Truck and Barter

An Exorcism Maldives Style

A disturbing video of an exorcism in the Maldives (not recommended for everyone)- I previously mentioned about it in an earlier post.

Maldives Rising

A documentary about the Maldives from Al Jazeera; Part1(above), Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4

I would highly recommed Part 2.

Podcasts- Intelligent Design, God and Style

Intelligent Design

Richard Dawkins and God

Dawkins debate about Altruism

Virginia Postrel on Style

Nature and Religion
Marine scientist Walter Stark, a pioneer of coral reef research who believes the modern view of nature is religious. It holds that nature is pure and perfect, while humans are separate and soiled. He argues that urban Australians' view of nature is problem-obsessed, because problems offer magnificent opportunities to politicians, academics, the media, and of course professional activists

A new branch of moral philosophy

Nick Drayson is a zoologist and a spinner of yarns. His outrageous book, Confessing a Murder, explains the stunning coincidence of Wallace and Darwin 'discovering' natural selection. Now he is in search of platypus memorabilia for the National Museum in Canberra.

Moral Minds: The Evolution of Human Morality

Sex, Drugs and Economics

Note; A lot of these podcasts are available for limited time, so download now.

Capitalism, not democracy leads to peace?

Don Boudreaux links to an interesting working paper by Columbia University political scientist Erik Gartzke; The Capitalist Peace.

The following is the conclusion of the paprer.

“This study offers evidence suggesting that capitalism, and not democracy, leads to peace. Additional research is needed to corroborate, extend, and even refute the findings reported here. One must be circumspect in questioning a body of evidence as large and as carefully constructed as that on the democratic peace. Still, economic liberals have long seen in free markets and prosperity the potential to discourage war. A century ago, the “conventional wisdom” looked more like this study and less like that of democratic peace researchers. While past arguments were clearly simplistic and overblown, there does now seem to be grounds for reconsidering liberal economic peace theory.

Critics can differ with my revision of classical arguments, or can plausibly challenge the assumptions on which my version of the capitalist peace is built. The statistical models I develop, and the findings that I present, can be altered, possibly in ways that again show that democracy matters. For now, I hope my claims are coherent, empirically plausible, and at the very least intellectually provocative. What is the “larger” relationship between development, capitalism, and democracy? It might be that democracy actually lies behind the apparent impact of capitalism on peace. Still, the world was not always made up of 50% democracies. Little attempt has been made to rule out the possibility that democracy and peace have common causes. A logical extension of this study is the exploration of determinants of political and economic liberalism, though resolving these more complex causal arrows would seem to require a far more profound set of conclusions about the world, ones that are still under construction in comparative politics, economics, and other fields.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s gave new impetus to the exploration of domestic determinants of international relations. Today, political revolution from without is being attempted in the Middle East, in no small part because policy makers believe that peace can be had through regime change. If the imposition of liberal politics offers a domestic paradox, at the international level coercing democracy is an extreme, though arguably logical, extension of democratic peace theory. At the same time, allowing people freedom to choose implies that they will sometimes choose to disagree. A growing number of popularly elected leaders oppose the interests of established democracies. If democracy reflects the popular will, and many people in the world are unhappy, we should perhaps not expect that all new democracies will like the old ones.”

Related;

The Democracy Advantage: How Democracies Promote Prosperity and Peace (chapter 1 of the book)

R.J. Rummel's blogs; Freedom's Principles and Democratic Peace

The Declining Advantages of Democracy: A Combined Model of War Outcomes and Duration D. Scott Bennett, Allan C. Stam III

Economic Freedom of the World 2005 Annual Report; Chapter 2 - Economic Freedom and Peace

Book review of Alexis de Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in the Age of Revolution—A Biography By Hugh Brogan -Alexis de Tocqueville's strong views on demagoguery and citizenship are worth remembering, as is clear from a splendid new biography

Democracy pays off in the long run...

Economic and Political Freedom: Does One Lead to the Other?

Podcasts;

Niall Ferguson: The War of the World

History of Altruism

Private Equity- the purest capitalism

Guide to Flirting

An interesting article from the latest edition of The Economist; Flirting-Don't misunderestimate yourself;

“Dr Hill showed heterosexual men and women photographs of people. She asked them to rate both how attractive those of their own sex would be to the opposite sex, and how attractive the members of the opposite sex were. She then compared the scores for the former with the scores for the latter, seen from the other side. Men thought that the men they were shown were more attractive to women than they really were, and women thought the same of the women.

Dr Hill had predicted this outcome, thanks to error-management theory—the idea that when people (or, indeed, other animals) make errors of judgment, they tend to make the error that is least costly. The notion was first proposed by Martie Haselton and David Buss, two of Dr Hill's colleagues, to explain a puzzling quirk in male psychology.

As studies show, and many women will attest, men tend to misinterpret innocent friendliness as a sign that women are sexually interested in them. Dr Haselton and Dr Buss reasoned that men who are trying to decide if a woman is interested sexually can err in one of two ways. They can mistakenly believe that she is not interested, in which case they will not bother trying to have sex with her; or they can mistakenly believe she is interested, try, and be rejected. From an evolutionary standpoint, trying and being rejected comes at little cost, except for hurt feelings. Not trying at all, by contrast, may mean the loss of an opportunity to, among other things, spread one's DNA.”

Related;

Interview with Martie Haselton (podcast)

Study links women's fashion sense to ovulation

Looking Good-Our obsession with physical appearance may not be so shallow, after all;

“A Polish researcher named Grazyna Jasienska recently designed an experiment to determine whether symmetrical women have higher levels of the key reproductive hormone estradiol. In the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, her team reports the results. They compared the left and right ring fingers of 183 Polish women between the ages of 24 and 36. Women whose fingers differed in length by more than two millimeters formed the asymmetrical group. Their average estradiol levels were 13 percent lower than the symmetrical group average.

When the scientists screened out rural women, whose economic status and harder lives could skew their hormone levels, the difference in average hormone levels between symmetrical and asymmetrical urban women rose to 28 percent.

Marquardt's work has an artistic spin to it. Like Euclid, Leonardo da Vinci and Le Corbusier before him, the doctor became fascinated with the possibility that beauty itself could be quantified. His instincts told him that beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. "I didn't find that to be true," he explains in an interview. "Guys seem to agree. They may argue over whether they prefer Michelle Pfeiffer or Kim Basinger, but you never hear anyone say Roseanne Barr." He had always been mathematically inclined, so, beginning in the early 1970s, Marquardt set out to compile the measurements of beautiful faces. He focused on people who were paid for being attractive -- movie stars and face models. His colleagues scoffed: "Every doctor I talked to told me I was nuts," he recalls.”

Our minds are not what we think

From FT a case of patient with Cotard syndrome;

"She was completely preoccupied with the thought that she was dead," he recalls. "She kept saying that she'd died two weeks before and was worried about whether my office was heaven or not."

The young scientist realised that Liz was suffering from a rare and strange condition known as Cotard syndrome, which for the sake of brevity I'll define as the delusion that one is dead. The condition was named after the French psychiatrist Jules Cotard who wrote about some classic cases in the late 1800s. He called it delire des negations and described a host of other symptoms including feelings of guilt, denial of body parts and even, paradoxically for someone who thinks they are dead, thoughts about suicide….

Roughly 100 cases of Cotard delusion have been reported in the medical literature, which certainly makes it rare, although not as rare as some other strange delusions, such as the single case of a man with "perceptual delusional bicephaly". He believed he had two heads and was admitted to hospital suffering gunshot wounds from where he'd tried to shoot one off….

Eventually he did get through, and posed a series of questions to assess an aspect of her personality known as her attributional style. Broadly speaking, this measures a person's tendency to attribute events in their lives to themselves (internal attribution) or to other people or luck (external).

He asked Liz a standard set of questions, presenting her with a range of scenarios - for example, a friend sending her a postcard - and asking her to think about the most likely cause of that event, whether it be herself, other people or chance.

The results showed that Liz had a significantly higher number of internal attributions than usual. This was interesting because it relates to one of the prevailing theories about what happens to patients with Cotard delusion. Scientists think that patients with Cotard syndrome have suffered some kind of disruption to the brain wiring for recognising faces. "The idea is that there are two elements to the visual recognition system," McKay explained to me over the phone last week from his new office at Australia's Charles Sturt University. The first element does the pattern-matching business of recognising a face, the second provides the more emotional buzz of familiarity…”

Via Mind Hacks

Related;

Looking Good-Our obsession with physical appearance may not be so shallow, after all
On Consciousness Evolved by VS Ramachandran
Moral Sense Test

Podcasts

Moral Minds: The Evolution of Human Morality
Incest, infanticide, honour killings - different cultures have different rules of justice. But are we all born with a moral instinct - an innate ability to judge what is right and wrong? Could morality be like language - a universal, unconscious grammar common to all human cultures? Eminent evolutionary biologist Marc Hauser and philosopher Richard Joyce take on these controversial questions in impressive new tomes, and to critical acclaim. But could their evolutionary arguments undermine the social authority of morality? Is biology the new 'religion'? Guests include Marc Hauser and Richard Joyce

Mindfulness
The 'holy grail' of meditation techniques is mindfulness. But what is it, exactly? And why has the medical profession suddenly appropriated this age-old technique devised by yogis and Buddhist monks? Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn, is the world leader in this field. We also hear from 'the guru of calm', Paul Wilson. Having published scores of books on Calm (Little Book of Calm, Instant Calm etc) Wilson is convinced it's a technique he learned in the Queensland outback

A new branch of moral philosophy
Neuroethics is a new field. It concerns the ethics of the science of the mind and the ethical questions that arise out of our growing knowledge of the way in which the mind works. Before the year 2000 there was little need for the term but rapid advances in the sciences of mind, and the rise of pressing ethical issues surrounding them, mean that we cannot any longer remain without the term or the field to which it refers.

The elimination of iodine deficiency as a cause of brain damage

A Child's Spirit
Encounter ponders the subject of spiritual development in children, and also considers how forces at play in the wider world can shape, and often thwart, children's spiritual lives

Note; Podcasts above are from Radio National and are available for limited time...so download now.

Podcast of the Day- Lecture 3 Reform and Deregulation

The Boyer lectures by Ian Macfarlene, former governor of Reserve Bank of Australia, continuos;
By the 1970s the world's developed economies were stuck in the worst position they had been in since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Australia shared this experience but, propelled by a program of reform and deregulation, it slowly became competitive again and began to register strong rates of growth. In this environment the corporate sector embarked on an era of heightened activity, driven by massive borrowings, takeovers and mergers. It is now apparent that the implications of sudden financial deregulation were not fully understood, and the dawn of the 1990s would bring with it new challenges for those charged with navigating the twin hazards of boom and bust.

Listen to the podcast. Some excerpts below;

“Let me digress for a moment to discuss another epithet routinely applied by those opposed to economic reasoning, which is to refer to economics as the dismal science. Whenever I hear this term, I wonder how many people who use it know its origin. It was coined by Thomas Carlyle, in 1849, in an essay called, Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question, in which he argued for the reintroduction of slavery into the West Indies. He viewed the former slaves as 'indolent, two-legged cattle, who should be subject to the beneficent whip'. It is extraordinary that the author of these views which were reactionary and racist even by the standards of 1849, should have had the temerity to refer to his opponents, the most prominent of whom was John Stuart Mill, as representing the dismal science, when all they were doing was arguing that freed slaves should have the same rights as other free people. Mill wrote a reply to Carlyle expressing views that would be widely held today, but unfortunately it is Carlyle's throwaway line that has endured, not Mills' sensible reply….

While there had been a long series of steps in the process of financial deregulation, the decisive one that shook up the system was the entry of 15 foreign banks in 1985. They were eager to gain a foothold in Australia, and this meant lending where it was easiest to do so, which was lending to businesses. Foreign banks everywhere have always found it difficult to break into the household lending market.

The existing banks also increased their lending to maintain their market share, even though they had little experience of the credit assessment required in the new deregulated world. One prominent bank chief said that he had 'thirty years experience as a lending banker, but the first 29 were all the same.' As the competition to lend intensified, many borrowers, who had formerly not been able to obtain credit, did so, and in large amounts.

The journalist and financial historian, Trevor Sykes, sums up the period this way: 'Never before in Australian history had so much money been channelled by so many people incompetent to lend it, into the hands of so many incompetent to manage it.'..

Podcasts

Altruism
The term altruism was coined by the 19th century sociologist Auguste Comte and is derived from the Latin “alteri” or "the others”. It describes an unselfish attention to the needs of others. Comte declared that man had a moral duty to “serve humanity, whose we are entirely.” The idea of altruism is central to the main religions: Jesus declared “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” and Mohammed said “none of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself”. Buddhism too advocates “seeking for others the happiness one desires for oneself.”…
If both mankind and the natural world are selfishly seeking to promote their own survival and advancement, how can we explain being kind to others, sometimes at our own expense? How have philosophical ideas about altruism responded to evolutionary theory? And paradoxically, is it possible that altruism can, in fact, be selfish? Contributors include Miranda Fricker, Senior Lecturer in the School of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University and John Dupré, Professor of Philosophy of Science at Exeter University and director of Egenis, the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (from BBC’s In Our Time).

Niall Ferguson: The War of the World
The 20th century was a period of unprecedented economic growth and scientific discovery, but equally a century of unparalleled bloodshed and warfare - estimates suggest that 1 in every 22 deaths in the 20th century were the result of violence. Niall Ferguson argues that the intensity of the 'hundred years war' can be explained by the factors of ethnic disintegration, economic volatility, and empires in decline - forces which are to be found behind sites of contemporary conflict, notably the Middle East.

Can chocolate cure hypochondria?
Associate Professor in Latin Humanism Yasmin Haskell from the University of Western Australia talks about the history of hypochondria and benefits of chocolate.

Des Moore on Milton Friedman
“Why was Friedman so influential? It was not due to esoteric analyses of economic theory accepted in academia. He did very little of this and many academics resented his rebuttals of the merits of government intervention. His influence came importantly from his ability to explain and defend his beliefs in terms that were comprehensible and persuasive to the layman. His constant theme that adoption of free market policies were in the interests of the common man helped enormously.”

Carbon trading

Humour, learning and kids

Utility of Force- General Sir Rupert Smith (ret., British Army)

The Long War General John Philip Abizaid, Commander of U.S. CENTCOM

A Conversation with Akbar Ganji and Martha Nussbaum

Democracy Amercian and British style

Egyptian Book of the Dead

Does raising the miminum wage help the poor?

Private equity - the purest capitalism
Related blog- Going Private

Podcast of the Day- Islamic Finance for US

Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., talks about opportunities in Islamic finance and the outlook for the U.S. dollar and euro (Bloomberg podcast).

Related;
Britain can be gateway to Islamic finance- Gordon Brown (earlier post)
The State of Islamic Finance in Australia
Short Selling and the Travesty of Islamic Finance

Cayman Islands Emerge As Leading Islamic Finance Domicile
Islamic Finance podcast
Fund for Shariah Scholars in Islamic Finance
Islamic Finance isn’t Islamic

Islamic Finance (World Bank portal on the topic)

Popularity Of Islamic Finance Market On The Rise
“Not surprisingly, the jump in popularity of sukuks has drawn the interest of institutions outside the Middle East.Two years ago, the German state of Saxony Anhalt sold the first sukuk from the West. IFC is the first supranational to issue Islamic securities in the Malaysian market, and the first supranational to issue domestic Islamic bonds in any market”
Islamic Banking (transcript of a program at Radio National)
Two stories on Islamic Finance

Blogs related to Islamic Economics and Finance; Islamic Finance Blog, Islam and Economics

Bibliography on Islamic Banking

Working Papers
Corporate governance in institutions offering Islamic financial services : issues and options
Corporate governance and stakeholders' financial interests in institutions offering Islamic financial services
Regulating Islamic financial institutions : The nature of the regulated
Mapping the possibilities for Islamic microfinance

Book recommendations from Tom Palmer

“People who wish to understand the Islamic tradition would do well to try to start with an examination of the role that Islam played in the development of law, rather than with the various Muslim-bashing books that have appeared recently”, says Tom Palmer.

Book recommendations;

Wael B. Hallaq’s The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law

Harold Berman’s Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition.
Law and Revolution, II: The Impact of the Protestant Reformations on the Western Legal Tradition

Mohammad Hashim Kamali’s books-Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, Freedom of Expression in Islam , Freedom, Equality and Justice in Islam

This Law of Ours and other essays, by Muhammad Asad

Related;
Muslim Basher Robert Spencer Upset at my Dismissal of his Book (Tom Palmer post)

Islam and Economics- blog of Professor at Rice University

Podcasts;
Islam Then and Now
Daniel Peterson believes the key to understanding present Islamic attitudes lies in understanding the religious and philosophical texts of its past.

Interpreting culture
The distinguished American anthropologist Clifford Geertz died last month

Podcast of the Day- First genocide of the 20th Century?

One million people were killed in the Armenian genocide in 1915. It was the first genocide of the twentieth century, and in many ways set horrific template for all the genocides that came after it - including the Holocaust. The Armenian genocide has been in the news a bit lately because the French National Assembly and Senate have passed a bill that makes denying the Armenian genocide a crime.

Taner Akcam argues that issue of the genocide is inextricably linked to the idea of modern Turkey, and says that if Turkey is going to make it as a democracy it must start facing up to its past. Akcam is part of a small group or Turkish scholars who are starting to challenge the Turkish governments' account of the genocide - and he is the first specialist to actually use the politically and morally charged word "genocide' to describe the killings. The release of his book in Turkey earlier this month was met with irate criticism in the mainstream Turkish press. Listen to the podcast (from Radio National).
Related; Genocide?

Podcast of Day- Boyer Lectures

Lecture 2: From Golden Age to Stagflation
For the world's developed economies, the end of the second world war was the trigger for almost 30 years of sustained growth. Ian Macfarlane says the Keynesian system of economic management had served policy-makers well, but asks had Keynesian policies been pushed too far, beyond their natural limits? Inflation began to rise in all countries in the late 1960s and early 1970s. When the first OPEC oil shock occurred it would bring the post-war boom to a sudden close, and give rise to a new condition—stagflation. Some excerpts below;

“These economic developments and macroeconomic debates occurred in virtually all the developed countries. Nowhere were they more prominent than in the United Kingdom, where inflation had two peaks in excess of 20% per annum, during the 1970s and where the UK government finally had to go, cap in hand, to borrow from the IMF in 1976. Perhaps therefore it is fitting that former British Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, be given the last word to sum up what he had learned from the economic turbulence of the 1970s. Callaghan said, and I will quote:

What is the cause of high employment? Quite simply, and unequivocally, it is caused by paying ourselves more than the value of what we produce. There are no scapegoats. That is as true in a mixed economy under a Labour government as it is under capitalism or communism. It is an absolute fact of life, which no government, be it left or right, can alter. We used to think that you could spend your way out of a recession, and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting government spending. I tell you in all candour, that that option no longer exists, and that insofar as it ever did exist, it only worked on each occasion since the war, by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of unemployment as the next step. Higher inflation, followed by higher unemployment; we have just escaped from the highest rate of inflation this century has known; we have not yet escaped from the consequences, high unemployment. That is the history of the last 20 years.

To an economist, Callaghan's eloquent lament sounds very much like a lay-man's version of the dynamic instability engendered by attempts to exploit the Phillips Curve.”

Milton Friedman on Iraq War

“Mr. Friedman here shifted focus. "What's really killed the Republican Party isn't spending, it's Iraq. As it happens, I was opposed to going into Iraq from the beginning. I think it was a mistake, for the simple reason that I do not believe the United States of America ought to be involved in aggression." Mrs. Friedman--listening to her husband with an ear cocked--was now muttering darkly.

Milton: "Huh? What?" Rose: "This was not aggression!" Milton (exasperatedly): "It was aggression. Of course it was!" Rose: "You count it as aggression if it's against the people, not against the monster who's ruling them. We don't agree. This is the first thing to come along in our lives, of the deep things, that we don't agree on. We have disagreed on little things, obviously--such as, I don't want to go out to dinner, he wants to go out--but big issues, this is the first one!" Milton: "But, having said that, once we went in to Iraq, it seems to me very important that we make a success of it." Rose: "And we will!"

-In an interview on WSG; The Romance of Economics Milton and Rose Friedman: Dinner with Keynes? Yes. War with Iraq? They disagree

Related;

The Great Friedman
Milton Friedman - Economist Who Showed The Way For Thatcher
Milton Friedman On Prohibition
Shalom Milton Friedman
Is Monetarism Dead?
Milton Friedman and the Pencil
All the obituaries of Milton Friedman relate this little anecdote
An Appreciation of Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman: How to Cure Health Care
Friedman deserves the thanks of everyone opposed to conscription
Milton Friedman Died. Did We Lose a Scientist?
Milton Friedman, A Modern Galileo
Friedman's theories leave a mixed legacy (something from England)
The Legacy of Milton Friedman
What Bush Could Learn From Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman on Hong Kong (1998)
Origin of the Methodology of Positive Economics?

On the Origins of "A Monetary History" (via Tyler Cowen)
"This paper explores some of the scholarship that influenced Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz's "A Monetary History". It shows that the ideas of several Chicago economists -- Henry Schultz, Henry Simons, Lloyd Mints, and Jacob Viner -- left clear marks. It argues, however, that the most important influence may have been Wesley Clair Mitchell and his classic book "Business Cycles" (1913). Mitchell, and the NBER, provided the methodology for "A Monetary History", in particular the emphasis on compiling long time series of monthly data and analyzing the effects of specific variables on the business cycle. A common methodology and the stability of monetary relationships produced similar conclusions about money. Friedman and Schwartz deemphasized Mitchell's "bank-centric" view of the monetary transmission process, but they reinforced Mitchell's conclusion that money had an independent, predictable, and important influence on the business cycle."

Some Podcasts

Andrew Leigh interview about Milton Friedman (second item on the podcast)

Interpreting culture
The distinguished American anthropologist Clifford Geertz died last month. This week, we take a respectful but sceptical look at his work, its origins in philosophy and its consequences for philosophy. Savage Minds have more Clifford Geerz.

"Shifting aims, moving targets: on the anthropology of religion"- a lecture by Clifford Geertz

Postmodern Theory

Imps of the Mind Gone Awry: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Rituals, checking the stove, repetitive thoughts. Everyday patterns for all of us, but when they go awry, the impact of these imps of the mind is devastating and life-consuming. This week, a provocative theory with new, convincing science - could Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in some children be triggered by a common bout of strep throat? And, nipping the obsessions and compulsions in the bud - one parent's story, and a pilot project already changing the lives of young people plagued by OCD. More links here.

The State of Russia
Professor Christopher Read examines the current state of Russia and its changing political and economic position

Libertarian Paternalism Is Not an Oxymoron
Cass Sunstein, professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School

Anecdotes about Milton Friedman

"Everybody loves to argue with Milton, particularly when he isn't there."
- George Shultz

"Everything reminds Milton Friedman of the money supply. Everything reminds me of sex, but I try to keep it out of my papers."
- Robert Solow

Brad DeLong writes;

“General William Westmoreland, testifying before President Nixon's Commission on an All-Volunteer [Military] Force, denounced the idea, saying that he did not want to command an army of mercenaries. Milton Friedman interrupted him: "General, would you rather command an army of slaves?" Westmoreland got angry: "I don't like to hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves." And Friedman got rolling: "I don't like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries. If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general." And he did not stop: "We are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher"

On responding to criticisms about giving advise to Pinochet regime (Mankiw article on Friedman);

“Friedman was--and is--unrepentant. Of course, he did not endorse the dictatorship. But, he wrote, "I do not regard it evil for an economist to render technical economic advice to the Chilean government to help end the plague of inflation, any more than I would regard it as evil for a physician to give technical medical advice to the Chilean government to end a medical plague." He also notes that years later, when he offered similar economic advice to China, there were no similar protests, even though the left-wing Chinese dictators were no less oppressive than Pinochet.”

Art Diamond recalls;

“One characteristic that came through in class, as well as in his public debates and interviews, was that he was focused on the ideas and not the personalities expressing them. I remember seeing Friedman debating some union official on television. He talked at one point about how he and the official had had to work hard in their youth. Friedman seemed to like the union official; he just disagreed with some of his ideas, and wanted the union official and everyone else, to understand why. By the end of the "debate", the union official had a warm, amused, expression on his face.

I remember once Friedman saying that more of us should speak out more often on more topics; that the bad consequences to us weren't as bad as we supposed. Probably he was right; though he had a lot working in his favor---his quick-wittedness, his good will, his sense of humor, and probably his being so short in physical stature---it was probably hard for anyone to feel threatened by him, so they were more apt to let down their guard and listen to what he had to say.”

John Quiggin has similar views of Friedman;

“Friedman was effective in part because he was obviously a person of goodwill. I never had the feeling with him, as with many writers in the free-market line, that he was promoting cynical selfishness, or pushing the interests of business. He genuinely believed that economics was about making people’s lives better and that disagreements among economists were about means rather than ends and could ultimately be resolved by careful attention to the evidence.”

Thomas Sowell recalls;

“The other side of Friedman was his generosity with his time to help students, and even former students. In later years, long after I had left the University of Chicago, he helped me with his criticisms and advice on my work--only when asked. When I was offered an appointment to the Federal Trade Commission in 1976, he was asked by the White House to urge me to accept but he declined to do so. It was the best non-advice I ever got. I would have been miserable at the FTC.”

Walter Block recollects;

“Another personal recollection. Once, at a Mont Pelerin Meeting, there was a panel discussion entitled “How to win a Nobel Prize in economics. The panelists were James Buchanan, George Stigler and, of course, Milton Friedman. This was pretty fast company. I don’t remember any of the specifics but I remember coming away from that event with the thought that “Milton Friedman is an intellectual tiger,” so overwhelming was he in that discussion.”

Related;

More links at PrestoPundit, Tim Worstall, Aplia blog, Southern Appeal and still more Google Blog search.

Podcasts;

Lucas, of University of Chicago, Discusses Friedman's Economics

Milton Friedman on Money

Friedman on Capitalism and Freedom

Miscellaneous;

How Milton Friedman Changed Economics, Policy and Markets

Milton Friedman- An enduring legacy

The Legacy of Milton and Rose Friedman’s Free to Choose-Economic Liberalism at the Turn of the 21st Century; A Conference Hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

On Milton Friedman's Ninetieth Birthday -Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke

Tennis With Milton

Congestion and Anonymity

Milton Friedman- Money and Economic Freedom

Milton Friedman interview (The Region)

Milton Friedman, a father of financial futures

The Methodology of Positive Economics

My Tribute to Milton Friedman: The Little Giant of Free Market Economics

The World Turner

Milton Friedman, RIP, and inflation targeting

Applying Some of Friedman's Wisdom

Friedman's Sampler

John Maynard Keynes By Milton Friedman

Roofs or Ceilings? The Current Housing Problem

Carnival of Podcasts

The Peasants' Revolt
But who were the rebels and how close did they really come to upending the status quo? And just how exaggerated are claims that the Peasants’ Revolt laid the foundations of the long-standing English tradition of radical egalitarianism?

A bit more of British history podcasts via Brad DeLong. See also British History blog.

Saddam: Personal Insights

Heritage
In this four-part Heritage series Malcolm Billings explores the archaeology of patriotism in the USA; Part One, Part Two.

Air Taxi!
Recently the market for air taxis has really taken off but can this expensive form of personal transport really fly?

Crusading
What exactly were Crusades and how useful are they as a metaphor in the twenty first century?

Interview with John Emsley
If you are really keen to murder a spouse, which chemical element would you choose? Arsenic is SO last year. Mercury is so - well, mercurial. Cambridge chemist John Emsley offers informed advice for anyone contemplating homicide who would like to show a little flair and impress the team from CSI.

Flat Tax Reform in Slovakia: Lessons for the United States

The Liberal Roots of the American Empire
Michael Desch, Professor and Robert M. Gates Chair in Intelligence and National Security Decision-Making, George Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University

Mandela portrait

Talking to terrorists
A discussion about an ongoing dialogue with several groups officially deemed terroist organisations. 'We don't talk to terrorists, full stop' - that is one end of the spectrum of approaches to dialogue. The other end might be: 'We'll talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime, if we think its going to lead to a resolution'. Related - Conflicts Forum

More upheaval in the US newspaper industry

How is technology changing our world?
Today we take stock of these and other questions, have a look at what has and what hasn't changed with respected authors Joel Kotkin and Bill Eggers.

The mystery of Linear B, the script that pre-dated alphabetic writing in Greece. Listen to the podcast.

Interview with Mark Thompson
Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with career entrepreneur and author Mark Thompson, who is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford Business School. Thompson talks about some 200 people he spoke to who have either built organizations or launched crusades – personal success built for a lifetime.

S.H.A.M.
The Self Help and Actualisation Movement is worth more than $8.5 billion U.S. in America alone. From Anthony Robbins getting his clients to run over hot coals to Marianne Williamson teaching that money is energy, and energy is infinite in the universe, it's getting hard to tell the difference between spruikers and sages. But according to investigative author, Steve Salerno, the happiness industry is banking on keeping us unhappy.

The Omidyar Network
In conversation with John Battelle, legendary technologist Pierre Omidyar explains the philosophy and business plan underlying his new network for investment in for-profit ventures which foster economic, social, and political self-empowerment. Applying lessons learned from his founding of eBay, this new investment strategy is based on the belief that people are basically good, and that connecting them with the right tools can build trust and opportunity.

The Economist of the Century

“Sloppy writing reflets sloppy thinking”- Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman has died.

Condolences to his family- his son David Friedman comments about some of the less well-known contributions of the great economist.

“My first post to this blog, at:

http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2005/12/my-first-post.html

described the superiority of the Chicago style workshop, where the participants are expected to read the paper in advance and the presenter to talk about it for not very long, rather than presenting it, over the more conventional approach. As best I can tell the Chicago style workshop was an invention of my father's.

Long ago I happened to be doing some statistical work, and discovered that my father had a statistical test named after him, a way of doing statistics on ordinal rather than cardinal values—just what, in that project, I needed.

I gather that he was in part responsible for a much more important statistical breakthrough, the idea of using the results of the first N tests to decide whether to do test N+1, instead of selecting the number of tests in advance.”

A comment at Freakonomics blog put it nicely one of the things that I liked about him most;

“What I enjoyed most about him was his ability to frame his arguments objectively as opposed to slinging mud and attacking the character of his opponents in the name of ‘debate.’ To paraphrase Thomas Sowell, it was enough for Friedman to state that his opponents were mistaken and their policies harmful—and why.

His genius was that he was capable of thinking far beyond anyone else yet he was equally capable of explaining economic concepts and ideas in a manner than most any layman could understand. “Free to Choose” lit a fire of interest in economics for me, and had I not read it I doubt I would have returned to college to pursue an econ degree.”

Related;
Obituaries; CATO, NYT, Financial Times, Chicago Tribune, WSG, More at Google News.

Across the blogs; Danish blog, Mahalanobis, Catallaxy, Businomics, The Club for Growth, Jane Galt, Instapundit, Reason blog, Economist’s View, Greg Mankiw, RGE, Robert Lawson, William Polley, Arnold Kling

Podcast- Honoring Milton Friedman

Some of our earlier posts on Friedman;
Learning Economics with Milton Friedman
The Secret of Gary Becker
An Email from the Michael Jordan of Economics

Miscellaneous;
A Charismatic Economist Who Loved to Argue
It's easy to forget how revolutionary they were
Milton Friedman: a study in failure (this person needs a little more enlightening)
When I think of Milton Friedman- Tyler Cowen
Milton Friedman: Entrepreneurial Economist
Iconoclastic economist who put freedom first
Favorite Milton Friedman Quotes
Milton Friedman: An Open Book
Friedman's "last contribution to academia."

From The Economist blog;
"MILTON FRIEDMAN has died. An economics giant, he not only revolutionised monetary theory, but singlehandedly did more than almost any economist in history to advance the cause of free markets. He was not merely an accomplished economist, but an accomplished popular writer; his Newsweek columns remain gems of clarity and brilliance decades later. We will not soon see his like again."

The unwritten rules of proxemics

A fascinating article in NYT talks about role of personal space and its implications;

“Communications scholars began studying personal space and people’s perception of it decades ago, in a field known as proxemics. But with the population in the United States climbing above 300 million, urban corridors becoming denser and people with wealth searching for new ways to separate themselves from the masses, interest in the issue of personal space — that invisible force field around your body — is intensifying….

But whether people have become more protective of their personal space is difficult to say. Studies show people tend to adapt, even in cities, which are likely to grow ever more crowded based on population projections.

Yet studies involving airlines show the desire to have some space to oneself is among the top passenger requests. In a survey in April from TripAdvisor, a travel Web site, travelers said that if they had to pay for certain amenities, they would rather have larger seats and more legroom than massages and premium food. And a current advertisement for Eos Airlines, which flies between New York and London, is promoting the fact that it offers passengers “21 square feet of personal space.”

While people may crave space, they rarely realize how entrenched proxemics are. Scholars can predict which areas of an elevator are likely to fill up first and which urinal a man will choose. They know people will stare at the lighted floor numbers in elevators, not one another...

They know commuters will hold newspapers in front of them to read, yes, but also to shield themselves from strangers. And they know college students will unconsciously choose to sit in the same row, if not the same seat, each class.

“If you videotape people at a library table, it’s very clear what seat somebody will take,” Dr. Archer said, adding that one of the corner seats will go first, followed by the chair diagonally opposite because that is farthest away. “If you break those rules, it’s fascinating,” he said. “People will pile up books as if to make a wall — glare.”

Edward T. Hall, an anthropologist and the father of proxemics, even put numbers to the unspoken rules. He defined the invisible zones around us and attributed a range of distance to each one: intimate distance (6 to 18 inches); personal distance (18 inches to 4 feet); social distance (4 to 12 feet); and public distance (about 12 feet or more). …

“In the U.S., it’s very closely linked to ideals of individuals,” said Kathryn Sorrells, an associate professor of communication studies at California State University, Northridge, who is writing a book, “Globalizing Intercultural Communications.” “There’s an idea that you have the right to this space,” she said, noting that it was born of a culture that prizes independence, privacy and capitalism. …

Paco Underhill, the author of “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping” and the chief executive of Envirosell, a research and consulting company whose client list includes Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Starbucks and McDonald’s, discovered that most consumers will walk away from whatever they are looking at in a store if a customer inadvertently brushes against their backside, disturbing his or her personal space.

And so, what may seem like a minor behavioral tic can help department stores determine how far apart to place racks of clothes, bistro owners figure out how to configure the bar area and college campuses to design residence halls."

Related;

Some of researchers cited in the article; Robert Krauss, David B. Givens, Kathryn Sorrells, Nick Yee, Paco Underhill

Do we need traffic lights?

Marketing New Zealand- From fantasy worlds to food

Swarming the shelves-
"Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so."

Five minutes with Nick Yee

Swarm Intelligence

Podcasts;

Trends and Products: Alternate Reality
This week a look into how and why places like You Tube and My Space could suddenly - seemingly out of the blue - be billion dollar sensations. There is a new cultural phenomenon called Alternate Reality, according to University of Sydney's Christy Dena. She explains all

The smell of architecture
Architecture has traditionally favoured sight above all over senses.
So what place is there for the sense of smell in our relationship with the built environment?

Trends and Products: the impact of pdf files
Kevin Kelly writes about the way technology is changing our lives. Today he talks to By Design about the impact of the pdf file, and the way in which information is being digitised. What effect is this having on our day-to-day lives?

Creative prison: design can change behaviour
Do you think that architecture can change behaviour and can influence character? Who knows for sure, but British architect Will Alsop believes good design can change lives for the better.

Trends and Products: ethical fashion

Madness in Bollywood Movies

Seems like an interesting study;

“OBJECTIVE: To study the portrayal of mental illness (especially psychosis) in Hindi films since 1950 and to study the influence of prevalent social, political and economic factors on each portrayal. METHOD: Using two encyclopedias and one source book, films that had mental illness affecting one of the protagonists were identified. The social, economic and political factors were identified using history texts. RESULTS: In the 1960s after India became a Republic, the political climate was one of idealism and as a result the portrayal of mental illness was gentle, more international in its outlook, and used psychoanalytic techniques. In the 1970s and 1980s, as a result of increased political and bureaucratic corruption and an unstable political climate, the portrayals became harder and psychopaths were portrayed more often. In the 1980s, the trend continued with female psychopaths, and avenging women emerged as a major force because the political and judicial systems were seen as impotent in delivering justice. In the 1990s, following economic liberalization, the women were seen and used as possessions in society and the cinema, and portrayals of stalking and morbid jealousy increased. CONCLUSION: Hindi films since the 1950s appear to have been influenced by changing cultural norms which in turn affected the way mental illness is portrayed.”

Via Mind Hacks; Lights, camera, madness - Bollywood style

Related;
A pat on the back for `Lage Raho Munnabhai'
Insanity in films
Indian author and film-maker Ruchir Joshi interview

Podcast of the Day- May the Force Be With You

“The New Rules of the Game is a three part in depth look at globalisation what it means and how it has developed. BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus will take us to Europe, the United States, the Balkans, and China, where he investigates globalisation as a force for both good and evil.

In program one, May the Force Be With You, Jonathan Marcus travels to China and the United States to explore the sinews that bind the new globalised world together. He examines what is meant by globalisation; where did it come from and how has it evolved? What is the relationship between technological change and globalisation? Is it really, as its advocates suggest, a force for good? We hear from one of globalisation's greatest advocates Tom Friedman and from one of its fiercest early critics Robert Kaplan.”

Listen to the podcast.

