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A few weeks ago I wrote an initial reaction to Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist. Ridley’s thesis is that the key to prosperity lies in economic growth, and that economic growth is caused primarily by innovation fueled by the exchange and mating of ideas. As long as ideas are allowed to move freely they will inevitably mate, mutate, [...]
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I’ve just started reading Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist. So far, it is an excellent, through-provoking read. A key to Ridley’s argument is that the innovation of exchange–the trading between two parties of separate items or services that both parties value–that led to mankind’s dominance of the planet and the explosion of knowledge and technology. [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Economics, government, politics | 1 Comment »
For those interested in the smart and witty discussion of economics (behavioral and otherwise) do yourself a favor and check out Jodi Begg’s Economists Do It With Models (the title says it all). Beggs is a Ph.D. Candidate at Harvard and focuses on behavioral economics (incentives, generally). She has a great sense of humor and [...]
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This weekend’s Financial Times featured a great interview with economist, and ‘prophet’ of the recent economic metldown, Nouriel Roubini. At a time when many economists and financial commentators where underplaying, if not downright ignoring, the looming credit crunch, Roubini was warning of the impending chaos of the markets. Some may claim that he was simply [...]
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Correlation doesn’t always equal causation, but often correlation can serve as a signal. The collection and analysis of data in some areas of the world is messy and slow. Often times this means the data can only tells us what happened in the past. What we would ideally like is a snapshot of events and [...]
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I wrote my senior honors thesis back in 2000 on the interplay between transnational organized crime, corruption, and privatization in the former Soviet Union. At the time I thought is was pretty good, impressive in fact. Well, I’ve learned through the years that, in the words of Nero in Mel Brooks’ History of the World, [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Economics, finance, Recession | Leave a Comment »
Clive Crook does: The problem is not just that specific rules – higher bank capital requirements, for instance – threaten profits and are therefore opposed. It is that all governments see themselves as partners of their industries in world competition. Regulators seek not a level playing field but one tilted to their own groups’ advantage. [...]
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I was familiar with Collier’s work and those that he takes on (Bill Easterly, Jeffrey Sacks) for some time before finally picking up this highly acclaimed book. It didn’t disappoint. The Bottom Billion is an accessible summary of Collier’s work which focuses on the peculiar problem of development for the poorest countries in the world. [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Economics, political economy, political risk | 1 Comment »
Fiction
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)
Non-fiction
The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball
Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value
The Numbers Game
Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate
Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception
The Rational Optimist
The Quiet American
How Doctors Think
The Wisdom of Whores
Switch
Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
