~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (548)

That is the topic of a recent Bloomberg column.  Here is the opening bit: One of the longest, most technical and, as it turns out, most inconsequential public-policy debates of the 21st century was about net neutrality. Now that a federal appeals court has effectively ended the debate by striking down the FCC’s net neutrality rules, it’s worth asking what […] The post Net neutrality, we hardly knew ye...

1. “We show that same-sex couples experience lower gains from live-in relationships, a “same-sex penalty”. Absent this penalty, the share of same-sex couples in the U.S. would increase by about 50% (from 1.36% to 2.05% of all couples).”  Link here. 2. Vatsal reviews Stubborn Attachments. 3. Share repurchases do not hurt labor’s share of income. […] The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on...

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix) is one of the best and best-crafted documentaries that I have ever seen. It tells the story of Mats Steen, a Norwegian boy living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. As the disease relentlessly robs him of mobility, Mats turns to the online world, spending much of his time immersed in […] The post The Remarkable Life of Ibelin appeared...

One More Hospitality Restaurants The New York company will refund $9 to diners driving into the city for meals at four of its Greenwich Village restaurants. That includes Italian restaurant Osteria 57, Italian seafood restaurant Alice, Italian cafe Travelers Poets & Friends, and also-Italian seafood restaurant Alaluna. Osteria: 57 West 10th Street near Sixth Avenue; Alice: 126 West 13th Street […] The post Tax incidence theory and congestion tolls...

Well one thing that comes up is the Diego Garcia problem. It appears that Downing Street opted to relinquish sovereignty of an isolated territory remote from major population centers for reasons of domestic politics and perhaps international popularity. As long as we might (continue to) see a major gulf between American and European norms regarding […] The post Thinking about Greenland critically (from the...

That is the new Agnes Callard book, very good, self-recommending. I would say my views on some of these issues are different.  In my vision, Socrates is a weak interlocutor and Plato is the real genius.  Plato also does not identify with Socrates per se, but rather is teaching us how to deal with a […] The post *Open Socrates: The Case for a...

Yes I will be doing a Conversation with him.  He is a famous brain surgeon and author of the recent and excellent book Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery. Here is his Wikipedia page, and an opening excerpt: Theodore H. Schwartz (born May 13, 1965) is an American medical scientist, academic physician and neurosurgeon. Schwartz specializes in surgery for brain tumors, pituitary […] The post What should I ask Theodore H....

1. Scenario for an independent Greenland. 2. Gender gaps in the Federal Reserve System. 3. Zvi on congestion pricing in NYC. 4. A short (pronunciation) saga from Kearny, NJ, the place of my birth. 5. Milei is artificially slowing the devaluation of the peso (FT). 6. Henry Farrell on America’s plan to control global AI […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on...

There is a new paper by Florian Ederer, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, and Kyle Jensen.  It concerns what happens on EJMR, and abusive rhetoric in on line economic discourse.  I have not yet read it, but very likely it is of interest.  Here is the direct paper link. The post Anonymous Attention and Abuse appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Florian Ederer. Thank...

I do not myself have a position on this issue, but I found this analysis by Ken Opalo interesting: The main argument below is that while the people of Somaliland deserve and have a strong case for international recognition, such a development at this time would very likely take away the very incentives that have set them […] The post Should the U.S. recognize Somaliland? appeared...

It is commonly assumed that the U.S. “acquiring” Greenland, whatever that might mean, will result in greater U.S. control of the territory.  Along some dimensions that is likely.  But it is worth pondering the equilibrium here more seriously. I observe, in many locations around the world, that indigenous groups end up with far more bargaining […] The post Some game theory of Greenland appeared...

1. Stephen Miran makes the case for twenty percent tariffs (WSJ).  You can run this one through o1 pro yourself. 2. The history of export controls on IP. 3. Jacob Trefethen, on reforming science funding. 4. In ex-Soviet States, the mental health of the young seems fine. 5. New Ashlee Vance sci-tech media venture.  Site […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on...

It’s well known that the voting methods we use are highly defective, as they fail to meet fundamental criteria like positive responsiveness, the Pareto principle, and stability. Positive responsiveness (monotonicity) means that if a candidate improves on some voters’ ballots, this should not reduce the candidate’s chances of winning. Yet, many voting methods, including runoffs […] The post The Borda Count is the Best...

Yes, I will be having a Conversation with him.  Gregory Clark the economist.  Here is his Wikipedia page.  So what should I ask? The post What should I ask Greg Clark? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Atom. Ah, you've listed some thought-provoking ... by Windom EarleIn reply to Atom. is that it's a bunch of junk science. His ... by...

Is the top tail of wealth a set of fixed individuals or is there substantial turnover? We estimate upper-tail wealth dynamics during the Gilded Age and beyond, a time of rapid wealth accumulation and concentration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Using various wealth proxies and data tracking tens of millions of individuals, […] The post The circulation of elites, sort of...

14. You don’t do anyone any favors by lurking, put yourself out there! 15. If you don’t “get” a classic book or movie, 90% of the time it’s your fault. (It might just not be the right time for you to appreciate that thing.) 16. If you find yourself dreading Mondays, quit… 23. Doing things […] The post Principles, from Nabeel appeared first on...

1. Cairo norms and multiple equilibria? 2. Straussian, clever language though not as sharp as the Everly Brothers.  I wish them the best. 3. The declining influence of economists in policy circles (NYT). 4. ChinaTalk on DeepSeek. 5. Weird things going on in Romania, poorly understood. 6. One good way to prompt o1. 7. The […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...

Jay Martin writes a provocative post, Has Canada Become a Jamaican Bobsled Team? if Canada were to become a state, it would be the third poorest in the country, right behind Alabama. Everybody talks about the American debt issue, but Canadian households bear more debt relative to their income than any other G7 country. The average Canadian now spends 15% of their […] The post Canada’s Comparative Advantages appeared first on...

Here is Daron Acemoglu’s Project Syndicate piece, mostly critical on high-skilled immigration. Here is the first argument from Acemoglu: …one would expect corporate America’s growing need for skilled STEM workers to translate into advocacy for, and investments in, STEM education. But an overreliance on the H-1B program may have broken this link and made American […] The post The Acemoglu arguments against high-skilled immigration...

I would say we have not yet figured out what is the best U.S. policy toward Greenland, nor have we figured out best stances for either Greenland or Denmark. I am struck however by the low quality of the debate, and I mean on the anti-U.S. side most of all.  This is just one clip, […] The post The Greenland debates appeared first on...

I had fun, and Andrew writes: In this episode, I got a chance to talk with Tyler about quite a few of those topics: the extent of his libertarian ideology, why he’s less pessimistic about social media, what movies have influenced him, etc. Here is the Spotify link. The post My podcast with Andrew Xu appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsComments 

1. Cracks in the silence about Havana Syndrome (Atlantic). 2. “As Rainer Zitelmann, a noted historian of the Third Reich, has pointed out, the AfD has long since abandoned its former economic liberalism for a Right-wing form of anti-capitalism. Its rhetoric is often indistinguishable from that of the far-Left Die Linke, or the Left populist […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on...

First, the labor market is no longer polarizing— employment in low- and middle-paid occupations has declined, while highly paid employment has grown. Second, employment growth has stalled in low-paid service jobs. Third, the share of employment in STEM jobs has increased by more than 50 percent since 2010, fueled by growth in software and computer-related […] The post Facts about U.S. employment appeared first...

From John Ruffalo. The post Canada’s missing entrepreneurs appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsCommentsRelated StoriesFacts about U.S. employmentThe sick leave culture that is GermanEvolving Returns to Personality