Iraq reconstruction fact of the day

“Meanwhile, multiple audits conducted by U.S. and other agencies point to waste and malfeasance involving funds slated for reconstruction. The most recent, conducted by a UN oversight agency, found that the Halliburton subsidiary KBR had charged the Iraqi government $25,000 per truck per month for 1,800 fuel trucks that, it turns out, sat largely unused (PDF) along the Iraqi border…

All told, U.S. taxpayers have spent some $38 billion to rebuild Iraq—though much of the country’s infrastructure remains at prewar levels and many Iraqis still lack adequate water, electricity, and heating oil.”

- Tracking U.S. Dollars to Iraq

Related;

Private Profits in Iraq

SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH IRAQ'S HEALTH MINISTER

Cronyism and Kickbacks

"Iraq Is Not Winnable"

Where has all the money gone?

The Least Accountable Regime in the Middle East

Doubling Down in Iraq -Warfare isn't like business.

Reporting Iraq

Iraq Study Group

The Baghdad Billions (podcasts)

Podcast of the Day- Political Economy of Bad Regulation

Russ Roberts talks with Sam Peltzman at Econ Talk.

Listen to the podcast.

Also have a look at a selection of articles by Tim Harford and Jamie Whyte, a freelance writer published in The Times (London), this year’s Bastiat Prize winners and other finalists.

Podcast of the Day-The Search for Stability

Ian Macfarlane, former governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia is giving the Boyer Lectures for this year. The focus is macroeconomics titled The Search for Stability.

Listen to the first lecture- The Golden Age
The end of the second world war ushered in an era of incomparable economic growth. In the era of post-war reconstruction the world's developed countries would enjoy a 'golden age' of low inflation and full employment. Guided by the theories of John Maynard Keynes, governments became increasingly confident in how to apply macroeconomic policy. Ian Macfarlane examines why this prolonged stability led some to proclaim that business cycles and recessions were things of the past. By the early 1970s it was clear such optimism was misplaced.

Here is the transcript.

Economists and Integrity

Two economists who recently lost part of their titles;

Andrei Shleifer ’82 isn’t the only Harvard economics professor to have been stripped of his endowed title after allegedly getting his hands dirty.

Martin L. Weitzman, the Harvard faculty member accused of stealing horse manure from a Rockport, Mass., farm in April 2005, has also recently lost his title as the Ernest E. Monrad Professor of Economics.

David Warsh has an interesting column on the issue. He concludes;

“There is, indeed, a common thread running through both incidents: a rather startling arrogance; in each case a Harvard professor acted as though he were entitled to take whatever he wanted, regardless of the law. Granted, there is not much moral equivalence between a $900 quarrel in a small town, on the one hand, and, on the other, an unrepentant betrayal of an adoptive country, an alma mater, hundreds of employees and a raft of friends (which also cost Harvard well over $30 million and much reputational capital). Applying the same penalty to the perpetrator of a misdemeanor as to a man who smuggled Soviet-style values into the highest levels of government and education in the United States might seem to send no more weighty a message to the Harvard faculty than, Don't get our name in the newspapers by breaking the law. But perhaps it is too early to say.

Small gestures, cunningly contrived, can have big effects. The price of not doing the right thing is going up as well.”

What is Harvard teaching its students? Mankiw, please explain?

Related;
On the Subject of Hypocrisy: The Shleifer Affair

Truth and Truthfulness (podcast)
Philosophers and theologians explore ideas about truth and truthfulness.

Podcasts

“Some people will never learn anything because they understand everything too soon”
- Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope
So how did Pope manage to transform himself from a crippled outsider into a major cultural and moral authority? How did he shape our ideas about what a “modern author” is? Does his work still have resonances today or is it too firmly embedded in the politics, cultural life and rivalries of the period?

The Baghdad Billions- Part 1 (The first year of reconstruction) and Part 2 (Failure of the US aid programme)

Gun control - a new study has found the 1996 gun buy-back had no effect on firearm deaths.

Whistleblowers and the law

Do we have to die?

The Science Show versus God
This week Richard Dawkins' remarkable book The God Delusion is released in Australia. Dawkins, Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford says he hopes that reading his book will make believers doubt their faith. He explains why he is so convinced, through the weight of scientific evidence, that atheism is the more valid viewpoint. Two winners of the Templeton Prize, given for building bridges between spiritual values and science, Professors John Barrow from Cambridge and Paul Davies now in Arizona give alternative views

Stem Cell Research
The history of the science of stem cell research - what are stem cells and when and how were they discovered.

The curse of the Western world: a history of obesity

North Korea
On Rear Vision this week a look at the history of North Korea and in particular the history of the relationship between North Korea and the United States of America

Harry Messel
One of Australia's most famous physicists tells of a childhood in Canada where he excelled at school, did two degrees simultaneously at university, and came to live in Australia. His pioneering work here has to be heard to be believed.

High blood pressure medication
A recent Australian study looked at medication for high blood pressure and the implications of patients' adherence or non-adherence to their doctor's prescription of these types of drugs

Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall talks about her 40 years of work with chimpanzees in Tanzania, and the relationship between chimpanzee behaviour and human behaviour.

Home Fronts: Indonesia
Terry Lane examines the political influence of Islamist values, the impact of radical organisations on Indonesian society and the democratisation of Indonesian institutions, in the fifth program of this six part series

Tobacco and Culture: First Nation Peoples face the Challenge
Sucking on cigarettes. It's a public health nightmare for the world's indigenous peoples. Maori women have the word's highest rates of lung cancer. Smoking rates haven't dropped in 15 years amongst Aboriginal Australians. But, for Native Americans native tobacco still has sacred, ceremonial value.

Paracelsus
He became known as the Luther of Medicine for his reformist medical practices, but Paracelsus, who was born in Switzerland in 1493, was also a religious man. His belief that the body was actually empowered by God had implications for his theories of healing.

Politicians do what they do to stay in office

Lessons from the recent elections in the US;

“About $2.6 billion was spent on the 468 House and Senate races. (Scandalized? Don't be. Americans spend that much on chocolate every two months .) Although Republicans had more money, its effectiveness was blunted because Democrats at last practiced what they incessantly preach to others -- diversity. Diversity of thought, no less: Some of their winners even respect the Second Amendment.

Free markets, including political markets, equilibrate, producing supplies to meet demands. The Democratic Party, a slow learner but educable, has dropped the subject of gun control and welcomed candidates opposed to parts or even all of the abortion rights agenda. This vindicates the candidate recruitment by Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Chuck Schumer, chairmen of the Democratic House and Senate campaign committees, respectively. Karl Rove fancies himself a second iteration of Mark Hanna, architect of the Republican ascendancy secured by William McKinley's 1896 election. In Emanuel, Democrats may have found another Jim Farley, the political mechanic who kept FDR's potentially discordant coalition running smoothly through the 1930s.”

Via Russell Roberts

The dynamics are different when it’s not a democracy- still opposition leaders need to work on building coalitions of willing among moderate and reasonable segments of the society if one wants to build a sustainable democracy.

Related;
The Political Economy of Power (podcast)
The Logic of Political Survival
Principles Must Come Before Politics
James M. Buchanan—The Creation of Public Choice Theory

Using Cognitive Neuroscience to become a Millionaire?

Winner of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?, Ogi Ogas explains how he used techniques of congintive neuroscience to win the quiz the show;

"I used priming on my $16,000 question: "This past spring, which country first published inflammatory cartoons of the prophet Mohammed?" I did not know the answer. But I did know I had a long conversation with my friend Gena about the cartoons. So I chatted with Meredith about Gena. I tried to remember where we discussed the cartoons and the way Gena flutters his hands. As I pictured how he rolls his eyes to express disdain, Gena's remark popped into my mind: "What else would you expect from Denmark?" …

Another cognitive process essential for winning on Millionaire is intuition, or more precisely, knowing how to make decisions based on intuition. What if you have a feeling about an answer? What should you do with your hunch? Folk wisdom holds that on standardized tests you should go with your first impulse. Research tends to support this idea: a first impulse is more often correct than a second, revised decision. But what if $250,000 is at stake? "More often correct" does not seem certain enough to serve as a basis for a decision. How can you evaluate the true likelihood of a hunch being accurate?...

But I didn't hesitate when I got my $500,000 question: "Who was the only Beatle to never appear on a Jerry Lewis telethon?" I had no clue whatsoever. I quickly Switched-the-Question. But my substitute question was almost as obscure: "When Bayer marketed heroin to consumers in the late nineteenth century, it was promoted as a remedy for what ailment?"

I used my last lifeline, the 50/50, reducing the choices to "Stuffy head" and "Persistent cough." I tried using priming and intuition, struggling to recall Victorian-era American opium-addicts, but I got nowhere.

I desperately wanted a shot at the million, so I considered another cognitive capacity explored in my department: theory of mind, the ability to imagine other people's perspectives. I contemplated the show's writers themselves, imagining them sitting at their keyboards composing three fake but credible answers. "Stuffy head" struck me as resembling the kind of manufactured distraction I might come up with."

Via Mind Hacks

Related;

Teach your brain to stretch time
Brain on Fire

Podcasts

The Private Life of a Brain Surgeon
Katrina Firlik's business is brains. Carving into the 'flesh of the soul' is her day job. The first woman admitted into one of the most prestigious neurosurgery programs, she's just penned an insider's account of her world. Part mechanic - part scientist, her intimate encounters of diseased and damaged brains offer a unique, and grisly, lens onto our most mysterious and wondrous organ.

Reclaiming imagination: art, psychosis and the creative mind

Placenta Brain: the cognitive burden of pregnancy?

A long term truce between Palestine and Israel?

Ahmed Yousef, a senior adviser for Hamas has an op-ed in NYT;

“A truce is referred to in Arabic as a “hudna.” Typically covering 10 years, a hudna is recognized in Islamic jurisprudence as a legitimate and binding contract. A hudna extends beyond the Western concept of a cease-fire and obliges the parties to use the period to seek a permanent, nonviolent resolution to their differences. The Koran finds great merit in such efforts at promoting understanding among different people. Whereas war dehumanizes the enemy and makes it easier to kill, a hudna affords the opportunity to humanize one’s opponents and understand their position with the goal of resolving the intertribal or international dispute.”

Related:
Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age

Podcasts;
Islam and the Left
Islamic law expert Jamila Hussein on the veil row
Dr Ameer Ali interview

Islam Then and Now
Daniel Peterson believes the key to understanding present Islamic attitudes lies in understanding the religious and philosophical texts of its past

Middle East Conflict: The Nature of War in the 21st Century
Giora Eiland, former head of the National Security Council of Israel

The most important thing Edmund Phelps learned?

An interview with Edmund Phelps;

"The most important thing I've learned about how markets work or how economies work? …Offhand I can't think of the most important thing that I've learned. Maybe it is that when I was starting out in the subject I had little sense of the uncertainty under which the economic actors in the economy have to operate. I was very much under the influence of textbook models that I'd been studying in college and in graduate school, and it's only very, very slowly over decades and decades that my conception of what a healthy market economy is all about has developed. So I think maybe that's the biggest thing I've learned, is that the future is highly uncertain, the start-up entrepreneurs and even the CEOs and the established companies are aware of the uncertainties, financiers are aware of these uncertainties, everybody acts accordingly, and that makes the economy quite different from the way it is still described in the textbooks."

Listen to the podcast.

Related;
Some of the articles by Edmund Phelps in the Wall Street Journal- Dynamic Capitalism, Remedies for New Orleans, The Way We Live Now, Crash, Bang, Wallop, False Hope for the Economy – and False Fears, Scapegoating the Natural Rate

His columns at Project Syndicate

The Economic Performance of Nations:Prosperity Depends on Dynamism, Dynamism on Institutions (working paper)

Phelps work explained- Tyler Cowen, Aplia blog and The Economist

This Nobel Prize Sends a Stark Signal to Columbia

Thinking of a deposit insurance system- delay it!

A World Bank working paper surveying deposit insurance schemes;

Deposit insurance design and implementation: policy lessons from research and practice- This paper illustrates the trends in deposit insurance adoption. It discusses the cross-country differences in design, and synthesizes the policy messages from cross-country empirical work as well as individual country experiences. The paper develops practical lessons from this work and distills the evidence into a set of principles of good design. Cross-country empirical research and individual-country experience confirm that, for at least the time being, officials in many countries would do well to delay the installation of a deposit insurance system.

Via Spontaneous Order

Related;
What Deposit Insurance Can and Cannot Do
Protecting Bank Deposits
Deposit Insurance Around the Globe: Where Does it Work? ," (with Asli Demirguc-Kunt) Journal of Economic Perspectives
Financial Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda." Journal of Economic Literature, June 1997
Does Deposit Insurance Increase Banking System Stability?
Deposit Insurance - A Survey of Actual and Best Practices
Deposit Insurance - Obtaining the Benefits and Avoiding the Pitfalls
Deposit Insurance -Actual and Good Practices

Multimedia
Global Dialogues: Pricing of Deposit Insurance

Podcast of the Day- God in the Genome

First watch this video- the inner workings a cell (via Boing Boing).

For some like Dr. Francis Collins, Head of the Human Genome Project, and Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, this reinforces the belief in God. Dr Francis S. Collins argues that both scientific and spiritual "truth" are valid and fit together harmoniously and one can at the same time accept modern scientific theories, such as evolution with the belief in God. Listen to the podcast.

Compare with Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dannet views on the topic.

Related;
MeaningofLife.tv
Excerpt: "The Language of God"
Let There Be Light
Scientists on Religion ; Theist and materialist ponder the place of humanity in the universe

Podcast of the Day- Doing Business 2007

Book forum from Cato is now online How Nations Prosper: Economic Freedom and Doing Business in 2007;

“Nations that are more economically free outperform less free nations in growth and levels of prosperity. James Gwartney, coauthor of the annual Economic Freedom of the World report, will review current trends and the latest research on the impact of regulations, the rule of law, and other aspects of economic freedom on the whole range of development indicators. Simeon Djankov will show how excessive bureaucratic procedures and government fees make it prohibitively expensive for the world’s poor to join the formal economy. Reform can make it easier for entrepreneurs and businesses to create wealth. Djankov will show which countries are making progress, how they are successfully reforming, and the potentially large growth opportunities they can expect.” Listen to the podcast.

Related;
Simeon Djankov and the Doing Business Database
Discussing Doing Business
The Road Less Traveled of Business Regulatory Reform

Niall Ferguson on Radical Islam

“The great category error of our time is to equate radical Islamism with fascism. If you actually read what Osama bin Laden says, it's clearly Lenin plus the Koran. It's internationalist, revolutionary, and anticapitalist-rhetoric far more of the left than of the right. And radical Islamism is good at recruiting within our society, within western society generally. In western Europe, to an extent people underestimate here, the appeal of radical Islamism extends beyond Muslim communities.”

- Interview at Boston Globe

Related;

Radical Islam in Pakistan; For years there has been debate over Pakistan's role in international terrorism. What is the link between Islamic extremism and Pakistan and when and how did it emerge?

The American Muslim Dilemma

Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Hurting U.S. Terror Fight;

“The war in Iraq has become a primary recruitment vehicle for violent Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential terrorists around the world whose numbers may be increasing faster than the United States and its allies can reduce the threat, U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded.

A 30-page National Intelligence Estimate completed in April cites the "centrality" of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the insurgency that has followed, as the leading inspiration for new Islamic extremist networks and cells that are united by little more than an anti-Western agenda. It concludes that, rather than contributing to eventual victory in the global counterterrorism struggle, the situation in Iraq has worsened the U.S. position, according to officials familiar with the classified document.”

Phantoms in the Brain

An interesting study- Brain electrodes conjure up ghostly visions;

“Simple stimulation of the brain can cause the mind to play complex and creepy tricks on itself, neurologists have discovered. They found that, by inserting electrodes into a specific part of the brain, they could induce a patient to sense that an illusory 'shadow person' was lurking behind her and mimicking her movements.

Doctors treating the patient, a 22-year-old woman with epilepsy, found that when they stimulated a brain region called the left temporoparietal junction, the patient sensed the presence of a sinister figure behind her who copied her actions. They suspect that the effect is due to the mind projecting its own movements onto a phantom figure conjured up by the brain, an effect that is seen in some patients with serious psychiatric conditions….”

Via Mind Hacks

Related;
Mind Games; What neuroeconomics tells us about money and the brain.

Multimedia;
In the Family - A Journey through Madness
The Dancing Mind
Death; An exploration of the cultural construction of death: the way it's changed in English-based society from rich Victorian ceremony to the simple ritual of today; the difference in response from culture to culture, i.e. Mexico, Ireland and Australia.
The dream debate
Chris Turney on Time, author of Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened

Podcasts –Heavy Weight Economics

Steven Levitt and Malcolm Gladwell at TED

Economics of Paternalism- Edward Gleaser (at Econ Talk)

Econospinnings

John Quiggin at Business Matters

The greatest gift
Donating your body, or the body of a child, to medical research is a great gift to mankind. Most of you can be recycled: your eyes, your skin, your bone or even a little piece of your heart. Now they want to grind your bones for surgical putty. Then, your dead bits will be helping a biotech company's bottomline too. Can altruism and commerce live side-by-side when it comes to giving "the greatest gift of all"?

Dr. Diane Coyle discusses with James Reese several of her books and her recent research on mobile phones in Africa. Books include Paradoxes of Prosperity, The Weightless World and her bestseller Sex, Drugs and Economics. The Soulful Science will be published by Princeton University Press in spring 2007. Listen to the podcast.

See also her book recommendations

Perspectives on Thailand coup

The Economist worries;

“But the bigger danger lies farther south. Indonesia and Thailand were partners in the democratic experiment of the late 1990s. Thailand's democracy constitution of 1997 preceded by a year the downfall of Suharto. And Thailand's apparent success in taming its soldiers has been a model for Indonesia in transforming a deeply repressive society into one of Asia's most vibrant and open. So far, Indonesia's generals have behaved pretty impeccably, despite the many problems of that vast archipelago. It would be a tragedy if the dangerous events in Thailand gave them other ideas.”

Old soldiers, Old habits;

“Mr Thaksin graduated from Class 10 (a sort of fraternity) of the Armed Forces Academies' Preparatory School and went on to become a police colonel, and then a hugely rich businessman, before entering politics. He has continued to foster links with his former Class 10 comrades and, in recent months, has been accused of trying to land them top military jobs. In this he was pitted against the alumni of Class 6, principally General Sonthi and the commanding officers of the navy, air force and national police. All four of these men are members of the junta that has removed Mr Thaksin from office.”

The light side of the coup

Just How Corrupt Was Thaksin?

A view from Bangkok

Publius Pundit coverage

Barry Bosworth, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene from Washington about the characteristics of Thailand's economy, the outlook for economies in Southeast Asia and trade relations between the U.S. and Asia. Listen to the podcast.

'More tank festival than coup'

From Harry Clarke;

"On a nostalgic note, I was living in Bangkok when the 1985 coup happened and was most surprised at how unruffled the local population were by it. My housemaid just laughed when I expressed my concern. ‘Oh Mister, This always happen’. So the next day I got the bus from my home on the Superhighway out to my workplace about 40 km north of the city. We got stopped by army officers holding automatic weapons somewhere around the airport. When the officers got on the bus the young Thai girls on the bus giggled at the soldiers loudly. I remember being petrified with fear but the soldiers just got off the bus and we were on our way – the girls still giggling and me remaining very, very quiet. Later I was told that the giggling was an Asian way of handling a tense situation – maybe."

Corruption in the Suvarnabhumi Airport project

Thai coup worries regional press

Book recommendations from Hugo Chavez

“During his two-hour rant on Bush's satanic identity, the communist leader took time to plug Noam Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Domination" recommending that all Americans read it, and it looks like they might. Despite his supposed hatred of capitalism, Chavez's impassioned endorsement has jolted sales of the linguist's 2003 book from relative obscurity to Amazon's top 5 in less than 36 hours.”

Via OFF/beat

Related;
Watch the YouTube of the comment
Bush's Use of 'Evil' Comes Home to Roost

Simon Bolivar: The Liberator
“Hugo Chavez describes himself as a 'Bolivarian Revolutionary' and has renamed his country, 'The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela'. But who was Simon Bolivar, and would he approve of the uses contemporary politicians in Latin America are putting him to?”- (discussion starts at the end of the podcast)

Events, Interviews, Discussions- Making Globalization Work

Making Globalization Work; Lee C. Bollinger, Tina Rosenberg, Nancy Birdsall, George Soros, and Joseph E. Stiglitz discuss solutions for some of the world's most pressing problems, such as debt, unfair trade, the "resource curse", the need to curb harmful emissions and world poverty at Columbia University.

Clinton Global Initiative 2006

IMF-World Bank Program of Seminars at annual meeting –Singapore (not yet online)

New Foundations of Cost-Benefit Analysis (not yet online)

How Nations Prosper: Economic Freedom and Doing Business in 2007 (tomorrow)

James Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas, talks on the outlook for the U.S. economy (podcast)

Related;
Discussions about the IMF-World Bank annual meetings issues at PSD Blog;
Private sector public goods
Business takes on the poverty penalty
Can the World Bank fight corruption?
Economists debate financial sector in India and China
Reforming collateral laws

Roubini has a couple of posts on the IMF-World Bank annual meeting

FT Interview with Clinton

FT special coverage of Clinton Summit

The latest Foreign Exchange show;
“The World Bank and the IMF are getting together for their annual meeting in Singapore. This year it's not just talk of exchange rates and balance of payments - the United States is pushing hard to give greater weight to Asian and other emerging market economies. To help us understand the dynamics at play, we're joined by Zanny Minton-Beddoes, Washington Economics Editor from The Economist.”

Science Podcasts

A Brief History of Infinity: Space and the Universe

A Brief History of Infinity: Mathematics

The Communications Revolution;
The global effects of communication
Technology in life of people with disabilities
Communications Technology and Influence
Communications Technology and Communities

Harry Messel's life in science;This week is the 50th anniversary of SILLIAC, the first automatic computer to be built in an Australian university and tonight's guest is the man who made it happen. In his 35-year career as head of the School of Physics at Sydney University, Harry Messel taught thousands of students and used his entrepreneurial skills to raise vast funds to support scientific research. Now in his 80s, he's lost none of his enthusiasm and interest in the world of science

Jess Adkins has a lab full of cucumbers made of stone. They are, in fact, drill cores of corals from all over the world. He analyses these with surprising results, getting a remarkably accurate story of past climates going back thousands of years. This young professor from Caltech (the California Institute of Technology) has some amazing stories to tell of adventure and exploration

Why watch birds?;Author and birdy Sue Taylor from Melbourne has written a book called 'Why watch birds?', a beginner's guide to bird watching.

Top 100 Music Videos on YouTube

Compliments of Stylus magazine-“With that in mind, we here at Stylus have democratically selected our humble and largely unofficial picks for the 100 best videos ever made, and are presenting them here, fully equipped with YouTube links for your viewing pleasure”

Via Pienso

Bipolar Disorder Guide

BBC has published a guide on bipolar disorder;

“It takes a detailed look at the symptoms and diagnosis of bipolar disorder, medical treatments and how to self-manage the condition successfully.”

Related:

A Psychiatrist Is Slain, and a Sad Debate Deepens
Psychiatrist Is Among Five Chosen for Medical Award

Multimedia

The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive

In the Family - A Journey through Madness
“This week, a candid family story of life inside. Inside psychiatric hospitals, inside schizophrenia, and inside a remarkable journey towards compassion, activism and understanding. Penelope and Lloyd met and married after years of cycling in and out of Perth's psychiatric institutions. Penelope's 19-year-old daughter, Tynx, reveals a wisdom beyond her years about the impact of growing up with a parent with mental illness. They join Natasha Mitchell in conversation with a story that is sure to move you.” Listen to the podcast.

The dream debate-'The nature of dreams has long fascinated philosophers and of course it lies close to the heart of Freudian psychoanalysis. This week, in the year of Freud's 150th anniversary, we hear a debate on the subject between a psychoanalyst and a professor of psychiatry'

Ageing to Sage-ing;"We now live longer, but it need not be a prolonged denial of the ageing process. Embrace your age, your wisdom, and your elder status and become a mentor to the younger generations. Turn ageing into sage-ing. Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi teaches people how to be spiritual elders, not only for their sake but for the sake of the planet. And while Dementia can spell the end of wisdom for many people, for Christine Bryden it was a journey to self understanding and spiritual growth." Listen to the podcast.

Your Guide to Getting an Electric Shock

Editor of the Philadelphia Weekly and mental health campaigner Liz Spikol, is you-tubeing about her experiences with mental health. (via Mind Hacks)

The statistics are quite alarming;

“A recent survey estimated that nearly half of all Americans will suffer a mental illness during their lifetimes. Harvard Medical School professor of health policy Ronald Kessler headed the two-year study, which polled 9,000 adults across the country, varying in age, education level, and marital status. Researchers conducted home-based, face-to-face interviews, using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) diagnostic mental-health survey. They found that 29 percent of people experience some form of anxiety disorder, closely followed by impulse-control disorders (25 percent) and mood disorders (20 percent). Most cases begin in adolescence or early adulthood, and often, more than one disorder will strike simultaneously.”

Related;

Two recent podcasts from the Health Report;

Only one in two patients receives the healthcare they should receive according to the evidence. One in ten patients receives care that isn't recommended and which is potentially harmful. In the first part of this series about getting health professionals to practice with evidence, Associate Professor Alex Barratt takes a close look at the catastrophic errors that have occurred when evidence has been ignored, and why evidence based practice is still not being implemented in consultation rooms near you. Listen to the podcast.

In part two of Facing the Evidence patient advocates argue that we all have a role in supporting the change to evidence based health care, so we get the care we need and we don't get treatment that's useless or dangerous. Patient advocates explain how to ask your doctor or health professional for evidence about your proposed treatment.

Religion in America

“God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.”
- President Bush according Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

“Education on world religions for all our children, in public and private schools, and home schooling.”
-Daniel C. Dennett’s policy proposal (see TED speech below)

The Economist reviews a recent survey of religious attitudes in US;

“WHEN Homer Simpson opted out of church once, staying home to watch football and eat waffle-batter, he dreamed that God peeled off the roof of his house and appeared, furious, in the TV room. According to a new survey, 31% of Americans see God that way. He (always he) is wrathful and ever-watchful; He wants his followers to stop sinning, and thinks government should be promoting Him. In the South, 44% of people go in fear of His lightning bolts.

The survey, by Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion in Waco, Texas, via Gallup, found four broad views of God in America. Homer's Authoritarian God is the most popular. There then follow, in descending order of intrusiveness, Benevolent God (23%, rising to 29% in the Midwest), who still gives orders but will forgive, rather than smite; Critical God (16%, but 21% in the relativist East), who watches the world but does not intervene; and lastly Distant God (24%), a cosmic force without interest in human matters. This God is especially popular in the wide open West, with its huge views of the stars…”

Related;
Jesus Camp
ABC news report on the documentary
The Anti-Christ Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 (History Channel)
See also Rick Warren speech and Daniel Dennet’s response
Podcasts from Center of Inquiry

World Economic Outlook- podcasts

Saul Estrin, professor of management and head of the department of management at the London School of Economics and Political Science, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene from London about the study of economics and its impact on managers, the outlook for emerging-market economies, and the differences in productivity and lifestyles between the U.S. and Europe. Listen to the podcast.

Lord Meghnad Desai, a professor of economics at the London School of Economics, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene in London about the outlook for the Group of Seven nations, the impact of globalization on the world's economy and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Listen to the podcast

A discussion with Pam Woodall, Asian Economics Editor of The Economist;“World growth, world inflation, world interest rates, wages, profits, oil prices and even house prices are all now being influenced by China, India and other developing economies”

World Economic Outlook press conference -webcast
or read the transcript of a Press Conference on the World Economic Outlook Report (Singapore, September 14, 2006)

Karl P. Sauvant discusses with James Reese "World Investment Prospects to 2010: Boom or Backlash?" a joint report from the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Columbia Program on International Investment

Can the IMF Avert a Global Meltdown?- Keneth Rogoff

See also Economonitor blog. Also Nouriel Roubini's Blog- has a couple of recent posts on the IMF annual meetings in Singapore

More readings on the world economic outlook

Podcasts of the Day

Radical Islam in Pakistan; For years there has been debate over Pakistan's role in international terrorism. What is the link between Islamic extremism and Pakistan and when and how did it emerge? Guests include Hussain Haqqani, Associate Professor of International Relations, Boston University, Samina Yasmeen, Senior Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations,University of Western Australia and Ahmed Rashid, Correspondent with The Far Eastern Economic Review

Islam in the Renaissance; Between the 15th and 16th centuries, the European Renaissance generated scientific breakthroughs including the discovery by Copernicus that the Earth revolves around the Sun. The progress in scientific thought has been attributed in part to the translation of Arabic texts into Latin. However, Professor George Saliba argues that crucial information was contained in texts that were not translated, so how did Copernicus know about them? Guest on the show George Saliba, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science at Columbia University in New York.

The history of scientific discoveries

Peace by Artful Means
In societies fractured by violence, family conflict and global threats of terrorism, how do we encounter 'the other' in ways which build sustainable peace? From the growing practice of mediation to the global art of hip hop, this Encounter explores the role of creativity in transforming conflict

Regaining confidence in western culture

All the podcasts from Radio National’s shows.

Deepak Lal on the World Bank

“The major benefit the developing countries derive from the operations of a number of the multilateral aid institutions, such as the World Bank, is the technical assistance built into the process of transferring the aid money to the recipient countries. Though often sound on general economic grounds, their advice is nevertheless resented for political or emotional reasons. In many instances it would not even have been heard, let alone acted upon, had these institutions been unable to provide the recipient governments with a sweetener in the form of financial resources on more favourable terms than were on offer in commercial financial markets. The grant element in the capital transfers classified as official development assistance seems a derisory sum to pay for the opportunity to carry on this form of international dialogue with those responsible for the design and execution of public policies in the Third World. When heeded, the advice has done some good, at the very least in changing the perceptions of bureaucrats and politicians; in some instances it may have had an appreciable effect in making public policies more economically rational.”
-The Poverty of Development Economics, by Deepak Lal, p.108, (the book is online at Institute of Economic Affairs)

Via Catallaxy

Related;
Reviews of some of Lal’s books- at Stumbling and Mumbling, and at Social Affairs Unit

Culture, Democracy, and Development

Multimedia
A Classical Liberal Defends Globalization- interview with Lal

Two Views on Global Development: Revive the Invisible Hand or Strengthen a "Society of States"?- Featuring Deepak Lal, University of California at Los Angeles, Author, Reviving the Invisible Hand: The Case for Classical Liberalism in the Twenty-first Century (Princeton University Press, 2006), and Ethan Kapstein, Center for Global Development, Author, Economic Justice in an Unfair World: Toward a Level Playing Field (Princeton University Press, 2006).
The current era of globalization is only a partial return to a liberal economic order. Renowned development economist Deepak Lal will explain why minimal government intervention, free trade, free capital flows, and the abolition of international organizations such as the World Bank offer the best path for growth and healthy international relations. In his view, attempts to ameliorate the impact of the market threaten global economic progress and stability. Ethan Kapstein believes that countries will shape their own destinies only in an international system that emphasizes the central role of states and the diverse social contracts they represent. Can these two views be reconciled?

History Podcasts

Harvard historian Niall Ferguson discusses his book "The War of the World: 20th Century Conflict and the Descent of the West"- (Sep 12, 2006 at Vanderbilt University). Listen to the podcast.
Some article by Niall- ‘The Next War of the World’, The origins of the Great War of 2007 - and how it could have been prevented, Tomorrow's world war today. See also SHORTER NIALL FERGUSON: IF WE DON'T ATTACK IRAN, THERE'LL BE NUCLEAR WAR

A panel discussion of the recent and historical conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, its effects on Lebanon and its implications for U.S. policy. Featuring Fawaz A. Gerges, professor of International and Middle Eastern Studies, Sarah Lawrence College, Michael Eisenstadt, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, moderated by Larry P. Goodson, professor of Middle East studies, United States Army War College. Listen to the podcast.

The Wonga Coup
For more detail see this post at Pienso.

Sri Lanka; With violence once again erupting in Sri Lanka, Rear Vision traces the historical roots of the conflict. Guests include Jonathan Spencer, Professor of Anthropology of South Asia , University of Edinburgh, Dr. Jayadeva Uyangoda, Professor and Head, Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Colombo and Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, an independent, nonpartisan, public policy centre with a focus on peace and governance, Colombo

Keeping the peace: the U.N. Security Council; The United Nations Security Council has finally brokered a cease-fire in Lebanon. On Rear Vision this week, a history of the UN's most powerful body.
Guests include Rosemary Righter, Associate Editor, The Times, Ian Williams, UN correspondent , The Nation, Colin Keating, Executive Director, Security Council Report, Former New Zealand UN Ambassador

See also ‘Security Council Report’ will publish, on a regular monthly basis, independent and objective information and analysis about the United Nations Security Council and the issues on its existing and future agendas.

See also this debate from BBC-to mark the end of Radio 4's This Sceptred Isle: Empire series, some of this country's best-known historians will be examining how Britain and other countries around the world have been changed by their experience of empire. They'll be discussing whether Britain should apologise and make reparation for its imperial past or glory in it, and asking whether the twenty-first century will see the birth of new empires. Eric Hobsbawm, Niall Ferguson, Robert Beckford, Linda Colley and Priya Gopal. (the program is available online)

The Hammer Against Witches

Kevin in a comment to an earlier post mentioned that ‘No bigot I have ever known was as scientistic or as vicious as the writer of this article in EB,’. I think the following book Malleus Maleficarum (1486), written as a guide to witch hunting beats the Negro definition from the Encyclopedia Britannica. The book was second only to Bible in popularity when it was published (watched the History Channel video). Some excerpts from the chapter titled; “Concerning Witches who copulate with Devils. Why is it that Women are chiefly addicted to Evil superstitions”-

“…For S. Jerome in his Contra Iouinianum says: This Socrates had two wives, whom he endured with much patience, but could not be rid of their contumelies and clamorous vituperations. So one day when they were complaining against him, he went out of the house to escape their plaguing, and sat down before the house; and the women then threw filthy water over him. But the philosopher was not disturbed by this, saying, “I knew the rain would come after the thunder.”

There is also a story of a man whose wife was drowned in a river, who, when he was searching for the body to take it out of the water, walked up the stream. And when he was asked why, since heavy bodies do not rise but fall, he was searching against the current of the river, he answered: “When that woman was alive she always, both in word and deed, went contrary to my commands; therefore I am searching in the contrary direction in case even now she is dead she may preserve her contrary disposition.”

And indeed, just as through the first defect in their intelligence that are more prone to abjure the faith; so through their second defect of inordinate affections and passions they search for, brood over, and inflict various vengeances, either by witchcraft, or by some other means. Wherefore it is no wonder that so great a number of witches exist in this sex.

Women also have weak memories; and it is a natural vice in them not to be disciplined, but to follow their own impulses without any sense of what is due; this is her whole study, and all that she keeps in her memory. So Theophrastus says: If you hand over the whole management of the house to her, but reserve some minute detail to your own judgement, she will think that you are displaying a great want of faith in her, and will stir up a strife; and unless you quickly take counsel, she will prepare poison for you, and consult seers and soothsayers; and will become a witch.

But as to domination by women, hear what Cicero says in the Paradoxes. Can he be called a free man whose wife governs him, imposes laws on him, orders him, and forbids him to do what he wishes, so that he cannot and dare not deny her anything that she asks? I should call him not only a slave, but the vilest of slaves, even if he comes from the noblest family. And Seneca, in the character of the raging Medea, says: Why do you cease to follow your happy impulse; how great is that part of vengeance in which you rejoice? Where he adduces many proofs that a woman will not be governed, but will follow her own impulse even to her own destruction. In the same way we read of many woman who have killed themselves either for love or sorrow because they were unable to work their vengeance.

S. Jerome, writing of Daniel, tells a story of Laodice, wife of Antiochus king of Syria; how, being jealous lest he should love his other wife, Berenice, more than her, she first caused Berenice and her daughter by Antiochus to be slain, and then poisoned herself. And why? Because she would not be governed, and would follow her own impulse. Therefore, S. John Chrysostom says not without reason: O evil worse than all evil, a wicked woman, whether she be poor or rich. For if she be the wife of a rich man, she does not cease night and day to excite her husband with hot words, to use evil blandishments and violent importunations. And if she have a poor husband she does not cease to stir him also to anger and strife. And if she be a widow, she takes it upon herself everywhere to look down on everybody, and is inflamed to all boldness by the spirit of pride.

If we inquire, we find that nearly all the kingdoms of the world have been overthrown by women. Troy, which was a prosperous kingdom, was, for the rape of one woman, Helen, destroyed, and many thousands of Greeks slain. The kingdom of the Jews suffered much misfortune and destruction through the accursed Jezebel, and her daughter Athaliah, queen of Judah, who caused her son's sons to be killed, that on their death she might reign herself; yet each of them was slain. The kingdom of the Romans endured much evil through Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, that worst of women. And so with others. Therefore it is no wonder if the world now suffers through the malice of women.

And now let us examine the carnal desires of the body itself, whence has arise unconscionable harm to human life. Justly we may say with Cato of Utica: If the world could be rid of women, we should not be without God in our intercourse. For truly, without the wickedness of women, to say nothing of witchcraft, the world would still remain proof against innumerable dangers. Hear what Valerius said to Rufinus: You do not know that woman is the Chimaera, but it is good that you should know it; for that monster was of three forms; its face was that of a radiant and noble lion, it had the filthy belly of a goat, and it was armed with the virulent tail of a viper. And he means that a woman is beautiful to look upon, contaminating to the touch, and deadly to keep.

