About the economics of natural disasters.

Selecting the top 20 articles from (pdf) the AER since it started. About that selection.

Great talk by Deidre McCloskey on economic history and optimism.

About aggregate supply and aggregate demand.

Nice post on the success of Swedish monetary policy - by a Czech physicist.

About productivity in recent ( Read more... )

Having fun with Merlin and Arthur

“Void during a black Presidency”: The Daily Show on how the race card is maxed out.

All the Dr Who opening sequences.

A Tunisian singer is barred from a major Arab music festival because a film of him singing at a synagogue a few years ago gets leaked ( Read more... )

A nice graph of GDP per capita and life expectancy.

About the problems of economic (and other) models.

How imports raise real income.

Greece and Estonia as policy opposites.

Turkey is seeking to set up a free trade zone with Arab neighbours.

Union support for decriminalising marihuana in California because it will mean more jobsOpposition to ( Read more... )

Clarke and Dawe explain Europe’s debt problems (for non-Oz readers, you will laugh lots).

A nice list of economic fallacies of the left and the right.

Nice post on macro models.

When a pig gets killed, nothing is wasted.

Worrying that cities are deteriorating as avenues of upward social mobility.

Rwanda is having a coffee success story. An aid ( Read more... )

Appreciating the work of Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom. About common property.

About food, aid, technology and poverty:
Poverty -- caused by the low income productivity of farmers' labor -- is the primary source of hunger in Africa, and the problem is only getting worse. The number of "food insecure" people in Africa (those consuming less than 2, ( Read more... )

An economics music video: the Hayek versus Keynes rap.

About the market economy of classical Rome (pdf). About labour supply in the Roman Empire (pdf).

Paper on the continuing effects of forced labour system (pdf) in Peru almost 200 years after its abolition.

Various papers on influences on and in contemporary economics. A 1982 paper by Tobin ( Read more... )

Very funny (not strictly demographically accurate, but funny).

Wise advice.

The sort of lead sentence sub-editors pray for:
A floor collapsed beneath a group of about 20 members of Weight Watchers as they gathered to compare how many pounds they had shed over Christmas.

Funny skit about human arrogance.

Nice quote about the appeal of the ( Read more... )

Arguing for full globalisation and as superior to anything-but-labour globalisation.

A study that considers whether disaster relief can lead governments to under-invest in disaster prevention (pdf).

A moving montage of photos and commentary on the burden of aid and Haiti. How not to help Haiti after the earthquake. There are countries poorer ( Read more... )

Massively damaging earthquake in Haiti with epicentre near the capital Port au Prince with great loss of life. Video of the Haiti earthquake. Technical details of the earthquake. Graphic of technical data. Pictures. Satellite photo of centre of Port au Prince (click for higher resolution). About the experience of being in a serious earthquake. This ( Read more... )

You can now buy placebos.

Evidence that economists tend to be cheapskates.

A nice, enlightening post on trade and current account deficits: the basic point is that countries do not trade, individuals and firms do.

Someone who knows exactly what they are worth: 20 tons of wheat, wholesale. More hereDeconstructing a Secretary Clinton speech on ( Read more... )