Marginal Revolution

Proposed markets in everything

Tyler Cowen

In what Mr. DiSimone called his Free Limit Plan, he would give Nevadans and nonresidents the option to drive up to 90 miles an hour on state roads. The privilege would cost $25 a day and would conservatively generate more than $1 billion a year in new state revenue, he said.

DiSimone is an independent gubernatorial candidate, which I suppose means he is unlikely to win.  The article is here and here and I thank John Thorne and Ted Craig for the pointers.

Assorted links

Tyler Cowen

1. "The Untamed Prince."

2. Would campaign finance reform matter?

3. Should we create an option for making Ereading harder?

4. How Apple tricks you, or applied behavioral economics.

5. ATM graffiti.

6. Via Chris F. Masse, the economics of Damien Hirst.

The rule of law, or the rule of men (women)?

Tyler Cowen

The Obama administration on Thursday told health insurers that it will track those who enact "unjustified" rate increases linked to the health overhaul and may block those companies from a new marketplace for insurance coverage.

Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, issued the warning in a letter to Karen Ignagni, the insurance industry's top lobbyist.

Ms. Sebelius said some insurers were notifying enrollees that their insurance premiums will increase next year as a result of the law's new benefits.

..."There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases," Ms. Sebelius wrote. "We will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections."

Nowhere is it stated that these rate hikes are against the law (even if you think they should be), nor can this "misinformation" be against the law.  Here is further information, including a copy of the letter, which is worse than I had been expecting.

Lesson One of Econ 101

Alex Tabarrok

Here is David Kestenbaum of NPR's Planet Money talking with me about lesson one (audio about 3 and a half minutes; text here) of my Econ 101 class.  Of course, the textbook that I use has lots of great stories to bring economics to life throughout the semester!

Are there advantages to prosopagnosia?

Tyler Cowen

The artist Chuck Close, who is famous for his gigantic portraits of faces, has severe, lifelong prosopagnosia.  He believes it has played a crucial role in driving his unique artistic vision.  "I don't know who anyone is and essentially have no memory at all for people in real space," he says.  "But when I flatten them out in a photograph I can commit that image to memory."

That is from a recent NY article by Oliver Sacks, not on-line but gated here.  Sacks himself has this condition, as did Jane Goodall, including when she worked with chimpanzees.

Here is a new study on the neural basis of prosopagnosia.

What I've been reading

Tyler Cowen

1. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.  It's derivative in its set-up, but still it has a splendid plot.  If you're looking to explore the new trend of adults reading works for "young adults," this is a good place to start.  The bottom line: I've just ordered volumes two and three, not just volume two.

2. W.G. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction.  Pitch perfect throughout, you can add Sebald to the list of authors with first-rate contributions to both fiction and non-fiction.

3. John W. Dower, Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11.  Combines public choice and behavioral economics approaches to foreign policy, all through the lens of the events mentioned in the subtitle.  Consistently interesting, and it shows how the intelligence failures leading up to the second Iraq War had many precedents.  Dower is the same guy who wrote the excellent books on the Pacific War and Japanese postwar recovery; I recommend his work more generally.

4. Tom Segev, Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends.  Many books on the Holocaust tread on well-tilled ground, but this was original and compelling throughout.  Here is a useful review, although I think it considerably exaggerates how critical the book is of Wiesenthal.  I also very much like Segev's The Seventh Million.

5. Michael Whinston, Lectures on Antitrust Economics.  A very good introduction to current thinking on antitrust policy, through the lens of theory and empirics.

The leaks say it's Austan Goolsbee to the CEA

Tyler Cowen

Here is the link, hat tip goes to Matt Yglesias on Twitter.

Scary sentences

Tyler Cowen

It's not a good sign when the government has to intervene to prevent a run on a bank that is already owned by the government...

That's about Ireland.

My debate with Bryan Caplan on education

Tyler Cowen

Bryan writes:

The other day, Tyler Cowen challenged me to name any country that I consider under-educated.  None came to mind.  While there may be a country on earth where government doesn't on net subsidize education, I don't know of any.

...This analysis holds in the Third World as well as the First.  The fact that Nigerians and Bolivians don't spend more of their hard-earned money on education is a solid free-market reason to conclude that additional education would be a waste of their money.

I would first note that many parts of many poor countries, today, receive de facto zero government subsidies for education.  Or put aside the issue of government provision and ask if you were a missionary and could inculcate a few norms what would they be?  Many regions -- in particular Latin America -- are undereducated for their levels of per capita income.  I view this as a serious cultural failing, most of all in terms of its collective social impact.  In contrast, Kerala, India is very intensely educated for its income level and that brings some well-known benefits in terms of social indicators and quality of life.

If I think of the Mexican village where I have done field work, the education sector "works" as follows.  No one in the village is capable of teaching writing, reading, and arithmetic.  A paid outsider is supposed to man the school, but very often that person never appears, even though he continues to be paid.  Children do have enough leisure time to take in schooling, when it is available.  I am told that most of the teachers are bad, when they do appear.  You can get your children (somewhat) educated by leaving the village altogether, and of course some people do this.  In the last ten years, satellite television suddenly has become the major educator in the village, helping the villagers learn Spanish (Nahuatl is the indigenous language), history, world affairs, some science from nature shows, and telenovela customs.  The villagers seem eager to learn, now that it is possible.