Let us consider another property of hers, the voice. For as she is a liar by nature, so in her speech she stings while she delights us. Wherefore her voice is like the song of the Sirens, who with their sweet melody entice the passers-by and kill them. For they kill them by emptying their purses, consuming their strength, and causing them to forsake God. Again Valerius says to Rufinus: When she speaks it is a delight which flavours the sin; the flower of love is a rose, because under its blossom there are hidden many thorns. See Proverbs v, 3-4: Her mouth is smoother than oil; that is, her speech is afterwards as bitter as absinthium. [Her throat is smoother than oil. But her end is as bitter as wormwood.]

Let us consider also her gait, posture, and habit, in which is vanity of vanities. There is no man in the world who studies so hard to please the good God as even an ordinary woman studies by her vanities to please men. An example of this is to be found in the life of Pelagia, a worldly woman who was wont to go about Antioch tired and adorned most extravagantly. A holy father, named Nonnus, saw her and began to weep, saying to his companions, that never in all his life had he used such diligence to please God; and much more he added to this effect, which is preserved in his orations.

It is this which is lamented in Ecclesiastes vii, and which the Church even now laments on account of the great multitude of witches. And I have found a woman more bitter than death, who is the hunter's snare, and her heart is a net, and her hands are bands. He that pleaseth God shall escape from her; but he that is a sinner shall be caught by her. More bitter than death, that is, than the devil: Apocalypse vi, 8, His name was Death. For though the devil tempted Eve to sin, yet Eve seduced Adam. And as the sin of Eve would not have brought death to our soul and body unless the sin had afterwards passed on to Adam, to which he was tempted by Eve, not by the devil, therefore she is more bitter than death.

More bitter than death, again, because that is natural and destroys only the body; but the sin which arose from woman destroys the soul by depriving it of grace, and delivers the body up to the punishment of sin.

More bitter than death, again, because bodily death is an open and terrible enemy, but woman is a wheedling and secret enemy.

And that she is more perilous than a snare does not speak of the snare of hunters, but of devils. For men are caught not only trough their carnal desires, when they see and hear women: for S. Bernard says: Their face is a burning wind, and their voice the hissing of serpents: but they also cast wicked spells on countless men and animals. And when it is said that her heart is a net, it speaks of the inscrutable malice which reigns in their hearts. And her hands are as bands for binding; for when they place their hands on a creature to bewitch it, then with the help of the devil, they perform their design.

To conclude. All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable. See Proverbs xxx: There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, a fourth thing which says not, It is enough; that is, the mouth of the womb. Wherefore for the sake of fulfilling their lusts they consort even with devils. More such reasons could be brought forward, but to the understanding it is sufficiently clear that it is no matter for wonder that there are more women than men found infected with the heresy of witchcraft. And in consequence of this, it is better called the heresy of witches than of wizards, since the name is taken from the more powerful party. And blessed be the Highest Who has so far preserved the male sex from so great a crime: for since He was willing to be born and to suffer for us, therefore He has granted to men the privilege.”

Related;
Sexy Devils;What really lay behind the massive witch hunts of the Middle Ages?

Witchcraft Collection- Cornell University

The massa marittima mural / the malleus maleficarum

Witch Trials

Images of Circe and Discourses of Witchcraft, 1480-1580

History of Witchcraft - Research Guide

Multimedia;
WITCHCRAFT- BBC
"Why did practices that had been tolerated for centuries suddenly become such a threat? What brought the prosecutions of witchcraft to an end, and was there anything ever in Europe that could be truly termed as a witch?"

Listen to Helen Fisher for an intelligent discussion for some real differences between the sexes (very highly recommended).

The coming clash of China and India

China has been recently courting the countries of South Asia;

“According to a report this year by Dr. Mohan Malik, professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii, ‘Beijing is skillfully employing economic and military means to draw Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka into China's orbit.’

‘Beijing's main objectives are said to be access to raw materials, commodities, natural resources and access to South Asian markets for Chinese goods and to expand China's influence in the region. However, China's support for India's smaller neighbours suggests that gaining access to markets and natural resources is not the only reason behind Beijing's South Asia policy: Beijing also wants to make a point on the limits of Indian power,’ he adds.

''In fact, aiding "India-wary" countries in South Asia to "concircle" (contain and encircle) India has long been an integral part of China's strategic calculus. As a rising maritime trading power, Beijing is also seeking once again to project force into the Indian Ocean in the manner of the fleets sent out under the command of Admiral Zheng He nearly 600 years ago during the Ming Dynasty,'' Malik concludes.”

Related;
China's top advisor meets Maldivian president
American and Yugoslav to be deported
Work to commence on new museum funded by the Chinese

A recent episode Foreign Exchange;

“China is modernizing economically; that no one denies. But there is a great debate about whether that economic modernization is leading to political change. Is China reforming its political system? To discuss this issue we’re joined by Hongying Wang, who is a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center and also at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. Let me ask you; a statistic that is often bandied about, 87,000 protests in China last year compared with 10,000 ten years ago--what does this mean? Is it the sign of political unrest that some are reading it to be?”

Dictators Watch- Burma

Recent Publications from IMF

Some recent publications from the IMF which are well worth a read;

Global Financial Stability Report- Market Developments and Issues

World Economic Outlook-Financial Systems and Economic Cycles
(analytical chapters)

Doha Development Agenda and Aid for Trade; “This paper summarizes recent developments in the Doha Round negotiations, and aid for trade. As requested by the Development Committee last September, it reviews existing mechanisms for cross-country and regional aid for trade needs. It proposes possible options to overcome the coordination and capacity problems affecting regional cooperation.”

Corruption and Technology-Induced Private Sector Development; “This paper asks whether corruption might be the outcome of a lack of outside options for public officials or civil servants. We propose an occupational choice model embedded in an agency framework to address the issue. We show that technology-induced private sector expansion leads to a decline in publicly supplied corruption as it provides outside options to public officials who might otherwise engage in corruption. We provide empirical evidence that strongly shows that technology-induced private sector development is associated with a decline in aggregate corruption. This suggests that the decline in publicly supplied corruption outweighs the potential increase in privately supplied corruption that could result from private sector expansion.”

Insuring Public Finances Against Natural Disasters--A Survey of Options and Recent Initiatives; “Natural disasters can put severe strain on public finances, in particular in developing and small countries. But catastrophe insurance markets increasingly offer opportunities for the transfer of such risks. Thus far, developing countries have only tepidly begun to tap these opportunities. More frequent and intensive use of insurance markets may be desirable because it could help introduce an important element of predictability in the post-disaster public finances of disaster-prone developing countries. Against this background, the paper surveys the various available insurance modalities and reviews recent initiatives in developing and emerging market countries. It also identifies some key challenges for the insurance community, donors, and international financial institutions (IFIs).”

Prospects for the World Economy-address By Rodrigo de Rato
Economic Policies and Global Prosperity: Challenges for Asia and the IMF- address by John Lipsky

Latest IMF survey

For comment; Why can’t the international financial institutions release a joint economic outlook? IMF deserves credit for putting online most of its publication unlike the OECD, World Bank, or the ADB.

Related;
Chief Economist Jean-Philippe Cotis, OECD on their recent assessment of economic outlook (podcast)
Asian Development Outlook 2006 Update
Labor Markets in Asia: Issues and Perspectives, recent publication of ADB-not available on the web.

Some Podcasts

The history of scientific discoveries; The author of a book called 'Who Discovered What When', David Ellyard, discusses the history of discoveries in science

TCS podcasts- the latest is with Dierdre McCloskey

Regaining confidence in western culture

Reforming Public Services

Facing the evidence - part one; Only one in two patients receives the healthcare they should receive according to the evidence. One in ten patients receives care that isn't recommended and which is potentially harmful. In the first part of this series about getting health professionals to practice with evidence, Associate Professor Alex Barratt takes a close look at the catastrophic errors that have occurred when evidence has been ignored, and why evidence based practice is still not being implemented in consultation rooms near you. Read the transcript.

Drug-driving; why Australia is the world's leader when it comes to random saliva drug testing for drivers

Free Gardeners, Odd Fellows and Druids: a history of health insurance in Australia

Celebrating 50 years of television

Gaia and accelerating climate change; It was in the late 1960s that James Lovelock first suggested the Earth acted as a single organism. He named his observation, Gaia. He was ridiculed and the idea was ignored for decades. It wasn't until the end of the 90s that a new branch of science grew out of his theory; that of Earth System Science. Now, as the effects of climate change have become obvious for all to see, James Lovelock has taken his theory further in a book, The Revenge of Gaia. Lovelock claims we've passed the point of no return with climate change.

Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, debates his views on life and death with a panel of experts

How can we resolve the tensions between the different communities in Europe in the light of the growing threat from Islamic extremists, sometimes dubbed the 'Enemy Within'? Hisham Hellyer is a policy analyst, academic and commentator, based at the University of Warwick as an Associate Fellow, the American University in Cairo as a Visiting Professor and Trinity College in Dublin as a Senior Research Fellow. His research interests include European Muslim communities, the interplay between Islam and modernity, European social policy and political philosophy. In his latest book on European Muslims (due to be published by IB Tauris in March 2007 under the title of ''Islam in Europe: Multiculturalism and the European 'Other'), he argues that Europe must come to terms with all of her history, past and present, and that Muslim communities should work to be integral to, rather than simply 'integrated' parts of, Europe.

History of Israel-Palestine conflict

Globalization’s Assassin

A discussion with senior World Bank economist, Branko Milanovic, who says there are growing fears in both rich and poor countries about the impact of globalisation. He shifts the focus from economics to migration - from the movement of goods and services to the movement of people. The real hot-spot, he says, is Europe, where the fear of job losses to low-pay countries, coupled with ethnic and cultural dilution from immigration, will rock Europe's welfare state economy to its foundations. Listen to the podcast from Late Night Live, Radio National.

related;
Branko Milanovic's posts
Why Globalization Is in Trouble, Part 1 and Part 2
Worlds Apart: Book Discussion
THE THREE CONCEPTS OF INEQUALITY DEFINED
Branko Milanovic columns at Project Syndicate
What Can Foreign Aid Do For the World’s Poor?
Martin Wolf’s Forum on Globalisation
Income Distribution and Trade Policy
General and Conceptual Discussions of Poverty, Inequality & Globalization
Explaining the Gains from Globalization
Inequality around the world

Fighting Corruption the Celtel Way

Mohamed Ibrahim, Founder and Chairman, Celtel International writes in the latest Development Outreach;

"Any international business operating in Sub Sahara Africa needs to face the issue of corruption. From the beginning Celtel adopted a very strict set of six values, the first of which is: “We are open, honest and transparent.” We applied these values at all levels: from the shareholders and the Board to a handbook for every employee.

When searching for shareholders we sought institutions who could contribute expertise and guidance as well as money. Early examples included the Commonwealth Development Corporation (now Actis), the British Government’s development finance arm and the International Finance Corporation —part of the World Bank Group. Both had many years of experience investing in Africa and were rigorous in ensuring that every Celtel investment and local partner passed their transparency scrutiny.

Right from the start Celtel was run as a Western institutionalized company (it is based in the Netherlands). We believe good governance starts at home. So we formed a very talented and experienced Board of Directors, with shareholder representatives and strong independent directors from the worlds of politics and business such as Lord Prior, formerly a UK Cabinet minister, Dr Salim Salim, the African statesman and a former Prime Minister of Tanzania and Sir Gerry Whent, the original founder of Vodafone.

Some might regard such a heavyweight Board as restrictive to a start up company. But for Celtel this has helped navigate some of the complex political currents. We made it clear that any requests for political donations and the like would be referred to the main Board and discussed by the representatives of major donor nations. It showed everybody that we were serious about our anti-corruption stance and it was a great protection.

It also brought recognition to Celtel: when giving the inaugural IFC Client Leadership award, Peter Woicke, former IFC Executive VP, said Celtel is “a company that sets the gold standard for its peers anywhere in the world, a company that is a role model for others, regardless of sector, region or country.”

I don’t know whether every company can afford a corruption repellant board of directors especially when honest people are an endangered species in a lot of poor countries.

Related;
Business and the Millennium Development Goals: An Active Role for Globally Responsible Companies
See also Mohamed Ibrahim’s presentation at the PSD Forum
Measuring Corruption: Myths and realities
Corruption and prosperity don't go together in the Solomons
Fighting Corruption: Business as a Partner

The Seduction of Culture in German History

During the Allied bombing of German cities, Hitler was more concerned by the loss of cultural treasures than he was by human casualties. At the time, his propagandists broadcast the fact, believing it would impress the German public by revealing Hitler's cultural sensitivity: the artist's spirit inside the military uniform. Wolf Lepenies argues that this incident is part of the long German tradition of valuing cultural achievement above all else, including politics - a tradition which he believes has had a catastrophic consequences for his country. Listen to the podcast from Radio National (starts at the end of the program).

Here is the Introduction of the book;

“This book examines the German attitude of regarding culture as a substitute for politics and of vilifying politics, understood above all as parliamentary politics, as nothing but an arena of narrow-minded, interest-group bargaining and compromise. But this work is not a debate on the Sonderweg (special path) in disguise, asserting that the aversion to politics and the idealist and romantic veneration of culture were the main reason why Germany departed from the "normal" Western course of development and steered into the disaster of Nazism. I do not describe an attitude that is a uniquely German phenomenon. Still, I argue that an overestimation of cultural achievements and a "strange indifference to politics" (G.P. Gooch) nowhere played a greater role than in Germany and have nowhere else survived to the same degree. Seeing culture as a substitute for politics has remained a prevailing attitude throughout German history--from the glorious days of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Weimar through, though now in considerably weaker form, the reunification of the two Germanys after the fall of communism. Peter Gay, Georg Mosse, Fritz Ringer, Fritz Stern, Peter Viereck, and others have explored this specific German attitude toward culture and politics. I am revisiting their arguments and try to offer new insights into an old problem. “

Also recommended;
The Wages of Destruction: The Making and the Breaking of the Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze. See reviews at Financial Times and The Guardian. Brad de Long also recommends the book.

Will Internet bring democracy to the Arabs?

Kuwait’s Annus Mirabilis, an interesting article on Kuwaiti political developments;

“Like the orange-clad protesters, candidates sent reams of text messages, using lists of cell phone numbers generated from records of attendees asked to sign in at events. Some messages, featuring rumor and gossip, were campaign tricks designed to make another candidate look bad. Most focused on thanking the recipient for his or her support and offered information about the candidate’s next event.

Blogs were a more important innovation. Voters could read some of the more sensational blog postings in daily newspapers. The Orange Movement leadership maintains a blog originating in the United States, managed jointly by overseas Kuwaiti students and one of the Orange organizers. This blog, KuwaitJunior, provided running news and commentary during the emiri transition in January 2006. During the campaign, it brought electoral corruption into the public eye thanks to a posting by a woman who recounted how two men in Rula Dashti’s district had attempted to buy her vote with the promise of a Chanel handbag. Although she did not mention the candidate’s name, it soon became public knowledge that she was speaking of Jamal al-‘Umar. The Orange leadership investigated this allegation by dispatching an undercover member, armed with a small video camera, to negotiate with the vote buyers. The camera failed, but the agent managed to capture pictures and voices on her cell phone. Then four young men who were not Orange organizers decided to challenge al-‘Umar during an event at his tent in Jabriyya southeast of Kuwait City. They asked him to explain why people were buying votes on his behalf if he was innocent of corruption as he claimed. The youths were roughed up and thrown out by the candidate’s assistants and, adding insult to injury, the Jabriyya police refused to accept their assault complaint. The worst part of the story came at the end, when al-‘Umar came in second, thereby winning a seat in the 2006 parliament….

All of which brings us back to democracy and Kuwait’s year full of miracles. As political scientist Eleanor Doumato has observed, women’s rights in the Arab Gulf states are the gift of monarchs, not parliaments. This is certainly the case in Kuwait, where opinion polls taken before the electoral law was changed in May 2005 showed a discouraging lack of support for female candidates, although more for female voters. The role of democracy in the 2006 election should be considered in broader terms than that, however. That there was an election at all was even more indicative of expectations that a democratic process should -- and did -- exist in Kuwait. The demonstrations that helped bring down the government were non-violent, as was virtually all of the official response to them. The new emir may have acted precipitously in canceling the parliamentary session and calling a new election -- and the speaker of the parliament later excoriated this decision publicly as unnecessarily confrontational. Yet only 20 years ago, a Kuwaiti emir dissolved a parliament and did not call for a new election until invasion, war and liberation made it impossible for him to continue resisting demands for the restoration of constitutional life.

These demands came from Kuwaitis, through a long and occasionally frightening period when street demonstrations were met with more than the possibly accidental injury of one person by a policeman’s baton. The pro-democracy movement of 1989-1990 saw more widespread beating of demonstrators, along with the desecration of a mosque by tear gas and police dogs, and the arrest of more than a dozen prominent dissidents. Demands for reform came from outside, too, not only from exiles abroad during the Iraqi occupation, but also from countries that, having sent troops to liberate Kuwait, expected its leaders to behave better than the ousted invader. Despite clerical and even popular criticism, after liberation foreign ambassadors and NGOs pressed for women’s rights, protection for stateless persons, better treatment of maids and other foreign workers, and structural changes to open Kuwait’s economy and political system. That each of these causes was also advocated by Kuwaitis does not diminish the usefulness of external support from those whose good opinion Kuwaiti leaders value. Such external advocacy is not only an additional check on backsliding toward a more authoritarian past, but is also evidence that other governments support democratization in the Middle East.

Jamie Meyerfeld, writing in support of the International Criminal Court, emphasizes the role of external checks to support democracy. “Like Ulysses tied to the mast…democracies steel themselves against future unwise temptations…. It is astonishing that [102] countries have voluntarily agreed to make their own leaders vulnerable to prosecution and punishment before an international court.” Similarly, international observers add to the checks exercised by national constituents of governments. These national watchers are more important, of course, but a little encouragement from outside can reinforce their efforts to build democratic institutions, and discourage governments impatient with the noisy demands of democratic politics from shutting those institutions down. If the international community were serious about democratization, no pillar of authoritarianism would fall without an attentive audience listening for the crash.”

Via Abu Aardvark

Related;
Young Kuwaitis turn ‘Orange’
Kuwaiti women one step away from their political rights
Kuwait and democracy in the Gulf;

“Kuwait is hardly a model of democracy either—at least, not yet. Its head of state is hereditary, and he appoints the 15-person cabinet. Typically, half its ministers are members of the ruling Al Sabah family. All have voting rights in the parliament. This raises the number of legislators from the 50 elected MPs to 65, and raises the bar for winning a vote against the government. Yet the parliament does have the right to embarrass ministers with tricky questions. It can rely on the Arab world's freest press to air grievances, too, though in this small, hyper-rich state with barely 1m citizens among its 2.3m residents, word of scandal gets around anyway. In January, it won greater legitimacy when it endorsed the removal of the ailing crown prince, only a few weeks after the death of the previous emir, and his replacement by an abler man.”

Can Iraq Make It?
Why America gives Israel its unconditional support
Moody's warns of risk for Gulf banks

Multimedia;
Illusion and Reality in the Middle East-A Discussion of American Strategy Regarding Iran, Syria, and the Greater Middle East (podcast from New America Foundation)
Is Dubai the new model for the Middle-East?
Obituary: Egyptian Nobel Laureate writer Naguib Mahfouz

Balancing freedom against security

Dahlia Lithwick reviews Posner’s new book;

“That is why Judge Richard Posner is such a welcome voice in the national conversation about balancing freedom against security. Posner, the brilliant and prolific federal appeals court judge, is renowned—and not always in a good way—for putting a price tag on everything. But whatever quibbles liberals may have with his law-and-economics approach to anything from rape to unwanted babies, they should celebrate the intellectual rigor he brings to the problem of civil liberties in wartime. In his new book, Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency, Judge Posner approaches the wartime civil-liberties problem in precisely the manner the Bush administration will not: with a meticulous, usually dispassionate, weighing of what is gained against what is lost each time the government engages in data-mining, indefinite detentions, or the suppression of free speech…

What Posner offers is the suggestion that careful balancing of liberties lost against security gained is a better alternative than the current regime that recognizes no cost to freedoms lost and no accountability for security achieved. By virtue of this careful balancing, Posner even criticizes a few Bush administration decisions. He questions, for instance, the decision to suspend the right to habeas corpus of U.S. citizens or foreign terrorists captured in the United States because he deems the cost of indefinite detention to exceed the gain in public safety.”

Related;
The Constitution is not a suicide pact
The Glenn & Helen Show: Richard Posner on Terrorism and the Constitution
Judge Posner interview Charlies Rose

Economics of Duty Free Shops

Just re-watched Seinfeld’s The Airport episode;

Kramer: If anything, we'll probably get there early. I'll have a chance to
go to the Duty Free shop.
George: The Duty Free Shop? Duty Free is the biggest sucker deal in retail.
Do you know how much duty is?
Kramer: Duty.
George: Yeah, "duty". Do you know how much duty is?
Kramer: No, I dunno how much duty is.
George: Duty is *nothing*. It's like sales tax...
Kramer: I still like to stop at the duty free shop.
George: I like to stop at the duty free shop.

Related;
Seinfeld Classic Kramer & George – clip from The Airport
The Economics of Duty-Free Shopping
Duty Free at Baghdad International Airport
A Dilemma for Duty Free Shops

Podcast of the Day- Freud the philosopher

Sigmund Freud was born 150 years ago this year. He was, of course, the father of psychoanalysis, but was he in any sense a philosopher? Listen to the podcast from Radio National.

Related;

In Freudian Slips Lisa Appignanesi revisits five of Freud’s major works for their centenary- BBC Science radio series.

Philosophy Radio Show

Science and the Theft of Humanity

Freud in Our Midst

Was Freud doing science?

Blogs Philosophy related; A collection of blogs by David Chalmer, Marginal Revolution philosophy archive, Crooked Timber philosophy archive, Antimeta, Leiter Reports, The Fly Bottle, Show-Me the Argument, Plato’s beard, the web of belief, Thoughts Arguments and Rants,Crescat Sententia

Philosopher’s Carnival

Ask Philosophers

Philosophy Talk

Mark Steel lectures on Freud, Aristotle, Descartes - they have now been removed from Google Video

Freud birthday roundup

Iraq Chaos

Juan Cole has a commentary in Salon on the divisions between the Shiite community in Iraq;

“Sadly, not even the man once considered the Shiites' great peacemaker has been able to stop the violence. The decline in influence of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, once a revered voice of calm and unity, underlines the fragmentation of the Shiite south. When his call to stop a Shiite-on-Shiite skirmish in mid-August went unheeded, Sistani was reportedly so discouraged that he was said to be contemplating a complete withdrawal from politics. Sistani had earlier been a key architect of Shiite unity, cobbling the various religious parties into the United Iraqi Alliance, which has more or less won both parliamentary elections. But his influence has waned as he has continued to preach social harmony and avoidance of reprisals against Sunnis, a message the Shiite masses no longer want to hear.

The military position of the United States and Britain in Iraq is already fragile. Coalition forces seem barely able to keep a lid on the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement in Ramadi, Samarra, Mosul and even Baghdad. The Pentagon admitted in its recent quarterly report that violence was up 15 percent in May through July over the previous quarter. July was the most violent month in terms of civilian fatalities since the fall of Saddam. Some 90 percent of the dead are simply found in the street - bullet in the brain, hands tied, signs of torture. For the most part such violence has been a dirty war conducted by Sunni and Shiite militias against one another. If Shiite-on-Shiite violence spreads, at a time when even Grand Ayatollah Sistani has been helpless to intervene, it is difficult to see how the American and British militaries can remain viable in Iraq.”

Related:

Iraq Country Analysis- Energy Information Administration

Cordesman: Civil War Can Break Out Anytime In Iraq

Iraq, Terrorism, and U.S. Politics

Fact Sheet: The President's National Strategy for Combating Terrorism

Saddam 'had no link to al-Qaeda' ; Senate's Intelligence Committee report

PortAl Iraq

The Official Website of the Multi-National Force in Iraq

After the Guns of August- Saad Eddin Ibrahim;

"President George W. Bush has been short on neither initiatives nor catchy slogans and acronyms. Recent years are littered with them: “Global War on Terror” (GWOT), “Road Map,” “Middle East Partnership Initiative “ (MEPI), “Broader Middle East and North Africa” (BMENA) – originally “Greater Middle East Initiative (GMEI) – Democracy Assisted Dialogue (DAD), and so on. His latest reverie, envisioned in the thick of the recent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, was the New Middle East (NME), with US clients Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia serving as the pillars of regional order."

Watchdog criticises US-run Radio Sawa, Alhurra TV; The Government Accountability Office (GAO) also found that Sawa and the Alhurra satellite television network were falling short in measuring the quality of their programmes, which the stations say reach nearly 36 million people.

Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq- Quarterly Reports

The Iraqi Conflict- miscellaneous links on Iragi history

Talking to Terrorists (podcast)
"This is a conversation with Rick Welch, a lawyer from McConnelsville, Ohio, who is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army reserve. For 18 months, from late 2003 until the middle of last year, Rick was the civil-military advisor to the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, Taskforce Baghdad, and a major part of his job was to sit down with key figures in the insurgency"

Asia's Economic Success- Perspiration or Inspiration?

“For China and India, where the typical citizen is still a farmer and not an assembly line worker or a call center employee, continued productivity growth will come from the shift out of agriculture, but because a substantial portion of the population will still be employed in agriculture in these poor Asian economies for some time, an important objective of policy should be to improve agricultural productivity. For the richer Asian countries, the typical worker will increasingly be a stockbroker or a shop assistant, not a manufacturing worker. The focus there should be on improving service sector productivity. The problem here is service sector productivity has been trending downwards. Again, while governments should create an enabling environment for productivity growth by providing citizens broad-based access to education and finance as well as securing private property, they should also open to agriculture and services, especially open these to foreign competition as well as to domestic competition, so that these sectors have the same chance to generate the strong productivity growth that manufacturing has done in much of Asia.”

- Raghuram Rajan, Economic Counselor and Director of Research,IMF
Press Briefing on the Analytic Chapters of the World Economic Outlook

The Road Less Traveled of Business Regulatory Reform

According to the World Bank's Doing Business 2007, the four steps to successful business regulatory reform;

• Start simple and consider administrative reforms that don’t need legislative changes.
• Cut unnecessary procedures, reducing the number of bureaucrats entrepreneurs interact with.
• Introduce standard application forms and publish as much regulatory information as possible.
• And remember: many of the frustrations for businesses come from how regulations are administered. The internet alleviates these frustrations without changing the spirit of the regulation

More on the report from the preface;

“Regulations affecting 10 areas of everyday business are measured: starting a business, dealing with licenses, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.

The methodology has limitations. Other areas important to business—such as a country’s proximity to large markets, quality of infrastructure services (other than services related to trading across borders), the security of property from theft and looting, the transparency of government procurement, macroeconomic conditions or the underlying strength of institutions—are not studied directly by Doing Business. To make the data comparable across countries, the indicators refer to a specific type of business—generally a limited liability company operating in the largest business city.

The methodology for 4 of the Doing Business topics changed in this edition. For paying taxes, the total tax rate now includes all labor contributions paid by the employer and excludes consumption taxes. For enforcing contracts, the case study was revised to reflect a typical contractual dispute over the quality of goods rather than a simple debt default. For trading across borders, Doing Business now reports the cost associated with exporting and importing cargo in addition to the time and number of documents required. And for employing workers, nonwage labor costs are no longer included in the calculation of the ease of employing workers. For these reasons— as well as the addition of 20 new economies—last year’s rankings on the ease of doing business are recalculated using the new methodology and reported in the Overview.”

Singapore is the number one in the rankings- coincidently the World Bank-IMF annual meetings are also being held in Singapore this month. It is interesting that Singapore (not a democratic country according to Acemoglu) beat more deomcratic countries like Australia in the rankings.

As for a lot of the other poor countries, there is a sense in these countries that a lot of the wealth has been generated through either corruption or unfair competition. May be one need to take a hard look at some of the local partners of the Doing Business survey for their independence.

Quick Links;
The Doing Business Law Library
Create their own custom dataset of main indices
Local Partners
Economy Rankings
Explore Economies
Economy Characteristics

Related;
Blog coverage of the report- PSD Blog, New Economist, Greg Mankiw, Econlog, Pienso.

Doing Business and Poverty Reduction

Does Doing Business suck?

Business Regulation measure

Measuring Labor Market Flexibility

MI Indexes

Doing Business in 2006: Creating Jobs-online discussion

How Should States Encourage Entrepreneurship?
"At the heart of this public policy issue are two competing views of how to facilitate entrepreneurship. For some policymakers encouraging entrepreneurship involves improving the entrepreneurial climate through the lowering of tax and regulatory burdens. This view is consistent with a large body of academic literature showing that a good way to encourage entrepreneurship is to provide individuals with the freedom to pursue their dreams. Other policymakers focus on the financial constraints facing would-be entrepreneurs and how public policy can mitigate the financial hurdles to entrepreneurship. State financing of venture capital firms is consistent with this view."

Multimedia
Podcast of news from the World Bank on the Doing Business 2007
The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else; I would also highly recommed de Soto's book, 'The Other Path'
How to Reform the Business Environment ; highly recommended especially comments by Egyptian minister.
Doing Business in 2006: Creating Jobs- Book Event at Cato
Doing Business in India Today: McDonalds Experience Entering the Indian Market

Related Bank Publications
Doing business in 2006 - creating jobs
Doing Business in 2005
Doing business in 2004 : understanding regulation
Doing business in South Asia in 2005
Doing business in 2005: comparing the Cambodian business environment with the world
Doing business in 2005 : India regional profile
Ukraine - Cost of doing business survey, 2002
Latvia : self-assessment report on administrative barriers to doing business
Perceived obstacles to doing business: worldwide survey results
Doing better business through effective public consultation and disclosure : a good practice manual
Doing business in Brazil
Doing business in Mexico
Despite many reforms, doing business is still not easy in Vietnam
Institutional obstacles to doing business : region-by-region results from a worldwide survey of the private sector

*updated 8th September, 2006

Podcasts Carnival

Dr Karl Sauvant - World Investment Prospects to 2010: Boom or Backlash? (Radio Economics). Here is special edition of the report

Jospeh Stiglitz: making globalisation work; Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has written a follow-up to his best-selling book "Globalisation and it Discontents" which looks at the current problems with globalisation and the forces of reform at work. Related posts by Tyler Cowen on Making Globalization Work, or Joe Stiglitz watch, part II and Joe Stiglitz watch

Sri Lanka; With violence once again erupting in Sri Lanka, Rear Vision traces the historical roots of the conflict. Guests include Jonathan Spencer, Professor of Anthropology of South Asia , University of Edinburgh, Dr. Jayadeva Uyangoda,Professor and Head, Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Colombo, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, an independent, nonpartisan, public policy centre with a focus on peace and governance, Colombo

Books That Shook the World - Plato's Republic

Anthony Arnove; The Logic of Withdrawal

Christopher Scanlon on The Joint Strike Fighter

Australia and the nuclear renaissance; Nuclear is back. Australia, with its abundant ore and 'good guy' status could become a key member of the uranium enricher's club. But what would the neighbours think? And how would the twin threats of weapons proliferation and waste disposal be addressed?

John Mortimer (Edinburgh International Book Festival)

Polash Larsen's review of Londonstani, by Gautam Malkani

Engineering wonders: tunnels and bridges

Pharmaceutical design

Over-fished or over-regulated?; According to marine biologist Dr Walter Starck, Australia has the most over-managed, heavily restricted and least productive fishery industry in the world. He'll be speaking at the upcoming Australian Environment Foundation inaugural conference. We're also joined by chair of the foundation, Don Burke, to hear why Australia needs another environment group.

Guantanamo on stage

Australia On The Map Part One: The Siren South; This is the first program in the Australia On The Map series, exploring early Dutch exploration of the Australian coastline. This year marks the 400th Anniversary of the first mapping of our northern coastline by Dutchman Jan Lodewijkszoon van Rosingeyn and the crew of the Duyfken

Jess Adkins has a lab full of cucumbers made of stone. They are, in fact, drill cores of corals from all over the world. He analyses these with surprising results, getting a remarkably accurate story of past climates going back thousands of years. This young professor from Caltech (the California Institute of Technology) has some amazing stories to tell of adventure and exploration

Jane Goodall is one of the best-known observers of animal behaviour. She revolutionised the field in the 1960s by watching chimpanzees in the wild. What now does she make of their relationship with humans? And what are their prospects? Will they really become extinct outside zoos within a generation?

Lee Edwards; BP now stands for Beyond Petroleum. The company says it is proud of its diversification from fossil fuels. But will solar be enough to make a difference? Dr Lee Edwards runs BP's solar research from his base in Chicago and he foresees cities which are self-reliant through the sun and alternative sources rather than through a dependence on oil. But will BP withstand competition from less green rivals?

Western Democracies and Voter Cynicism

Derek Denton: The Dawning of Consciousness

Muslim feminism

Teachers and Performance Pay
featuring Andrew Leigh, Economist,Australian National University Co-author of "How and Why has Teacher Quality Changed in Australia?"

Why teach grammar in school?

Anyone who had a heart would know their own language; Another chance to hear virtuoso grammarian Geoff Pullum on the logic of standard English usage...as described in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.

Cliches: are they worthless? The poet Chris Wallace Crabbe on the brass razoos in the currency of conversation.

The quality of public debate

Media and governments

Climate change; Dr Barrie Pittock of the CSIRO talks about climate change and risk management and what to do about climate change

The David Hicks Case; Former attorney-general Kep Enderby QC looks at the imprisonment of David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay

Tea with Glen Matlock; The confessions of a middle aged Sex Pistol.

Rebuilding Lebanon

Michael Whelan, S.M.; He helped found Spirituality in the Pub, a network of groups across Australia that meet to discuss all kinds of spiritual issues with the aim of deepening faith and transforming lives. For Michael Whelan, a priest in the Society of Mary congregation, conversation is a vital instrument of change, and he talks about his own spiritual development away from moralism and toward mysticism

Bad Hair day: principles and politics in international cricket

Africa's struggle for political evolution

Middlebury "Symposium on Terror and Mass Media" sessisions;
Douglas Birch, Baltimore Sun Correspondent on The Politics of Terror

The Media's Role in Promoting or Fighting Terrorism
Ahmed Abdella, Senior producer and reporter for Al- Arabiyya Television

Is Terrorism Challenging Press Freedom?
Pierre-François Mourrier, director of research for the Office of the French President

Non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction
Hans Blix, Chairman of the WMDC (Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission) addresses a conference at the Fletcher School, Tufts University

James Madison and the Spirit of Republicanism
Colleen Sheehan, Villanova University

Schiavo and the Shibboleth of Privacy
Daniel N. Robinson, Oxford University; Georgetown University

John Marshall and the Myth of Marbury
Robert Lowry Clinton, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

Lessons from the Lincoln Administration for the War on Terror
Michael Stokes Paulsen, University of Minnesota Law School, on "The Emancipation Proclamation and the Commander-in-Chief Power: Lessons from the Lincoln Administration for the War on Terror

Media Coverage of Climate Science: Broader Lessons for Science Journalism? (VIDEO)

Nature podcasts; Male infertility, Bird flu's structural secrets and silent spread, cryptic Martian spots explained, the ethics of egg donation, Warmth-seeking bees, Poincaré unpickled and more

National Geographic Podcasts, National Geographic World Talk

Scientific American podcasts, Science Talk episodes

Naked Scientist podcasts

‘There is no compulsion in religion’

Juan Cole reminds us that;

“Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar Seminary in Cairo, perhaps the foremost Sunni Arab authority, has issued a statement that jihad or "holy war" was legislated in Islam for the defense of the persons and honor of Muslims, and is not to be used as a threat or a form of aggression against the innocent.”

We shouldn’t forget religious practices are not monolithic;

“In Senegal, I found local Muslims irate at the condescending attitudes of Saudi emissaries who condemned their practices as contrary to Islam. With their long-established Muslim brotherhoods and their beloved marabouts, the Senegalese responded, "We were Islamic scholars when the Saudis were living in tents."

From West Africa to Indonesia, an unnoted defense against Islamist extremism is the loyalty Muslims have to the local versions of their faith. No one much likes to be told that he and his ancestors have gotten it all wrong for the last five centuries. Foolish Westerners who insist that Islam is a unified religion of believers plotting as one to subjugate the West refuse to see that the fiercest enemy of Salafist fundamentalism is the affection Muslims have for their local ways. Islamist terrorists are all about globalization, while the hope for peace lies in the grip of local custom.

Uninterested in political correctness, a Muslim from Côte d'Ivoire remarked to me, "You can change the African's dress, you can educate him and change his table manners, but you cannot change the African inside him." He might have said the same of the Russian, the German, or the Chinese. By refusing to acknowledge, much less attempting to understand, the indestructible differences between human collectives, the 20th-century intelligentsia smoothed the path to genocide in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Sudan, as well as to the age of globalized terror. Denied differences only fester; ignored long enough, the infection kills.

Our insistence that human beings will grow ever more alike defies the historical evidence, as well as practical and spiritual needs. Paradoxically, we make a great fuss of celebrating diversity, yet claim that human values are converging. We, too, have our superstitions and taboos.”

Related;

Sheikh of Al-Azhar : Jihad initiated for self-defense and not for threat or attack

Young U.S. Muslims Strive for Harmony

For Conservative Muslims, Goal of Isolation a Challenge

Iran's liberal lecturers targeted

Islam’s Heart of Darkness

Religionomics!

