Category Archives: Assorted Links

Everything important to know about real world personal finance…

The following set of fantastic (and ungated) personal finance articles appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal:

1. Can Robo Advisers Replace Human Financial Advisers?

2. Does Socially Responsible Investing Make Financial Sense?

3. Should the U.S. Adopt a Value-Added Tax?

4. What’s the Best Way to Teach Financial Skills to Children?

5. Is It Time to End Tipping?

6. Should Anyone Be Eligible for Student Loans?

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics

Myron Scholes Forum, October 13, 2015

Richard Thaler, Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at Chicago Booth, has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans—predictable, error-prone individuals. He will discuss his latest book—Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics—in a Scholes Forum fireside chat, moderated by Steven Kaplan, Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at Chicago Booth.

View video>

Assorted Links (7/28/2014)

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading and podcasts that I have been listening to lately:

Sam Altman on Start-ups, Venture Capital, and the Y Combinator

www.econtalk.org

I listened to this very interesting and highly informative podcast during one of my daily walks in my hometown of Austin, TX. Basically this is a tutorial on how entrepreneurship and venture capital promote economic growth and innovation, and mostly make the world a better place…

100 Years Ago Today It Began: “Austria Has Chosen War”

zerohedge.com

“The good news is that 100 years later the world is a far more stable and peaceful place.”

Why Corporate Inversions Are All the Rage

online.wsj.com

This is the best explanation I’ve seen concerning the phenomenon of so-called corporate inversions…

Putin Restores a Cuban Beachhead

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Americas columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes that the Kremlin and the Castros are chummy again, and Moscow is offering military aid.”

The Danger of Too Loose, Too Long

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher writes that with an improving labor market and an uptick in inflation, the danger now is to wait too long to tighten.”

The Lingering, Hidden Costs of the Bank Bailout

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Nobel laureate Vernon L. Smith asks why is growth so anemic? New economic activity has been discouraged. Here are some ways to change that.”

How we found the giant squid

ted.com

“Humankind has been looking for the giant squid (Architeuthis) since we first started taking pictures underwater. But the elusive deep-sea predator could never be caught on film” (until now).

Yes to Coffee and Wine: Rewriting the Rules of Pregnancy

online.wsj.com

“Go ahead, have a glass of wine during pregnancy, writes Emily Oster.”

Math nerds are taking over Wall Street

money.cnn.com

“Elie Galam is a math geek turned finance wizard. Check out how he and other quants are taking over Wall Street.”

Freakonomics » Does Religion Make You Happy?

freakonomics.com

I listened to this podcast during one of my daily walks in my hometown of Austin, TX. It showcases research on the “economics of religion” by various economists and sociologists. I was particularly intrigued to learn about MIT economist Jonathan Gruber’s recently published research on this topic. Professor Gruber finds (among other things) that “[The religious are] more likely to have higher incomes, higher education, have more stable marriages, be less likely to be on welfare, essentially be more successful on any economic measure you want to use”. He also empirically documents (the somewhat counter-intuitive result) that religious giving and religious attendance are substitutes, not complements… (see http://www.nber.org/papers/w10374 for access to Gruber’s paper entitled “Pay or Pray? The Impact of Charitable Subsidies on Religious Attendance”…

Libertarian Charles Murray: The welfare state has denuded our civic culture

pbs.org

For my “bleeding heart” libertarian friends, I recommend Charles Murray’s book “In Our Hands: A Plan To Replace The Welfare State” (cf. http://amzn.to/1x66BGW)…

Progressives’ hot new poverty-fighting idea has just one basic problem: Science

theweek.com

“Look at the evidence, liberals!”

Reining in ObamaCare—and the President

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Jonathan H. Adler and Michael F. Cannon write that Halbig v. Burwell is about determining whether the president, like an autocrat, can levy taxes on his own.”

Obama’s Law Professor: ‘I Wouldn’t Bet’ on Obamacare Surviving Next Legal Challenge

www.nationalreview.com

“President Obama’s old Harvard Law professor, Laurence Tribe, said that he “wouldn’t bet the family farm” on Obamacare’s surviving the legal challenges to an IRS rule about who is eligible for subsidies that are currently working their way through the federal courts.”

