Marginal Revolution
Go to: Marginal Revolution
1 shares
The Dialectic at Work?
via Marginal Revolution by Alex Tabarrok on January 20, 2008
Justin Yifu Lin, apparently soon to be named the World Bank's chief economist, has one of the strangest CVs you could imagine. Lin was born in Taiwan but in 1979 while serving in the Taiwanese army he defected to China by swimming from the isla
Shared by: Knotty,
[ Back to top]
1 shares
Is 2008 like 1971?
via Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen on January 19, 2008
This is funny, via Ezra Klein (who is also funny), but of course it misses the point. One big difference is that we use energy much more efficiently than we used to
Shared by: Knotty,
[ Back to top]
1 shares
Cloverfield
via Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen on January 19, 2008
I thought this was a remarkable cinematic event. But you need to know that the characters are supposed to be vacuous and annoying, and that the opening scene is supposed to be obnoxious and superficial. The heroism is supposed to be thin. (The whiney NYT review I read is, in retrospect, an embar
Shared by: Knotty,
[ Back to top]
1 shares
Markets in everything: buy put options on your gadgets
via Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen on January 18, 2008
You pay a small fee up front when you buy a new gadget. In return,you get the right to sell it back to them for a pre-determined price ata set time. With an 80GB iPod, for example, you pay $9 up front to beable to resell it for $50 in a year, $40 in two years and $20 in threeyears. They're currently taking contracts on iPods, name-brand laptops anddesktop PCs, GPS units, flat
Shared by: Knotty,
[ Back to top]
1 shares
Banana, by Dan Koeppel
via Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen on January 21, 2008
You will never, ever find a seed in a supermarket banana. That is because the fruit is grown, basically, by cloning...Every banana we eat is a genetic twin of every other.It turns out, by the way, that the world's supply of Cavendish bananas -- the ones we eat -- is endangered by disease (more
Shared by: Knotty,
[ Back to top]
1 shares
Markets in Everything - Relief Pitcher Earnings
via Marginal Revolution by Alex Tabarrok on January 22, 2008
... share gets you a claim to 0.0016% of his future salary including bonuses. Shares sell for $20 each.Hat tip to Mike Makowsky. Mike, a rookie GMU PhD on the job market, is also entertaining offers for a share of his future salary. Mike is feeling rather risk-averse so as an insider, I recommend you buy now. Mike has a great career ahead of him and this opportunity won't last long!
Shared by: Knotty,
[ Back to top]
1 shares
The Law of Unintended Consequences
via Marginal Revolution by Alex Tabarrok on January 23, 2008
... regulation of society but can also happen when government tries to regulate other complex systems such as the ecosystem (e.g. fire prevention policy that reduces forest diversity and increases mass fires, dam building that destroys wet lands and makes floods more likely etc.) Unintended consequences can even happen in the attempted regulation of complex physical systems (here is a class...
Shared by: Yerameyahu,
[ Back to top]
1 shares
Bargaining theory
via Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen on January 23, 2008
Bryan Caplan says:When the bachelor gets married, he almost certainly starts doing more housework than he did when he was single. How can you call that shirking?Megan McArdle says:I'm no neatnik, but this is . . . daft...Does Mr Caplan think that "person with the lowest standards wins"should be a general rule for marriage? Can women unilaterally quittheir jobs because they're content...
Shared by: Yerameyahu,
[ Back to top]
1 shares
Where is the world's largest swimming pool?
via Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen on January 26, 2008
No Googling. Guess in the comments section. If you are desperate, the answer is here. Here is a close-up photo. Here are more good photos, with giveaways as to the location.
Shared by: Knotty,
[ Back to top]
1 shares
Prediction markets as bribery?
via Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen on January 24, 2008
Harald, a loyal MR reader, writes to me:What would happen if some famous rich person walked into a presidential prediction market and said: "Hello, I'm selling shorts for candidate A, to the value of a hundred million dollars if he should win. I'm not doing this because I don't believe candidate A will win, indeed, I want her to win. I hope everyone who can help candidate A win, by...
Shared by: Knotty,
[ Back to top]