Creation of "Islamic" Bogeyman

World Conference of Religions for Peace

Fair play and civility in interreligious relations

Multimedia;
Dr Gary Bouma, Professor of Sociology, Monash University on the World Conference on Religions for Peace

Weird Babel of Tongues; One hundred years ago an old building on Azusa Street in the industrial part of Los Angeles held religious meetings that started with people 'breathing strange utterances and mouthing a creed...no sane mortal could understand.' It was the beginning of the modern Pentecostal movement, which remains a thriving church tradition mainly within Protestantism

Creating a Sacred Space; The City of Greater Dandenong is one of Australia's two most diversely populated municipalities and its local hospital, a large acute care hospital, has substituted a multi-faith 'sacred space' in the place of its old chapel. Members of the hospital staff and the City of Greater Dandenong's Interfaith Network, and the Dandenong Historical Society tell about the creation of the sacred space

The Dawning of Consciousness; Emeritus Professor, Derek Denton, is internationally recognised for his work on instinctive behaviours. Professor Denton is 82 but remains involved in various research projects around the globe. His most recent venture is the most ambitous to date - it aims to demonstrate the role of evolution in the emergence of animal and human consciousness

Chinese philosophy; To anybody schooled in Western philosophy, Chinese philosophy doesn't look much like philosophy at all: there seems to be no argument, no analysis, just a lot of proverbs and stories. But this is real philosophy and Dr Karyn Lai gives us an overview. And Chin-Ning Chu, author, motivator and strategist explains what relevance the oldest military treatise in the world has in today's boardroom

Equality of opportunity among states

Robert H. Wad reviews Economic Justice in an Unfair World: Toward a Level Playing Field by Ethan B. Kapstein;

“Focusing on poverty is inadequate, Kapstein argues, because it does not put relations between states front and center. "It is governments," he writes, "that sign treaties and agreements, impose sanctions and boycotts, and make war and peace, and it is governments that -- for good or for bad -- are ultimately accountable for their actions at home and abroad." In other words, a theory of global distributive justice must emphasize relations between states and the kinds of economic arrangements states subscribe to. Individuals are not the only moral agents; states are also moral agents, with duties and responsibilities to one another as well as to their citizens.

Kapstein's goal is to present an alternative framework of global justice, one that centers on equality of opportunity among states. He refers to this framework as "liberal internationalism" and calls for an international economic system that is "inclusive, participatory, and welfare-enhancing for all." This order, Kapstein writes, "would give the smallest and poorest states greater voice in the system than they have at present," including in the governance of international organizations.

Building on the work of the political theorist Charles Beitz, Kapstein distinguishes two different social compacts: the domestic one between a state and its citizens, which expresses a society's basic principles of economic justice, and an international one among states, which determines the context in which countries pursue their domestic compacts. Some theorists of international relations hold that relative power, especially military power, shapes the international compact entirely. But Kapstein points out that powerful states do not always operate with a bit-better-than-the-law-of-the-jungle morality. In fact, they often forgo immediate relative gains in the interest of building a system of interactions that all participants view as reasonably fair. The resulting stability of expectations brings benefits for powerful states while increasing the common good. By way of evidence, Kapstein cites studies of the Tokyo and Uruguay Rounds of trade negotiations finding that the most powerful countries did not press their full advantages. Steered by the goal of promoting greater market access for all countries, they gave up more than they got.

The social arrangement that, in Kapstein's view, guarantees inclusiveness and participation and is "welfare-enhancing for all participants" is a global regime of free trade. In other words, free trade is the social arrangement that has the potential to best achieve justice in interstate relations and to fulfill each state's domestic social compact.

Kapstein believes that free trade can generate the highest attainable economic growth -- because it maximizes the scope of opportunity and equalizes opportunities for all potential participants -- and that high economic growth is good for the poor as well as the nonpoor. But he is also aware that despite the expansion of free trade, the growth rates of poor countries have not converged with those of rich countries, as free-trade advocates had predicted they would (the experiences of East Asia and, more recently, South Asia notwithstanding). Some of the continuing disparity -- owing to persistent low growth in a majority of poorer countries -- results from domestic politics and policies and from geography. But a good part, Kapstein argues, is due to the fact that rich countries have rigged the trade regime; far from being a level playing field, it is distinctly tilted against producers in poor countries…”

Via Peinso- a cool new development issues blog.

Watch or listen book event featuring Kasptein and Deepak Lal at Cato.

Related;

Excerpt from the Book, and Chapter 1 of the book

Daniel Dreszner’s short review of the book

Interesting papers by Ethan B. Kapstein;
The Economics of Young Democracies: Policies and Performance
Behavioral Foundations of Democracy and Development
The Political Economy of International Cooperation: A View From Fairness Economics
A Global Third Way Social Justice and the World Economy
Models of International Economic Justice

The Case for Open Industrial Policy- webcast of an event featuring Robert Wade

Morality and Capitalism

The Truth about Globalization and Inequality

Globalization is Working?

Arundhati Roy’s Question

It is now 4 days to the Dropping Knowledge forum.

Arundhati Roy’s questions about the future of non-violent resistance and armed struggle. “What is effective?,” she wonders. “What is the right thing to do?”.Here is the video.

Related;
Civic Power and the People’s Rights: Nonviolent Action for a New World, Speech by Jack DuVall, President, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

Political activism with a flick of the joystick

Podcast of the Day-Crisis of Abundance

Crisis of Abundance: Rethinking How We Pay for Health Care- Arnold Kling’s book presentation at Cato;

“If you follow the video or audio all the way through to the Q&A, you will hear a Congressional aide's rant against economic analysis of health care. I chose not to respond, and I think that was the right choice. The book explains why health care is an economic issue, and I would leave it at that. Frankly, I thought that the audience Q&A did not add much. Just as with comments on blog posts, the first one often sets the tone, so that it's important to get a good question first.”

Listen to the podcast. Here is a discussion of the book at Tech Central Station. Also a Cato interview Arnold Kling.

Related:
Podcasts; Cogan on Improving the Health Care System, The Economics of Medical Malpractice
Sylvia Allegretto, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute and author of "The State of Working America," talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene from Washington about her analysis of the U.S. labor market. Listen to the podcast.

Dead Meat is a 25 minute short film which shows the reality of health care under Canada's socialized medical system
Economics of Obesity
In praise of US health care
Unhealthy America
Charlie Rose interview with New York City Commissioner for Health & Mental Hygiene, Thomas Frieden
Economics of Health Care posts at Econlog, Economist’s View, Café Hayek, Marginal Revolution
Healthcare Economist blog
Health Courts: Exploring the Concept
The Health Report- podcasts from Radio National.
Voluntary C-Sections Result in More Baby Deaths
Health Care Costs

Health Financing Revisited: A Practitioner's Guide
Health Insurance in Francophone Africa

GAO reports;
Hispanic Access to Health Care: Significant Gaps Exist
Preventive Health Care for Children: Experience From Selected Foreign Countries
Canadian Health Insurance: Lessons for the United States
Health Care Spending Control: The Experience of France, Germany, and Japan
Health Insurance: Bibliography of Studies on Health Benefits for the Uninsured

Best Search Words I Read Today

Going through the site meter of T&B, I came across the following search words from a Pakistani visitor;

‘how would u warn irresponsible employees to work positively with reference to Holy Quran’

Some related and not so related links-most of them podcasts;

Tyler Cowen asks 'If I were a Muslim, would I be a Shiite or a Sunni?'

Reza Aslan at the Daily Show

The looming conflict between Shi'ites and Sunnis; If the war in Lebanon appears to have dramatically increased the prestige of shi'ite Hezbollah in the hopeless Middle East, Robert McCulloch, an Australian Columban priest who has been living and working in Pakistan for twenty eight years, says we should not allow ourselves to be distracted - throughout the whole of the Middle East the big looming furture conflict could well be the conflict between Shi'ites and Sunnis

Best of the Spiritual Classics

On Garbage; This week we're rummaging through the philosophy of garbage. John Scanlan's book, On Garbage shows how western progress always has cleared away and discarded what went before; not only material waste but also knowledge. He believes that by examining our garbage we can gain useful insight into the condition of contemporary life

Books That Shook the World - The Qur'an, perspective by Bruce Lawrence

An Exploration of the Baha'i Faith

Lady Wisdom, the Desert and the Shell; Encounter explores the story of the good wife in the Book of Proverbs who represents Lady Wisdom in this Biblical text

Heaven Doesn't Speak;Confucius said that we should learn to be human, and that by doing so we'll create harmony in the cosmos. What he didn't say was that God was necessarily part of this equation, but that hasn't stopped his brand of practical ethics being given a transcendental spin

Nazi New Religions; Part 1, Part 2; Germany in the 1920s was rife with new religious movements which contributed significantly to Nazi ideology. The cult of the hero for example, popularised in German literature, borrowed from Nordic and Eastern mythology, and formed the basis of a 'master race' ideology. And Anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity were persistent features of the new religions. Karla Poewe examines the rise of the new religions in Nazi Germany

Christian Relics and the Historical Jesus

Jerome Kagan - The Father of Temperament

The Nature of Belief : Australian Science Festival Debate

Podcast of the Day- Gene Sperling’s Labor Market

Gene Sperling, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene from Washington about his approach to analyzing the strength of the labor market and the outlook for the midterm elections. Listen to the podcast.

Related;
Pro-Growth Progressive-book presentation at Google
Sperling interview with Charlie Rose
Could I ever become a Democrat?-Tyler Cowen
A article on the book by Sperling

Podcast of the Day- Loot: real money in virtual worlds

Virtual worlds are flourishing as millions of online players move in to set up their virtual lives. There are fortunes to be made, and there are real world consequences. Lissten to the podcast- the latest Background Briefing from ABC.

Related;
Terra Nova blog
Play Money: the wiki
State of Play
Ludium Conferences
Chinese Gold Farmers- video
Worlds without end; "Mr Castronova's thesis is that these synthetic worlds are increasingly inter-twined with the real world. In particular, real-world trade of in-game items—swords, gold, potions, or even whole characters—is flourishing in online marketplaces such as eBay. This means in-game items and currency have real value. In 2002, Mr Castronova famously calculated the GNP per capita of the fictional game-world of “EverQuest” as $2,000, comparable to that of Bulgaria, and far higher than that of India or China. Furthermore, by “working” in the game to generate virtual wealth and then selling the results for real money, it is possible to generate about $3.50 per hour. Companies in China pay thousands of people, known as “farmers”, to play MMORPGs all day, and then profit from selling the in-game goods they generate to other players for real money."

Today’s Podcasts

Most of the podcasts are from Sydney Ideas Festival;

How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World A Better Place: Bjorn Lomborg

Tim Flannery and the nuclear question

Paul Redding on Kant

Peter Anstey on Locke

What's happening to democracy? John Keane

Raewyn Connell on Globalisation

Concepts of liberty- Quentin Skinner

Duncan Ivison on Freedom

Why are we scared of ourselves? Frank Furedi

Robert Fisk lecture

Italy Now- Paul Ginsborg

Hurricane Katrina - one year on

Oil Depletion Protocol

Non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction- Hans Blix

See also recent additions on the TED Talks including the session of Jimmy Wales founder of Wikipedia.

Christopher Hitchens- Books That Shook the World - Thomas Paine's Rights of Man

In Search of Mozart

Communications Technology and Life

U.S. Trade Policy in the Wake of Doha

Buck Wild: How Republicans Broke the Bank and Became the Party of Big Government

Comprehensive Immigration Reform for a Growing Economy

Sandstorm: Policy Failure in the Middle East

U.S.-China Trade, Exchange Rates, and the U.S. Economy

Speech by Andrew Mitchell MP, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, UK on the case for a Pan-African Trading Area

Jeffrey Sachs on the Millennium Development Goals

Andrew Lawson on Harmonization and Alignment

Carnival of Podcasts

A couple of podcasts mostly from Radio National Australia; please note some of discussions start at the end or middle of the audio. Also if you don’t download now, it might not be available next week.

Why don't Americans like soccer?; Economist Allen R Sanderson says that Americans appreciate competitive market forces and incentives that reward ability, hard work and ingenuity, in sport as well as business, and soccer just doesn't make the grade. John Birmingham reflects on the Australian view of the European game.

Future of trade liberalisation; With the latest GATT attempts to further open up international trade, the DOHA Round, collapsing some weeks ago, Alan Oxley explains what went wrong and what might happen next

The rise of the carbon traders

John Taylor, former undersecretary for international affairs at the U.S. Treasury and now an economics professor at Stanford University, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene from Palo Alto, California, about the outlook for the central bankers' annual conference this week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and China's economic growth.

Stephen Roach, chief global economist at Morgan Stanley, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene in New York about the state of China's economy, banking system and political environment.

The Nature of Belief : Australian Science Festival Debate

Nazi New Religions, Pt 1

Christian Relics and the Historical Jesus

Conflict: What good is it?

Vietnam Remembered

Travel in the Age of Terrorism

A narrative for a long war

Peter Timms reviews How to Look At a Painting, by Justin Paton

Understanding Design

Airlines consider legal action against British Airports Authority

George Pell - Islam and Western Democracies

Susan Windybank - Welfare or Defence?

Lady Wisdom, the Desert and the Shell

International AIDS Conference

Sri Lanka: Militant nationalism and the current conflict

Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working in Africa

Postcard: The Democratic Republic of Congo

A Human Rights Act for Australia?

Intentional Marriage

Striking a patriotic chord; Michael Connors on the lyrics of those national anthems most footballers failed to sing before their World Cup matches

America's first dictionary 200 years on

Current TV

Embedded in the BBC

Reporting the Middle East

Financial literacy and accountability

Conscription, procurement and the economics of defence

Francis Wheen; Books that Shook the World - Marx's Das Kapital

A philosopher looks at Buddhism

Spinoza's heresy

What is Morality?

Keeping the Peace: The U.N. Security Council

Conflict Resolution

No Light For Eurotunnel?

Virgins, Vampires & Superheroes

Generation Y Spirituality

Spiritual Classics Pt 7: Sikhism

Women's Sport: Underpaid, underrated and under the radar

The Mystery of the Fluctuating Gas Price, featuring Thomas A. Firey

Save the Coral Reefs?, featuring Patrick J. Michaels

The Future of Medicaid, featuring Jagadeesh Gokhale

Podcasts Carnival –From BBC

Inside the World of Google
The Communications Revolution
Getting back to business in Somalia
Russia's thirst for imported alcohol
Battle for Mexico's democratic soul
Lifting Europe's 'historic curse'
Piracy on the streets of Peru
Intercontinental Cops; Part One: Fraud and Corruption, Part Two: Stolen vehicles

'Trust Me I'm an Economist', discussion with Tim Harford about his new show; a related article, All is fair in love, war and poker

In the Beginning was the Sound- Reith Lecture

Global Crime Report

More BBC Radio podcasts

The Economist advises Amazon

The latest edition of The Economist looks at the prospects of Amazon;

“Amazon's product range is expanding in much the same way as online sales are. As people become more accustomed to shopping on the internet, they are ordering a greater variety of goods and services from a wider range of websites. In America online sales were up by 25% in 2005 over the previous year, reckons Forrester, a research company. Travel is now by far the biggest category, worth some $63 billion last year, followed by computer equipment and software ($14 billion), cars ($13 billion), clothing ($11 billion) and home furnishings ($8 billion).

Amazon's challengers come from two directions. First, other online retailers are growing rapidly and appear in various forms. Many of the dotcoms are invading each others' turf. From auctioning people's old stuff, eBay now also hosts fixed-priced virtual shops offering new goods for sale. And Google is adding more shopping-type services, such as Froogle, a shopping-comparison service, and more recently its new Checkout payments system, which rivals eBay's PayPal.

Second, traditional retailers are rapidly getting their online acts together. This pits Amazon against giant retailers with huge purchasing power, like America's Wal-Mart and Britain's Tesco. These “multichannel” retailers make a virtue of their ability to offer both “bricks and clicks”. Many provide online customers with the option of picking up goods from the shop down the road. This is proving popular with web buyers who want things immediately or are keen to avoid shipping costs and staying in to accept a delivery. Circuit City, a big American electricals chain, expects in-store pick-ups to account for more than half its online sales this year…

The battle for downloads is becoming more intense. The market for digital music is dominated by Apple's iTunes, which is also likely to expand into video. Microsoft is entering the music-download business with a digital player, called Zune. On August 8th Nokia bought an American digital-music distributor, Loudeye, to develop its own service for its music-enabled handsets. The Finnish telecoms-equipment company says these are now selling roughly twice as fast as Apple's iPods. Video downloads are available online from some sites, such as Movielink.com, which is owned by five big film studios. News Corp's websites, including MySpace.com, are planning to sell films and shows from the group's Fox network. …

A video service could resemble a downloadable version of Netflix, a Californian company that pioneered online video rentals. Netflix's customers compile online lists of videos they want to see and receive them in the post. When the DVDs are returned in their pre-paid envelopes, the next titles are sent. With no late fees, Netflix has pummelled Blockbuster's store-based video-rental model.

Netflix is also exploring how to deliver movies online. Amazon has already copied the Netflix postal model in Britain and Germany and it has dropped hints that it may launch a postal service in America: Mr Bezos told Wired magazine last year that Amazon was well placed to do so “...and we wouldn't have to pay heavy marketing fees.” The same could be said about video downloads. Although Mr Bezos has discussed his strategy in the past with The Economist, the company did not respond to requests for an interview…

“The need to own music in a physical form, whether it's to play in other music systems, to minimise the chances of losing it or just because they like to have a physical collection, remains very strong amongst internet users,” says Alex Burmaster, the research company's European internet analyst…

a subsidiary called Amazon S3 rents out temporary storage by the terabyte to other websites…

Another Amazon subsidiary, BookSurge, is busy courting publishers to have their works scanned into digital files…

A new “e-reader” device from Sony has a special screen that mimics the way light falls on a printed page. The size of a paperback, it can store several hundred novels…

Unless the pioneer of online retailing can provide downloadable media it risks being “disintermediated”—rather as only a decade ago high-street bookshops, music and video stores were disintermediated by Amazon itself.”

My bet is on Amazon’s BookSurge.

Related;
A 2001 interview with Jeff Bezos (video)
The Future of Gadgest (video)
Communicating the Skype way
Profiting from obscurity; What the “long tail” means for the economics of e-commerce
A METHODOLOGY FOR ESTIMATING AMAZON'S LONG TAIL SALES
Interview with Chris Anderson (starts at the end of the show)
Chris Anderson and the Long Tail (Econ Talk)
Screening the Latest Bestseller
Ads Coming to Textbooks;

"Now, a small Minnesota startup is trying to shake up the status quo in the $6 billion college textbook industry. Freeload Press will offer more than 100 titles this fall _ mostly for business courses _ completely free. Students, or anyone else who fills out a five-minute survey, can download a PDF file of the book, which they can store on their hard drive and print.

The model faces big obstacles. Freeload doesn't yet have a stable of well-known textbook authors across a range of subjects, and it lacks the editorial and marketing muscle of the "Big 3" textbook publishers (Thomson, Pearson, and McGraw-Hill). Its textbooks don't come with bells and whistles such as online study guides that bigger publishers have spent millions developing in order to lure professors _ who assign textbooks and are the industry's real customers."

A History of Boredom

“When hit by boredom, let yourself be crushed by it; submerge, hit bottom. The sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface.”- Joseph Brodsky

A review of the book A Philosophy of Boredom by Lars Svendsen;

“Any concept that attracted comment from Kant, Goethe, and other giants accomplished enough to be identifiable by one name must be complex, profound, and worthy of attention even in a sweltering August.

(If you immediately think, "Wait, there's probably some other concept that's drawn attention from other single-named giants such as Beyoncé, Madonna and Brittany - like bling - that's utterly simpleminded," then you possess a genuine philosophical aptitude and should continue reading.)

"Very few people," writes the witty Norwegian philosopher Lars Svendsen, "have any well-thought-out concept of boredom." That hasn't stopped folks from trying to capture it in a phrase or tossed-off digression.

Kierkegaard declared it "the root of all evil," following on church fathers who condemned its forerunner, the sin of acedia. Svendsen, a professor at the University of Bergen, cleverly updates that, noting that boredom has been accused of causing such modern ills as "drug abuse, alcohol abuse, smoking, eating disorders, promiscuity, vandalism..."

Schopenhauer thought boredom "a tame longing without any particular object." For Kafka, it was "as if everything I owned had left me, and as if it would scarcely be sufficient if all of it returned." Theodor Adorno blamed boredom on alienation at work. Russian poet Joseph Brodsky suggested boredom taught us "life's most important lesson... that you are completely insignificant."

Via Distributed Presses and 3 Quarks Daily

Experts in Boredom;

“Politicians are experts in boredom. To sit through a select committee on local transport issues needs superhuman boredom defences, or a vat of Red Bull. And the aura of boredom is the mark of death to a politician. Some have tried to turn their own lack of lustre to advantage. “I am a quiet man,” Iain Duncan Smith said, attempting to disguise his own worthy dullness under a thin euphemism. From that moment, IDS was toast. “What’s wrong with being a boring kind of guy? ” wondered President George Bush Sr, shortly before he was ousted from the White House. Nothing is more hilarious than the spectacle of a naturally tiresome politician attempting to make himself seem interesting by, say, wearing an amusing hat.”

Related;
The Nature of Belief : Australian Science Festival Debate; Why do you believe what you do? Is the human mind an organ designed for belief? Why are we so convinced of the existence of things we can't prove or see? Are some beliefs healthy and others pathological? Margaret Wertheim, author of Pythagoras' Trousers, and The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace; cognitive scientist Professor Max Coltheart, co-editor of Pathologies of Belief, and theologian, film-maker and cult-buster, Reverend Dr David Millikan, join Natasha Mitchell to unravel the perplexing power of belief.

Is This What Happiness Looks Like?

Lionel Tiger on Pursuing Pleasure

Poverty’s Effect on the Brain

An interesting paper on the effects of childhood poverty; Childhood poverty: Specific associations with neurocognitive development- abstract;

“Growing up in poverty is associated with reduced cognitive achievement as measured by standardized intelligence tests, but little is known about the underlying neurocognitive systems responsible for this effect. We administered a battery of tasks designed to tax-specific neurocognitive systems to healthy low and middle SES children screened for medical history and matched for age, gender and ethnicity. Higher SES was associated with better performance on the tasks, as expected, but the SES disparity was significantly nonuniform across neurocognitive systems. Pronounced differences were found in Left perisylvian/Language and Medial temporal/Memory systems, along with significant differences in Lateral/Prefrontal/Working memory and Anterior cingulate/Cognitive control and smaller, nonsignificant differences in Occipitotemporal/Pattern vision and Parietal/Spatial cognition.”

Via Neurocritic.

Related;

Rushton, J. P., & Jensen, A. R. (2005). Thirty years of research on race differences in cognitive ability

In the mind of the child soldier; Northern Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sri Lanka, Columbia. Some of the world's conflicted countries where young children are recruited, or violently abducted, to serve as soldiers. Two psychologists at the coalface, and a teenage abductee, join Natasha Mitchell to discuss the complex psychology of child recruitment, reintegration and repatriation. Little innocents or self-aware agents? A confronting issue that's not straightforward. Stories of hope prevail too. Listen to podcast.

False memories and young minds; Your memory is your personal archive. But it can trick you too - sometimes with serious consequences. Are children more susceptible to false memories, or adults? Striking new research has important implications for how we handle children in courts and therapy, and for our understanding of this fallible human talent. Here is the podcast.

Insults as Education

Alex Tabarrok is running some Gordon Tullock insults- my favorites from the list;

“The other day Gordon asked me to read one of his papers and I pointed out a few typos. "Excellent," he said, "this will surely be your greatest contribution to economics."

From Eric Crampton;

"Tullock and I share a birthday. Walking over to Buchanan House for a seminar, I told him we had something in common. He replied, "We'll have to do something about that, won't we." When I later asked what he'd planned on doing about it, he informed me that he'd contacted some folks from upstate who'd arranged to have me shot. At his 80th birthday celebrations, I thanked him for throwing me such a great birthday party; he laughed and told me I'd be receiving the bill for the event in the mail.

My favorite Tullock insult, though, was levied at Walter Block. Block was presenting a paper at the Southerns in 1999. The paper was coauthored with Tom DiLorenzo; Walter, in his preamble to the presentation, noted that since his coauthor wasn't there, all the errors in the piece were his. Tullock shot up, pointed at Walter, and said "DiLorenzo wrote the whole thing then, didn't he!"

From Tyler Cowen;

"Every day (we are both in) Gordon passes my door and barks out "Work harder!" That's just one of many..."

For Comment; Is Tullock's little book, ‘The Economics of Non-Human Societies’, worth a read/does he give any original insights in the book?

Related;
Milton Friedman insults Gary Becker
Our colleague Gordon Tullock
You're not politically viable!!!
Economic Freedom and Economic Growth
James Buchanan the Great
James M. Buchanan—The Creation of Public Choice Theory
James Buchanan on Conservatives and Liberals
The Quotable Gordon Tullock
Tullock Festschrift
Interview with Tullock
Rothbard as a Teacher
Gordon talks with Milton Friedman on education reform (video)

Books and Colbert

Some authors discuss their books with Colbert;

Reza Aslan, No God But God
Ron Suskind, One Percent Doctrine
Ramesh Ponnuru, author of Party of Death
On Lynne Cheyney's children’s book

The Truth about Globalization and Inequality

According to P. Sainath;

“India is a classic example of engineered inequality. On 20 October, The New York Times had a front page lead celebrating the birth of a class of people in India who spend their weekends at malls. It failed to mention that this year, India slipped three places in the human development ranking of the United Nations. We now stand at rank 127. This year’s UN Human Development Report had found that for the bulk of the Indian population, living standards are lower than those of Botswana – or even the occupied territories of Palestine. So while some of the richest people in the world live in India, so do the largest number of the world’s poor.

The euphoria over one good monsoon (actually, we’ve had several these past 15 years) seems to have erased any debate in the media on what’s happening in Indian agriculture. Small farms are dying. Investment in agriculture is down. Rural credit has collapsed and debt has exploded. Many are losing their lands as a few celebrate at the malls. In March this year, as Professor Utsa Patnaik points out, the per person availability of foodgrain was lower than it had been during the notorious Bengal Famine of 1942-43.

Thousands of farmers have committed suicide since the late 1990s. In a single district of Andhra Pradesh, Anantapur, more than 2400 farmers have taken their own lives since 1997. Elsewhere in India, like in Gujarat or Mumbai, the loss of countless jobs in industry is boosting religious fundamentalism. In the 2002 violence in Gujarat in which over 1500 lives were lost, many of the rioters were workers from shut-down textile mills.
The huge new inequalities are feeding into existing ones: For instance, in a society where they are already disadvantaged, hunger hits women much harder. Millions of families are making do with less food. In the Indian family women eat last. After they have fed their husbands and children. With smaller amounts of food being left over now, poor Indian women are eating even less that they did earlier. The strain on their bodies and health becomes greater. Yet, health care is ever more expensive.”

According to Phillipe Legrain;

"Wade points out that absolute income gaps are widening and argues that this is a matter for concern. Really? Consider again his example of economy A, where the average income is $10,000, and economy B, where it is $1,000. Their relative income is 10:1 and the absolute gap between them is $9,000. Suppose B grows at a racy 10 per cent a year. Its income will rise by $100 to $1,100. If the absolute gap between A and B is not to widen, A can add at most $100 to its income of $10,000, which means growth cannot exceed 1 per cent. In short, because A starts off so much richer than B, even if B booms the absolute gap between them will initially widen unless A stagnates—and if A stagnates, B is unlikely to boom, since A’s demand for its exports will also stagnate. Perhaps Wade wants the gap between rich and poor to shrink through economic stagnation in rich countries—if so, he should say so explicitly. But surely what is happening now is preferable: rich countries are growing steadily, but poor countries are growing faster, and thus catching up in relative terms. If this continues, they will eventually narrow the absolute gap too. For example, if B grows at 10 per cent a year for 30 years, its income will rise to $17,449; while if A grows at 2 per cent a year over the same period, its income will rise to $18,114.”

Related;
What to Read: Inequality and Development in a Globalizing World- A Syllabus
Inequality Does Cause Underdevelopment
Globalisation, Inequality and Poverty Relationships: A Cross Country Evidence
The global redistribution of income
New Economist blog's posts on Inequality.
Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India’s Poorest Districts- Book Review

Multimedia;
Why Inequality Matters in a Globalizing World- Nancy Birdsall
How Unequal Can America Get Before it Snaps- Robert Reich
Economic Growth, Inequality and Poverty: Findings from a New Dataset
Perspectives on Growth, Inequality and Poverty
Poverty, Inequality and Growth in the Era of Globalization
World Inequality in the Second Half of the 20th Century
Globalization, Growth, and Poverty: Building an Inclusive World Economy
Hans Rosling at TED
Gapminder
The Globalisation of Inequality – Sainath

Podcast of the Day- Can we win a civil war?

“An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed each day in July, according to the figures. The total number of civilian deaths that month, 3,438, is a 9 percent increase over the tally in June and nearly double the toll in January.”

-Iraqi Death Toll Rose Above 3,400 in July

Peter Galbraith discusses his book at World Affairs Council.

And Peter Galbraith at KUOW Talk Show.

Exiting Iraq: Ambassador Galbraith's View

Related;
Mindless in Iraq
Last Chance for Iraq
Averting Civil War in Iraq
Rising unease in Congress over Iraq war
Galbraith on Iraqi Army, Partition
Break It Up
Life in Iraq
Unembedded

Podcast of the Day- Patient from Hell

Climatologist Professor Stephen Schneider wrote a book called The Patient from Hell. During his treatment for lymphoma he discovered that the way doctors make decisions is seriously and deadly flawed. Listen to the podcast or see the transcript.

“Q. How does a person use a climate model to predict his own survival?

A. To start with, my wife, Terry Root, a biologist, and I went to the Internet for information. There's a lot of nonsense there, but it gave us a starting point. We then had meetings with my doctor where we'd discuss various treatment options. We used math models to argue for unusual therapies. When you're looking at global warming, climatologists don't have all the facts because certain things haven't yet occurred.

You feed information into a computer, you look to what you know and extrapolate: subjective probability analysis. For years, I have been advising governments to use it for climate change policy. That's safer than waiting for the climate system to perform the experiment on us.

Similarly, I wasn't going to wait 15 years for researchers to gather the data. I'd be dead by then.”
-From NYT interview with Stephen

Podcast of the day-Is Shakespeare still relevant ?

A panel discussion from the 8th World Shakespeare Congress, hosted by the University of Queensland, on Shakespeare's relevance to the modern world. Listen to the podcast.

Related;

A review of Shakespeare's Twenty-First Century Economics: The Morality of Love and Money;

“Turner writes, "This book makes three arguments, following Shakespeare. First, that human art, production, and exchange are a continuation of natural creativity and reproduction, not a rupture of them. Second, that our human bonds with one another, even the most ethical and personal, cannot be detached from the values and bonds of the market. And third, that there is a mysterious dispensation according to which our born condition of debt can be transformed into one of grace. These three arguments may be taken as refutations of the three reproaches to the market offered by its critics: that the market necessarily alienates us from nature, from each other, and from God." Thus the challenge of Turner's book is twofold: It invites us to rethink our view of Shakespeare, but perhaps more important, it invites us to rethink the relation of our economic to our spiritual life…

For example, Turner operates with a peculiar definition of money "as a generalized and quantified measure of the obligations that unspecified others owe me and the obligations I owe others." In a book devoted to countering Marxism, it is surprising to find a concept of money that comes perilously close to the labor theory of value. Turner's failure to understand the commodity nature of money leads him in turn to misunderstand the monetary nature of inflation, as shown by perhaps his most peculiar economic claim in the book: "A low rate of inflation is the sign that a people at large...actually trust the fairness and truthfulness of the market that gives money its value." As most reputable economists would agree, inflation is a product not of the regular functioning of the free market but of government intervention in the market: Inflation is the fall in the value of money brought about by government manipulation of currency and credit. Fortunately, Turner's occasional errors in economic theory do not invalidate his overall argument and are basically irrelevant to what he has to say about Shakespeare.”

Related

Shakespeare on the web; MIT, Google Books, Internet Public Library, BBC, Podcasts, Wikipedia

Across the blogs; Complete William Shakespeare on CD, A New “Shakespeare”, Economic History of Shakespeare, Brand Consultant, The changing value of Shakespeare

Charlie Rose interview with Harold Bloom on Shakespeare

The Merchant of Avon

Frederick Turner columns at TCS

One Percent Doctrine in Real Life

John Allen Paulos column on the One Percent Doctrine;

“…Suskind describes the Cheney doctrine as follows: "Even if there's just a 1 percent chance of the unimaginable coming due, act as if it is a certainty. It's not about 'our analysis,' as Cheney said. It's about 'our response.' … Justified or not, fact-based or not, 'our response' is what matters. As to 'evidence,' the bar was set so low that the word itself almost didn't apply."…

Imagine what would happen in various everyday situations were the Cheney doctrine to be applied. A young man is in a bar and another man gives him a hard stare. If the young Cheneyite feels threatened and believes the probability to be at least 1 percent that the other man will shoot him, then he has a right to preemptively shoot him in "self-defense."

Or an older woman visits her Cheneyite doctor who, finding that the woman has suffered from a sore throat and fatigue for months, orders that she be put on chemotherapy since the likelihood of cancer is in his opinion at least 1 percent. Further tests, he might argue, would take too long.

A Cheneyite gambler would be a casino's dream. The chance of rolling a 12 with a pair of dice, for example, is 1/36, almost 3 percent, and hence would justify the gambler betting his house on rolling a 12.

And what about a Cheneyite scientist, hard as that may be to conceive? If this scientist decided that the "evidence" for some crackpot scientific theory suggested to him that its probability were at least 1 percent, the scientist would feel comfortable touting it as a reasonable alternative to established theory."

"Needless to say, standards for action or decision are generally far more stringent. For a conventional scientist running a statistical test of a hypothesis the threshold is usually 95 percent, not 1 percent. More precisely, if the scientist runs the test, and obtains, based on the tentative assumption of the hypothesis, an outcome having a probability of less than 5 percent, then he or she generally rejects the hypothesis.

And certainly in criminal trials the statistical burden is much greater; it's beyond a reasonable doubt (that is, an indeterminate, but very high probability), not 1 percent. In civil cases the probability standard is lower, but still nowhere near 1 percent….

Nor do they need consistency. A companion to the Cheney 1 percent action doctrine (if the probability is at least 1 percent, act) is the administration's non-action doctrine (if the probability is less than 99 percent, then don't act). This latter doctrine is generally invoked in discussions of global warming, where it seems absolute certainty is required to justify any significant action. Ideology determines which of these two inconsistent doctrines to invoke...”

Related;
Blogs discussing the book; Brad De Long, Kevin Drum, Mathew Yglesias, Tom Tomorrow, Radio Free Newport, Sunstein, Jon Swift
Compare with Robert Rubin’s style of thinking

Multimedia
Suskind with Charlie Rose, Colbert, Democracy Now, CNN
Podcast of the pressentation at the University of Virginia, Miller Center of Public Affairs

Podcasts of the Day- Amartya Sen and Morality

Amartya Sen talks about his new book, Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny- via a cool economics blog, Endogenous preferences, by an economist at University of Helsinki.

What is Morality?; Is morality about what we do or who we are? Should we try to do the right thing or should we try to be the sort of person who does the right thing - and what's the difference? Podcast from Radio National’s Philosophers Zone.

Related;
Identity and Violence – Amartya Sen
More on 'Identity and Violence'

Cost of Conflicts

“According to the nonprofit Iraq Body Count Database Project(iraqbodycount.net), between 34,000 and 39,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the conflict by the end of April 2006. While any estimates are controversial, these numbers are actually quite close to theestimate of 30,000 Iraqi casualties that President Bush provided in December 2005. Using the low end of the estimated number of casualties and a VSL calibrated to Iraq’s prewar GDP per capita, the cost of Iraqi lives lost so far tops $150 billion.”

-The Iraq War: The Economic Costs, Milken Institute Review (a quarterly magazine from the Milken Institute, freely available with registration)

Related;
Fiasco, Fiasco II, Fiasco III
Lebanon’s Future- podcast
Iraqis are Chicken
World Peace Through Films? – a must see presentation by Jehane Noujaim at TED conference

Wal-Mart’s CEO Lee Scott on Charlie Rose

Charlie Rose interviews Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart.

Related;

Wal-Mart; The behemoth from Bentonville (a couple of book reviews)

Measuring the Wal-Mart effect;

"America is home to more Wal-Mart employees (1.3m) than high-school teachers. A typical store is manned by 150-350 people; the bigger “supercentres”, which sell groceries, employ 400-500. But even as Wal-Mart creates some jobs, it displaces others. What is the net effect? According to the company, “new businesses spring up near Wal-Marts and existing stores flourish as they take advantage of the increased customer flow to and from our stores.” Global Insight reckons that a 100,000 square-foot (9,300 square-metre) Wal-Mart creates 97 retail jobs, after the dust has settled, but destroys 30 in wholesale.”

For people outside the US, it is not very clear why there’s such a controversy about Wal-Mart in the States.

‘Free the Curricula, Free the Textbooks’- A Wikiality?

Two articles on the history of Wikipedia via Marginal Revolution; The Hive and Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?

Another explanation from The Economist;

“This success has made Wikipedia the most famous example of a wider wiki phenomenon. Wikis are web pages that allow anybody who is allowed to log into them to change them. In Wikipedia's case, that happens to be anybody at all. The word “wiki” comes from the Hawaiian word for “quick”, but also stands for “what I know is...”. Wikis are thus the purest form of participatory creativity and intellectual sharing, and represent “a socialisation of expertise”, as David Weinberger, who is currently writing a book on collaborative intelligence, puts it.

Among the new media, wikis are the perfect complement to blogs. Whereas blogs contain the unedited, opinionated voice of one person, wikis explicitly and literally allow groups of people to get on the proverbial “same page”. This is the main reason for the failure of a Los Angeles Times experiment with wikitorials, described in the previous article. Wikis are good at summarising debates, but they are ill-suited for biased opinion.”