US military enlistment rates by state: A Texas-sized difference

aei-ideas.org

“An 18-24 year-old from Florida or Texas who enlists in the US military has more than double the chance of bumping into a fellow Southerner in uniform than a resident from Massachusetts, Connecticut, or New York does with a Northeast compatriot.”

New York law thinks a burrito is a sandwich

vox.com

“New York’s “sandwich tax” might be the greatest fraud every played on New Yorkers if you don’t count the ones that involve rent or drugs.”

Hamas’s Civilian Death Strategy

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Thane Rosenbaum argues that Gazans shelter terrorists and their weapons in their homes, right beside sofas and dirty diapers.”

Why a federal court just ruled Obamacare subsidies are illegal in 36 states

vox.com

“This little-known lawsuit is Obamacare’s biggest threat.”

Heading Off the Entitlement Meltdown

online.wsj.com

“Demography is destiny: The retirement of 77 million baby boomers is not a theoretical projection.”

Four Years of Dodd-Frank Damage

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Peter Wallison writes that the financial law has restricted credit and let regulators create even more too-big-to-fail companies.”

Income Inequality Is Not Rising Globally. It’s Falling.

nytimes.com

“Though the income gap has widened in many individual nations, it has been shrinking globally for most of the last 20 years.”

Uber Upstarts: Technological Progress and Its Discontents

american.com

“The battle between new smartphone-enabled ‘transportation network companies’ and legacy taxicabs largely mirrors the age-old war over productivity, a war that only ever has one outcome.”

Microsoft lays off 18,000 with ridiculous letter

linkedin.com

“I have never been laid off, but I would assume that the process begins with an apology of sorts. “I’m sorry.” “Do you have a moment?” or “Can we talk?” are probably good first steps….”

Jury Awards $23.6 Billion in Florida Smoking Case

nytimes.com

“A jury in Florida awarded a staggering $23 billion judgment against R. J. Reynolds, the country’s second-largest tobacco company, for causing the death of a smoker who died of lung cancer.”

Doctors get due dates wrong 96.6% of the time

vox.com

“Your baby is most likely to be born one week before your due date.”

 

Assorted Links (7/15/2014)

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

This poll proves that millennials have totally incoherent political views

vox.com

“73% of Millennials say “people should be allowed to keep what they produce, even if there are others with greater needs”…”

New research shows Facebook may be hazardous to your marriage

kvue.com

“Facebook is no stranger to bad press.”

Why the new jihadists in Iraq and Syria see al Qaeda as too passive

online.wsj.com

“A new generation of Islamist extremists battle-hardened in Iraq and Syria sees the old guard of al Qaeda as too passive.”

10 Fun Facts About the Millennial Generation

reason.com

“Reason-Rupe has a new survey and report out on millennials—find it here. Here are a few highlights…”

Do Markets Work for Bees?

conversableeconomist.blogspot.com

“What and what not to do about Colony Collapse disorder…”

You mean I’d have to PAY for that??

reason.com

“……..Millennial support for large government flips if high taxes are required.”

Why Piketty’s Wealth Data Are Worthless

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Alan Reynolds write that private retirement plans rose to $12.4 trillion in 2012 from $875 billion in 1984. None of it is reported on tax returns.”

Texas Admissions Brawl

online.wsj.com

Our local “controversy” at UT-Austin has now made the pages of the editorial section of the Wall Street Journal

Remembering Louis Zamperini

nationalreview.com

Mr. Zamperini was a truly amazing person. RIP, Mr. Zamperini!

Get Bosses Out of Health Insurance Altogether

nationalreview.com

“The Supreme Court’s decision last week in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby has pushed all the buttons that could be expected…”

A Sexual Revolution for Young Evangelicals? No.

nationalreview.com

Interesting review of recent work by Mark Regnerus…

Confessions of a Computer Modeler

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Robert Caprara writes that any model, including those predicting climate doom, can be tweaked to yield a desired result.”

Hallelujah!

economist.com

“Rivalry and harmony at the olympics of choirs, beginning on July 9th in Riga, Latvia.”

