Remember when you were in school and really liked the Smiths and everybody else said how rubbish they were, and that made you feel even more privilged to like them. And then they did ‘Panic’ and it was played at all the discos and so everybody liked them so now you didn’t so much. You […]
Our group at work is divided into three separate sections, because of the building layout rather than representing any commercial rationale. Consequently loose social groupings form around these ‘pods’. In my pod, the absense of myself and a senior partner has led to an overall reduction in social networking opportunities and a general feeling of […]
Dani Rodrik has an interesting post on the procedural fairness of trade
a redistribution that takes place because home firms are undercut by competitors who employ deplorable labor practices, use production methods that are harmful to the environment, or enjoy government support is procedurally different than one that takes place because an innovator has come up […]
For those students who attended the lecture last night, here are the behavioural-economics-slides.ppt. I’ve added a slide to reflect some comments and ideas from the class discussion. After the weekend, I’ll give a few additional pointers to the sort of thing that you might be tested on in an exam.
Thanks again, and apologies for overunning.
Natalie Bennett has discovered freecycle - a way of getting rid of stuff you don’t want and either can’t be bothered to sell it, or have a social conscious. Perhaps because of its social objective, she thinks it’s an endorsement of Marx:
I’ve always thought that the valuable bit of Marx is that simple but powerful […]
No, I haven’t gone crazy, though if I have, there is method in my madness.
France is a great country. Wonderful cities, some of the biggest European companies fighting it out with the worlds best; a fairly successful auto industry, and a health system and public transport network that the British could die for (in the […]
I am a big fan of Sen, and from the comments at MR, the best summary of how I feel about his work.
But, IMHO, the most important thing about Sen is that he is a Wayne Gretsky academic (I am a Canadian and a hockey player who was born with seven instead of five senses […]
Mervyn writes.
The Chancellor writes back.
How nice. what have we learnt? Zilcho, but perhaps any sense of impending panic has been managed by knowing that there is a process in place.
It seems rather quaint that the economy is treated like an errant child who behaves beyong the bounds of acceptability and must be reported to its […]
Tim W has a go at mobile roaming charges. He links to this, which suggests:
But there’s something else a bit murky here. The European Commission is focusing soley on the roaming charges. Just because the companies might be making large profits on that narrowly defined section of their business doesn’t mean they’re pocketing it and […]
A DJ gets fired for making unsavoury remarks about a women’s basketball team. Tim Worstall takes issue with Jane Galt’s view that Don Imus can’t be expected to keep his job if he makes offensive comments and contributes to falling rating and advertising income. Don Imus has essentially been fired then because he has suddenly become […]
What is the greatest misunderstanding about economics and business in general? For me, it’s the commonly perpetuated view that “for-profit” and “for the public” are necessarily divergent and opposite viewpoints. Or it put it another way, that self-interest can’t lead to a common good.
That Smith’s central message, 200 years later, is still poorly misunderstood is […]