Here’s Colbert’s attempt at explaining the Wikipedia; see also this video.

The major innovation I’m looking forward is when the Wikibooks gets a real take off- I don’t think it’s wikiality!

Related Links;

Best coverage of the Wikipedia amongst the blogs is at at Ross Mayfield’s Weblog.

Wikimania 2006: Opening Session with Jimmy Wales

Ten - or maybe a dozen - Things that Will Be Free

Wikimedia Foundation

Internet encyclopaedias go head to head; Jimmy Wales' Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries, a Nature investigation finds.

The Faith-Based Encyclopedia

A couple of interesting posts by John Quiggin; Wikipedia and Sausages, Wikipedia-economics-category-project, When co-operation trumps competition

The Wealth of Networks

Multimedia;
Digital Maoism; here is the transcript.
Interviews from a Survey of New Media in The Economist; Andreas Kluth, technology correspondent
David Sifry, Founder and CEO, Technorati
Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired
Jerry Michalski, founder and president of Sociate
Paul Saffo, Director, Institute for the future

Researching with Wikipedia- introductory videos

Brion Vibber has worked on MediaWiki and Wikipedia's; an engineers view

Somebody Not Happy with Wikipedia

Lomberg with Fareed Zakaria

The latest Foreign Exchange show is up; discusses change in Saudi Arabia, interview with Lomberg, Mexican immigrants and a perspective on Dubai.

“While many rulers flush with oil profits are wasting their opportunity to build for their future, Dubai is going against the stream and it is not going unnoticed. Both Bahrain and Qatar are now trying to join Dubai as the world’s premier tourist destination. This summer you may be visiting Europe or Yosemite, but soon your flight plans may take you to the Middle East for rest and relaxation.”

The previous two shows are also worth a look.

Identity and Violence – Amartya Sen

Prospect magazine reviews Amartya Sen’s latest book;

“At the heart of the book is an argument against what Sen calls the communitarian view of identity—the belief that identity is something to be "discovered" rather than chosen. "There is a certain way of being human that is my way," the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor wrote in his much-discussed essay "The Politics of Recognition." "I am called upon to live my life in this way." But who does the calling? Seemingly the identity itself. For Taylor, as for many communitarians, identity appears to come first, with the human actor following in its shadow. Or, as the philosopher John Gray has put it, identities are "a matter of fate, not choice."

Sen will have none of it. "There are two issues here," he says when I meet him at King's College, Cambridge, where he was master until returning to Harvard two years ago. "First, the recognition that identities are robustly plural and the importance of one identity need not obliterate another. And second, that a person has to make choices about what relative importance to attach, in a particular context, to their divergent loyalties and identities. The individual belongs to many different groups and it's up to him or her to decide which of those groups he or she would like to give priority to." We are multitudes and we can choose among our multitudes.

Sen is particularly critical of the ways in which communitarian notions of identity have found their way into social policy, especially through the ideas of multiculturalism, and in so doing have diminished the scope for individual freedom. "I am not opposed to multiculturalism," he says. "But I am opposed to the way it has been interpreted. There are two basically distinct approaches to multiculturalism. One concentrates on the promotion of diversity as a value in itself. The other focuses on the freedom of reasoning and decision-making, and celebrates cultural diversity to the extent that it is freely chosen. The way that British authorities have interpreted multiculturalism has very much undermined individual freedom. A British Muslim is not asked to act within the civil society or the political arena but as a Muslim. His British identity has to be mediated by his community."

What policymakers have created in Britain, Sen suggests, is not multiculturalism but "plural monoculturalism," a system in which people are constantly herded into different identity pens. "Take the case of the Bangladeshis," says Sen. "Bangladesh's separation from Pakistan was not based on their religion but on their language, their literature and their secular politics. At the time of independence Bangladeshis who came here had a very strong sense of Bengali identity. But all that disappeared, because the official government classification ignored language, culture and secular politics, and insisted on viewing all Bangladeshis as Muslims. Suddenly they had lost all identity other than being Islamic. And suddenly Bangladeshis stopped being Bangladeshis and were merged with all other Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia."

"We have a system in which Muslim organisations are in charge of all Muslims, Hindu organisations in charge of all Hindus, Jewish organisations in charge of all Jews and so on." This parcelling out of the nation can only weaken civil society. "In downplaying political and social identities, as opposed to religious identities, the government has weakened civil society precisely when there is a great need to strengthen it."

Related;

See a video presentation on the book at World Bank

Amartya Sen's new book

Amartya Sen and the War on Terrorism

Amartya Sen: "Identity and Violence"

There are some who allege that Sen abused Indian History- Nimai Mehta, "Truth Before Sympathy: The Use and Abuse of Indian History from Mill to Sen"

Podcasts on Two Outlooks- Global Economy and Information Economy

Kenneth Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard University and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, talks about the outlook for global economic growth, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the IMF's role in global economics at Bloomberg. Listen to the podcast.

Graham Vickery gives an overview of the information and communication technologies (ICT) industry for the OECD countries for 2006. Topics discussed amongst others; Market growth across the OECD and Non-OECD ICT markets, Top 250 ICT firms, World semiconductor market 1990-2005, Structural change in the ICT sector, ICT globalisation and trade, New trade competition, ICT-enabled service globalisation and offshoring; China and ICTs; ICT skills and employment; IT policy in OECD countries. Podcast from Radioeconomics.

Perspectives on the Middle East

Niall Ferguson-“Yet the biggest ethnic conflict in the Middle East today is not between Jews and Arabs. It is between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.”

Paul Krugman: Shock and Awe
“Israel’s decision to rely on shock and awe ..., like the U.S. decision ...[in] Iraq ..., is having the opposite of its intended effect. Hezbollah has acquired heroic status, while Israel has both damaged its reputation as a regional superpower and made itself a villain in the eyes of the world. ...”

Thomas Sowell- Pacifists versus peace
"Peace" movements are among those who take advantage of this widespread inability to see beyond rhetoric to realities. Few people even seem interested in the actual track record of so-called "peace" movements — that is, whether such movements actually produce peace or war.

Take the Middle East. People are calling for a cease-fire in the interests of peace. But there have been more cease-fires in the Middle East than anywhere else. If cease-fires actually promoted peace, the Middle East would be the most peaceful region on the face of the earth instead of the most violent.”

Sistani Threatens US over Israeli War on Lebanon

What is Hizbullah?

Why Mel Gibson is Wrong

GRAPES OF WRATH

Israel Halts Strikes, U.S. Now Seeks Ceasefire

The ethics of war- Mind those proportions

Letters of peace

Tomgram: Air War, Barbarity, and the Middle East

Multimedia

A Perspective from Palestine
Sociologist, politician and Christian Palestinian, Dr Bernard Sabella, is a passionate advocate of peace between Israelis and Palestinians and argues that finding "a joint vision of the future" is an urgent priority for Palestinians and Israelis. This program presents Dr Sabella's address to a Canberra audience during his Australian visit this month

Hezbollah
As violence coninues in Lebanon and northern Israel, Rear Vision looks at the history of Hezbollah

Israel Dialogue
A conversation about Israel with three Israelis who are indicative of the immigrant nation, and whose range of views is broadly representative of the breadth of public opinion in Israel.

Juan Cole interview with Barry Gordon

Two angry bloggers- an Israeli and an Arab

Meanwhile UN has a breakthrough on the middleast;

“A News Focus Web site has been created compiling related statements, documents, resolutions, links to UN system Web sites and more.”

Provocative Podcast of the Day- Daniel Dennett

Daniel Dennett on Religion; as the world wages war over geographical, religious and historical turf - a growing number of big note scientists want religious faith put under the microscope. Uber philosopher of mind and popular provocateur, Daniel Dennett, author of Darwin's Dangerous Idea, is one of them. He joins Natasha Mitchell to discuss his latest controversial offering, Breaking the Spell. Listen to the podcast. More links on the Radio National's site.

Related; Neuroscience Carnival at Thinking Meat Blog.

The Outlook for the US Economy

The IMF released its views on the US economy;

“The staff's baseline scenario for the short-term outlook is for a "soft landing," with growth easing to potential and inflation remaining contained. The housing market is likely to cool in response to high valuations and tightening financial conditions, reducing the impetus from consumption and residential investment, but strong fundamentals should continue to support business investment. The external deficit is likely to remain wide, but the drag on activity from net exports will lessen as growth abroad strengthens. On the supply side, solid productivity growth should accommodate wage gains while containing price pressures.

There appear to be competing risks to this outlook. The possibility of a more abrupt slowdown in the housing market, disappointments on the productivity front, and a disorderly adjustment to global imbalances, as well as the risk of higher oil prices more than offset the upside potential for business investment. Avian flu and geopolitical events represent further and more difficult to quantify downside risks. In contrast, inflation risks-which mainly stem from supply effects-seem mostly on the upside. These include the possibility of a larger-than-anticipated productivity slowdown pushing up unit labor costs, and the potential for pass-through of high commodity and oil prices.”

U.S. Is on Its Way to a Recession by Year End - Roubini

Related;

United States: 2006 Article IV Consultation - Staff Report and Selected Issues from IMF

Roubini of New York University Predicts a U.S. Recession -podcast from Bloomberg

A bird flu vaccine breakthrough

BBC reports;

“GlaxoSmithKline believes it has developed a vaccine for the H5N1 deadly strain of bird flu that may be capable of being mass produced by 2007.

The vaccine has proved effective at two doses of 3.8 micrograms during clinical trials in Belgium, BBC business editor Robert Peston has learned.

It is the size of the dose that is highly significant, Glaxo explained.”

Related;

Bird flu: risks, laws and rights

Responding to the Threat of a Pandemic Influenza- Frederick G. Hayden, Prof. of Clinical Virology in International Medicine at U. of Va. School of Medicine, considers the effectiveness and potential for resistance offered by antivirals.

The popular Avian Flu blog is now dormant.

How the Bird Blue has spread

Why are we surprised that Doha Failed?

"The cause of this collapse is not specific countries' unwillingness to concede on particular themes, but growing public opposition in poor and rich countries alike to the very WTO model," said Lori Wallach director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch

“Last year, the World Bank estimated that global gains from trade liberalisation would equal roughly $287 billion, of which $86 billion would accrue to developing nations, lifting at least 66m people out of poverty”
-The Economist

At least some people seems happy that Doha trade round has failed. Paul Blustein asks whether Doha failure could lead to more uncertainty about the path of future globalization in this op-ed. Stiglitz refers to as America’s New Trade Hypocrisy.

Related;
Q&A with Pascal Lamy
Doha Talks Break Down
Doha on Life Support
DOHA, R.I.P.????
Doha dead as dodo

The Gamble Fails: Doha talks collapse

Some farmers punch above their weight

Where is the U.S. Leadership on Trade?

No Progress Toward Freer Trade Under Bush

The Doha Failure: Plenty of Blame to Go Around

Ten Observations about WTO’s First Decade

Bhagwati & Ikenson on unilateral liberalization

Bhagwati versus Bhagwati on trade liberalization

Time for a New Trade Agenda

Is Doha failure a sign of hegemonic decline?

(Why) Does Free Trade Favour The Rich?

Stationary Bandits, Plunder, and Trade Negotiations

Multimedia

Daniel Ikenson discusses the failure of Doha; a premier on trade talks highly recommend (podcast)

The Future of Trade after Doha: What’s in It for Developing Countries?

Global Economy: International Trade

Michael Moore: Globalization & Development: Its Implications & Institutions

The Case for Open Industrial Policy

Testing the Grandsons of Hecksher and Ohlin

Where are they now- Mikhail Gorbachev

“In 1993, former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, founded Green Cross International (GCI). Green Cross promotes legal, ethical and behavioural norms that encourage basic changes in the value, actions and attitudes of government and private sector and civil society necessary to build a sustainable global community.

Phillip spoke to Mikhail Gorbachev at Earth Dialogues Brisbane 2006: A World Forum for Sustainable Development and Resource Management, held between 22-25 July as part of this year's Brisbane Festival.”

Listen to the podcast- from Radio National’s Late Line Live.

Carnival of Podcasts

Ray Canterbery, an author and economics professor emeritus at Florida State University, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene about economic theory, Canterbery's book "A Brief History of Economics: Artful Approaches to the Dismal Science" and U.S. economic policy.

Dan Griswold, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene from Washington about China's currency policy, the benefits of imports from China to the U.S. economy and the need for increased national savings in the U.S.

James Galbraith on economics and contributions of his father.

How many logics? If we think about logic at all, we probably think of it as one and indivisible - truth is truth and an argument is either valid or it isn't. But perhaps we need a logic that is more subtle than that, one that allows for degrees or truth. This, it turns out, is the Australian way. For more see the blog of the guest.

Hearing Voices - the invisible intruders
Around 10% of the population hear voices that aren't there. Some people can live harmoniously with them, but for those whose voices are associated with a psychiatric illness, they can be frightening and menacingly real. We discuss the latest research on how auditory hallucinations occur in the brain, what it's like to live with voices in your head - and the healing power of the international Hearing Voices Network

U.S.-China Trade, Exchange Rates, and the U.S. Economy
Featuring Nicholas Lardy, Institute for International Economics; Frank Vargo, National Association of Manufacturers; and Daniel Griswold, Cato Institute; One year after China’s modest currency reforms, the issue remains a sticking point in U.S.-China trade relations. Critics argue that China’s yuan remains grossly undervalued, bestowing an unfair advantage on imports from China at the expense of U.S. producers. Other observers contend that benefits from trade with China far outweigh any concerns about its currency. Policy options range from doing nothing to aggressive diplomacy to imposing steep tariffs on Chinese imports. Three experts on U.S.-China trade will discuss the status of reform in China, the impact of U.S.-China trade and exchange rates on our economy, and what change, if any, should be made in U.S. economic policy toward China

Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel—Why Everything You Know is Wrong

Two Views on Global Development: Revive the Invisible Hand or Strengthen a "Society of States"? Deepak Lal and Ethan Kapstein.

U.S. Trade Policy in the Wake of Doha: Why Unilateral Liberalization Makes Sense
Featuring Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor of Economics and Law, Columbia University, Senior Fellow in International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations and Daniel Ikenson, Associate Director, Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute

Israel, Lebanon and Palestine
Ross Burns; Former Australian Ambassador to Lebanon and Syria in the 1980s, South Africa and Greece in the 1990s and in Israel until 2003'

Human Betterment Through Globalization by Vernon Smith
Via Café Hayek

Christian Emissary of Kublai Khan
Before Marco Polo plied the Silk Route to visit the great Khan in the 13th century, the Mughal Emperor sent out a Christian emissary to retrieve relics from Jerusalem and send a message to the Pope. His name was Rabban Sawma and his story is told by Professor Sam Lieu

The Prophet Muhammad He came from desert obscurity in the sixth century, to become a leading figure in the prosperous Arabian town of Medina. The Prophet Muhammad went on to found a religion that would dominate the Middle East in just a century after his death. Interview with Reza Aslan

Coping by cutting
The incidence of self harm is rising and there's a search for understanding and solutions. Princess Di admitted to it. As many as 1 in 5 young people are likely to deliberately hurt themselves to release internal tension and pressure. What is it, and how can parents handle it? Reporter, Jane Shields

Bird flu: risks, laws and rights
Scientists, lawyers, politicians, security forces—everyone's walking a fine line with avian flu, between the rights of the individual and the rights of the wider public. When a pandemic happens each of us will be on our own, as the authorities look at the big picture. Reporter, Ian Townsend

Business, design and Innovation
By Design is intrigued by the connection between design and the marketplace. To look at how design and economics are further embedding themselves in our cultures and what inhibits this if the connection is not happening, our discussion this morning focuses on design and innovation

British ex-ambassador discusses US role in Middle East

Defining obesity; A powerful expert committee in the US has plans to alter the definition of healthy weight levels, which will result in almost 40% of children aged 6 to 11 years being defined as 'overweight'. We speak to Ray Moynihan and Michael Gard on how the West got so worried about being fat

Darwinian aesthetics
When Darwin first published Origin of Species back in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was, to put it mildly, a revelation. His theories radically altered our perceptions of ourselves and the world around us...and it seems the aftershocks are continuing to this day. There is a growing academic movement that aims to apply Darwin's theories to the study of art and literature. But what does the survival of the species have to do with art? Professor Dennis Dutton is a philosopher at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He is interested in the study of evolutionary psychology, or Darwinian aesthetics, so he's bound to know the answers.
Listen online

Anwar Ibrahim - Shakespeare, Islam and Democracy
Anwar Ibrahim is a guest of the World Shakespeare Congress in Brisbane and he lectures there on Shakespeare this week. What does the former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia have to say about the Bard's influence on him, especially during his years of imprisonment? Anwar Ibrahim also lectures this week at the University of Queensland on Islam and Democracy in Asia and other parts of the world. These two subjects are disparate but their common ground is a world recognised scholar and political thinker. Find out more on Encounter this week

Design island; For its size, Tasmania can boast a disproportionately high number of creative people, and at a recent design forum the mostly Tasmanian-based designers and craftspeople discussed the challenges many artists in far-flung places face; of isolation, and of regional identity versus international style.

Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - what is it and what can be done about it? We'll also look at some assumptions and controversies surrounding this condition. One of the commonly asked questions is whether adult ADHD really exists

‘You Must Use The Bath' is an exploration of a little-known part of Australia's Colonial history - the emergence and widespread 'take up' of Turkish Baths. It's a tale of entrpreneurial spirit and, at the time, many claimed 'whacky vision'. However, the larger-than-life Turkish Bath devotees were not to be diverted and there were soon baths in all major cities and regional centres

Behind The News - a profile of Dr Peter Russo
For 50 years journalist and academic Dr Peter Russo told Australians about Asia and about themselves, but it was often not what they wanted to hear.

Free to learn - the history of progressive education in Australia
If the words progressive education mean anything to you at all, they may well conjure up the name Summerhill—probably the most famous progressive school in the world—in England, where children can choose whether or not they go to lessons, and are free to do pretty well what they want

Joel Shurkin, biographer of William Shockley
Robyn's guest this week is author Joel Shurkin, who's written a biography of William Shockley, the Nobel prize winning inventor of the transistor. Shockley was an extraordinary man whose work gave birth to modern electronics, yet on a personal level, his colleagues felt he was deeply flawed. It's suggested that he had reverse charisma; he'd walk into a room and engender instant dislike! We take a look at Shockley's fascinating and tragic life

Barbara Biggs has been a journalist, a prostitute and a property developer. She has written three books about her remarkable experiences. She talks to Robyn Williams about why she chose to expose the man who abused her when she was young. What was the point of enduring public attention and the law courts so long after the event? Do victims need to revisit distress in this way?

Dr Jim Cotter and the 100 hour challenge; The 100 hour challenge is not for most of us. You run for that length of time, across country, with hardly any sleep. Dr Jim Cotter has done it and studied the physiological implications. How much water do you need to keep going? Do branded sports drinks help? How do you prepare for such an ordeal - or for regular jogging that normal people do?

Defecation, Copulation and Exclamation: A Social History of Swearing
Six hundred years ago the English were known to the French as "les goddems" due to their propensity for foul language. English-speakers' long-standing partiality to oaths, profanity and ethnic slurs reveals much about our shifting understandings of sexuality, class, race and humour

Lifetime Economics; Bob Blain is one of the world's leading economic reformers. He believes that today's monetary system has stalled and has failed to complete its evolution. He proposes developing a more sustainable world economy by adopting an "hour of work" as the world monetary standard, a way to share work and wealth more equitably.

Journalists and their sources

Which lies matter - which ones don't? Are some lies now so much a part of daily life that they've lost their sting? Today on Life Matters we look at how we deceive and are deceived on a daily basis

Listing love's loves; Peta Logan unpacks tales of unrequited love in one of the many lists in James Joyce's novel, Ulysses

Correspondents and Fixers
Have you ever wondered how foreign correspondents fly into the latest disaster zone and instantly report with authority? The answer is The Fixer, a local, often taking extraordinary risks

The Strange Case of Dr John Bodkin Adams
Medical historian Dr Jim Leavesley from Margaret River in Western Australia tells us the story of the medical murder trial of Dr John Bodkin Adams, who practiced in the English seaside town of Eastbourne and who was beneficiary to no less than 132 wills

Green Power; Author Christine Williams has written a book called 'Green Power'in which she tells the story of environmentalists who have changed the face of Australia.

We the People
The Constitution of the United States of America, adopted in 1788, became the first formal blueprint for a modern democracy. What happened to the expression of those democratic ideals during the twentieth century - the American century

The creative brain; Stephanie White studies Australian zebra finches and how they sing. They learn a standard song but need to maintain it and add creative flourishes. In research just published in The Journal of Neuroscience she reveals that the gene linked to this singing may well be the same as those involved in human speech. Not only does this have relevance for investigating speech disorders, it may also have implications for creativity. Stephanie White is a professor at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles).

An Inconvenient Truth
David Fisher reviews director David Guggenheim's film, An Inconvenient Truth, which features former US Vice President Al Gore's 'travelling global warming show'. In the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, Al Gore re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from human-induced irrevocable change

Dark Paganism and Deep Blue Religion; Witches' Sabbats that include death rituals are frightening, but they have a therapeutic value, says PhD student Marian Dalton, a witch who practices Dark Paganism. And strong communal values are also evident, says paganism researcher Dr. Douglas Ezzy from the University of Tasmania. Paganism's earth-based spiritualities often exclude the importance of the sea but sociologist Sylvie Shaw has discovered that "deep blue religion" is alive and well

The New Animism; The oldest living religion, Animism, has a new advocate in pagan expert, Graham Harvey. We also hear from practising pagans in South Australia

Mentoring and sport; For some young athletes negotiating the off field demands of expectation and celebrity can be a difficult part of the game, so who's there to guide them?

The New Arab World; Dubai, Oman, Qatar

A Witch's Brew; It is barely fifteen years since Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan emerged from the shadows of the Soviet Empire and all now find themselves facing enormous environmental problems

GREEK COMEDY
But how did Greek comedy evolve? Why did its subsequent development differ so radically from that of Greek tragedy? To what extent did it reflect the anxieties and preoccupations of a nascent democracy? And can it be said to have left any lasting legacy? Listen online

India struggles to catch China
The rapid growth of the Indian and Chinese economies have transformed the two countries in recent years. But this prosperity has also brought other problems.

A review of developments in Latin America over the past year, particularly the Bolivian and Mexican elections

Nature Podcast; untangling foodwebs, our Neanderthal heritage, lungfish dammed, military secrets, graphene hits the scene, the origin of the ocean floor, and paramutational phenomena

More on science; Brain-computer interfaces, science and the battle of the sexes, human transmission of H5N1, science and religion, deep sea secrets, the unshelled mollusc, tropospheric radicals, and atomic tweasers

Forensic Economics 101
An interview with Forensic Economist Don Frankenfeld

From Google Authors; Gene Sperling, Hal Varian, Seth Godin, John Battelle, Barry Swartz,

Charlie Rose Show; with Fouad Ajami, Christiane Amanpour

Other videos; Investment Opportunities in China, Leveraging India as India Stands Up, Our Lives Our Facebooks, The Next Fifty Years of Science

Political Podcasts

The Foreigner’s Gift
Fouad Ajami, Author, The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq; and M. Khadduri Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

The Rise of China's Soft Power
Joseph Nye, Lan Xue, Ezra F. Vogel and Anthony Saich (moderator)

Is China the Paramount Power in South East Asia?

Dr Milton Osborne at Lowy Institute gives a summary of his recent paper The Paramount Power: China and the Countries of Southeast Asia. Listen to the podcast.

New Economist has more on the paper.

Miscellaneous on China;

Political and Economic Introduction to China from British Parliament’s research group

Web users urged on China policy

Why China Stagnated

Hidden factors may diminish China's actual trade surplus

Interview with Five Economists

Russ Roberts interviews Robert Barro. Listen to the podcast and see the additional readings. Cyberlibris is reading Robert J. Barro's latest book: Nothing is Sacred: Economic Ideas for the New Millenium. Be sure to comment about the puzzle at the end of the podcast.

Jagdish Bhagwati on immigration

Anwar Ibrahim- fired practitioner

Judge Posner- lawyer economist; the interview starts around the middle of the program

Larry Summers- a not so well liked economist (by some) who had two Nobel laureate uncles. See related post ‘Fearful Pig’ is resigning as the President.

Note; Some of the podcasts are available for limited time, so download now.

Pharaonic Neurosurgery and other links on science

A couple of links on some science related news;

The latest Carnival of Neuroscience

Secrets of ocean birth laid bare; The largest tear in the Earth's crust seen in decades, if not centuries, could carve out a new ocean in Africa, according to satellite data

Magic mushrooms really cause 'spiritual' experiences; “My guess is that there will be people saying ‘You’re looking for a spiritual shortcut’” says Griffiths. He stresses that the drug is no replacement for the mental health benefits of continuous personal reflection: “There’s all the difference in the world between a spiritual experience and a spiritual life.”

A head for trouble; We like to think it’s our choice to help an old lady across the road or push her into the traffic. But an increasing number of scientists say we’re fooling ourselves. Are some of us just hard-wired to be bad?

Pharaonic Neurosurgery

The Neuroscience of Playing Chicken; If you don't know what chicken is (are you from this planet?), it involves two people in cars driving at each other at high speeds. The first person to get the hell out of the way is the chicken. Unfortunately, it's impossible to fit a car, much less two, into an fMRI machine, so Fukui et al. came up with a "game theoretical" version. They chose chicken over the more well-known game theoretical game, the Prisoner's Dilemma, because in Prisoner's Dilemma tasks, people don't always behave the way game theory says they should, which leads to empirical and theoretical problems. Chicken is different, largely in that there's no reward for trying to make the same choice as the other participant. In chicken, you want to make the opposite choice of your opponent. I'll let them describe their version of chicken (p. 3; figure from p. 2):…

Trust in Fish; A mutually beneficial interaction between two species of fish turns out to involve the careful appraisal of one by the other — and the appropriately virtuous behaviour by the former while being watched. This is yet another example of a complex social behavior once thought to be unique to mammals

What a synapse does when it’s not doing anything

Connecting cortex to machines: recent advances in brain interfaces; Recent technological and scientific advances have generated wide interest in the possibility of creating a brain−machine interface (BMI), particularly as a means to aid paralyzed humans in communication. Advances have been made in detecting neural signals and translating them into command signals that can control devices. We now have systems that use externally derived neural signals as a command source, and faster and potentially more flexible systems that directly use intracortical recording are being tested. Studies in behaving monkeys show that neural output from the motor cortex can be used to control computer cursors almost as effectively as a natural hand would carry out the task. Additional research findings explore the possibility of using computers to return behaviorally useful feedback information to the cortex. Although significant scientific and technological challenges remain, progress in creating useful human BMIs is accelerating

It’s a Goal; The project is aiming to help young men between the ages of 16-35 who may suffer, or have suffered, with depression, but also to include those who have little confidence, a low opinion of themselves and who have poor communication and social skills.

Psychiatry by Prescription …Is psychiatry an empirical science that studies brain functioning, or a form of humanism that studies the inner workings of the mind in its broad social and cultural context? Assistant professor of psychiatry David Brendel takes up this question in his new book, Healing Psychiatry: Bridging the Science/Humanism Divide, in which he diagnoses the field’s internal schisms and proposes a cure.

Multimedia

The psychology of stalking; Repeated unwanted advances, being followed, distressing packages and letters in the mail, relentless phone calls and emails can all be part of the often-terrifying experience of being stalked. It's a social problem that's increasing and it doesn't just happen to celebrities. From the latest research in forensic psychiatry, we hear what motivates those who stalk, and one woman gives an open account of what impact being the victim of a stalker has had on her life

The Life of Thomas Young; Retired engineer Paul Riddell prepared a tribute to the little known 19th Century English scientist Thomas Young

How many of me are there? This week, we examine the question of personal identity with Douglas Hofstadter (author of the seventies cult classic Gödel, Escher, Bach). We normally assume that our identity is singular - there's one me and one you - but could the person I think of as me really be us

Is football (soccer) good for your mental health? Listen online

Podcast of the Day- A Guide to Nonsense

British author and journalist Francis Wheen discusses his book, How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World, with some entertaining examples of celebrities like Princess Diana, Cherie Blair and Hillary Clinton who are deluded by crystals and healing stones, cults, gurus and other quackery in what he calls our post-political era. Here is the podcast, and the transcript.

Related;

Writer's choice 1: Francis Wheen at Normblog

Reviews of the book; Crooked Timber, The Economist

Fun with Google

In an earlier post I linked to the book 55 Ways to Have Fun with Google. Amongst many others, it talks about the following fun application of the Google Maps; If I dig a very deep hole, where I go to stop?

Another cool idea is the Wayfaring Map which is dedicated to academic podcasts across the world ( via Cyberlibris blog)

Related;

Google Pack

Sponsored Google Videos

Videos from the Googleplex

From Kevin Kelly; Google SketchUp, Google Answers, Google Hacks, The Search

Eric Schmidt, Google CEO talks at SIEPR

Digital Maoism- Podcast of the Day

Radio National’s Philosophers Zone asks ‘Is a free market in ideas a good idea?’ More than two centuries ago, Adam Smith, the great theorist of capitalism, argued that the free market was a self-correcting mechanism: a lot of people seeking profits for themselves would produce general public benefit. But does it work with ideas? Can there be an encyclopaedia that corrects itself, as it grows ever larger on the Web?

Related;
DIGITAL MAOISM: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism by Jaron Lanier
How and Why Wikipedia Works: An Interview with Angela Beesley, Elisabeth Bauer, and Kizu Naoko

Music Piracy- Russian Version

According to this article;

“Russia is already the second-biggest source of pirate music, film and software in the world after China — costing U.S. companies nearly $1.8 billion last year, according to anti-piracy groups. The Web site www.allofmp3.com just adds to the dispute.

World music downloading leader iTunes charges a fixed 99 cents per song, but the Russian site offers tracks for a 10th of that price. Songs from the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new double album, Stadium Arcadium, cost between 10 and 16 cents. The whole of Oral Fixation, Vol. 2, the latest album by Colombian pop star Shakira, can be had for just $1.40.”

Via Russia Blog

Does culture need protection?- Podcast of the Day

Should cultures be protected from destruction by outside forces, or might the introduction of new ideas and global economics create positive change? We hear from two leading economic historians, Eric Jones and Tyler Cowen, on how cultures can merge.

Also in the podcast Former World Bank economist William Easterly talks about foreign aid and development. Listen to the podcast.

Also see Moscow Gets Mortgaged- the latest show of Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria.

IMF worried about Russia?

The latest Article IV Consultation’s Preliminary Conclusions on Russia has been released;

“We are concerned that the current high levels of growth cannot be sustained without an acceleration in structural reforms. Analysis suggests that potential output growth is largely driven by productivity gains, with only small contributions from capital and labor, notwithstanding the recent acceleration in investment. These gains reflect the catch-up potential at this stage of economic development, where enterprises have significant scope for upgrading equipment and technologies while labor and capital are reallocating to faster growing sectors. While the mission agrees that there is considerable potential for further unleashing such productivity gains going forward, it is concerned that this cannot continue to be achieved on the scale of recent years, even in an environment with continued high oil prices, without a more determined push for reforms. The fact that Russia's GDP growth is among the lowest in the CIS, despite the strong terms of trade gains, is a reminder of underlying vulnerabilities. We believe that addressing these vulnerabilities by accelerating reforms, while high oil prices are still boosting the economy, should be a matter of priority.

“In view of this, we are concerned about the uneven progress in implementing structural reforms. In several important areas, technical preparations have advanced and the legislative and institutional framework have been strengthened. However, actual implementation appears to be somewhat slow, not least by comparison to the goals for public sector reforms that the government set for itself upon assuming office. Looking ahead, with a view to focusing on reforms that have the promise to quickly increase productivity growth, we believe that priority should be given to reforms of natural monopolies and other sectors where the state effectively remains in control, as well as to administrative and civil service reforms. We, therefore, welcome the decision to speed up the long-delayed reform of the electricity sector, including through increased support from the budget. On the other hand, the increased state ownership in the oil and gas sector raises in our view questions regarding the future dynamism of this sector, which has been a main source of growth until last year. Concerns in this regard are illustrated by the way in which private oil companies took advantage of the steady increase in energy prices from 1999 to increase investments, achieving a sharp reversal of the decade-long contraction in output, a development that stand in stark contrast to the virtual stagnation in the state-controlled gas sector during the same period.”

Related podcast from BBC- Russia's energy wasteland; The G8 summit of industrialised nations being hosted by Russia is likely to be more interesting for what it says about the West's growing reliance on Russia for its energy.

Chewing Gum Increases Recall of Words

“Insulin mops up glucose in the bloodstream, and chewing causes the releasevof insulin, because the body is expecting food. Insulin receptors in the hippocampus may be involved in memory. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that chewing might improve long-term and working memory. In an experiment, one-third of 75 adults tested chewed gum during a 20-minute battery of memory and attention tests. One-third mimicked chewing movements, and the rest did not chew. Gum-chewers' scores were 24 percent higher than the controls' on tests of immediate word recall, and 36 percent higher on tests of delayed word recall. They were also more accurate on tests of spatial working memory. Chewing gum elevated heart rate significantly above that in the sham chewing and control conditions. This response may improve cognitive function due to increased delivery of blood to the brain. But attentional tasks, which might be described as assessing purer aspects of "concentration," were unaffected by chewing gum. Thus, chewing gum may improve performance in certain memory tasks. Nevertheless, teachers typically ask students to stop chewing gum when they enter the class.”

- Efficient Learning for the Poor- Insights from the Frontier of Cognitive Neuroscience, World Bank, p. 32.

Related;

Learning with All Kinds of Minds; We now know that we all differ in the way we think. We have different areas of natural strength and weakness which can deeply affect our learning experience. We look at some alternative approaches to helping children achieve their potential and we hear from the mother of a boy with Tourette's syndrome who's school experience has been transformed. Also a psychologist speaks about the importance of teaching children to manage their emotions in school- a podcast from Radio National, see also the various links on their website.

Enlightened Educator- weblog

All kinds of Minds; is a non-profit Institute that helps students who struggle with learning measurably improve their success in school and life by providing programs that integrate educational, scientific, and clinical expertise

Connecting Minds: Unlocking the Potential (upcoming conference)

Podcast of the Day- Interview with Alvin Toffler

From Radio National; a conversation with the writer and futurist who for the past 40 years has acknowledged and critiqued the collision of technology with the human race. There latest book is 'Revolutionary Wealth'. Alvin Toffler also speaks about his role in establishing the first NGO in Russia since the revolution, at the invitation of Mikhail Gorbachev.

A related interview at TCS.

Podcast of the Day- Anwar Ibrahim

Earlier I posted about a recent speech by Anwar Ibrahim. Now the podcast of the lecture is available.

It's not about the money

Easterly offers some advice to Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and other would be philanthropists;

“The misguided media reaction to the Gates-Buffett union was, quite predictably, all about numbers: Warren's $31 billion gift, which roughly doubles the size of Bill's foundation to about $60 billion. Welcome to foreign aid wonderland, where it's always about the spending, never about the impact. "Double" has a venerable history; whenever anyone starts worrying about the world's poor, they almost always call for exactly doubling foreign aid -- from John F. Kennedy to last year's Group of Eight (G-8) Summit agreeing to double aid to Africa.

Alas, aid flow reflects the cost of providing services for the poor, not the value of those services. Would Microsoft Corp. promote an executive who bragged about setting a record for costs? Would Berkshire Hathaway invest in a business that headlined its remarkably high spending on office supplies? Unfortunately, the foreign aid business has a sad history of bureaucrats under heavy pressure to spend money on foreign consultants and four-wheel-drive vehicles but with zero pressure to find out whether that spending translates into the forever elusive "technical assistance," "capacity building" and "civil service restructuring" that are supposed to help the poor. Your challenge -- much harder in foreign aid than in business -- is to find out if your final customers are satisfied.”

Related;

Conversation Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett had about philanthropy with Charlie Rose (via Official Google Blog)

‘World development report 1993 : investing in health’- which according to Bill Gates opened his eyes and gave his mission (see the above interview)

Being smart with Buffett’s billions

Carnival of Podcasts

Alan Krueger, a professor of economics at Princeton University, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene from Princeton, New Jersey, about President George W. Bush's selection of Columbia University scholar Frederic S. Mishkin as a Federal Reserve governor, Mishkin's relationship with Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, and inflation targeting.

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene from Washington about the results of a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll that finds more than six in 10 Americans say the country is on the wrong track and that more than half disapprove of President George W. Bush's handling of the economy, Snow's disappointment at not gaining enough support for changes in Social Security and future career plans.

U.S. Trade Policy in the Wake of Doha: Why Unilateral Liberalization Makes Sense; Featuring Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor of Economics and Law, Columbia University, Senior Fellow in International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations and Daniel Ikenson, Associate Director, Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute

World Economic Update ( a discussion at CFR, June 27,2006)

A Conversation with Hoshyar Zebari, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Iraq

Brazil's law-enforcing buffaloes ; Police have taken to an unusual form of locomotion in the Brazilian city of Belem

Behavioural Economics: Fear, Anxiety, Overconfidence, and the End of the Financial Year

Philanthropy; The world's two richest individuals are set to give away most of their money to the needy. The personal philanthropy of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will amount to tens of billions of dollars - so are they setting a trend - will others follow? And just how generous are Australian companies and individuals when it comes to charitable acts?

Emotions at work; This week we hear about some learnable techniques that might help people be more self-aware at work, allowing them to use their emotions as a positive force.

