Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed

Intriguing paragraph from recent doctoral thesis on the merits of native plant and seed collectors: ... the problem of the loss of biodiversity faces significant challenges in gaining the public’s attention. For example, cities not only threaten bi...
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A colleague of mine is giving a talk soon on economic growth and immigration. He recounted to me today how in telling the organizer about his intended talking point -- that there is money lying on the sidewalk for the first U.S. state to open up to imm...
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There is a well-known paper from a few years ago (Action Bias Among Elite Soccer Goalkeepers: The Case of Penalty Kicks, by Eli, et al.) that argues soccer goalies have an action bias when in a penalty kick situation. They jump one way or the other, wh...
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I am fascinated with how we don't notice that much of the past is still with us, that it's so evenly distributed as to be invisible. I often talk about this in the context of urban fire departments, and the small percentage of their calls that are act...
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Immigration wave in the U.S. (Source) How I Learned to Love Farmed Salmon (Source) Ecologists fear Antarctic krill crisis  (Source) Landowners Shout `Bingo' on Property Boom in West Australia Mining Towns (Source) Warmer temperatures in China to redu...
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From a friend, an actuarial brain-teaser:My friend Josh (55) and his wife Ericka (48) asked another couple to be their guardians if both of them die.  According to actuarial tables, Josh has a 1/125 chance of dying this year and Ericka has a 1/358 c...
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You can now geek out on Kansas City Federal Reserve documents from the just-completed Jackson Hole econo-fest. Here are the documents that have now been posted:Opening Remarks BEN S. BERNANKEChairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Rese...
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As part of the Kauffman podcast series we've called "Infectious Talk", I had a half-hour conversation recently about "wrongness" with the delightful and smart Kathryn Schultz. She has a wonderful book out on the subject called Bein...
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The summary of a new NBER paper on the link between economics and the "quality" of suicide terrorism: We analyze the link between economic conditions and the quality of suicide terrorism. While the existing empirical literature shows that...
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From VoxEU, the case for radical moves -- like a reversing sales taxes slash -- aided and abetted by the U.S. Treasury: A helicopter drop for the Treasury Ricardo Caballero 30 August 2010 The US may be near a liquidity...
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