What is the rationale behind standard paper sizes like A4 and A3?

quora.com

I have often wondered about this very issue since I interact regularly with non-US academic colleagues who share these “weird” A4 PDF files (which measure 8.27 x 11.69 inches) with me. Thanks to quora.com, this all makes sense now…

Chart and economic fact of the day: Texas has added one million jobs since 2007 vs. only 24,900…

aei-ideas.org

Preventing economists’ capture

chicagobooth.edu

Are we saving too much for retirement?

chicagobooth.edu

Google’s Larry Page: “I Think the Government’s Likely to Collapse Under Its Own Weight.”

reason.com

“The co-founders on how regulation “increases without bounds” and why Google stays away from health care.”

 

Assorted Links (7/6/2014)

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

An Unfolding Fiscal Disaster

weeklystandard.com

“The ACA’s partisan origins have left lawmakers with vastly reduced incentives to achieve the budgetary savings required to make its finances work.”

A Company Liberals Could Love

nytimes.com

“The entire conflict between religious liberty and cultural liberalism has created an interesting situation in our politics: The political left is expending a remarkable amount of energy trying to fine, vilify and bring to heel organizations — charities, hospitals, schools and mission-infused businesses — whose commitments they might under other circumstances extol.”

Religious groups prep for Hobby Lobby repeat

politico.com

“The Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision is just days old, but a group of religious schools and institutions is preparing for Part Two.”

The summer’s most unread book is…

online.wsj.com

“A simple index drawn from e-books shows which best sellers are going unread (we’re looking at you, Piketty).”

Independence in 1776; Dependence in 2014

cato.org

“The rise in the size and scope of federal subsidies means that Americans are steadily losing their independence.”

Hail to the Chef: Which Presidents Do Americans Want to Grill With?

blogs.wsj.com

“If you were having a barbecue for Independence Day, which recent president would you want to help you out on the grill?…”

The great (and growing) global impact of the Declaration of Independence

online.wsj.com

“No American document has had a bigger global impact than the Declaration of Independence.”

New York City’s Affordable Housing Bonanza for the Rich

reason.com

“Housing subsidies go to families making up to $193K.”

Why is it so difficult to teach people to manage money?

www.vox.com

“Almost everyone supports teaching students to manage money. If only it worked.”

Muscle Shoals (2013)

www.imdb.com

Jan and I watched this movie recently.  In a little bit under two hours, you will come away with a basic grasp of the last 50 years of popular music history…

Obama’s Disappointing Year at the Supreme Court

“From recess appointments to warrantless cellphone searches to Obamacare, the White House lost big this term at SCOTUS.”

Richest 1% taxed too much: NJ Gov. Chris Christie

cnbc.com

“The tax code relies too much on the wealthiest Americans and needs to be revamped, says N.J. Gov. Christie.”

Childhood Vaccines Safe, Says Pediatricians

time.com

“The latest in-depth review of immunizations shows that they aren’t linked to higher risk of autism or cancer.”

A few things the Hobby Lobby ruling won’t do

aei.org

“The courts aren’t going to be passing judgment on the wisdom of different religious teachings. And access to blood transfusions will be affected by this decision even less than access to contraception will be.”

Map: Watch America’s air get cleaner over the past decade

vox.com

“It’s not just your imagination — America’s air really has been getting cleaner over the past decade.”

Hobby Lobby: Government Can’t Violate Religious Liberties Willy-Nilly

“The Hobby Lobby decision has nothing to do with big business, freedom to use contraceptives, or preferencing religious liberty above everything else.”

Hansen on Risk, Ambiguity, and Measurement

www.econtalk.org

I listened to this EconTalk podcast recently on my daily morning walk. Other than being awesome because 1) the interviewee is a 2013 economics Nobel Laureate, and 2) the topics discussed (risk, ambiguity, and measurement) are important throughout the life, physical, and social sciences, I also enjoyed learning about the following quote (attributed to the 19th century physicist Lord Kelvin): “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it.”

Obamacare’s Contraception Mandate

nationalreview.com

“That phrase or variants of it will appear in a lot of coverage today. It’s misleading for two reasons. Hobby Lobby doesn’t object to providing contraception; it objects to contraceptives that may act as abortifacients.”