The 'curse' of having a girl ; India might be a country rushing headlong into 21st century but every year thousands of babies are aborted or killed at birth because they are girls

Higher Education Hype and the myth about Chinese engineers

Give Me Land ; Across the world millions of people have no land that they can call their own. Many have been made landless from great injustices. As populations grow and property prices rise the struggle for land becomes more difficult every day. This four-part series travels to China, India, South Africa and Brazil to see how people are fighting for land.

Peter Day looks at the long-running battle between Airbus and Boeing

The Enlightenment Is Not Godless; The 17th Century philosophers in England, France and Germany have been roundly criticised for being anti-religious. Professor of Philosophy at Griffith University, Wayne Hudson, resurrects their different understandings of God and argues they have been ignored in the rush to rubbish the Enlightenment as a den of unbelievers

Zen Brush, Zen Mind; A thousand years after Buddhism arose in 550 BC, Japanese Zen developed zenga - ink painting - which included calligraphy as a way of communicating its message

Interiors - how we 'invented' them; The interior of a house is always undergoing 'renovation' - not only physically, but also within our imagination. Charles Rice is an architect with a theory on how our significant philosphers and psychoanalysts, people like Freud, have shaped not only our sense of self, but the interior of our homes and the settings of most television shows. In fact media and self are now dependent on one another.

Computers and new ways of thinking; Computers are more than an extended drawing tool, or just a way of imaginging 3D. Now they are forging new ways of thinking, and offering ways of imaging the world that would be impossible without a computer. Hear how computers are changing engineering and architecture - indeed blurring the two.

Nutrition for children in Sub-Saharan Africa; In Sub-Saharan Africa malnutrition, particularly in babies and toddlers, is part of every day life. However, there may be some help available through some dietary intervention

Chris Turney; This week, Paul Willis takes the chair and goes dating with Chris Turney. Chris's specialty is carbon dating. He explains how this area of science has been called upon to solve some long-standing mysteries. When did the Minoan civilisation of Europe collapse and why? When did various groups of people arrive on the major continents? These are questions that can now be answered quite accurately using carbon dating, which looks at ratios of radioactive carbon in organic samples and compares the amounts present to the known rate of decay

The Political Speeches of Cicero; Dr Kathryn Welch on the rhetorical brilliance of the master orator of the Roman Republic

Faux Pas; Robert Dessaix on Philip Gooden's no-nonsense guide to words and phrases from other languages.

Journalism in Afghanistan

Those who have ears; Former Queensland teacher Jennifer Riggs looks at an extensive study by the Australian Council for Education Research which identifies serious problems with auditory processing in a high proportion of children

The future for manufacturing in Australia

Putting Ethics First; This year sees the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, who died in 1995. A survivor of the Holocaust, Levinas was a philosopher of ethics who insisted that all human beings, whoever they may be, and he was thinking of Nazis, have a claim on our respect

The philosophy in Tristram Shandy; In 1904, Ivan Pavlov received the Nobel Prize for medicine for his work on the phenomenon he called the conditioned reflex. He had applied stimuli - aural, visual, tactile - to dogs and then fed them. After a while the association in their minds between the stimulus and food was so strong that they'd salivate at the application of the stimulus, even if there was no food around

Cosmopolitanism; It's not about being worldly and sophisticated and it's not about cocktails. Cosmopolitanism is a very old philosophical idea that is coming back into favour. The cosmopolitan believes that each person has a moral responsibility towards each other person, no matter where that person lives or their nationality, religious commitment, ethnic affiliation, socio-economic class, or gender might be. It's a moral virtue for a global age

Developing Australia; This month, federal and state governments bowed to public pressure and abandoned plans to privatise the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. Rear Vision looks at the history of government involvement in Australia's big projects

East Timor Since Independence; What has happened in East Timor since independence to give rise to the violence, turmoil and political upheaval that culminated this week in the resignation of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri?

Computer games are not childsplay; Do you remember Donkey Kong, Pacman and Super Mario? Computer games now have names like Doom and Grand Theft Auto, and it's the extreme violence in these games that concerns computer science lecturer Simon McCallum, especially as they are often available to children.

Maternal Health and Foreign Policy Symposium; Session 1 and Session 2

A Conversation with James Baker

Doctors without Borders

Water in India; The cost of boom times in India is a surge in demand for everything - and top of the list is water. Industry, agriculture, households in middle class suburbs and global corporations all want as much as they can get. Is privatisation the answer when governments are struggling?

Workers of the world; Whether you call them guest workers or skilled immigrants, they're part of a globalising workforce

Creative Destruction

Why do Galaxies Exist? How have they evolved and what lies at the centre of a galaxy to make the stars dance round it at such colossal speeds?

The latest podcast from BBC’s ‘In Our Time’ show featuring John Gribbin, Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex, Carolin Crawford, Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge and Robert Kennicutt, Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge

Related;

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Astronomy Blogs; Tom’s Astronomy Blog, Astronomy Blog, Astronomy a Go-Go, Slacker Astronomy, Universe Today, The Night Sky,

Space & Astronomy News

Sloan Digital Sky Survey

In the beginnings; Young solar systems are like cosmic snooker games, and the universe is flat

Look up on the 4th of July

See also Nature podcasts

Stylized facts about regional disparities of growth in India

The latest IMF survey summarized the working paper ‘Mind the Gap - Is Economic Growth in India Leaving Some States Behind?’ in which the author examines how economic growth has varied across India's states. The following five are given as stylized facts about growth in India.

1. The gap between in income levels across states is widening.

2. Richer and faster-growing states are generally better at reducing poverty.

3. Poor and slower-growing states generated fewer private sector jobs.

4. Capital and labor flows do little to address imbalances in economic activity and
income across states.

5. Growth has been the most volatile in the poorest states.

Some more statistics;

-Between 2006 and 2051, about 60 percent of the projected 620 million increase in the Indian population is expected to occur in three of its poorest states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh)

- The ratio of average per capita income in India’s richest state, Punjab, to that in its poorest state, Bihar, rose to 4.5 percent in 2004, from 3.4 percent in 1970. The pace of growth in real per capita income in India’s fastest-growing states—just over 3 percent a year—has been more than twice as fast as that in the slower-growing poor states.

- On average, richer states have been about 50 percent more effective in reducing poverty, for each percentage point of growth, than poorer states. The pace of job creation in middle- and high-income states has far outstripped that in poorer states. India’s poorest and most populous states account for about 40 percent of the population but capture only one-fourth of jobs in the organized sector.

- About 55 percent of outstanding bank loans in India in FY2004/05 were to borrowers in the five richest states, whereas borrowers in the five poorest states accounted for a mere 15 percent. Moreover, over half of the foreign direct investment inflows into India in recent years have gone to five largely prosperous states.

- Only 6 percent of migration in rural areas and 20 percent of migration in urban areas in recent years has occurred across state borders.

- Take, for example, one of India’s richest and fastest-growing states, Maharashtra (which includes the financial capital of India, Mumbai). It was less successful in translating its growth into jobs and poverty reduction over the past three decades than Rajasthan, which grew much more slowly than the national average (see table).

- Using district-level data, Abhijit Banerjee and Lakshmi Iyer found that areas in which proprietary land rights were historically given to landlords had significantly lower agricultural investment and productivity after independence than areas in which these rights were given to cultivators.

For comment; Why is that female literary is not found to have a significant exogenous impact on states’ growth performance (coefficients are in fact negative)?

Related links;

Economic Growth in South Asia- a recent report from World Bank

Reports on India from Planning Commission

Indian States Database

Water in India; The cost of boom times in India is a surge in demand for everything - and top of the list is water. Industry, agriculture, households in middle class suburbs and global corporations all want as much as they can get. Is privatisation the answer when governments are struggling?

A Tale of Two Giants: India's and China's Experience with Reform and Growth. See also the panel discussion on the topic; China’s economy is three times larger than India’s and contributes significantly more to global economic growth.

Podcast of the Day- OECD Employment Outlook 2006

Latest podcast from RadioEconomics. Raymond Torres, Head of the Employment Analysis and Policy Division, OECD (Paris), discusses the “OECD Employment Outlook 2006.” Areas covered: Purpose, fundamental assumptions and principles of the OECD Jobs Strategy and why it was re-evaluated; overview of the “OECD Employment Outlook 2006”; how the OECD proposes to boost jobs and incomes; is there an immigration problem in the OECD; major concerns and opportunities about employment in the future.

Related around the blogs;

Europe's no basket case

Union decline in 24 countries

Employment

German Business Optimistic, While Individual Germans Save Rather Than Spend

British Success in Employment Rate

Working Hours

Intricate workings- summary of the Employment Outlook from The Economist

Podcast of the Day- Chinese Spirituality

The Way is how Confucius described his system of moral education, contained in the Analects. The Way is also the path found in the Daoist text, the Daodejing, a nameless, hidden truth that cannot be pursued but only spontaneously manifested. And even older than these, the Yi Jing (also, I Ching or Book of Changes) continues to inform the Chinese on every aspect of life from building homes to auspicious dates. Listen to the podcast. More links at the Radio National site.

A Related Blog; The Useless Tree

Podcast of the Day- Early Childhood and the Developing Brain

Explores how very early childhood experiences can deeply affect the way the brain develops. Human interactions create the neural connections from which the mind emerges, so for very young children, relationships are crucial. But what happens when children are deprived of human relationships in these critical early years? Listen to the podcast.

Related; Research Network on Early Experience and Brain Development

Podcast of the Day- The Nanny Nation

A discussion about the proliferation of state regulation. Can't eat this, can't stand there, can't say that. Is the state meant to decide it all for us? Are we handing over too much, too willingly or are we happy having a big nanny? Participated by the following;

Ross Homel; Head of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University; Homel's 'Pathways to Prevention' work won the 2004 National Violence Prevention Award.
Elspeth Probyn; Chair of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney; columnist with The Australian newspaper; author of 'Blush: Faces of Shame, Sexing the Self and Carnal Appetites'.
Andrew Leigh; Lawyer, political adviser, author, economist; currently with the Research School of Social Sciences, ANU; co-author of 'Imagining Australia: Ideas for Our Future'

I liked the suggestion made by one questioner that we have to pass a law making common sense compulsory.

Related;

See more downloads from the Ideas Festival

As if children mattered …I can do no better here than to summarise some of the key points that the famous American developmental psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner made in a lecture I heard him give in Sydney exactly 25 years ago – a quarter century ago, but with ideas and research findings as applicable today as they were then.

Michael Burleigh on Political Religion; Nazism, Communism and even the French Revolution are clear examples of political movements that aroused 'religious' zeal and made absolutist claims. English historian Michael Burleigh is a critic of extremist movements of the Right and the Left and he joins Rachael Kohn to discuss political religion. Recorded at the 2006 Sydney Writers Festival.

Drug regulation and drug safety; Today a special feature about the regulation of drugs and drug safety. We'll hear from two leading critics of the American system, particularly how the US Food and Drug Administration approves new drugs for release. Norman Swan also talks with an Australian expert about the situation here in this country.

Martin Wolf on World Bank and Economic Reform in India

“The experience with national economic planning has important lessons. It helps us understand what a state can usefully do — and is obliged not do — if it is to see a rise in the living standards of the people for whom it has responsibility.

This undermined the professional integrity of the staff and encouraged borrowers to pile up debt, no matter what the likely returns. This could not last — and did not do so. As Montek Ahluwalia — former economic secretary and later finance secretary — once told me, the Bank was a growing business in a dying industry. It was certain to reach the limit to its growth.

I worked on India as senior divisional economist for three years. During that time, my chief function, so far as the Bank was concerned, was to justify the provision of significant quantities of aid — even though this money was helping the government of India avoid desperately needed policy changes.

As it turned out, those changes were made in the midst of a deep foreign exchange crisis in 1991 — almost two wasted decades later.

The changes were made under the direction of Manmohan Singh — then finance minister — with the assistance of Montek Ahluwalia.

This experience confirmed three lessons: Policy changes could make a huge difference to economic performance. Such changes could be put into effect by relatively small teams of intelligent, motivated and well-disciplined individuals. And most important of all, those changes could not be imposed from outside.

Unfortunately, lending too much was not the World Bank's only fault. It also had to lend to governments.”

Martin Wolf, “Why Globalization Works”

Related; Montek Ahluwalia, Some Lessons from Economic Reforms in India

Radio National- the best podcasts on the web

Australia’s Radio National may not have got a webby award, but I think it has one of the best selection of podcasts from any major radio station. They have added a new series to their great selection; Big Ideas which brings you lectures, conversations, features and special series from Australia and around the world. Prominent people are invited to present the results of their thinking on the major social, cultural, scientific or political issues that affect us all.

Diversify Out of U.S. Treasury Bills- Lawrence Summers Tells

“Think about it. If a country is able to deploy 10 percent of GNP in a way that produces an extra 5 percent return, that is half a percent a year in free money to the central government. That is a number that compares on a global scale rather favorably with the magnitude of IDA. It is a number that in many countries compares, is not insignificant relative to federal contributions for healthcare or education. It is a number that in many countries half a percent GNP is in excess of the level of spending on combating, uh, AIDS, and it is potentially available simply by investing resources more aggressively."

Lawrence Summers, talking at CGD recently, suggesting that developing countries with unusually high levels of reserves should shift part of their holdings from U.S. government debt to a diversified international portfolio and the higher returns got could be better put to development needs.

See the video of the event.

Related:

Speech made by Summers on Global Imbalances at Central Bank of India

Morning Coffee Videocast: The Inflow of Capital to the United States

Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. fixed-income economist at Deutsche Bank Securities, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene about the outlook for the U.S. economy and Federal Reserve monetary policy, the impact of the Fed on bonds, and the performance of the U.S. housing market.

An earlier post about Summers and a profile of him at TCS.

Rumsfeld's letter of thanks to Summers

How to be a good student of Economics

“What makes a good student? It takes more than mathematics. Just because acolytes learn the intricacies of formal reasoning doesn’t mean they necessarily will have anything to say. But then, neither does background knowledge of specifics seem to have to do with it. Apt pupils come from all walks of life, and one of the best young economists of recent years lived in the former Soviet Union until he was sixteen. Scientific temperament is a plus (“desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, careful to dispose and set in order,”, was how Sir Francis Bacon described it long ago). But the essential gift among those who will have an impact is an aptitude for “thinking economically,” for translating every problem into one that can be addressed by means of the discipline’s standard kit of tools, devising new tools as required.”

David Warsh, “Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations”, p. 11-12, emphasis mine.

Related:

Getting a PhD in Economics, is it worth it? Professors Wendy Stock and John Siegfried discuss with James Reese aspects of the process of getting a PhD in Economics. Areas covered: How much will academic economists make over their lifetime? What is the chief reason for dropping out of a Ph.D. program? What is the reason for the dreaded ABD all but dissertation barrier? Is getting a PhD in economics worth the cost? Wendy and John coauthored articles entitled "Attrition in Economics Ph.D. Programs" and "Time-to-Degree for the Economics Ph.D. Class of 2001–2002." Download the podcast while it is free.

It's the humanity, stupid- Tim Harford interviews Gary Becker

Great Minds in Economics: Paul Samuelson

Game Theory in Soccer

Tim Harford explains why to be good in soccer you’ve to be a master strategist;

“The answer comes from a wartime collaboration between economist Oskar Morgenstern and mathematician John von Neumann. They produced a “theory of games” which, applied to this problem, says the strategy of the striker and the keeper cannot be predicted. The striker might shoot to the right two times out of three, but we cannot then conclude that it will have to be to the left next time.

Von Neumann and Morgenstern also say that each choice of shot should be equally likely to succeed, weighing up the advantage of shooting to the stronger side against the disadvantage of being too predictable. If shots to the right score three-quarters of the time and shots to the left score half the time, you should be shooting to the right more often. As you do, the goalkeeper will respond: shots to the right will become less successful and those to the left more successful. It might sound strange that at this point any choice will do, but it is analogous to saying that if you are at the summit of the mountain, no direction is up.

Von Neumann and Morgenstern did not produce game theory to help footballers: they believed it could illuminate anything from pay negotiations to waging war. The trouble is that for these applications the wrinkles of reality always obscure whether ordinary people actually follow the strategies that game theory predicts they should. Yet penalty taking is different. The objective is simple, the variables easy to observe, and the results immediate.

Ignacio Palacios-Huerta, an economist at Brown University, found that individual strikers and keepers were, in fact, master strategists. Out of 42 top players that Palacios-Huerta studied, only three departed from game theory recommendations. Professionals such as the Brazilian Rivaldo and Italy’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon are apparently superb economists: their strategies are absolutely unpredictable and, as the theory demands, they are equally successful no matter what they do, indicating that they have found the perfect balance between the different options. These geniuses do not just think with their feet.”

Related;

More blogs on the World Cup- My Sofa World Cup, World Cup Hippo, Getty Images-Sports blog, Sports Business, Dead Spin, Labour’s World Cup 2006 blog (British politician).

Economics of Golf; Stephen Shmanske, an economics professor at California State University and author of "Golfonomics," talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene about the U.S. Open Championship and the economics of golf.

Body Type, Steroids and Sports Performance

Anglobalisation and British Empire

A must listen podcast from the BBC;

“To mark the end of Radio 4's This Sceptred Isle: Empire series, some of this country's best-known historians will be examining how Britain and other countries around the world have been changed by their experience of empire. They'll be discussing whether Britain should apologise and make reparation for its imperial past or glory in it, and asking whether the twenty-first century will see the birth of new empires- Eric Hobsbawm, Niall Ferguson, Robert Beckford, Linda Colley and Priya Gopal.”

The debate gets very heated at times. I think one way to view the role of British Empire and its relation with the colonies like India is to look at it as India or any other colony giving a huge interest free loan to Britain- this point was highlighted by the late Mahbub ul Haq in one of his books.

Related podcast;

Francis Fukuyama- No longer neocon; The man who wrote The End of History? is now disenchanted with American foreign policy. Fukuyama remains a conservative, but has strong views on what has gone wrong. He sees a need to demilitarise the struggle against violent fundamentalism.

Climate Change as Terrorism

Lowy Institute, a think-tank in Australia has a new study reflecting on the security implications of climate change;

“In this Lowy Paper we argue that there is no longer much doubt that the world is facing a prolonged period of planetary warming, largely fuelled by modern lifestyles, which is unprecedented in human history in terms of its magnitude and probable environmental consequences. With a few notable exceptions, even sceptics now seem prepared to accept the validity of the basic science underpinning climate change forecasts.

Crucially, however, there is no consensus about appropriate strategies for dealing with the consequences of climate change, primarily because there is no agreement about its seriousness for international security. The reality is that climate change of the order and time frames predicted by climate scientists poses fundamental questions of human security, survival and the stability of nation states which necessitate judgments about political and strategic risk as well as economic cost.

The central problem is the rate at which temperatures are increasing rather than the absolute size of differential warming. Spread over several centuries, or a millennium, temperature rises of several degrees could probably be managed without political instability or major threats to commerce, agriculture and infrastructure. Compressed within the space of a single century, global warming will present far more daunting challenges of human and biological adaptation, especially for natural ecosystems which typically evolve over hundreds of thousands and millions of years.

Our principal conclusion is that the wider security implications of climate change have been largely ignored and seriously underestimated in public policy, academia and the media. Climate change will complicate and threaten Australia’s security environment in several ways. First, weather extremes and greater fluctuations in rainfall and temperatures have the capacity to refashion the region’s productive landscape and exacerbate food, water and energy scarcities in a relatively short time span. Sea-level rise is of particular concern because of the density of coastal populations and the potential for the large-scale displacement of people in Asia….”

It’s fashionable for leaders of small low-lying countries to complain about developed world causing havoc on the earth’s environment- it goes something like this, ‘why should we have to be the ones to pay for the lifestyle of the rich world’. I doubt whether any one living in a coastal community seriously considers that global warming is a real threat- all the talk hadn’t had much of a behavioral change on such communities to prepare for their inevitable fate as depicted in the media and in research.

Related:

It's Getting Warmer- Thomas C. Schelling

Prices and Quantities in Climate Change- John Quiggin

A Test of Our Character-Paul Krugman

Alaska feeling effects of warming earth

Letter from Maldives- Not sinking but drowning; But burning less oil to keep air cool so ice stays ice and the seas don’t warm is too expensive and roundabout a way to meet the danger, Mr Mendelsohn thinks. Wouldn’t it be cheaper, he asks, for Maldivians, and those like them, to move?

Podcasts;

A Panel discussion on Climate- from the Environmental Summit of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University

Collapse- Jared Diamond

First there was Carbon?

The latest from the BBC’s ‘In Our Time’ program focus on Carbon;

"Carbon forms the basis of all organic life and has the amazing ability to bond with itself and a wide range of other elements, forming nearly 10 million known compounds. It is in the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the shampoo we use and the petrol that fuels our cars. Because carbon has the largest range of subtle bonding capabilities, 95% of everything that exists in the universe is made up of carbon atoms that are stuck together.

It is an extraordinary element for many reasons: the carbon-nitrogen cycle provides some of the energy produced by the sun and the stars; it has the highest melting point of all the elements; and its different forms include one of the softest and one of the hardest substances known.

What gives carbon its great ability to bond with other atoms? What is the significance of the recent discovery of a new carbon molecule - the C60? What role does carbon play in the modern chemistry of nanotechnology? And how should we address the problem of our diminishing carbon energy sources?”

Contributors include Harry Kroto, Professor of Chemistry at Florida State University, Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University and Ken Teo, Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow at Cambridge University

Related:

Trapping Carbon, Freeing Coal; There is a lot of carbon in the ground. For eons, life forms ranging from microbes to Homo sapiens have trapped the element as part of their fundamental molecular makeup, died and cycled it into the great geologic chain of carbon

Cheap Drinking Water from the Ocean; A water desalination system using carbon nanotube-based membranes could significantly reduce the cost of purifying water from the ocean. The technology could potentially provide a solution to water shortages both in the United States, where populations are expected to soar in areas with few freshwater sources, and worldwide, where a lack of clean water is a major cause of disease

Thought of the Day- Building Walls

“We live in a new age of globalization where everything and everyone move everywhere, right? Well not exactly; governments around the world are putting up barriers these days to stop people. The United States Senate has approved a triple-layered set of fences, snaking along for 370 miles, plus an additional 500 miles of vehicle barriers--all to keep Mexicans out. Tiny Botswana has just built a wall to stop people from Zimbabwe from flooding in. Israel is famously separating itself from the lands where most Palestinians live--something that has produced a dramatic drop in terrorism. The Indian army, impressed by this success, has now built a similar fence along its line of control in the disputed region of Kashmir. Saudi Arabia is currently building a wall to stop poor Yemenites sneaking across the desert sands. So when you next hear that we live in a borderless era, remember that it may be true for goods and capital but it is not true for people.”

Fareed Zakaria, in the latest show of Foreign Exchange

Myths about the Great Depression?

Don Boudreaux recommends the book Depression, War and Cold War, by Robert Higgs who questions the generally accepted view that World War II was the chief reason for recovery from the Great Depression and suggests that the New Deal prolonged it through what he calls 'regime uncertainty';

“It is time for economists and historians to take seriously the hypothesis that the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression by creating an extraordinarily high degree of regime uncertainty in the minds of investors.

Of course, scholars have had their reasons for not taking the idea seriously. For a long time, historians have viewed the statements of contemporary businesspeople about “lack of business confidence” as little more than routine grumbling—sure, sure, what else would one expect Republican tycoons to have said? Historians generally report such statements as if they were either attempts to sway public opinion or unreflective whining.

Since World War II, economists, with only a few exceptions, have overlooked regime uncertainty as a cause of the Great Duration for other reasons, such as the availability of standard macroeconomic models whose variables do not include the degree of regime uncertainty and, even if one wanted to incorporate it into an existing model, the absence of any conventional quantitative index of such uncertainty. Somewhat inexplicably, most economists regard evidence about expectations drawn from public opinion surveys as scientifically contemptible. Moreover, economists crave general models, equally applicable to all times and places, and so they resist explanations that emphasize the unique aspects of a specific episode such as the Great Depression…”

Related;

Arnold Kling refers to a couple of other books on the Great Depression and the New Deal.

The Secret History of the Cold War- A five part series from Radio National.

Highly Recommended; Robert Higgs Czech Lectures

Journal Editors and Book Editors

Every edition of the Australian Economic Review has a section called ‘For The Student’- the latest one looks at the world of economic publishing ; From Manuscript to Publication: A Brief Guide for Economists (freely available online for now) by John Creedy;

“Journal editors are not selected according to their knowledge of the printing and publishing business, or even their administrative abilities. Many therefore know little, and care even less, about those aspects. If journal editors face no sanctions, have little knowledge of the technical and commercial aspects of publishing, and have no financial incentives regarding outcomes, it is inevitable that factors such as power, influence and ego play a role, thereby damaging the selection process. Many editors nevertheless do provide a valued and disinterested service to the scholarly community. It is perhaps surprising how well the system generally works, though there are huge variations in editorial standards.

Book editors are, in contrast, paid professionals whose remuneration depends on the sales of books they commission. There is thus a clear market sanction. There is indeed much mobility within the industry, as successful editors are ‘headhunted’. Book editors typically know the publishing business well from many points of view, having often ‘worked their way’ through a number of departments.

The behaviour patterns of the different editors are therefore, not surprisingly, quite distinct. Journal editors simply wait for submissions to arrive. With limited space available, emphasis is given to the selection process involving the rejection of a large proportion of submitted papers. Editors are generally, though not always, well known and often highly regarded academics. They are confident of their own ability to make judgements regarding the quality of papers submitted, though an important role is played by referees, as discussed below. Furthermore, an editor may consult an editorial board before making a final decision, but this is not common. Journal editors have little, and merely distant, contact with authors. Given the search for original highquality papers, past reputations of authors typically count for little.”

Related;

What are the top economics journals? The American Economic Review and Journal of Political Economy are the two most important journals according to Tyler Cowen.

Broader, Deeper; But four new journals will appear, about two years from now. Their titles have only just been announced (pending a copyright check). The plan is to call each the American Economic Journal: the subtitle to follow the colon. It's clear that the formulators hope the new "aggregate field journals" will render old boundaries more porous, and cause new distinctions to evolve.

Tom Maschler - the writer's business; Today, what do publishers want, or the secrets of the book trade. Tom has been a publisher all his working life—revered for being chairman of Jonathan Cape when it was the best literary publishing house in Britain. He introduced Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Thomas Pynchon, Joseph Heller, Tom Wolfe and Kurt Vonnegut to British readers. Doris Lessing, John Fowles, Arnold Wesker, Roald Dahl, Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes, Martin Amis, and Salman Rushdie were also part of the Cape line-up during his reign. As the story goes, booksellers would simply buy whatever he had to offer just because of his reputation. But since he retired from the publishing world he for the first time went over to the other side of the fence and wrote a book. It's called Publisher and he wrote it because he was recruited by an agent. Listen to the podcast.

Book Recommendation; Writing for the Information Age: Elements of Style for the 21st Century by Bruce Ross-Larson

Note: I’ve classified this post under a new category called ‘Academy’ with a view to present primers and ‘explainers’ to Econ 101 students. I would also suggest reading regularly the 5 blogs - Greg Mankiw’s, Austrian Economists, Aplia Econ blog and EconLog.

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

The latest podcast of ‘In Our Time’ talks about the book Uncle Tom's Cabin;

"When Abraham Lincoln met the writer Harriet Beecher Stowe after the start of the American Civil War, he reportedly said to her: 'So you're the little lady whose book started this big war'. Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1852, is credited as fuelling the cause to abolish slavery in the northern half of the United States in direct response to its continuation in the South.

The book deals with the harsh reality of slavery and the enduring power of Christian faith. It proved to be the bestselling novel of the 19th century, outselling the Bible in its first year of publication. Its fame spread internationally, Lord Palmerston praised it highly and Tolstoy reportedly said it was his favourite novel.

What impact did Uncle Tom's Cabin have on the abolitionist cause in America? How did the book create stereotypes about African Americans, many of which endure to this day? And what was its literary legacy?"

Contributors include Celeste-Marie Bernier, Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Nottingham, Sarah Meer, Lecturer and Director of Studies in English at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge and Clive Webb, Reader in American History at the University of Sussex.

Removing binding constraints to growth?

I learned via P&G blog that the World Bank has launched a new fund called Africa Catalytic Growth Fund. One of the Fund’s targets is removing binding constraints to growth;

“Binding constraints to growth are removed through the ACGF framework for systematically targeting high performing and transformation countries, as well as regional integration initiatives that demonstrate evidence of specific constraints. Increased targeted aid for these countries can enable them to solve immediate problems that present barriers to their development, to implement critical reforms and provide them with the technical and financial assistance to give them the opportunity to break existing barriers, leading to higher sustained rates of growth.”

For Comment: I would like to hear your response after reading the above ‘humble’ objective of the program.

Related Podcast; Two Views on Global Development; Revive the Invisible Hand or Strengthen a "Society of States"?

Open-Source Software in Disaster Management

BBC’s Digital Planet looks at the Sahana- an open source disaster management system which was developed in Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami and is being used increasingly across the world.

Does any one know of similar open source disaster management systems?

World Cup and Productivity

In the US;

"The World Cup will likely cost American companies 10 minutes of productivity a day for 21 days, according to the outplacement company of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That comes to about $121.7 million in lost productivity in the US, a large figure, particularly painful for any company dominated by Englishmen, Germans or Brazilians perhaps."

In UK;

"Based on an average hourly wage of £12.50, the law firm Brabners Chaffe Street calculated that during the tournament, if half of British workers surf the net for an hour a day, it will cost Britain nearly £4 billion in lost time"

Related podcast; A History of Soccer- The Football (or Soccer) World Cup now attracts the largest following of all sporting events. Rear Vision podcast investigates the history of the world's most popular game, participated by Professor Tony Mason (International Centre for Sports History and Culture, De Montford University, UK), Dr Bill Murray (Widely published sports historian School of Historical and European Studies, LaTrobe University Australia), Professor Jim Walvin (Department of History, University of York, UK) and Les Murray, Football commentator, SBS.

May the Best Team Win

Another set of links on the World Cup and Soccer.

Podcast of an interview with Andrew Zimbalist, professor of economics at Smith College; talks about the growth of Major League Soccer in the U.S., corporate interest in World Cup soccer, and the World Cup's financial beneficiaries.

Blast it like Beckham? When taking a penalty kick, a player ought to score (provided the referee applies all the rules). He can fail in two ways: by missing the target altogether, or having a shot on target stopped by the goalkeeper. We can look on taking a penalty as a game, in which both the shooter, S, and the goalkeeper, G, must choose from a finite list of tactics. For each choice made (S might aim low right, G might dive to the left), we can estimate a payoff - the chance a goal will result. The shooter's aim is to maximise his expected payoff, G aims to minimise the same quantity. This is the classical set-up of a zero-sum game.

Modeling Tactical Changes of Formation in Association Football as a Zero-Sum Game; Although tactical decisions made by managers during a match of team sports are very important, there have been few quantitative analyses which include the effect of interaction between both teams’ decisions, because of the complexity of the problem where one team’s decision will affect the other team’s. A game theoretic approach can be useful for tackling this type of problem. See also Formulaic football and Time Has to Be Right to Risk a Red Card.

Mathematics of the Soccer Ball

History of Soccer Ball; Which One Have You Kicked

On the ball; Data collected from professional soccer matches suggest strongly that the times when goals are scored are fairly random, with two minor modifications: more goals are scored, on average, in a given five-minute period late in the game than earlier; and "goals beget goals" in the sense that the more goals that have already been scored up to the present time, the greater the average number of goals in the rest of the match. But these two points are second order factors: by and large, the simple model which assumes that goals come along at random at some average rate, and irrespective of the score, fits the data quite well.

World Cup Stock Exchange; Instead of buying virtual shares in sports stars, you buy shares in World Cup teams.

Get the most recent coverage about the World Cup from the BBC and their Blog, Google, SoccerBlog, WorldCupBlog.

Live Footy- World Cup Edition (To be able to see Live soccer/bastekball matches without pay even 1 cent, declares the website).

Podcasts Carnival – Economics Edition

Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University and a former U.S. Treasury official, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene in New York about the impact of monetary policy on the stock market, global economic growth risks and the outlook for the meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Eight nations in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Two Views on Global Development: Revive the Invisible Hand or Strengthen a "Society of States"? Deepak Lal, (Reviving the Invisible Hand: The Case for Classical Liberalism in the Twenty-first Century ), and Ethan Kapstein, (Economic Justice in an Unfair World: Toward a Level Playing Field) debate at Cato

Foreign Aid and Developing Economics

The Undercover Economist; Tim Harford acknowledges that Oscar Wilde's famous definition of a cynic - 'someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing' - is now commonly applied to economists (discussion starts later in the program)

Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel—Why Everything You Know is Wrong; Featuring John Stossel, Co-Anchor of ABC's 20/20

A New Era at the Federal Reserve: Some Challenges and Opportunities for Change; Featuring Shadow Open Market Committee members: Charles Plosser, Cochair; Anna Schwartz, Cochair; Gregory Hess; Lee Hoskins; Alan Stockman; Bennett McCallum; and Mickey Levy.

Harvard Kennedy School of Government Professor George Borjas, often called America’s “leading immigration economist,” discusses with James Reese the American immigration situation.

Dr. Roszbach, is a research economist at The Riksbank in Stockholm, the oldest central bank in the world, founded in 1668. He discusses with James Reese the banking systems in Sweden and Europe.

What IN: Inside Innovation Is All About (Business Innovation).

Mr. Risk Goes to Washington;Why Paulson will make a difference at Treasury

Medical Guesswork; when the effectiveness of most treatments cannot be demonstrated

Business in India; discussion with Simon Long, South Asia bureau chief of The Economist.

Science fiction and reality; a discussion about the latest Technology Quarterly in The Economist.

Making Poverty History: Slogan or Reality? Charles MacCormack, President, chief operating officer, and member of the board, Save the Children Federation

TCS Daily Hayek Series Event: The Creative Class vs. Capitalism (video)

Professor James Robinson, Harvard University, discusses the nature of institutional persistence and examines the mechanisms whereby elite minorities are able to manage the distribution of economic and political authority. See also an earlier post about him; Politician Proof Policy.

Happiness and Economics; Research by Professor Andrew Oswald has questioned the supposed link between economic growth and happiness and indicated that it may not be in our national interest to continue our focus on increased consumption

Melissa Hageman on Open Access; Information technology isn’t just for surfing the web and listening to audio. Developing countries can take advantage of ICT to increase transparency in governance, improve their financial infrastructure, or reduce waste. By linking people together across borders, information technology can also serve as a cheap way for sharing knowledge. Melissa Hageman of the Open Society Institute discusses open access initiatives in this podcast.

Anderson and Hoekman on International Trade; In this session, we step past our borders toward the question of international trade. Because it is the most basic unit of interaction between countries, trade is one of the building blocks for the development process. Kym Anderson, Lead Economist, and Bernard Hoekman, Research Manager, comment on trade liberalization and international negotiations

Robert Bates on Governance Systems and Political Effectiveness

Water Management in Australia; A new study by the CSIRO says the cost of water is set to rise dramatically, while politicians are arguing over who should have the ultimate responsibility for water management. So have the states neglected our water infrastructure? Should there be more water trading between regions? And will it take higher prices to finally force consumer change and less wastage?

The Wal-Mart Effect; Author Charles Fishman calls the giant US retailer Wal- Mart the world's most powerful company. He argues that it has had a profound effect on America - it has transformed its economy, its working life and the way it sees the world.

Torn Curtain - The Secret History of the Cold War; Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4.

The politics of abuse, and the abuse of politics; Spiked.com columnist Mick Hume says that the more acrimonious an argument or election contest appears to be, the less likely it is that anything of principle is really at stake. He says the current leadership battle at the top of British politics is evidence of this

Nine Lies about Global Warming; Are we being lied to about Global Warming? In a new publication Ray Evans argues that we are told nine big lies about Global Warming. We discuss the evidence and consensus on Global Warming with two scientists; Dr Michael Manton and Dr Vincent Gray.

Some more; Brad De Long has now started a series of podcasts- Afternoon Tea Podcasts.

Radio Economics is also starting a new series of podcasts.

World Bank News Podcasts and their other more useful podcasts.

University Warwick has more podcasts including the World Cup specials which I linked before.

And finally Microeconomics Lectures from a Berekely course (via Harry Clarke).

Podcasts Carnival- World Cup Edition

How to Predict a Winner; After analysing the outcomes of 4500 international games Henry Stott gives his guide to the likely World Cup champions.

On Beckham and English Managers

Going global in a frenzy of football

Trends in Football Management; New research by Dr Sue Bridgewater from Warwick Business School has revealed that over 500 managers from the four top English divisions have been dismissed from their post since 1992 bringing damaging instability to the game. However she also outlines how a new professionalism in the post of manager is already achieving results on the pitch and could thus help managers stay post longer.

Damo's Bedside Guide to the World Cup: Everything you never knew you needed to know; The World Cup of football was the brain- child of FIFA's third president, Frenchman Jules Rimet. The World Cup was intended as more than just a sporting competition. Rimet was an idealist whose vision of the tournament had grown alongside the internationalist movement for peace that swept through Europe in the aftermath of World war One. Rimet had enormous optimism in the potential of football as a unifying force and believed that a truly international tournament, which brought together nations in a spirit of friendly competition, would help to diminish the threat of another Great War

Garry Richardson chats to footballing legend Pele, FA Chief Executive Brian Barwick and John Barnes.