That scenario is only one data point but it is very different than the "demonstrated preference" model which Bryan is suggesting.  Bolivia and Nigeria are much poorer countries yet and they have dysfunctional educational sectors as well, especially in rural areas.  Bad roads are a major problem for "school choice" in these regions, just as they are a major problem for the importation of teachers. 

A simple model is that underinvestment in infrastructure results in a high shadow value for marginal increments of education.  Model = high fixed costs, liquidity constraints if you wish, high shadow values for lots of goods and services, toss in social externalities to raise the size of the distortion.  I read Bryan as focusing on "the fixity of the fixed costs" and claiming it is too costly to get the service through, relative to return. 

Of course Bryan favors rising wealth and falling fixed costs, as do I.  But in the meantime he also should admit that a) education "parachuted" in from outside can have a high marginal return, b) collectively stronger pro-education norms raise demand and can alleviate the high fixed costs problem, c) there are big external benefits, some operating through the education channel, to lowering the fixed costs, d) stronger pro-education norms put a region closer to a "big breakthrough" and weaker education norms do the opposite, and e) a-d still impliy "too little education" is the correct judgment.  On b), some evangelical groups in Latin America do seem to have stronger pro-education norms in their converts and it appears to be much better for the children of these families and no I'm not going to buy any response which ascribes the whole effect to selection.

I believe that Bryan's own work on voting suggests significant positive social external benefits from education, although he is not happy with how I characterize his view here.  I also believe his views on children suggest strong peer effects across children (parental effort doesn't matter so much in his model and the rest of the influence has to come from somewhere), though in conversation I am again not sure he accepts this characterization.

I consider most countries in today's world to be undereducated. 

Signaling models are important but they are not the only effect and of course a lot of signaling is welfare-improving for reasons of screening and sorting and character reenforcement.  The traditional story of high social returns to education is supported by evidence from a wide variety of different fields and methods, including cross-sectional growth models, labor economics, political science, public opinion research, anthropology, education research, and much more.  You can knock some of this down by stressing the endogeneity of education, but at the end of the day the pile of evidence, and the diversity of its directions, is simply too overwhelming.

Assorted links

Tyler Cowen

1. Goolsbee on investment tax credits.

2. "Free the food truck," by Ed Glaeser.

3. Good review of the new Tony Blair.

4. James C. Scott on Cato Unbound.

5. The old Libertarian Review, now on-line; oddly the issue with my somewhat intemperate review of George Gilder's Wealth and Poverty (about the first piece I ever wrote and I suspect it shows its age) seems to be missing.

*The Little Book of Economics*

Tyler Cowen

The subtitle is How the Economy Works in the Real World and the author is Greg Ip, one of the best and most renowned economics journalists.  This is a very good book for someone who wants to start reading The Economist, or other forms of economics news, but doesn't have enough background knowledge of the real world economy.

*Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life*

Tyler Cowen

That is the new book by Nicholas Phillipson from Yale University Press.  I urge all fans of Adam Smith to read this book.  It covers Smith's life and times more than his texts per se.  It is especially strong on Smith and Hume, Smith's work as a customs inspector, Smith's time in France, Smith and Quesnay, and Smith's dedication to his mother.  I like very much what it covers; my main complaint is that the book is not longer.

Here is a James Buchan review of the book.  Here is a John Gray review, more about Gray than the book.  Here is further coverage.  Here is a short piece by Phillipson.  Here is a short bio of Phillipson.

My Buffalo visit

Tyler Cowen

For architecture, it is one of America's best cities.  The Guaranty building, Ellicott Square building, and City Hall are peaks of the art, plus there is lots of Frank Lloyd Wright.  There are hundreds of excellent residential homes, off of Elmwood for instance, but all over town.  Elmwood itself is a fun, walkable area.  There are two good art museums, plus a strong alternative culture scene, low rents, and lots of art galleries.  It feels more like the Midwest than say New England and the people are friendly and relaxed.  Food is not exceptional although meals can be had.  If you're not into architecture I would describe a city visit as optional, but for me it was a must.

In case you have not been paying attention

Tyler Cowen

Here is a tidbit from today's news:

Among other policies, the Obama team has also placed a United States citizen on a targeted-killings list without a trial, blocked efforts by detainees in Afghanistan to bring habeas-corpus lawsuits challenging their indefinite imprisonment, and continued the C.I.A. rendition program – though the administration says it now takes greater safeguards to prevent detainees from being mistreated.

I wish to commend Kevin Drum in particular for continuing to draw our attention to these policies.