SCOTUS sides with Hobby Lobby on contraception mandate

politico.com

“The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that for-profit employers with religious objections can opt out of providing contraception coverage under Obamacare.”

 

Assorted Links (6/30/2014)

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

Jason Gay identifies the treatment for converting soccer haters ahead of Tuesday’s U.S.-Belgium Match

online.wsj.com

“Jason Gay has discovered the cure for ‘Irrational Soccer Crankiness'”

The real war on women 

aei.org

Quoting from this article, “Policies put into place by liberals and conservatives alike have discouraged women’s labor force participation, and no one is talking about it.”

Is Work Killing You? In China, Workers Die at Their Desks

bloomberg.com

“Chinese banking regulator Li Jianhua literally worked himself to death. After 26 years of “always putting the cause of the party and the people” first, his employer said this month, the 48-year-old official died rushing to finish a report before the sun came up.”

Facebook prompts outrage with experiment on users

online.wsj.com

“A social-network furor has erupted over news that Facebook Inc., in 2012, conducted a massive psychological experiment on nearly 700,000 unwitting users.”

It Took Studying 25,782,500 Kids To Begin To Undo The Damage Caused By 1 Doctor

upworthy.com

“Here’s the deadly results when people say things about science without actually looking at science.” The infamous (retracted) Lancet article by Wakefield et al. is available online at http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2897%2911096-0/fulltext.

The digital degree

economist.com

Here’s what The Economist has to say about the “value proposition” of traditional universities: “Traditional universities have a few trump cards. As well as teaching, examining and certification, college education creates social capital. Students learn how to debate, present themselves, make contacts and roll joints. How can a digital college experience deliver all of that?”

Wealth by degrees

economist.com

“IS A university degree a good investment? Many potential students are asking the question, especially in countries where the price of a degree is rising, as a result of falling government subsidies.”

Creative destruction

economist.com

“HIGHER education is one of the great successes of the welfare state. What was once the privilege of a few has become a middle-class entitlement, thanks mainly to government support.”

Case of Uncreative Destruction

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Bari Weiss talks with two entrepreneurs who wanted to help the U.S. Postal Service digitize mail. Some local postmasters liked it. Washington didn’t.”

Iraq’s Brittle Nationhood

bloomberg.com

“Does it still make sense to think of Iraq as a country?”

One of these cat videos will be named best of the year. Which one should it be?

blogs.wsj.com

Check out the nominees for the Golden Kitty Award.  In my opinion, it’s a close call between “Jedi Kittens Strike Back” (@ https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4Z3r9X8OahA) and “8 Signs of Addiction” (@ https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2-vyTE35EL0)…

Obama Goes Too Far for Even Supreme Court Liberals

bloombergview.com

“… just the latest in a series of unanimous rebukes by the court of the administration’s legal positions.”

The Health Benefits of Beer

runnersworld.com

“Although most runners agree that beer is not exactly a “health food,” there’s good news for those of us who like to imbibe. Downing a few cold ones as you’re heading out the door for a run is obviously not the best choice, but beer–in moderation–can be a perfectly acceptable option for after a run or on non-training days.”

The IPO is dying. Marc Andreessen explains why.

vox.com

“Netscape cofounder and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen says the decline of the initial public offering is bad for ordinary investors. He also critiques economist Thomas Piketty.”

Top CIA and military officials warn US drones could create endless war

vox.com

“The US executive branch has yet to engage in a serious cost-benefit analysis of targeted UAV strikes as a routine counterterrorism tool.”

Four Reasons NOT to Raise the Minimum Wage

catoinstitute.tumblr.com

“The debate over minimum wage continues to rage across the country. But, would raising the minimum wage actually harm the very people it is purportedly designed to help?”

Supreme Court: abortion clinic ‘buffer-zones’ violate the First Amendment

vox.com

“Restricted access to sidewalks near abortion clinics, the court ruled, violates the first Amendment”

Charles Krauthammer – Government by Fiat

nationalreview.com

“The Supreme Court this week admonished the Environmental Protection Agency for overreaching in regulating greenhouse gases.”

After crisis, risk officers multiply, gain more clout at banks

online.wsj.com

“Risk officers are gaining power and multiplying in number across the U.S. banking industry.”