IMF on the US External Balance, again

“The ease with which the United States has financed its record current account deficit has been remarkable, but is unlikely to be sustained indefinitely. A number of (possibly temporary) factors, such as short-term interest rate differentials and increasing demand for long-term bonds, have helped support the U.S. current account deficit and dollar over the past year. However, most forecasters project that the current account deficit will rise further in coming years, which may begin to strain the global appetite for U.S. assets. Delaying the inevitable multilateral adjustment will mean continued increases in U.S. external indebtedness, magnifying the potential for disruption to exchange rates, financial markets, and growth, both domestically and abroad.”

- United States of America—2006 Article IV Consultation, Concluding Statement of the IMF Mission

Related Audio Links:

The U.S. Current Account Deficit Once Again- Brad De Long’s Afternoon Tea.

Allen Sinai chief economist at Decision Economics, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene about stagflation risk in the U.S. and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's comments about monetary policy..

Jesus' Descendants and Probability

John Allen Paulos’ latest column is up and talks about the "The Da Vinci Code" amongst others;

“Probability theory tells us, however, that if Jesus had any children, his biological line would almost certainly have either died out after relatively few generations, or else would have grown exponentially so that many millions of people alive today would be direct descendants of Jesus.

Of course, this is not a special trait of Jesus' descendants. If Julius Caesar's children and their descendants had not died out, then many millions of people alive today could claim themselves Caesar's descendants. The same can be said of the evil Caligula and of countless anonymous people living 2000 years ago. It is not impossible to have just a few descendants after 2000 years, but the likelihood is less than minuscule.

The research behind these conclusions, growing out of a subdiscipline of probability theory known as branching theory, is part of the work of Joseph Chang, a Yale statistician, and Steve Olson, author of "Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins."

Going back another millennium, we can state something even more astonishing. If anyone alive in 1000 B.C. has any present day descendants, then we would all be among them. That is, we are descended from all the Europeans, Asians, Africans and others who lived 3,000 years ago and have descendants living today.

Consider the implications for future generations. If you have children and if your biological line doesn't die out, then every human being on earth 2,000 or 3,000 years from now would be your direct descendant.

Getting back to "The Da Vinci Code," we can conclude that if the heroine of the book were indeed descended from Jesus, then she would share that status with many millions if not billions of other people as well. This makes the book's plot even harder to swallow, but then probability was never much of a match for fiction or Hollywood.”

Related Podcasts;
Who’s Who in the Time of Christ
Chinese Brother of Christ
The Da Vinci Code Controversies

State of the Economy

“With the economy now evidently in a period of transition, monetary policy must be conducted with great care and with close attention to the evolution of the economic outlook as implied by incoming information. Given recent developments, the medium-term outlook for inflation will receive particular scrutiny. There is a strong consensus among the members of the Federal Open Market Committee that maintaining low and stable inflation is essential for achieving both parts of the dual mandate assigned to the Federal Reserve by the Congress. In particular, the evidence of recent decades, both from the United States and other countries, supports the conclusion that an environment of price stability promotes maximum sustainable growth in employment and output and a more stable real economy. Therefore, the Committee will be vigilant to ensure that the recent pattern of elevated monthly core inflation readings is not sustained.”

- Chairman Ben S. Bernanke

Related Links:

More coverage by William Polley

Latest podcasts from Bloomberg; Drew Matus, a senior economist at Lehman Brothers and Raymond Stone, managing director of Stone & McCarthy.

Learning (or non-learning) from the Classical Age; Or, what if George W. Bush had lived in 480 BCE; would we all be speaking Persian? Asks Menzie Chinn.

Gay Marriage: Evidence from Europe?

Cato recently had a discussion on Gay Marriage, participated by William N. Eskridge Jr., and Maggie Gallagher;

"As the Senate prepares to debate the Federal Marriage Amendment many scholars are looking at evidence from Scandinavia, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Some observers have argued that experience in those countries shows that legal recognition of same-sex unions leads to a decline in traditional marriage and marital child rearing. A new book challenges that analysis. William N. Eskridge Jr. and Darren R. Spedale find that the argument often advanced is inconsistent with the Scandinavian evidence. In no way, they write, has marriage in the Nordic countries suffered from legalization of same-sex unions. A close look at the data suggests that the sanctioning of gay marriage in the United States would neither undermine marriage as an institution nor harm the well-being of children. Maggie Gallagher argues that the move toward gay marriage in Europe is part of a larger marriage crisis, including a powerful trend away from marriage as a social norm for childbearing and child rearing."

Related Links;

The Legislation Possibilities Curve

Becker and Posner debate;

The Law and Economics of Gay Marriage - Posner

On Gay Marriage-BECKER

Gay Marriage--Posner's Response to Comments

Response on Same Sex Marriage-BECKER

The Sexual Revolution- Posner

An earlier post on porn legalisation in Denmark.

And Why Not Legalise Polygamy; First, it's important to note that polygamy (specifically polygny) not monogamy is the norm in human society - some 75% of the known human societies have approved of polygny.

A Shocking Fact about Sub-Saharan Africa

Mankiw declares the war on poverty is being won citing Xavier Sala-i-Martin. Harry Clarke earlier cited the same paper.

But we have a long way to go. I was shocked to see the accompanying chart about Sub-Saharan Africa ( in most recent Global Monitoring Report). The report quotes, ‘Africa has been at the forefront of innovation in water and sanitation for the last 20 years by replacing central planning approaches with community-based management of village water supplies and by implementing technologies like easy-to-maintain hand pumps and low-cost pit latrines” (p.40).

Over 30 percent having no access to any form of sanitation is quite shocking.

Related Multimedia;

Is Global Inequality Rising? – an economic forum at IMF

What Are the Major Advances in Growth Theory since Solow?

Perspectives on Growth, Inequality and Poverty

Understanding the Growth, Poverty, and Inequality Nexus

Easterly Urges Independent Evaluation of Foreign Aid

Robert Bates on Governance Systems and Political Effectiveness

A couple of blogs discussing similar themes; Africa Unchained, Poverty and Growth blog, The World Economic Forum blog- they have got a new 'white papeer' on Strengthening Healthcare Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Which Econometrics textbook did Robert Engle use?

Nobel laureate Robert Engle, talks about his analysis of equity market volatility, quantitative finance and more in this podcast.

In an earlier interview Engle says;

“Well, it was very interesting, because Ta Chung was a real dynamo. The year when I was taking econometrics he was in Taiwan helping reform the tax system, and so I took my first econometrics class with Berndt Stigum. It was a very small class, and we went at a high level using Malinvaud’s text, which had just appeared in English. The following year when T.C. came back from Taiwan I took the course again, and that time we used Goldberger. Those two books back to back provided a great econometrics background.”

Related Link;

A profile in the Economist; Mr Engle's approach, ARCH (for autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity, should you insist on knowing) gave researchers the power to test whether and how volatility in one period is related to volatility in earlier times. There often is a link, as casual observation suggests. After several days of stockmarket upheaval, there may be several days of calm. A 3% rise or fall in shares is often heralded by increasing volatility, much as an earthquake is preceded by tremors. Mr Engle's high-powered maths has made market risk easier to forecast. Thus banks and investors who use “value at risk” techniques to analyse their portfolios owe much to Mr Engle. So does the Basel committee which is drawing up new rules for banks' capital requirements.

Not Your Father's Nobel Prize

Risk and Volatility: Econometric Models and Financial Practice (Nobel Lecture of Engle)

GARCH 101: The Use of ARCH/GARCH Models in Applied Econometrics

What Good is a Volatility Model

Managing Volatility and Crises: A Practitioner's Guide

Team ARCH Weblog

Medical History of the Heart

The latest ‘In Our Time’ program from the BBC talks about the heart;

The 17th century physician William Harvey wrote in the preface to his thesis On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, a letter addressed to King Charles I. 'The heart of animals is the foundation of their life, the sovereign of everything within them...from which all power proceeds. The King, in like manner, is the foundation of his kingdom, the sun of the world around him, the heart of the republic, the foundation whence all power, all grace doth flow'.

Harvey was probably wise to address the King in this manner, for what he laid out in his groundbreaking text challenged scientific wisdom that had gone unquestioned for centuries about the true function of the heart. Organs had been seen in a hierarchical structure with the heart as the pinnacle. But Harvey transformed the metaphor into something quite different: the heart as a mechanistic pumping device.

How had the Ancient Greeks and Islamic physicians understood the heart? What role did the bodily humours play in this understanding? Why has the heart always been seen as the seat of emotion and passion? And why was it that despite Harvey's discoveries about the heart and its function, this had limited implications for medical therapy and advancement?

Contributors include David Wootton, Anniversary Professor of History at the University of York, Fay Bound Alberti, Research Fellow at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at the University of Manchester and Jonathan Sawday, Professor of English Studies at the University of Strathclyde.

Related Links;

Panic Disorder and Heart Disease; Recent studies by Australian researchers suggest that the risk of cardiac problems is increased in patients with panic disorder

Scientific Poetry: Bad for the Digestion? Associate Professor and Chair of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Western Australia, Yasmin Haskell, talks about how poetry has been used to teach people about science.

The drawing above is from William Cheselden: Osteographia, or The anatomy of the bones.

Raising Children for Dummies

“A new website was launched this month to explain the science of bringing up baby. It is the brainchild of Divonne Holmes á Court , who with Warren Cannon, director of the Victorian parenting centre, explains why we need such a free service.”

Here is the podcast and the transcript of the discussion.

Links; Raising Children Network and ABC Parents

I would also recommend Landsburg’s book, Fair Play: What Your Child Can Teach You About Economics, Values, and the Meaning of Life

A couple of more articles from him; The economics of spanking, Do daughters cause divorce?, Maybe Parents Don't Like Boys Better

Even Angels Ask! Corruption of Public Discourse in Islamic Countries

Most often commentary on the problems of reforming Islamic societies are led by lawyers, theologians, orientalists and philosophers- only rarely you hear from economists. I would recommend reading Timur Kuran and Albert Hirschman.

In the following quote Kuran tries to explain one of causes of the problem (Islam and Mammon, by Timur Kuran, p.143-144);

“The relevant mechanisms are developed in my book Private Truths, Public Lies, though within a general context rather than the particular one of Islamic civilization. It shows how inefficient social structures can survive indefinitely when people privately supportive of change refrain from publicizing their dispositions. The motivation for such preference falsification is the desire to avoid the punishments that commonly fall on individuals who enunciate unpopular public positions. One of its by-products is the corruption of public disclosure. This is because of individuals choosing to misrepresent their personal wishes will also, to keep others from seeing through the falsification, conceal their perceptions and knowledge pointing to the desirability of change. It follows that unpopular structures sustained through preference falsification might, if the conditions last long enough, achieve increasingly genuine acceptance. The transformation would occur partly through population renewal: in the absence of criticisms of the status quo, the society’s new members would fail to discover why change might be beneficial. The argument applies to both the privileged and the underprivileged. If public disclosure treats a social structure as optimal, even its victims may fail to see how its destruction would improve their lives.”

So the real issue becomes how do we move away from the vicious equilibrium caused by the bandwagon effect under which preferences and ideas inimical to the status quo remain unexpressed? Edmund Burke was right after all- the only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.

Related Podcasts;

Spiritual Classics: Islam- The Qur'an is the holy text of Islam, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, and taught by his Companions and Successors. Contemporary interpreters like Abdullah Saeed see signs of flexibility in the Qur'an itself and believe its ethico-legal content should be interpreted within a modern context. From New York, Reza Aslan discusses key concepts in the historical development of Islam. And Canadian author Irshad Manji looks to 8th century Islam for a liberal precedent. Abdualla Saeed is a Maldivian national.

What is Enlightenment? In 18th century Europe, the Enlightenment was a great movement of thought valuing freedom of expression and the pursuit of knowledge. But was it, in fact, rather narrow? Did it close off as many possibilities as it opened? This week we hear from an enemy of the Enlightenment, the Australian philosopher James Franklin

Why we Misestimate Probabilities

Professor Simon Gandevia, a neurologist from the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute explains in this podcast why we often literally 'jump' to the wrong conclusion;

“Suppose there was a stabbing outside a nightclub. In court, the one eyewitness testifies that the assailant fled in a silver-coloured taxi. On the night of the offence, it is known that only 15% of taxis on the road were silver. Furthermore, when the crime scene is recreated, it is established that the witness is 80% accurate at picking silver from non-silver taxis. You are the judge. What is the probability that the taxi involved in the crime was silver? Initially, it might seem, given the eyewitness is 80% accurate, that the probability the taxi was silver, as claimed, is also 80%. But this ignores the error the witness makes when observing the much more common, non-silver taxis. In fact, to work out the correct probability, we need to invoke a theorem devised by the Reverend Thomas Bayes, published in 1763, two years after his death. This theorem allows probabilities to be calculated accurately on the basis of full knowledge of all initial possibilities. When this non-intuitive, but mathematically simple, theorem is applied, the true probability that the taxi at the crime was silver is found to be only 41%; less than a one in two chance. In the Australian tradition, you should therefore bet that the taxi at the crime was actually not silver. We jump to the wrong conclusion unless the Reverend Bayes’ approach is applied.

What is happening here? The fact is that we are all victims of cognitive illusions. They are potent and almost impossible to ‘unlearn’, just like visual illusions, such as the ones in which two parallel lines with different cross hatchings seem not to be parallel, or two identical parallel lines with differently pointing arrowheads suddenly seem different in length. Just as these sensor y illusions expose the unconscious brain processes involved in perception, so cognitive illusions reveal the brain processes involved in thinking.

Why do these illusions exist? In the evolutionary world of predator and prey, snap decisions are quite literally vital. It has been argued that because we need time to evaluate probabilities before making a decision, a default system has evolved that rapidly evaluates choices. The Nobel laureate, Francis Crick, is well known for his discoveries about the double helix of our genes, but he later worked in the field of neuroscience. He and his colleagues postulated that humans needed to develop what he termed ‘zombie thinking’ in order to deal efficiently with the massive sensory input we continuously receive about the external world. This mode of thinking is thus necessary to allow us to react rapidly to external events, so that these cognitive illusions are ‘built in’ to us, almost certainly for evolutionary reasons. None of us is immune to them, not even those trained as scientists or judges. Our capacity for rational thinking is limited. Propagandists and advertisers are all too well aware of this.”

Related Podcasts;

Sigmund Freud - doctor, philosopher, therapist and writer was born 150 years ago near Vienna in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His ideas on the significance of dreams, childhood sexuality and female libido had a profound impact on 20th Century intellectual life. Yet Freud was a hugely controversial figure, admired, idolised and vilified. Even today, his name still raises passions. Sharon Carleton takes a look at the legacy of this remarkable physician

Terrorism: What's Morality Got To Do With It? Recent terrorist acts such as 9/11 and the Bali bombing have been justified using moral and religious language, as has the West's response through its 'war on terror'. Political moral philosopher Thomas Pogge examines these justifications and whether they represent a moral framework that either side genuinely holds to.

The latest 4 shows from the Radio National’s Philosopher’s Zone; What is Enlightenment?, The question of consciousness, Do Animals Think?, Philosophy 101.

These podcasts are available for only limited time, so download now.

Borders in a Flat World

Moisés Naím writes that we might need to rethink traditional notion of borders (via Foreign Policy blog);

“Where is the real U.S. border, for example, when U.S. customs agents check containers in the port of Amsterdam? Where should national borders be marked when drug traffickers launder money through illegal financial transactions that crisscross the globe electronically, violating multiple jurisdictions? How would border checkpoints help record companies that discover pirated copies of their latest offering for sale in cyberspace -- long before the legitimate product even reaches stores? And when U.S. health officials fan out across Asia seeking to contain a disease outbreak, where do national lines truly lie?

Governments and citizens are used to thinking of a border as a real, physical place: a fence, a shoreline, a desert or a mountain pass. But while geography still matters, today's borders are being redefined and redrawn in unexpected ways. They are fluid, constantly remade by technology, new laws and institutions, and the realities of international commerce -- illicit as well as legitimate. They are also increasingly intangible, living in a virtual and electronic space.”

But is geography and nation state not relevant in this age of globalization? Some like Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawn sees in the erosion of borders as evidence that the nation state is merely a phase of development that most developed countries are now close to the end of. Just recently we saw the creation of another state in the Balkans.

The idea of erosion of borders is important to the theses that Moises points out in his book, Illicit- How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy;

It took 400 years to import 12 million African slaves to the New World. In just the past 10 years 30 million people have been trafficked in SE Asia alone. The “people trade” affects at least 4 million humans valued at $10 billion a year.

Related Links;

Moises Naim at the World Bank, with Fareed Zakaria, discussing his book at Council on Foreign Relations.

How Much Do National Borders Matter? By John F. Helliwell; a professor at the University of British Columbia, has made a thorough study of trade across the Canadian-American border.He found that a Canadian province in 1996 was 12 times more likely to trade merchandise and 40 times more likely to trade services with another Canadian province than with an American state of similar size and distance. Interprovincial immigration was 100 times more likely, after adjusting for income difference and population sizes. Mr Helliwell’s research showed that the Free Trade Act, which came into effect in 1989, did have an impact: the ratio for traded goods had fallen from about 20:1 to 12:1 by 1993. But the level has held steady since. Although the figures are less reliable, Mr Helliwell also estimates that “trade densities” within countries in the European Union are around six times greater than those between members of the EU.

Good fences; In a recent edition of Foreign Affairs, Peter Drucker pointed to the long list of people—Immanuel Kant, the liberals of Austro-Hungary and Mikhail Gorbachev—who have argued that economic interdependence would prove stronger than nationalist passions. In many cases, right was on their side. “But whenever in the last 200 years political passions and nation-state politics have collided with economic rationality, political passions and the nation state have won.” New nationalisms may yet develop; but at the moment the nationalism bound up with states still survives. For a nation to mean something normally means it needs a state, or a share in one. And for a state to mean something it needs a border.

Some references for researching on borders;

International Boundary Study

The Issue Correlates of War (ICOW) Project; project is a research project that is attempting to collect systematic data on contentious issues in world politics. More detail on the project's goals and theoretical underpinnings may be found in the papers generated by the project

International Boundaries Research Unit

Borderbase (see the Border Crossing Hitlist)

International Court of Justice

One million dollars or all the world's knowledge of economics?

A friend asked about videos available on the internet useful for teaching Econ 101. Here is my list.

On top would be the Video Economics and Brad De long’s Morning Coffee Videocasts.

University of Munich has a great series of video lectures including this debate between James Buchanan and Richard Musgrave.

World Bank and IMF have a series of webcasts; their book presentations and special lecture series like the Global Seminar Series are quite good.

The UN also a series of videos like U-Thant lecture series, WIDER Annual Lecture, and Global Seminar Series.

Various events at places like Cato and AEI are great. Here’s just a sample; Undercover Economist, Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, How Economics Can Help Courts Devise Legal Standards for Dismissing Claims and Summary Judgment, Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity.

University events are another source of material; start with University Channel, Princeton University webcasts, Harvard’s JFK School of Government’s video archive, MIT’s OpenCourseWare also has some of its lectures in video like this course in Differential Equations. Remember to visit MIT World™ ; free and open site that provides on-demand video of significant public events at MIT.

University of California Television is another great source; see under Teacher's Pet On-Demand Programs which includes Principles of Economics section. I didn’t quite understand why they included Jared Diamond’s presentation on Collapse under the ‘Principles of American Democracy’ category.

On world development themes there’re various events and series on the web; World Bank is best starting point, OECD has some webcasts (it’s not easy to find it on their website, they don’t even have an index on the website), World Economic Forum.

Miscellaneous; Some Economic principles books come with videos nowadays like Krugman’s, Hoover’s Uncommon Knowledge series, PBS programs like the Beautiful Mind, Foreign Exchange TV, A World Connected.

In case you need to convince students to study economics here’s initiative started by a UK group; “we challenged groups of students around the country (and beyond!) to make short films about what economics means to them, and to show us a glimpse of university life.”

One short film asks the question in the title; what would be your reaction? Would welcome comments, additions and thoughts.

In the Beginning was the Sound

Economics poetry by David Rossie;

To attempt a PhD, or not to attempt a PhD:
That's a really good question.
Whether 'tis advisable to tackle the math
And statistics from outrageous curricula,
Or to accept a lucrative job offer,
And by avoiding those rigours,
Make a good income? To play, to relax:
No more; and by finishing to say we end
The fatigue and social-isolation
That an industrius student is heir to, 'tis a relief
An object of our lust.

Mr Romer compared the building of economic models to writing poetry. But what has mathematics to do with music. The latest BBC series, ‘In Our Time’ talks about Mathematics and Music;

The seventeenth century philosopher Gottfried Leibniz wrote: 'Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting'. Mathematical structures have always provided the bare bones around which musicians compose music and have been vital to the very practical considerations of performance such as fingering and tempo.

But there is a more complex area in the relationship between maths and music which is to do with the physics of sound: how pitch is determined by force or weight; how the complex arrangement of notes in relation to each other produces a scale; and how frequency determines the harmonics of sound.

How were mathematical formulations used to create early music? Why do we in the West hear twelve notes in the octave when the Chinese hear fifty-three? What is the mathematical sequence that produces the so-called 'golden section'? And why was there a resurgence of the use of mathematics in composition in the twentieth century?

Contributors include Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, Robin Wilson, Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University and Ruth Tatlow, Lecturer in Music Theory at the University of Stockholm.

Related;

This year's Reith Lecturer is the distinguished musician Daniel Barenboim. A child prodigy as a pianist, Barenboim has since branched out into conducting and matured to become one of the foremost musical figures of his age. The lectures are ongoing.

Formal Economic Theory; Beautiful but Useless?

How Economists Use Literature and Drama by Michael Watts, author of The Literary Book of Economics

European Engine is Sputtering

“The pressures from intensified global competition were mainly felt in two interconnected macroeconomic areas: output growth and unemployment. Output growth in the core of Europe, the Euro-area, has been well below that of the U.S. and Asia for some time now, including on a per-capita basis. This reflects especially slow growth in domestic demand where neither household consumption nor fixed investment have made a significant recovery. The flip-side of this weak growth, of course, has been high unemployment—in the 8-percent range in recent years, with only moderate improvement in sight. The picture looks even dimmer when one considers the related but more economically relevant concept of labor utilization, where the core of Europe is showing a steady decline in the number of hours worked per person, both in absolute terms and relative to the other two engines of world growth—the U.S. and Asia.

And there is some concern that Europe may respond to these pressures in the wrong way. Protectionism is an ever-present threat that comes in many guises. European agricultural and trade policies have not opened up sufficiently rapidly to the rest of the world, and the tribulations in the Doha round do not promise a significant turnaround in this respect. Stubborn restrictions on the free movement of labor is another example. Indeed, despite recent progress, the free movement of labor is not yet present throughout the European Community itself. This is clearly evident in the very difficult and protracted special arrangements remaining for workers from the new Eastern European member states. The fact, however, is that protectionism eventually is a self-defeating policy. In the case of labor protection, the more Europe is successful at preventing competitive labor from coming in, the more successful it will also be in motivating expensive capital to move out. Capital is increasingly mobile and will go where markets are most dynamic and where labor is relatively inexpensive. By erecting barriers in various ways (this could be for labor, goods, or services), domestic investment will remain weak and output growth will remain low.”

Takatoshi Kato, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund at the 36th St. Gallen Symposium: Inspiring Europe

Related Links:

The podcasts from the symposium.

Radioeconomics interview with Francesco Daveri, Professor of Economics, University of Parma (Italy), onthe causes of productivity growth across industries in countries in Italy and Western Europe ($ required).

Europe's future; What is wrong with Europe? The main answer is, as it has been for some years, the economy. Especially but not only in the core euro countries of Germany, France and Italy, growth has been sluggish, at best. In many countries unemployment seems both high and stuck. The morosity that underlay the French and Dutch noes was primarily about growth and jobs.

Two working papers on intergenerational mobility-
American Exceptionalism in a new light: a comparison of intergenerational earnings mobility in the Nordic countries, the UK and the US and Nonlinearities in Intergenerational Earnings Mobility: consequences for cross-country comparisons; New research led by economists at the University of Warwick reveals that many Western societies that pride themselves on being lands of opportunity are anything but. The reality is that most countries show a strong connection between a father and son's earnings and this factor is more important in the United States than in any of the other country studied. Yet the curious thing is that European society—at least in the Nordic countries—is far less stable than America's. Two new research papers confirm that, if one compares the incomes of children with those of their parents, or considers how long people in one income group stay there, Nordic countries emerge as far more mobile than America. Britain shows more class stability than its northern neighbours, but it is still a lot closer to them than it is to America

Is the European Union Constitution Dead? Gianfranco Pasquino, professor of political science, University of Bologna

Russia’s Baby Bust

"I want to talk about the family, about the most acute problem facing our country today – the demographic problem.
The economic and social development issues our country faces today are closely interlinked to one simple question: who we are doing this all for? You know that our country’s population is declining by an average of almost 700,000 people a year. We have raised this issue on many occasions but have for the most part done very little to address it. Resolving this problem requires us to take the following steps.

First, we need to lower the death rate. Second, we need an effective migration policy. And third, we need to increase the birth rate."

-President Putin, 10 May 2006

The latest edition of the Foreign Exchange show is focused on Russia; it’s politics, Putin, demography and economic prospects.

Several incentives are being considered to increase the birth rate;

- increasing government subsidies for children up to 18 months of age to about $53 a month for a first child and about $107 for a second child. Mothers currently receive about $25 per month for a child up to 18 months old.
- maternity leaves as long as 18 months that would pay a mother at least 40 percent of her salary, and compensation for part of the average cost of day care, worth 20 percent of that cost for a first child, 50 percent for a second child and 70 percent for a third.
- For mothers of at least two children who opt not to return to work, an one-time subsidy of about $8,900 upon the birth of a second child and subsidies for adoptive parents as well.

According to this economist, there's another health issue that Russia should be worried about;

"By 2050, said Feshbach, Russia's current population of 144 million could fall to 101 million or as low as 77 million if factoring in the AIDS epidemic. If current trends continue, by 2020, 5-14 million Russians will be living with HIV and 250,000-650,000 will die from AIDS annually."

The average life expectancy of a Russian male has also dropped to just 59 years--compared with 74 in the United States.

Related Links;

Islam in Russia: Evolution in action?

Putin Addresses Shrinking Russia

Democracy and Growth Reconsidered: Why Economic Performance of New Democracies Is Not Encouraging, Vladimir Popov, Academy of the National Economy, Moscow (webcast)

Putin's Russia – 2005; podcasts from BBC, Part 1 and Part 2

A cool tool from Census Bureau which shows dynamic change of population pyramids across time.

The Future of the Internet

Jonathan Zittrain proposes a theory about what lies around the corner for the Internet, how to avoid it, and how to study and affect the future of the internet using the distributed power of the network itself, using privacy as a signal example.

“From 1968 to 1998 the network's underlying protocols and addressing system were co-ordinated largely by an engineer named Jon Postel (whom techies referred to as “God”), acting under the aegis of America's Defence Department, which paid for the net's creation. Since 1998, the task has fallen to an international, self-regulating industry group called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), operating under the benign oversight of the American government. It manages things such as .com addresses and routing numbers that machines use online.”
-The Economist

Related:

World Summit on Information Society

A Couple of Book Reviews

From the Economist, a review of Warsh’s book;

“A fascinating new book, “Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations” by David Warsh, tells the story of the rebel economics of increasing returns. A veteran observer of dismal scientists at work, first at the Boston Globe and now in an online column called Economic Principals, Mr Warsh has written the best book of its kind since Peter Bernstein's “Capital Ideas”.

Diminishing returns ensure that firms cannot grow too big, preserving competition between them. This, in turn, allows the invisible hand of the market to perform its magic. But, as Mr Warsh makes clear, the fealty economists show to this principle is as much mathematical as philosophical. The topology of diminishing returns is easy for economists to navigate: a landscape of declining gradients and single peaks, free of the treacherous craters and crevasses that might otherwise entrap them.”

Review of Easterly’s recent book by David Ignatius and Amartya Sen

The Rich and Everyone Else- a couple of books on inequality and class

The US in Peril? The test of an industrialized nation is whether it can maintain a balance between community and private interests. To what extent is America doomed to decline as a result of the policies imposed by the Bush administration and its allies that favor the rich and powerful? This is the unspoken issue that hovers over Phillips's book. For all its dramatic and useful emphasis on oil, evangelism, and debt, it remains too narrow in its approach to fully engage the large threats we face.

Recent reviews by Warsh; When Auction Theory Was Put to Work and Stuff, Fluff and Tristram Shandy

Multimedia

The Wal-Mart Effect; Author Charles Fishman calls the giant US retailer Wal-Mart the world's most powerful company. He argues that it has had a profound effect on America - it has transformed its economy, its working life and the way it sees the world

Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity

Hidden history of the Oxford English Dictionary

The Da Vinci Code Controversies; How did a pulp fiction bestseller become a headache for the Vatican and a fascinating alternative for a public that has little connection to the Church?

Who's Who in the Time of Jesus; Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute? Why was James the Brother of Jesus airbrushed out of history? And was Honi, a healer-magician from Galilee, a model for Jesus? Geza Vermes, described by The Times as 'the greatest Jesus scholar of his generation', has compiled a handy guide for readers who want to fill in the historical picture of Jesus in his time

The True Philosophy is the Marriage of Poetry and Logic

The latest ‘In Our Time’ podcast is about John Stuart Mill;

”He was one of the first thinkers to argue that a social theory must engage with ideas of culture and the internal life. He used Wordsworth to inform his social theory, he was a proto feminist and his treatise On Liberty is one of the sacred texts of liberalism.

J S Mill believed that action was the natural articulation of thought. He battled throughout his life for social reform and individual freedom and was hugely influential in the extension of the vote. Few modern discussions on race, birth control, the state and human rights have not been influenced by Mill's theories.

…When he was about 16 or 17, he got caught distributing leaflets on birth control in the working class area he walked through on his way to work. Birth control was a completely unspeakable subject (this was about 1822). The leaflets were considered obscene publications. The only reason in the end that Mill was not prosecuted and sent to jail was not because he was a minor, but because it was deemed that as the families he was distributing to were working class they would not be able to read!”..

How did Mill's utilitarian background shape his political ideas? Why did he think Romantic literature was significant to the rational structure of society? On what grounds did he argue for women's equality? And how did his notions of the individual become central to modern social theory?

Contributors include A C Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, Janet Radcliffe Richards, Reader in Bioethics at University College London and Alan Ryan, Professor of Politics at Oxford University

Related Links;

Mill on Happiness; “Those only are happy, who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.”

Principles of Political Economy with some of their Applications to Social Philosophy

The New Paternalism

The Case for Drug legalization

Getting High in Paradise; an earlier post where Mill was referred

Poscasts Central Station

Nine Lies about Global Warming. A related discussion at TCS; Are Global Warming and Katrina Linked?

Do Animals Think? is the title of Dr Clive Wynne's book in which he sets out his views on anthropomorphism and animal consciousness. Are they conscious in the way we are conscious? And, if not, what does consciousness mean for an animal?

The Trouble With Oil:The first in a two part series looks at the Oil Crisis of 1973, when OPEC's demand for a better return for its valuable resource combined with the Arab Oil Embargo to quadruple the price. Part 2

The Selfish Gene 30 years on; This year is the 30th anniversary of the publication of Richard Dawkins' book, The Selfish Gene, and to mark the occasion the London School of Economics hosted an event chaired by writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg. The speakers were Daniel Dennett, Sir John Krebs, Matt Ridley, Ian McEwan, and the guest of honour, Richard Dawkins.

Supposing God was a Lion; Well known as an Oxford don, C.S. Lewis was also a scholar of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University. He was a popular Christian writer whose works included books for children. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, now a film, is the first of the Narnian Chronicles which convey a strong Christian message. But are they evangelistic? And how reliable is the theology? Guests include Lewis' step-son Douglas Gresham, co-producer of the film version of Lewis' classic tale.

Happy birthday to the box ; Author Marc Levinson wants to celebrate an anniversary. It's 50 years since the first shipping container left port from Newark, USA. He tells us how this mundane item made the world smaller and the world economy bigger. A related post on the topic at Go Figure and Globalisation Institute. An interview with the author of the book

The Art of Healing Trauma; we know instinctively that we need to talk through unpleasant experiences, but the latest neuroscience can now explain why telling our story is a naturally curative process which actually reorganizes our brain after traumatic events

Poor health in China; Privatisation of health care in China has failed, and Beijing knows there may be social and political unrest as a result. The rich can buy good care - but for others the biggest concerns are incompetence, frayed services, and misery. In the case of a viral pandemic, weaknesses in the health system in China could affect the whole world.

TCS interview with Tyler Cowen, Alvin Toffler, Charles Murray, Tim Harford and Dan Yergin.

Chinese Brother of Christ; Hong Xiuquan (1814-64) believed he was the younger brother of Christ. He founded a mutual protection society and promoted the view that the Manchu Qing Dynasty were demons and idolaters. By 1850 Hong had around 20,000 Chinese followers gearing up for a rebellion. The Taiping Rebellion resulted in millions dead and, although deeply influenced by Christian beliefs, is seen today as a prototype for Mao's People's Revolution.

Socially Responsible Business; Australian economy has never been stronger, but how deeply do we think about the way we do business - about companies being socially responsible? How worried are we, for instance, about ensuring our overseas mining operations don't adversely impact on the locals? So, is business really becoming more sensitive to social issues - or is it just good for the public image?

Inhaling the Mahatma with Christopher Kremmer; Foreign correspondent, journalist and best-selling author of The Carpet Wars, Christopher Kremmer speaks about his latest opus, Inhaling the Mahatma. Described as 'a sprawling portrait of India at the crossroads', the book charts India's progress from Gandhian socialism to cyber economy, via religion, democracy and the occasional outbreak of violence, and also shares the author's life as part of a Hindu family of Old Delhi.

Greek politicians plan to restore Athens mosque and other stories

Thinking about think tanks ; The Centre for Independent Studies is marking its 30th anniversary this month. Political commentator with the The Australian, Paul Kelly, and executive director of the CIS, Greg Lindsay, reflect on the history and role of the organisation

Taxploitation? Sinclair Davidson, Professor of Institutional Economics at RMIT, and Peter Saunders from the Centre for Independent Studies say it's time for real income tax reform

The Australian Miracle ; Is Australia really the clever country? What if we're not quite as original as we think we are - and our real strengths lie in imitation, in the clever use of technology and in our ability to profit from other people's creativity? Author Thomas Barlow busts some myths about science, innovation and our national identity.

Happiness; Australia has everything: jobs, education, fair weather, and a multi-million dollar happiness industry dedicated to making us feel good about ourselves. But 'everything' also includes a high national rate of depression and teen suicide. So why aren't we happier?

Ballets Russes; When Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev took his legendary Ballet Russes dance company to Paris in 1909, they transformed the art of ballet.

'Cracking the century' - Healthy ageing and the search for an elixir of youth,

Torn Curtain - The Secret History of the Cold War; The cold war was both a geo-political contest and an ideological struggle. The contest of ideas was fought out within societies as vigorously - sometimes as viciously - as it was between east and west.

Interview with Alan Harvey; He doesn’t transplant whole brains, only bits of them. It’s safer. But Professor Alan Harvey at the University of Western Australia has often enjoyed wilder headlines. He is one of the pioneers of a field that hopes to improve the recovery of the victims of head injury and even to repair the torn nervous systems of paraplegics. His present quest, a life long passion, is to understand the neurological basis of music.

Is Freud's Legend and Analysis in Decline?; The impact that Sigmund Freud has had on twentieth century thinking and ideas has been immense. Even people who have never read a word written by Freud quite often refer to his terms in their everyday communication: the ego, penis envy, the unconscious, repressed memories and of course, Freudian slips. In the 1990s, a culmination of things resulted in a massive debate that threatened to undermine the foundations of psychoanalysis, not least the proliferation of new books published which attacked Freud, his method of psychoanalysis, his lack of evidence and scientific blunders.

The toddler who escaped from the child-care centre; The case of the two-year-old who escaped from the child- care centre and the $200 fine that went all the way to the Victorian Supreme Court. Who was to blame; the child- care workers or their employer?

Intellectually disabled, sex and consent; We look at an issue rarely discussed - sex and consent for people with an intellectual disability. A man with Down syndrome is persuaded to have group sex with his three male friends - all have an intellectual disability. His parents believe all four men are victims of a failure to teach proper sexual behaviour. They ask - what is the duty of care for managers and staff of supported accommodation?

How useful is FOI legislation for an opposition looking for ammunition? Astralian Example

So what makes a good GP? Do you want a bedside manner or someone with a passion for cutting edge medicine? Are doctors too focussed on sickness rather than preventative health care?

How the Bible became a Book; The role of writing in establishing the authority of the Hebrew Bible: Semitic linguist Shelly Harrison on William M. Schniedewind's book, How the Bible became a Book: The Textualisation of Ancient Israel. What does it contribute to scholarly debate over when the Hebrew Bible was first set down in writing?

Delivering Crime Prevention; The Director of the Bureau of Crime Statistics, Don Weatherburn points out the importance of evidence- based research in preventing crime.

The Israel–Palestine conflict part 1: elections and Part 2 -territory and the right to exist

Beijing Faces; Journalist Elise Potaka is learning Mandarin, and last year she lived in Beijing for six months. Beijing is impossible to really understand from any single perspective; it is a city in continual flux, a city of 24-hour building sites where in a matter of weeks, whole streetscapes can change as multi- story apartment buildings rise on the ruins of demolished neighbourhoods. Beijing is also a city of migrants, with millions of people from every province of China pouring into the city, pursuing the age-old promises of the city: jobs, a new start, the possibility of making it big.

