Congratulations!

Congratulations to the recent Nobel Prize winners in Economics! I know, it's not called that, but you know what I mean. There's a plethora of sources you can read to learn more about the winners.

Also, how about some other interesting articles? Monetary views, shale, the Great Depression, currency wars, and China/India/Brazilian growth. I don't really agree with that last one at all, but it's an interesting topic.

Enjoy!

Samuelson, Greece, fair trade, and academic journals.

A tribute to Samuelson, from an ex-coworker.

Rodrik uses Greece as a teaching tool for the world economy. Economic globalization, politcal democracy, and the nation-state: pick two. I wonder if the EU will be more careful in the future.

An Economist debate on fair trade. It's an interesting debate, but Bhagwati in particular never fails to impress in my opinion. I think the benefits of free trade are less clearly documented in the media, and public opinion (of developed states, especially) ends up mattering more than it should.

What kinds of articles get published in journals? Empirics seem to be winning the day. I thought people use to think academia was divorced from real life...

Climate change, exchange rates, education, and new frontiers in economics

John Whitehead on climate change. The science hasn't been settled. Professor Whitehead doesn't go into this, but the consequences haven't been settled either.

Chavez is still trying to fix his economy, this time by playing with his fixed exchange rate. The blind lead the blind.

Tyler Cowen makes a partial list of over- and under-explored areas of economics. There are a lot of really interesting under-studied areas of economics.

Ed Glaeser looks at the link between GDP per capita and school enrollment in 1900. Education benefits seem to be very, very persistent.

Tires, Nobel Prize, macro debates, and solar cells.

Garth Brazelton defends the tire tax as a Pigouvian tax. I'd be interested to see if there was any data to show that Chinese tires are significantly less safe than American tires. Since they both presumably have to meet some sort of standard, should we just make tougher standards? If Chinese tires are less safe than American tires, would the tax not apply to safe Chinese tires, or would the tax be repealed when Chinese tire makers improved their tires?

Tyler Cowen starts thinking about the Nobel Prize for Economics. I'm eager to see everyone's thoughts.

Krugman talks about freshwater economists while David Warsh says there isn't as much vitriol as we might think. Warsh links us to an interesting paper that thinks about 1978 macro (link to Thoma).

Solar energy is apparently getting off to a slow start. Overinvestment due to a subsidy combined with a recession led to dropping prices, whic wasn't good for the industry. Does that mean we'll see solar energy picking up again as the world recovers? I've been seeing more articles about solar-powered things anyways, so maybe China is picking up a large degree of the slack from Spain.

Krugman's history, South Africa, rational markets, HDMI cable, and crime trackers

Also from Newmark's Door, Krugman gets history wrong. Both people on the left and the right disagree with him, though I think that's kind of an empty statement.

Relatively good news for HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The infection rate has leveled off, with reductions in certain age groups. Still, South Africa has 5.5 million HIV-positive people.

Justin Fox gives a quick summary of the history of rational markets in the last 80 years, which is also a summary of his books.

Ezra Klein and Tyler Cowen seem to think that some traditional brick-and-mortar stores are not lowering their prices in their competitive markets. HDMI cable seems to be very expensive in stores, but online is available for next to nothing. Klein further comments that online shopping is a wealth transfer from those not comfortable with online shopping to those who are comfortable with online shopping. It seems to me that those comfortable with online shopping are in larger, more competitive markets. Brick-and-mortar stores cater to a different demographic than online stores. Moreover, I think that particularly in the case of 80% and 90+% discounts, online stores sell excess stock or used stock, rather than stock just recently received from a manufacturer. I admit these are conjectures, though.

ThinkMarkets provides some links to crime tracking websites, and neighborhood information websites.

History, open data, auto industry, financial planning, bachelor's degrees, and gas prices

A new blog on economic history.

Hey, world bankers like open data too! Those are great guys.

Speaking of which, Hal Varian used Google Trends to make better forecasts.

James Hamilton is still on the case, reporting about the declining auto industry.

ESPlanner, a long term financial planning website, though the site isn't always working.

Some community colleges offer bachelor's degrees. I like that degrees are becoming less expensive, but they shouldn't be easier to get. This is the classic Spence problem.

Mark Perry gives us a look at real gas prices. It looks like a falling trend since 1919, with some big spikes thrown in. And, note that the spikes take us to about back to the 1919 level anyways.

Excess demand for money, manufacturing news, grid parity, and Austrian BC theory

Nick Rowe on the importance of excess demand for money. This directly relates to what the Fed has been doing for quite some time to help the current crisis. Nick has had a lot of really good posts lately, it seems to me.

Mark Perry had optimistic news on the manufacturing front. It seems like these numbers will return to normal pretty soon, which makes me think that more focus will turn towards worsening labor numbers. Though, we're only six months or so away from the peak. Six months seems like a relatively short amount of time considering how long this had dragged out already.

John Quiggin reports that some solar power companies may be approaching grid parity, or the point where solar power is as cheap as conventional power.

Another good post from John Quiggin, he talks a little about the history of the Austrian Business Cycle, and why it isn't really taken seriously anymore by more empirical-minded economists.

Chile, debates, housing, oil and recessions, and cognitive skills

Rodrik talks about the Chilean Minister of Finance. He saved during the boom, although it was unpopular, and is now spending the massive savings. Why don't more countries do this?

Alex Tabarrok talks about the debates at Intelligence Squared. I like the concept of the website, though. Get experts to debate issues and provide podcasts. People vote on winners.

Jon Lansner talks about housing, via CR. Prices should bottom out late next year.

James Hamilton points out the connection between oil price spikes and recessions. That's really interesting research.

Some research shows that people with higher cognitive skills perform better economically. Moreover, to the extent that this is a genetic trait, evolution may play a factor in separating people with of cognitive skill levels.

Our future

Here's an interesting article about Larry Summers and Tim Geithner, two possible choices for New York Federal Reserve president. It's a pretty interesting look at the two gentlemen. A WSJ blog gives more information.

Greg Mankiw writes a memo to President-elect Barak Obama. Hopefully Obama listens to Kling (and many others) on the auto industry.

Some advice for those seeking jobs in academia.

Prof Glaeser says that we need better teachers to improve our education system. I think there's much more to the issue. Also, Prof Glaeser doesn't say how we should attract better teachers--some data, for example, shows that better teachers often work at private schools, where they get lower pay. So, if pay isn't a good enough incentive, how do we attract teachers? Either much larger pay, or we should take a look at the incentives of teachers. My bet is that teachers are concerned with their work environment, their freedom in the classroom, and job security. The government has done a number of things to dissuade teachers from staying in their field. (h/t Thoma)

Still on education, Charles Murray argues that we should get rid of four-year BAs.

For those that follow oil prices and the industry, Mike Shedlock provides a wealth of information. Personally, I thought it was hilarious that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez "predicted" $100/barrel oil, with no qualifiers. Firstly, price tends to increase in all goods--we call this inflation, and it's especially true in prices tied to the dollar--so with no time qualifier, Chavez's "prediction" is basically self-evident. Secondly, not even Chavez could "predict" how oil would skyrocket (proving him right, by technicality), then plummet again (making him still sound ridiculous).

Lastly, in a paper about the ancient history of economics, Gavin Kennedy talks about the origins or bargaining. Now that's economic history!