How dads improve their kids’ lives, according to science

vox.com

“Paul Raeburn’s new book, Do Fathers Matter?, is a comprehensive review of studies on the role of fathers.”

The optimal number of immigrants

johnhcochrane.blogspot.com

University of Chicago economist John Cochrane’s answer: “Two billion, two million, fifty-two thousand and thirty-five (2,002,052,035). Seriously.”

Supreme Court strikes down Obama recess appointments

politico.com

“The decision gives the Senate broad power to thwart future recess appointments, but did not go as far as some conservatives hoped to undercut the president’s ability to fill vacant executive branch posts and judicial slots.”

Get Ready for the Soccermania Letdown

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Gerald Eskenazi says hooray for the U.S. World Cup team. But let’s not get carried away with the ‘breakthrough’ talk.”

40 maps that explain World War I

vox.com

“Why the war started, how the Allies won, and why the world has never been the same.”

Assorted Links (6/26/2014)

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

The Supreme Court’s huge new cellphone privacy ruling, explained

vox.com

“The Supreme Court kept cops from looking at your phone. Here’s why that’s such a big deal.”

Senseless in Seattle: The Minimum-Wage Follies

cato.org

“You don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to understand that economies are not static.”

Even America’s most liberal states imprison more people than nearly any other country in the world

vox.com

“Even the most liberal state in America has a higher incarceration rate than most other countries around the world, according to a new analysis from the Prison Policy Initiative.”

This chart shows that violent deaths at US schools remain quite rare

vox.com

“There’s been no clear upward trend since the 1990s.”

Why Iraq’s army crumbled

economist.com

“On the face of it, the stunning success of the ISIS offensive in the past ten days defies understanding.”

Devaluing the Bolivarian revolution

www.economist.com

“After months of opposition protests that it portrays as a “fascist coup”, the government of Nicolás Maduro has reason for grim satisfaction. Using crude, but selective, repression, Mr Maduro has fought the protesters to a state of exhaustion.”

Kim Strassel and the WSJ on the Lost IRS Emails

cato.org

“Thank heavens that unlike some in the press, investigative columnist Kim Strassel and her colleagues at the WSJ have been willing to dig into the revelations of evidence destruction at the Internal Revenue Service.”

Tyranny of Experts

Econtalk.org

NYU economist William Easterly clearly and succinctly explains development economics…

3 academics think they’ve solved the HFT problem

cnbc.com

“Mandating that stocks trade in set time intervals would negate some of the problems posed by high-frequency trading, according to an analysis.”

Inside the vast liberal conspiracy

politico.com

“Picture this: millionaires and billionaires gathering under tight security in fancy hotels with powerful politicians and operatives to plot how their network of secret-money groups can engineer a permanent realignment of American politics.  Only, it’s not the Koch brothers. It’s the liberal Democracy Alliance.”

Obama’s Deficient Student Loan Plan

reason.com

“But thinking that more federal aid will make college affordable is like believing that a dog can catch its tail if it goes faster.”

How To Marry The Right Girl: A Mathematical Solution

npr.org

“Johannes Kepler, one of the world’s great mathematicians, decided to marry in 1611. He made a list of 11 women to interview, and he wanted, of course, to choose the best…”, so he invented optimal stopping theory, which is an important result used in a number of different fields, including applied probability, statistics, and decision theory.

Here are the states that small business owners love and hate

aei-ideas.org

“Key factors evaluated include ease of hiring. ease of starting a business, regulations, licensing, tax code, and zoning.”

The High Cost of Cheap Health Insurance

reason.com

“The Obama administration wants everyone to know how cheap insurance is under Obamacare.  But they don’t really want people to think about how expensive it is to keep it that way.”

The High Price of Obama Fatigue

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Wonder Land columnist Dan Henninger writes that the IRS scandal isn’t Watergate. It’s worse than Watergate.”

Assorted Links (6/18/2014)

Iraq: What a Way To Go

www.the-american-interest.com

“The Iraqi state in its historic territorial configuration is gone—solid gone, and it ain’t coming back. Time to start thinking hard about next steps.”

