The Links:
Bill Gates is very worried about a 1918 esque flu pandemic. His simulations show 33 million dead within about 250 days! So it's a good thing that MERS has emerged in Korea. 1300 quarantined. Coming soon to a city near you!
The Education Myth. The tl;dr version is that many countries have increased their educated populace without seeing much improvement in outcomes, GDP, or whatever measure you pick. So what else is holding them back? I'd argue disadvantageous trade policies, late-ending colonialism, and the GWOT are largely to blame.
Pinker, Hobbes, and Baltimore. Thoughts on the state's monopoly on violence.
Does a Liquidity Trap ever end? Yes, when the economy, for reasons unrelated to liquidity, is able to grow. Perhaps due to technological change or a war.
In the past 5 years productivity has grown by 3%. That's not each year That's total over 5 years. So where's this technological revolution in productivity?
Monetary Policy and Inequality.Done in one:
The claim that Fed policy has worsened inequality usually begins with the (correct) observation that monetary easing works in part by raising asset prices, like stock prices. As the rich own more assets than the poor and middle class, the reasoning goes, the Fed's policies are increasing the already large disparities of wealth in the United States.
America remains, despite the damage inflicted by the Great Recession and its aftermath, a very rich country. But many Americans are economically insecure, with little protection from life’s risks. They frequently experience financial hardship; many don’t expect to be able to retire, and if they do retire have little to live on besides Social Security.
Many readers will, I hope, find nothing surprising in what I just said. But all too many affluent Americans — and, in particular, members of our political elite — seem to have no sense of how the other half lives. Which is why a new study on the financial well-being of U.S. households, conducted by the Federal Reserve, should be required reading inside the Beltway.
This hit parade of failed arguments should convince any fence sitters that this is a bad deal. After all, you don’t have to make up nonsense to sell a good product.
The gap between services inflation and good inflation. Very wonky but an interesting look at pressures on various aspects of our economy.
Don't go to law school. Presented in the lovely form of a listicle! I would have been the one going to law school for the last reason:
Law school is a very good way to solve the problem of being ineligible for a license to practice law. It is not a very good way to solve the "I don't know what to do with my life" problem, or the "I am afraid that if I follow my true passion I will fail" problem, or the "I am desperate for other people's approval" problem.
Scott Walker's appointee to the University of Wisconsin's board of regents thinks there are too many duplicate degree programs. Some fine republican thinking going on here: I mean seriously, why teach chemistry at UW Madison and UW Milwaukee and UW Green Bay? Just pick one!
A state-by-state analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that about 6.4 million Americans in 34 states that use the federal marketplace would lose a total of $1.7 billion monthly tax credit dollars—an average of $272 per person—and face a net premium increase of 287 percent.The effects would be particularly perilous in swing states, according to the Kaiser report.
Fareed Zakaria thinks we ought to be listening to Rand Paul more on foreign policy. Nope, the war machine is far too profitable.
I don’t agree with Rand Paul on many things, including foreign policy. I think some of his positions on civil rights are historically blind, cruel and dangerous. But in the arena of national security, he has time and again raised important, inconvenient questions, only to have them ruled out of order and to be told that he is a crank, far outside the mainstream. In fact, it would be useful and important for Republicans — and Democrats — to stop the name-calling and actually discuss and debate his ideas.
The New York Times has coverage of "The Agency," a Russian semi-national corporation whose responsibility is spreading misinformation in the US through false articles, fake images, and outright trolling in various online forums. I think they should hire! There are many disenfranchised MRAs, racists, and conspiracy nuts who would gladly join in the mayhem. Also, I think this is kind of inverse Orwellianism. Instead of replacing the truth with an authoritative political reality, we have the entire concept of truth and reality undermined for the purpose of, well, I'm not sure.
In St. Mary Parish, Duval Arthur quickly made a few calls and found that none of his employees had sent the alert. He called Columbian Chemicals, which reported no problems at the plant. Roughly two hours after the first text message was sent, the company put out a news release, explaining that reports of an explosion were false...
The Columbian Chemicals hoax was not some simple prank by a bored sadist. It was a highly coordinated disinformation campaign, involving dozens of fake accounts that posted hundreds of tweets for hours, targeting a list of figures precisely chosen to generate maximum attention. The perpetrators didn’t just doctor screenshots from CNN; they also created fully functional clones of the websites of Louisiana TV stations and newspapers. The YouTube video of the man watching TV had been tailor-made for the project. A Wikipedia page was even created for the Columbian Chemicals disaster, which cited the fake YouTube video. As the virtual assault unfolded, it was complemented by text messages to actual residents in St. Mary Parish. It must have taken a team of programmers and content producers to pull off.
And the hoax was just one in a wave of similar attacks during the second half of last year.
This article has been making the rounds. Basically there's this professor whose liberal students scare him because he can't ever hurt their feelings or he's getting fired. Vox published a response. +Jason Jones comments here.
Shared for +Rebecca Miller :
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