First, as a non-American, I prefer American Administrations to have as flat a learning curve as possible. Breaking in a new one is tedious (and it is not as if Obama and Romney had any serious foreign policy disagreements anyway, Romney's attempt to invent some were pretty pathetic ( Read more... )

In Bellaire, Texas it is apparently a crime to drive in an affluent neighbourhood while black.

A black President does not mean there is no racial problem.

About the village agreement that set contemporary China on the path to mass prosperity.

Great series of revealing graphs.

Trying to the econblog wars.

A nice post about Austrian economics and its difficulties.

The paradox of fiat money: how does it have any value?

Nice graphic presentation of that it is nominal (money) spending that counts, ( Read more... )

About a new Canadian magazine which includes a review eviscerating John Ralston Saul’s take on the origins of Canadian democracy. And onto its second issue:
What follows is the most thorough debunking of Australia’s blame-the-pommie-bastards myth you are likely to read, written in a style at once lively and learned, by a bold Australian historian ( Read more... )

A very strange French ad for a drink.

Joe Scalzi on six reasons why it sucks to be a Jedi.

“Dictatorship can return”: a great TV ad from Tunisia.

How to become a best-selling author without a publisher. About book reviewing on Amazon™.

Great moment in tabloid headlines.

In comic books, villains earn and heroes inherit. More on that.The ( Read more... )

About the 1905 Lochner decision.

Polls find that Americans have seriously negative views of the US federal government: a tendency what set in during Dubya’s second term but have accelerated since.

Suggesting ways in which Canada can be a useful example to the US.

Full text of a recent Sarah Palin speech: the woman direct, so to speak ( Read more... )

Betty Ford dies at 93.

Remembering Geraldine Ferraro.

About how American politics is affected by hopes of a transformational landslide election.

Printing a pamphlet including Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, carefully leaving out two words.

About the power of extra information and position to affect the actions of the powerful ( Read more... )

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... )

A US Court has ruled that folk in actual dungeons can be banned from being dungeonmasters. A prison was permitted to stop inmates playing D&D because they might form a gang. The piece made me laugh lots. And not in agreement with the prison authorities, who do not seem to be across the concept of catharsis or harmless diversion.

A nice Dangerous Liaisons mashup critiquing Californian government pensions (funny, if you are not a Californian taxpayer).

Feminism explained (more accurately, a certain sort of American political feminism explained, but still funny).

Which US State is worst at what.

Cruel but funny: advice to a newly unemployed former Congressperson. ( Read more... )