The World Ignites on Obama’s Watch

www.the-american-interest.com

“Yet another sharp shard in a quickly fracturing world: Al-Qaeda has issued a call for Muslims in Kashmir to use Syria and Iraq as a model for fighting India. What’s the plan, Mr. President?”

United States of Secrets – FRONTLINE

www.pbs.org

“How did the government come to spy on millions of Americans?”

A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop

www.scientificamerican.com

“Students who used longhand remembered more and had a deeper understanding of the material.”

The Case for Banning Laptops in the Classroom

www.newyorker.com

A wealth of studies on students’ use of computers in the classroom supports the notion of banning…

Tim’s Vermeer (2013)

www.imdb.com

“Inventor Tim Jenison seeks to understand the painting techniques used by Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer.”

Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham

“What exactly is the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham? What is the group’s goal? A guide to #ISIS…”

Five Things Facebook Knows About You

blogs.wsj.com

“Facebook announced it is adding your web-browsing activity to data that advertisers can make use of to show you targeted ads. Privacy advocates have raised concerns. Just how much does Facebook know about you?”

Why The Supposed Rise Of Mass Shootings Is A Myth

businessinsider.com

“Gun violence in the U.S. is high, but it’s not as bad as it was 20 years ago.”

Expect Soaring College Costs From the President’s Price-Subsidizing Student Loan Scheme

reason.com

“Students who resist the temptation of “help” with college costs will be in a much better position when the higher education bubble bursts.”

Putting America’s ridiculously large $17 trillion economy into perspective by comparing US state GDPs to entire countries

www.aei-ideas.org

“Overall, the US produced 22.7% of world GDP in 2013, with only about 4.4% of the world’s population. Three of America’s states (California, Texas and New York) – as separate countries – would rank in the world’s top 13 largest economies. And one of those states – California – produced more than $2 trillion in economic output in 2013 – and the other two (Texas and New York) produced more than $1.5 trillion and $1.3 trillion of GDP in 2013 respectively.”

11 facts that explain the escalating crisis in Iraq

www.vox.com

Quoting from this Vox article, “Iraq has essentially just began another civil war, and it’s totally unclear how long it’s going to last or how it’s going to end. And no one’s sure what to do about it.”

Bowdoin’s Crackdown on Religious Liberty

www.nationalreview.com

“Bowdoin simply does not understand religion, and that’s why its non-discriminatory policy is really no surprise. The college cannot understand that what it calls “choices” and “decisions” are… matters of faith, truth, and even love.”

Welcome to the Jihadi Spring

www.nationalreview.com

“The Arab Spring is over. Welcome to the Jihadi Spring. Across a huge swath of what, up until recently, had been known as Iraq and Syria, a transnational movement of Sunni Islamic extremists has taken control. “

7 weird and terrible effects of sleep deprivation

www.vox.com

“There’s a growing body of research showing that sleep deprivation is related to all sorts of problems — from increased risk of vehicle crashes to health problems like heart disease and anxiety disorders.”

11 maps that explain the US energy system

www.vox.com

“Ever wonder what America’s energy infrastructure looks like? All those power plants and coal mines and oil wells and transmission lines?”

Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

www.pewsocialtrends.org

“National rates of gun homicide and other violent gun crimes are strikingly lower now than during their peak in the mid-1990s, paralleling a general decline in violent crime, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data.”

David Brat: Election victory ‘was basically a miracle’

www.cnbc.com

“Brat: Cantor defeat ‘was basically a miracle'”

Fathers teach risk-taking, boundary-setting; learning from ‘sock wrestling.

online.wsj.com

“Some scientists are inventing new scales and lab procedures to measure fathers’ special role.”

The guy who beat Eric Cantor penned a scathing, seemingly unpublished book about the economics profession

www.vox.com

“There’s a lot you can learn about David Brat’s beliefs by reading his academic research.”

 

Assorted Links (6/3/2014)

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading, podcasts that I have been listening to, and videos that I have been viewing lately:

Research shows we feel less stress at work than at home. So why can’t a home be more like an office?

“Average cortisol levels were lower in both men and women, single or married, parents or not, while at work.”

Remembering Tiananmen Square

“Only in Hong Kong will Chinese people be able to commemorate the dead. Elsewhere in China commemoration of the June 4th crackdown remains strictly forbidden.”

