thinker: Paul Krugman, the Self-Contradicting Economist

www.americanthinker.com

“An argument that questions the credibility of economists in general is that there are a number of disagreements among many economists, and not all of them can be right at the same time. In the case of Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, these disagreements come from Krugman himself, as he holds contradictory opinions on a large number of topics.”

Nonsense 4.0 at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas

www.thebigquestions.com

I wholeheartedly agree with Steven Landsburg’s assessment of Anatole Koletsky’s Wall Street Journal essay (see http://bit.ly/9Hjoqg), excerpted from his book Capitalism 4.0. A better title for Koletsky’s tome would be Nonsense 4.0!

How the Unemployed Spent Their Time in 2009 – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com

nytimes.com

“They weren’t doing the laundry.”

Schumpeter 2.0 — The American, A Magazine of Ideas

www.american.com

“A great thinker’s contribution not only appears in his or her finished works and arguments, but also within the rich intuitions or core ideas that underlie the arguments.”