Catholics and condoms; International responses to Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini: a Jesuit,and one of the intellectual heavyweights in the College of Cardinals, who has come out in support of using condoms in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Lemon juice and AIDS and other science stories; Since 2002 Professor Roger Short has been promoting lemon juice as a safe, cheap and effective microbicide for use in HIV-AIDS prevention and as a spermicide. However, claims were made at a recent conference that lemon juice causes lesions in the uterus, although Professor Short's research with monkeys has not shown these results.

From Stardom to Sufism: Diane Cilento; Born in Queensland, Diane Cilento made it big in the movies in the 1950s and 60s, being nominated for an Oscar for her role as the seductive Molly in Tom Jones in 1963. She married 'James Bond', Sean Connery, but later turned her back on stardom to embark on a life of spiritual discovery. It's been a journey that included a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2005. From Gurdjieff to Sufism, Diane's awakening has been profound.

Globalisation and Sport; Globalisation now describes just about everything, from the way we do business to the way we watch football. So what are the implications for sport in a world where global is rapidly replacing local?

Going totally Dutch; The Australian Socceroos are off to the World Cup with a secret weapon in their Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, who was a part of one of football's great innovations, the Dutch idea of 'total football'.

China, Africa, and Oil; Rising global energy demands have caused China to turn to Africa as a major supplier of oil. This cfr.org podcast looks at the extent of China's African ties

Iraq; Press freedom - a grand struggle of ideasl Just back from Iraq, Fairfax journalist Paul McGeough says the war on terror is being used as an excuse to attack press freedom, undermining one of the pillars of society.

The Battle for Babylon and Iraq conflict; a 2 part documentary from BBC

Economic Perspectives on the Iraq War; webcast at AEI

Steven Englander; chief currency strategist for the Americas at Barclays Capital Inc., talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene about global currencies, the impact of the U.S. dollar on global economies, and the March U.S. trade deficit, which narrowed for a second month in March to $62 billion, according to the Commerce Department

Ohio losing faith with President ;President George W Bush's reshuffling of his White House team is part of an attempt to salvage a reputation which seems to be sinking fast. But Justin Webb in Washington says it is too late to be tinkering with the staff: most Americans have already consigned President Bush to history.

Why the United States Has No National Health Insurance; Sociologist Jill Quadagno talks about the political, economic and historical reasons behind America's lack of a national health insurance program

Promoting Democracy: Fourteen Points for the 21st Century;Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright considers U.S. policy in Iraq

A New Era at the Federal Reserve:Some Challenges and Opportunities for Change

The Rise of the Corporate State in Russia; Featuring Andrei Illarionov, former Economic Adviser to President Vladimir Putin.

Business and Development; Development doesn’t just take place in World Bank projects around the world. It also relies on a network of government, private business, and non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. Cooperation between these sectors has become increasingly important to development, as it becomes more clear that the problem of global poverty must be fought on many levels and in many different areas. To explore the problem of these partnerships, the World Bank Institute sponsored an April 2006 conference on “Business, NGOs, and Government: Strategic Engagement to Meet the Millenium Development Goals.”

The Role of Government in Reducing Poverty

Video Economics has an interview with Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Director, Center for Employment Policy, Hundson Institute on the role of government in social policy and the rising inequality.

Related:

- De Long also has a couple of video’s on his class blog.

- Bloomberg Podcast; interview Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners LP, about gold prices, currency valuations and the outlook for the U.S. economy, interest rates and the housing industry. Gold rose to $700 an ounce in New York for the first time since October 1980, as tensions increased over Iran's nuclear-research program

- The Trouble with Oil;the first in a two part series looks at the Oil Crisis of 1973, when OPEC's demand for a better return for its valuable resource combined with the Arab Oil Embargo to quadruple the price

Iraqis are Chicken

“This is because Iraqis are like chicken and nobody cares about the killing of a chicken, but the British are the lords of this world”- an Iraqi cleric commenting on the daily toll of life in Iraq and world’s reaction to the London bombings

SmartEconomist (registration required) has a summary of the recent paper by Stiglitz on the cost of Iraq war;

"The costs of the Iraq war are officially estimated around $500 billion, a sum which may be compared to the one spent in the Korea and Vietnam wars. However, this is likely to be less than half of the war’s real economic cost. If proper accounting principles are adopted, reasonable estimates lie between $750 and $1,269 billion - or between 6% and 10% of America’s GDP. Taking other economic costs into account, such as the medical costs borne by seriously injured soldiers, the loss of income produced by reservists on duty, and increases in oil price and greater uncertainty, adds $380 to $1,400 billion in present value terms….

This analysis of the costs of the Iraq war allows the authors to outline a useful novel methodology and a new conceptual framework for implementing a rational cost-benefit analysis for any war. While this may seem a gruesome exercise considering the monetary evaluation of casualties and injuries, it is in fact a valuable tool for supporting rational policy decisions….”

As Stiglitz says in a recent event at Columbia;

”Our study also goes beyond the budget of the federal government to estimate the war's cost to the economy and our society. It includes, for instance, the true economic costs of injury and death. For example, if an individual is killed in an auto or work-related accident, his family will typically receive compensation for lost earnings. Standard government estimates of the lifetime economic cost of a death are about $6 million. But the military pays out far less -- about $500,000. Another cost to the economy comes from the fact that 40 percent of our troops are taken from the National Guard and Reserve units. These troops often earn lower wages than in their civilian jobs. Finally, there are macroeconomic costs such as the effect of higher oil prices -- partly a result of the instability in Iraq.”

One question that would remain unanswered for all eternity would be;

“One cannot help but wonder: were there alternative ways of spending a fraction of the war’s $1-$2 trillion in costs that would have better strengthened security, boosted prosperity, and promoted democracy?”

Alan Kruger brings some sense to the ongoing debate;

“Credible estimation of counterfactual outcomes of alternative policies for cost-benefit comparisons has been a hallmark of modern economics. When it comes to judging whether war is worth it, however, cost-benefit analysis is little more than educated guessing by other means. But at least it provides a framework for where to put the guesses.”

I don’t how in their estimates, the value of an Iraqi life is captures and as a recent UN report on Iraq showed chronic malnutrition is on the rise;

“According to the report, a full 25 percent of Iraqi children between six months and five years old suffer from either acute or chronic malnutrition. A 2004 Living Conditions Survey indicated a decrease in mortality rates among children under five years old since 1999. However, the results of a September 2005 Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis – commissioned by Iraq's Central Organisation for Statistics and Information Technology, the World Food Programme and UNICEF – showed worsening conditions since the April 2003 US-led invasion of the country”

Related Links:

Paying for Iraq- The Economist article

IRAQ: The war's price tag Q&A at CFR

The Economic Costs of the War in Iraq by Scott Wallsten, Katrina Kosec. (see also their blog)

Is the value of a British person's life greater than the value of an Iraqi person's life? Tim Harford writes.

Interactive Cost Estimate at AEI Brooking

Iraq--Whether, When and How to Disengage - a webcast lecture by Barry R. Posen

The Seven Podcasts for the Coming Week

John Kenneth Galbraith; one of the towering figures of the 20th century, died last week at the age of 97. This program is a replay of a conversation Phillip had with Galbraith at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1999.

Sex in Hinduism; The lingam and the yoni are two of the sacred symbols of Hinduism. The Kamasutra is a multi-volume work on sex, passion, eroticism and the arts. And Gods become Goddesses and vice versa in Hindu myth. What do all these prevalent sexual themes mean? And is the appearance of bi-sexuality in Hindu myths an endorsement of gay sex? Wendy Doniger, from the University of Chicago, is an expert in Hindu religion and mythology and she tells us about sex in Hinduism.

Mind your Mind – Alzheimer’s Disease; There are 25 million people in the world suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and the figure is forecast to double every 20 years. It’s now believed that the changes in our brains that lead to the disease may begin decades before the symptoms appear. What are the early signs and how can you distinguish them from natural memory loss, which comes with aging? We also hear from a woman who cares for her husband with Alzheimer’s and an Australian scientist who’s developing a promising new drug that may stop the disease from progressing.

The Future of Religion; Reports of the death of religion have been greatly exaggerated. We look at the prognosis for religion, from world-wide surveys of religious observance to creative expressions of spirituality, and declare it - alive!

Philosophy 101; Yes, but what is it that philosophers do exactly? Do they ask hard questions or come up with hard answers or both? Does what they do differ from what scientists do, and why don’t scientists care about philosophy? This week, we ask three philosophers what they do and why they do it.

Interview with Kwame Owino, an economist with the Institute of Economic Affairs in Nairobi, Kenya. They discuss topics such as the future of telecoms and call centres in Africa, how coffee farmers have switched production, and how open source software can boost access to ICT in education. Related; Picasso and Africa

A New Axis of Power ; While the US looks east, the countries in its own backyard are forging new internal alliances and external ties that could have deep repercussions for both US and world politics. Emilio San Pedro examines the left-wing populism currently sweeping Latin America in this two-part series; Part 1 and Part 2.

Please note that a lot of these podcasts are time sensitive, so download now.

British Empire and Astronomy

From the latest ‘In Our Time’, BBC podcast series;

“The 18th century explorer and astronomer James Cook wrote: 'Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go'. Cook's ambition took him to the far reaches of the Pacific and led to astronomical observations which measured the distance of Venus to the Sun with unprecedented accuracy.

Cook's ambition was not just personal and astronomical. It represented the colonial ambition of the British Empire which was linked inextricably with science and trade. The Transit of Venus discoveries on Cook's voyage to Tahiti marked the beginning of a period of expansion by the British which relied on maritime navigation based on astronomical knowledge.

How had ancient trade routes set a precedent for colonial expansion? What was the link between astronomy and surveying? What tools did the 18th and 19th century astronomers have at their disposal? And how did the British justify their colonial ambition and scientific superiority?”

Contributors; Simon Schaffer, Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, Kristen Lippincott, former Director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Allan Chapman, Historian of Science at the History Faculty at Oxford University.

A related webcast; ‘Science at Oxford in the 17th Century- Boyle, Hooke and others’ by Allan Chapman.

An Economist Who’s Not Only an Economist

The latest Radio Economics interview is with Jagdish Bhagwati- world renowned trade economist. The discussion touches on topics like immigration, global warming, globalization and future leaders in the world economy. He’s critical of one of his students Jeffery Sachs (for advocating shock therapy in Russia and ignoring the Russian social setting), calls Stiglitz’s book, ‘Globalization and Discontents’, a ‘silly book’, refers to Kyoto Treaty as ‘the most idiotic treaty I’ve come across’. I liked his comments about global warming and immigration issues in the US. I can’t believe that Nicholas Stern, former Chief Economist at the World Bank has never heard of the Super Fund – and he’s been advising Tony Blair on global warming. His advice to budding economists- ‘if you want to have an impact on society- you better be a broad economist’.

Krugman credits Bhagwati’s willingness to see things differently which allowed him to come into prominence with new trade theory.

“It was during those early years that I formulated my summary of the reaction of a lot of people in Economics – presumably in any field but certainly in Economics – to any seriously new idea, which is, “It’s trivial, it’s wrong, and, furthermore, I said it in 1962.” At that point, Jagdish had created a marvelous institution, which was the Journal of International Economics, which could, very easily, in someone else’s hands, have been the bulwark against change, could have been a monument to the field’s orthodoxy at the time. Instead, it became the ground, the place, in which much of the new stuff was published – and with some difficulties. Twenty-six years later – you can still remember all those lousy referee reports and rejections on the first papers, and Jagdish plowed ahead and published it in the JIE, and – not just me, but other people – I remember Jim Brander, that there were some extremely negative reports from other people, but I went to bat for him, and Jagdish did….So I think that Jagdish deserves a lot of the credit for the now quite old, long in the tooth, new trade theory coming into prominence. He really made a tremendous difference – obviously to my life, but I think also to the field of International Economics.”

Bhagwati’s way with words and mastery of metaphors is well known;

“Take, for example, the brother-in-law analogy that he uses to highlight the distinction between rent-seeking behavior and corruption. When you lobby for rents and use up resources, he explains, it is a directly unproductive (DUP) activity. But if there is a brother-in-law to whom the rents are inevitably headed, nobody will bother to lobby. In this case, there is corruption but no DUP activity. Unless, of course, some farsighted crook devotes resources to court the sister in order to become the brother-in-law in order to get the rents. Then we are back to rent-seeking.

Commenting on those who argue against free trade because it leads to de-industrialization and destroys linkages between industry (ketchup makers) and agriculture (tomato growers), he observes: "As I read the profound assertion about the tomato farm and the ketchup plant, I was eating my favorite Crabtree and Evelyn vintage marmalade. It surely had not occurred to me that England grew its own oranges."

Related Links:

- The Poor's best hope

- In Defense of Globalization- webcast

- Radio Economics podcast- download now, freely available for limited time

Infrastructure has become Cool

Ken Rogoff has a new column up, advising policy makers to focus on infrastructure;

“But the risks are two-sided, and sound economic policy is just as much about capitalizing on good times as avoiding bad ones. Economic gurus at places like the World Bank have developed a ridiculously long list of steps that countries should take to raise their growth rates (the so-called “extended Washington Consensus”). Like maintaining good health, it is not enough to concentrate on a single component. But if there is one area where obvious opportunities exist, and where policy can really make a difference, it would have to be infrastructure investment…..

But there are ways to waste less. Transparency in procurement works wonders. So, too, does private sector involvement. The Nobel laureate economist William Vickrey argued tirelessly in favor of privately financed toll roads. Private oversight can often produce better and more efficient construction, and, in theory, toll roads help alleviate traffic congestion. (Ironically, Vickery died while sitting in a traffic jam.) Even China, which has added more than 50,000 kilometers of roads and dozens of airports over the past five years, makes use of private financing….”

As Rogoff is rumored to be a candidate to replace Anne Krueger, Deputy Managing Director at IMF, it is well worth listening to him.

Related Links:

-Open Letter to Stiglitz – which has become something of a classic. See the actual debate between Stiglitz and Rogoff. See also his interview.

- Rogoff's publications while he was at the Fund and his recent columns.

- Infrastructure Lessons – World Bank publication

- Pablo has got lot of interesting posts on infrastructure

The Beauty Academy of Kabul and Other Stories

The latest show of “foreign exchange” is up. It includes amongst others commentary on The Beauty Academy of Kabul, and continuation of the interview with former President of Brazil, Cordosa. The previous show covered the US immigration policy, Turkish genocide in Armenia, AIDS in India and issues with Iran.

Free Reads and Book Forums

A couple of links to free reads.

- The Wealth of Networks (via Lawrence Lessig)

- Beyond the European Social Model; a related podcast on the book

- Discretionary Time: A New Measure of Freedom

- Open Macro in Developing Countries

- Graph Theory

- The latest Cato Journal- (including articles Does Foreign Aid Help, Corruption and Human Development and book reviews of Undercover Economist and The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth)

Webcasts

- World Economic Outlook

- Is Globalization Here to Stay

- The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

- Capitalism Achilles heel

- History Matters: Development for the 21st Century

- The World's Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations

- Book TV’s In Depth

- Oil: Anatomy Of An Industry (a podcast from Radio National’s Book Show)

- Accidental President of Brazil

- Book Forums from University Channel

Across the econ blogosphere two people have been busy providing us links to some of these free reads; New Economist and Ben Muse. Thank you very much for both of them.

Fighting Poverty with the Espresso Book Machine

The World Bank has started the first Print On Demand (POD) device - the Espresso Book Machine (EBM);

"The new low cost and fully automatic book machine, developed by On Demand Books LLC (ODB) with initial funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will revolutionize book sales by printing and binding a single copy of a book at the point of demand. EBM can produce 15 - 20 library quality paperback books per hour, in any language, in quantities of one, without any human intervention. On a global scale, this would eliminate the costs of shipping and warehousing, returning and pulping unsold books, while allowing simultaneous global availability of new books. Print jobs can be initiated from the machine itself or from any locally connected computer using nothing more than a web browser.

Young ambassadors from DC high schools and universities will be present to officially print the first book by a retail customer at the World Bank InfoShop, the first site to offer this service. Buying a book will eventually be like getting cash from an ATM. You choose a title, insert a credit card to pay for the book and walk away with the finished book a few minutes later."

Is this a good way to fight poverty? I don’t know. If you were to ask Easterly he would have plenty of things to say. My challenge is for development institutions to be able to provide every student in the developing world the material he/she needs to develop their minds to the fullest like the following student from Mozambique.

Hi! my name is Guido Da Silva, and I am a student of economic course at Eduardo Mondlane University - Mozambique.
would you send me a book of Microeconomic, I need it very much.
My post address is
Guido Da Silva
Av. Josina Machel,200
3º Andar Flat 10
Maputo
Mozambique

(I found it in the comments section of a post at New Economist blog)

Related Link:

- Google’s Plan to Digitise the World’s Libraries and its implications.

A Carnival of Podcasts for the Weekend

The Beautiful Mind…some recent fascinating insights into the causes and risk factors for schizophrenia. And young woman tells of her lonely battle to tame her fragmented mind.

Seafood and the Mind…some remarkable findings from a British study looking at the effect of giving fish oil supplements to children with ADHD and learning difficulties. And the figures showing significantly lower depression rates in countries which eat lots of seafood may give you an idea for tonight’s dinner!

A Mother's Nightmare…A baby is dead. A mother is in jail. She maintains her innocence. A seven-year-old may be to blame.

God: An Itinerary

House Design and Violence … Architect Claire Bennett says the way we design our modern houses is encouraging violent behaviour.

How design drives capitalism…Professor Robert Reich in his book The Future of Success outlines how our unfulfilled desires drive capitalism.

Microsoft and the Australian tribe… Anne Kirah is an anthropologist, her skill honed by fieldwork in immigration centres. Now she works for Microsoft as chief anthropologist.

The changing role of government… Shadow Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner of Australia

China: innovation and productivity

Literary animals- ending the debate of nature versus nurture

Trust and charities… Don D'Cruz has been casting a critical eye on the aid industry for some years, at first when he worked with the Institute of Public Affairs, and now as an independent commentator.

Governing by Network … Back in the 1980s there was a wave of changes to governments – increasing privatisation and outsourcing, a new recognition that governments didn't actually have to deliver all the services for which they accepted responsibility. Bill Egger's book Governing by Network seeks to take this process much further and has gradually been gathering a reputation as something of a signpost to the future

The art of demotivation …Recent data says that people are increasingly unhappy with their jobs. The root of the problem says Dr EL Kirsten is the 'noble employee myth', the idea that if people are unhappy at work, there must be some problem with the organisation. But could it be that we all just expect too much from our work and the organisations we work with.

Private education in developing countries

Genetics of nicotine dependence

Don’t worry if you’re obsese …Research from the US suggests that the risk factors from being overweight or obese may not be as big as has been suggested

Tim Flannery, whose book The Weather Makers, has made a considerable impact around the world, explains why he is not put off by those who are unconvinced by warnings about climate change.

David Ellyard has produced a book Who Discovered What When, about the superstars of science from the past 500 years. The list is both reassuring and surprising. Who is missing? Who snuck in? Where are the Australians?

Big Ideas Are Better…The opening night debate from the 2006 Ideas Festival in Brisbane. In front of a crowd of 1600 people, six guest speakers debate the assertion that big ideas are better (than small ones).

Climate change…Meet the law professor who's off to the North Pole to focus atttention on global warming.

Criminals and privacy… Last week, in New Zealand, a convicted paedophile was awarded $20,000 for 'breach of privacy' after police distributed a leaflet bearing his photo, his address and his criminal record. Legitimate community policing or vigilantism?

Date rape…Similar fact evidence: six girls make sexual assault allegations against one boy – so should there be one trial, or six different trials? If a jury hears six different stories is that prejudicial to the accused, or is it legitimate, probative evidence?

The Life and Grimes of Rudolf Diesel- the creator of diesel engine

Fruits of War…war what’s it good for

Triangulation…Most of us know about the square on the hypotenuse, but Pythagoras’s theorem is not simply a way of computing hypotenuses. It is an emblem of the very process of proof itself.

Knowing what you didn’t know you knew … How can we acquire knowledge about anything? If you’ve already got it, you don’t need it and, if you haven’t got it, you don’t know you need it. This is one of the questions that Plato asked in his dialogue Meno …

Does science tell the truth?

Niall Ferguson on Islam and demographics

Latest Science Show from Radio National … disappearing tea spoons/ fish oil and brain development

Sceptical and Spooked … Inveterate sceptic, Will Storr, takes on poltergeists and Electronic Voice Phenomena to test his philosophical atheism.

The Nazi Hunters … Prosecuting fugitive Nazis has not been easy, says Ephraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, but the pursuit of justice is paramount, even when it’s too little too late

Globalisation Institute podcast interview with with Dan Ikenson, a Trade Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute in Washington DC. ..discusses the rising anti-Chinese feeling in the US Senate, the proposed 27.5% tariff on Chinese goods, and the issue of whether Americans should be worried about the rising US trade deficit – and whether this is sustainable.

A brand new series of podcasts from the World Bank; Urban Development and Globalization , Trade and International Development, Energy, Malnutrition and Hunger, The Rise and Fall of Nations, Business Unusual

An ex-World Banker – Bill Easterly critiques the development community and urges for independent evaluation of aid. Great speech delivered with a remarkable sense of humour and irony. (webcast)

Markets, Networks and Governments : Issues in the Debate on Global Governance
Kemal Dervis, Administrator at the UN Development Program and former Finance Minister of Turkey

Latest Bloomberg podcasts; interview with Tim O'Neill, principal at O'Neill Strategic Economics and Joseph LaVorgna , chief U.S. fixed-income economist at Deutsche Bank Securities about U.S. economic growth, global trade, China's currency and trade policies, bond yields and Federal Reserve monetary policy.

Ben Franklin: Conservative, Libertarian, or Radical Democrat ….Featuring the author, Mark Skousen, compiler and editor of The Compleated Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War

Corruption in Kenya- A Whistleblower’s Account

The Carolinian Renaissance … In 800 AD on Christmas Day in Rome, Pope Leo III proclaimed Charlemagne Emperor. According to the Frankish historian Einhard, Charlemagne would never have set foot in St Peter's that day if he had known that the Pope intended to crown him. But Charlemagne accepted his coronation with magnanimity. Regarded as the first of the Holy Roman Emperors, Charlemagne became a touchstone for legitimacy until the institution was brought to an end by Napoleon in 1806…How did Charlemagne become the most powerful man in Western Europe and how did he finance his conquest? Why was he able to draw Europe's most impressive scholars to his court? How successful was he in his quest to reform his church and educate the clergy? And can the Carolingian period really be called a Renaissance?

The Today Lecture from BBC – featuring a new series of lectures organized with the Chatham House. The inaugural lecture is by Jack Straw and Condoleezza Rice..the usual stuff defending the war with Iraq but Rice wears a little bit of her academic hat as well and sometimes very moving. Highly recommended.

The lastest program from Foreign Exchange TV – a flage ship program hosted by Fareed Zakaria. The focus is on role of NGOs, global equity markets and higher education. How have Australia managed to capture 10 percent of the world market for students seeking an English-language education? Features discussion by the likes of Sebastian Malleaby and Ruchir Sharma at Morgan Stanley.

-Please note that a lot of above podcasts are time sensitive and won't be available if you don't download now.

Latin American Economies- Destiny or Choice

“How many numerical indicators would have to be created in order to let us realize that we are getting closer to solve the poverty problem?”- question put to a World Bank economist discussing a report on Latin American poverty (Poverty Reduction and Growth: Virtuous and Vicious Circles).

The report points out that ‘Latin America needs to cut poverty to boost growth’;

Two of their main conclusions are a breakthrough for the bank: that private-sector growth is not a panacea for the poor and that inequality must be targeted directly. A third conclusion is almost heretical for the bank: that the state needs to take on more responsibility rather than less. "Converting the state into an agent that promotes equality of opportunities and practices efficient redistribution is, perhaps, the most critical challenge Latin America faces in implementing better policies that simultaneously stimulate growth and reduce inequality and poverty," the report says.

Some statistics from the report;

- On average, for every one percent of economic growth, poverty declines by 1.25 percent in Latin America.

- About 25 percent of Latin Americans live on less than $2 a day. While China experienced annual per capita growth rates of about 8.5 percent between 1981 and 2000, reducing poverty by 42 percentage points, Latin America's per capita GDP declined by 0.7 percent during the 1980s and increased by about 1.5 percent per year in the 1990s, with no significant changes in poverty levels.

- On average, a 10 percent increase in poverty reduces annual growth by 1 percentage point . A 10 percent increase in poverty is likely to be associated with a decline in investment of about 6-8 percentage points

- Latin America and the Caribbean is the most unequal region with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa. If Latin America had the level of inequality of the developed world, its income poverty levels would be closer to 5 percent than to the actual rate of 25 percent

- In 2000, income per capita in the poorest municipality in Brazil was barely 10 percent of that in the richest; in Mexico, per capita income in Chiapas was only 18 percent of that in the capital

- Having a mother with only primary education increases the risk of school dropout by as much as 1.6 times in Chile and 60 percent in El Salvador compared to having a college-educated mother. A low educated father additionally increases school failure risks by up to 1.4 times in Chile and 40 percent in the Dominican Republic

Related Links:

- IMF F&D edition with a focus on Latin American economies

- Interview with Dr. John Edwards (Radioeconomics podcast- download now, available for only limited time)

- Latin America goes South (podcast from Hoover)

- The Future of Reforms in Latin America (webcast from World Bank)

- Podcasts from BBC on Brazil and Argentina

- Political and Economic Future of Latin America (podcast from Institute for Policy Studies)

- Latin America and the Caribbean: What Lies Ahead? The Search for Life After Debt- a webcast (real video, 300k) of a discussion at Princeton by David de Ferrenti

- Cato events; The Roots of Poverty in Latin America, A Modern Vision for Latin America, Dollarization for Latin America?, Liberty for Latin America: How to Undo Five Hundred Years of State Oppression

- The Latinobarómetro poll- Democracy’s ten year rut

- Chilie and the World

-After the Washington Consensus: Restarting Growth and Reform in Latin America

Weekend Economics Puzzle 3, Are Teachers Underpaid?

“With the possible exception of prostitution, teaching is the only profession that has had absolutely no advance in productivity, in the 2400 years since Socrates taught the youth of Athens.”
- Richard Vedder, in a lecture discussing the performance of the US economy.

I was astonished after watching the ABC documentary, ‘Stupid in America: How Lack of Choice Cheats Our Kids Out of Good Education’- especially the flow chart showing the processes needed to fire a union teacher (hat tip: Thinking on the Margin). That being said we come to the third paradox of our series;

Entertainers and sports stars earn million dollar annual incomes while the very best teachers earn considerably less. Were a survey to be taken almost all people will agree that ‘education is more important than entertainment’. Are then teachers underpaid?

If one were to look at the data, teachers does not appear to be underpaid;

"Consider data from the National Compensation Survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which computes hourly earnings per worker. The average hourly wage for all workers in the category “professional specialty” was $27.49 in 2000. Meanwhile, elementary-school teachers earned $28.79 per hour; secondary-school teachers earned $29.14 per hour; and special-education teachers earned $29.97 per hour. The average earnings for all three categories of teachers exceeded the average for all professional workers. Indeed, the average hourly wage for teachers even topped that of the highest-paid major category of workers, those whose jobs are described as “executive, administrative, and managerial.” Teachers earned more per hour than architects, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, statisticians, biological and life scientists, atmospheric and space scientists, registered nurses, physical therapists, university-level foreign-language teachers, librarians, technical writers, musicians, artists, and editors and reporters. Note that a majority of these occupations requires as much or even more educational training as does K–12 teaching"

I don’t know anything about the American high school education. I think the US had come a long way (as of 1900 only 3 percent of Americans had graduated from high school) and in higher education the US has no match in the world; seventeen of the top 20 universities are American indeed, so are 35 of the top 50. American universities currently employ 70% of the world's Nobel prize-winners. They produce about 30% of the world's output of articles on science and engineering, according to a survey conducted in 2001, and 44% of the most frequently cited articles.

The point about the ‘underpaid teacher’ is that are teachers being paid what they are worth to the society? Everybody have met great teachers and lousy ones and I’ve often wondered whether there would be any way that great teachers could be better compensated and not in effect be subsidizing the stupid ones.

Related Links:

- They're Not Stupid—They're Lazy

- Testing Student Learning- Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness (an online book on the issue at Hoover)

- Why Quality Matters in Education, Eric A. Hanushek (this edition of F&D is focused on the role of education in economic development)

- Other interesting articles from Hanushek; The Economics of Education Quality, Measuring Investment in Education, The Market for Teacher Quality, Interpreting Recent Research on Schooling in Developing Countries

- US Education Statistics- A summary

- The Education Podcast Network

- The Racial Gap in Education and Making the Grade (podcasts from Hoover Institute)

- Educating by the Numbers (webcasts)

- The Education Myth, Alison Wolf

- The Economics of Knowledge: Why Education is Key to Europe’s Success

- Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers

- Measuring Student Knowledge and Skills: The PISA 2000 Experience (a statistical brief from OECD)

- Low Pay, Low Quality

- To Catch a Cheat, Steven Levitt and Brian Jacob (Education Next is interesting journal on education from Hoover)

- My favoruite blogs on education; Joannejacobs, Crankyprofessor, Number 2 Pencil and Eduwonk

IMF worried about the US Fiscal Policy

The Japanese Deputy Managing Director of IMF is worried about global imbalances;

"Regarding risks and vulnerabilities, the IMF sees the widening global imbalances as a substantial risk to global growth. The current equilibrium is unstable, as it rests on the capacity of the United States to continue to attract foreign savings. Foreign investors may become unwilling to hold increasing amounts of U.S. financial assets and demand higher interest rates, especially if Asian countries recover from the investment drought that they have experienced since the Asian crisis. A depreciation of the U.S. dollar may be necessary to induce U.S. domestic demand to contract. However, if this or other adjustments occur abruptly, it could cause a slowdown in demand and output, as well as financial market disruptions, at the global level.

Therefore, the IMF has underscored the urgent need to use the current favorable environment to address vulnerabilities arising from growing imbalances. It has repeatedly called for coordinated multilateral policy actions to help bring about a gradual and orderly unwinding of those imbalances—unfortunately, there has been at best a limited progress to date. Action is needed in all the main blocs, including (i) tighter fiscal policy in the U.S.; (ii) greater exchange rate flexibility in Asia; and (iii) structural reforms to improve productivity and medium-term fiscal sustainability in Europe and Japan. High and volatile oil prices are likely to complicate the adjustment, so IMF advice has focused on the appropriate policy response."

Mankiw, author of most popular economics principles textbook, in his resignation letter from the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors praises the fiscal policy of the administration he served;

“Your leadership has preserved and strengthened the American dream by guiding the economy through difficult times and by laying the foundation for a growing and expanding prosperity. You appreciate the power of economic liberty and have worked to create an environment where all Americans can realize the potential with which their creator has endowed them. You understand that free enterprise system works best under a policy of low taxes, fiscal discipline, and open markets…”

Related Links:

- Examining Global Imbalances
- Perspectives on Global Imbalances
- Global Imbalances: A Saving and Investment Perspective
- Latest US Article IV consultation report and Selected Issues
- The Global Saving Glut and the U.S. Current Account Deficit, Ben Bernanke speech
- The Unsustainability of U.S. Trade Deficits, John Quiggin
- Divergent Views on the Coming Dollar Crisis, Bradford DeLong
- Outlook for the Global Economy, Robert Rubin (podcast)

Carnival of Podcasts and Webcasts- Economics and Globalisation

This is the second series of the carnival of podcasts. In this edition we focus on economics and globalisation.

- Martin Feldstein on the performance of the US dollar and tax policy.

- IMF’s chief economist Raghuram Rajan on the outlook for global economic growth.

- Ben Benarke at Princeton –talking about the benefits of price stability.

- Bernanke in 2003 talking about the challenges of monetary policy (webcast).

- Robert Schiller- economics roundtable (webcast)

- Professor B.B. Bhattacharya, Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi talking about India’s economic potential and constraints

- Selling China: The Wal-Mart Effect

- The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Thomas Friedman (webcast)

- More Thomas Friedman

- Globalisation and the World’s Poor - Jagdish Bhagwati ("In Defense of Globalization"), Allan Meltzer (Carnegie Mellon U.), William Easterly (formerly of the World Bank) and John Ambler (Oxfam America).

- The Cost of Corruption

- A series of short podcasts from The Economist; include Amartya Sen, Wolfowtiz, Daniel Yergin and more.

- Why Inequality Matters in a Globalizing World, Nancy Birdsall (webcast)

- Rethinking Growth Strategies, Dani Rodrik (webcast)

- A Fairer Globalisation- A discussion of the ILO report on the issue (webcast)

- Globalisation and the Rise of Religion

- Ernesto Zedillo and Stiglitz on Globalisation

- Innovative Ways for Financing Global Public Goods, Stiglitz

- Recent speech of Al Gore at TED conference

- Interview with the Economic Hit Man

- A three part series on globalization from BBC; Working together, the illicit side and the new rules

- Hernando de Soto interview (webcast)

- The Market Approach to Understanding Religion

- Daren Acemoglu and Jared Diamond

- Debate between Stiglitz and Rogoff

- The Roots of Poverty in Latin America

Quote of the Day

“Which is the higher value: to have an instant choice of fifty bad movies on your super cable system or to have a choice of only three good movies? Technology enables and that is a value but it is an incomplete value. A state-of-the-art stove in the kitchen and the latest ceramic cooking vessels do not provide a good meal. Could technology deliver a good meal? Possibly; when you put a frozen gourment dinner in your microwave you might do better than with your own cooking. Improving your own cooking, however, would be even better, with more flexibility and room for invention. The ability to send hundreds of e-mails does not ensure the ability to write something intelligent or amusing. None of this is the fault of technology, which does a wonderful job. It is the fault of those who believe that the momentum of technology will be sufficient. Having a fast car is not the same as having somewhere to go.”
-p.109, New Thinking for New Millennium, by Edward De Bono

I think it applies to blogs as well; the ability to post something does not ensure the ability to write something intelligent or useful. Just look at some blogs like Marginal Revolution (just kidding).

De Bono’s latest project includes creating a New Religion;

Next year I am launching a design for a 'new religion'. The emphasis is on positive action. No existing religion emphasises humour and yet humour is a key part of life. Humour is also the ability to change perceptions and see things differently. Most religions are about beliefs and the avoidance of sin.

In the 'new religion' there is belief in yourself and positive things to be done. This 'new religion' can be used in conjunction with any existing belief system. It simply adds the constructive element.

Humour certainly is something religious scholars need to get to grips with.

Related Multimedia Links:

- Is There a Funny Side to God? (Radio National podcast, download now- they take it off in a weeks time)
- Economics of Religion (Radioeconomics podcast, this is also not permanent so download now)
- Intelligent discussion on the Cartoon Controversy, a discussion at Harvard (webcast)

Going to Harvard Can Lead to Rising Inequality

There is a great webcast of a discussion on the Challenges to the American Prosperity at Harvard; Lawrence Summers moderated the discussion between Gregory Mankiw and Gene Sperling. I have tried to give an ‘index’ for the issues discussed below.

Just a couple of observations;
- Sperling was very emotional on the issues discussed where as Mankiw appeared a little bit of ‘don’t worry be happy’ type.
- Mankiw’s point of assistance to be focused on the person rather than place is a very important issue often politicians fail to accept, most of the time willingly
- Sperling urged for the need for political compromise in the light of the value choices we need to face and accept the fact that money is fungible.
- As usual Summers was at his best, posing difficult questions for the both of them
- On global poverty issues, Sterling's point about resources do matter (for eg. in education) was important and we tend to forget too often while getting carried away with Easterly type discussion on incentives, institutions and corruption.

I would have liked them to have discussed the thesis put forward by Benjamin Friedman in his recent book, Moral Consequences of Economic Growth;

..the idea that I advance is that when the broad bulk of a society's citizens are enjoying an improvement in their material standard of living, that is the circumstance under which the society is also able and likely to make progress in other dimensions of its life, and dimensions that Western thinking, at least since the Enlightenment, has regarded not only positively, but positively in explicitly moral terms…

If what matters for these purposes is not just how rich a society is but the sense of forward progress, or lack thereof, of the broad bulk of the citizenry, then no society, no matter how rich, is ever immune from seeing its basic democratic values at risk.

Now this is a very sobering thought today, especially for Americans. As I hope people are aware, we have just finished what I think will turn out to have been the sixth year in a row in which the median income in the United States failed to keep pace with inflation. The total GDP of course is expanding very nicely. But the fruits of the gains from that increased production have been sufficiently skewed over this period that the average American's living standard is not even keeping pace with inflation. We know that that was true through 2004….

Now this is a very daunting and, as I say, sobering thought, because not just in the United States but in many of the advanced democracies in the past, periods when people have lost the sense of forward progress have translated into either no progress or real retreat, often with disastrous consequences, in many of the dimensions of moral character that I have just described

An Incomplete Index to the Forum;

The Crimson / 'The Fearful Pig' / The Pro-Growth Progressive or 'Growing Together’ / discounting pain game / trade overblame game / sky is falling party / don't worry be happy party / humility Party / Graduates vs. Oligarchs / Dividing the Pie / Social Security / Mankiw / Ricardo's Difficult Idea / assotative mating / Pigovian tax / Edward L. Glaeser / Global Poverty/ White Man's Burden/ Global Campaign for Education/ Centre for Universal Education /
World is Flat/ EITC and Sperling

By the way the title refers to the issue of assotative mating that Mankiw highlighted in the discussion; people come to Harvard and get married to someone who studied at Harvard (both Mankiw and Summers are married to Harvard graduates) and both get very high wages, thereby rising the income inequality as a whole.

Multi-media Links;

-A discussion with Sperling and Friedman at Centre for American Progress.
- Book forum web cast on the book Moral Consequences of Growth at IMF
- The recent Harvard discussion