Texas Shines Bright in New Fortune 500 Rankings

“Fortune magazine released their annual list of top 500 U.S. companies on June 2. Not surprisingly, Texas-based businesses dominated the rankings.”

D-day landings scenes in 1944 and now – interactive

“Peter Macdiarmid has taken photographs of locations in France and England to match with archive images taken before, during and after the D-day landings.”

William Anthony Hay on Edmund Burke

“William Anthony Hay reviews “The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke: From the Sublime and Beautiful to American Independence,” by David Bromwich.” Burke is a fascinating figure in US history; this biography of Burke seems quite worthwhile to pursue!

No Pain No Gain as Tattoo Regret Fueling Laser Removals

A new booming business – tattoo removal.

Buying Insurance Against Climate Change

“Because efforts to stop global warming may fail, one way to handle the financial losses is to share the long-term risks.” Interesting New York Times article by 2013 Nobel Economics Laureate Robert J. Schiller…

How I started writing songs again

Highly recommended! Quoting from the description of this TED talk, “Sting’s early life was dominated by a shipyard-and he dreamed of nothing more than escaping the industrial drudgery. But after a nasty bout of writer’s block that stretched on for years, Sting found himself channeling the stories of the shipyard workers he knew in his youth for song material.”

Hipster Health Insurance 101: Advice For When You’re Getting the Short End of the Stick

Hint: You overpaying so old folks can underpay is not how insurance is supposed to work.

The VA Scandal Is a Crisis of Leadership

“Obama’s inattention to managing the government may kill the progressive project, Peggy Noonan writes.”

My wife is not the same woman that I married – The Matt Walsh Blog

Although its author (Matt Walsh) has only been married for 3 years, this article reads like something written by a person who has been married for most of his life…

Yuval Levin on Burke, Paine, and the Great Debate

“Yuval Levin, author of The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left, talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas of Burke and Paine and their influence on the evolution of political philosophy. Levin outlines the differing approaches of the two thinkers to liberty, authority, and how reform and change should take place. Other topics discussed include Hayek’s view of tradition, Cartesian rationalism, the moral high ground in politics, and how the “right and left” division of American politics finds its roots in the debates of these thinkers from the 1700s.”

Assorted Links (5/20/2014)

Here is a list of articles that I have been reading, videos that I have been watching, and podcasts that I have been listening to lately:

Polls Say: Democrats Risk a Midterm Beating Over Obamacare

George Will – What LBJ Wrought

Quoting from this article, “In 1964, 76 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing “just about always or most of the time”; today, 19 percent do.” (source: Pew Research)

Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis

I will resist the temptation to utter the (vastly overused phrase), “The science is settled”…

Podcast: Tech entrepreneur Marc Andreesen on Bitcoin as well as the future of the world order

Don’t Silence Graduation Speakers

Net Neutrality Nonsense

Quoting from this article, “Living in constant fear of hypothetical worst-case scenarios—and premising public policy upon them—means that best-case scenarios will never come about.”

Beware the City Dolls

Advice for graduates from AEI President Arthur Brooks…

Language and Morality: Gained in translation

“A report published last month found that when moral dilemmas are posed in a foreign language, people become more coolly utilitarian.”

My Commencement Speech to Rutgers’ Geniuses: Go Forth and Fail

“Greetings, Class of 2014. So Condoleezza Rice was too offensive for you. Just wait until Monday morning. Did you learn how to spell KFC?”

Wealth Effect: How Summer Can Change Your Future

Video: Glenn Reynolds on the Future of Higher Education & How Kids are Getting Wise to Student Loan Debt

Flags of Inconvenience

Today’s #Dailychart is our new measure of corporate nationality. This week the French government extended its powers to block foreign takeovers in “strategic” industries, following an offer for parts of Alstom by America’s General Electric. But just how French is Alstom? We have calculated the “domestic density” of selected companies…”

Angling to Be the MasterCard of Bitcoin

Andy Kessler makes sense of bitcoin in particular and financial services in general…

Podcast: The Three Hardest Words

Freakonomics on the importance of admitting that you don’t know when in fact you do not know!