Assorted links

Tyler Cowen

1. Tylenol-loaded mice and their uses.

2. Michael Burry bets on farmland with "on-site water."

3. Iraqi prank TV shows.

4. Exports vs. net exports.

5. The Mitch Daniels plan.

6. Pants size inflation.

7. Philosophy TV.

The Obama tax plan, or Austro-Obama business cycle theory

Tyler Cowen

Here is one analysis:

Companies combining deductions proposed by Obama for equipment with deductions for borrowing costs would get benefits -- including refunds or credits against future taxes - - that exceed the additional income they get from new capital spending, according to a 2005 report by the Congressional Budget Office. For every $1 of additional income from new capital spending, companies may be able to get benefits worth almost $1.88, according to the budget office report.

“The combination of free deductibility of interest to make a marginal investment, combined with accelerated depreciation, would lead to negative tax rates on that new investment,” Kleinbard said.

Is that a good idea?  Here is one commentator:

“It’s an invitation to arbitrage,” said Kleinbard, who now teaches tax law at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “You’re putting businesses in the same economic position as if you were inviting them to borrow money to buy tax-exempt bonds.”

Should we let housing prices fall?

Tyler Cowen

Many smart people say we should.  It seems increasingly clear that we must.  For how long can the government prop them up?  Are we never to have a private market in mortgages again?

Yet what happens if we let them fall?  Arguably many banks would once again be "under water."  Enthusiasm for another set of bailouts is weak, to say the least.  Our government would end up nationalizing these banks and it still would be on the hook for their debts.  The blow to confidence would be a major one, especially if along the way we saw a recreation of a Lehman or Bear Stearns or A.I.G. episode.

I increasingly believe there is no easy way out of this dilemma and it is a major reason why the U.S. economy remains stuck.  Housing prices must fall, yet...housing prices must not fall.

Here is a very good Dave Leonhardt piece on two different views of housing.  It's where to go, if you are looking for the case for optimism.  I am more pessimistic than David because I see the private sector interest in mortgage securities as remaining quite weak, which suggests the market knows which way prices have to move.

Very good sentences

Tyler Cowen

“I’m all for reducing the number of public-sector employees,” an I.M.F. investigator had said to me. “But how do you do that if you don’t know how many there are to start with?”

That is from the new Michael Lewis article on Greece, entertaining throughout.

China (Australia) fact of the day

Tyler Cowen

In markets, speculators, unable to bet on a yuan pegged to the U.S. dollar, use the currencies of China's main trading partners instead.  That has helped make the Australian dollar the fifth-most-traded currency in the world -- after the U.S. dollar, the yen, the pound, and the euro -- even though Australia is the 18th largest economy.

The full story, on the China-Australia, relationship is here, in the new, revamped, and excellent Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Should you bet on your own ability to lose weight?

Tyler Cowen

Is that the stakes weren't high enough, or is the whole idea flawed?:

If obese individuals have time-inconsistent preferences then commitment mechanisms, such as personal gambles, should help them restrain their short-term impulses and lose weight. Correspondence with the bettors confirms that this is their primary motivation. However, it appears that the bettors in our sample are not particularly skilled at choosing effective commitment mechanisms. Despite payoffs of as high as $7350, approximately 80% of people who spend money to bet on their own behaviour end up losing their bets.

That's from Nicholas Burger and John Lynham.  Here is further information, from Economics Letters.  A gated copy is here.  A related paper, with similar results, is here.  The wise Alex, on same topic, is here.

Jeremy Stein on securitization

Tyler Cowen

There is an alternative, more behavioral hypothesis for the fragility of the securitization market that does not rely on a predominance of short-term debt financing. This alternative hypothesis begins with the observation that a large proportion of ABS tranches—both in the traditional and subprime sectors—were rated AAA. The AAA rating may have encouraged investors such as pension funds or insurance companies to think of these securities as essentially riskless, and therefore to treat them as being equivalent to Treasury bonds when constructing their portfolios. When the problems in the subprime area became apparent, this premise was utterly destroyed, and investors who were determined to allocate a fraction of their portfolios to safe assets realized that they had to dump their holdings of AAA-rated ABS, and buy actual Treasuries instead. Thus instead of a short-term-debt-driven bank run, we have what might be called a widespread buyer’s strike. In this account, the mechanism of contagion from the subprime market to the traditional consumer ABS market is that the failures of the rating agencies with respect to subprime called into question their credibility more generally, so that any AAA-rated tranche of an ABS, be it linked to subprime or credit cards, was no longer considered to be a virtually riskless asset.

The full essay is here, interesting throughout, via David Warsh's very good column.  Stein also makes the simple yet neglected point that higher capital requirements may simply shift more financial activity into the less regulated shadow banking sector.

The history of the UCLA economics department

Tyler Cowen

I loved this essay-style interview, Dan Klein speaking with William R. Allen, on the glory days of the UCLA economics department, under the leadership of Armen Alchian.

It is taken from the latest issue of Econ Journal Watch, (I haven't read the other pieces yet).  There is also a systematic look at economists' role in signing petitions.

Assorted links

Tyler Cowen

1. Quantum physics chess.

2. The culture that is China.

3. Hugo Award winners (can any of you vouch for any of these?).

4. Peter Orszag's first NYT column.

5. Optimal sleep prizes for children.

6. How does space flight change people?

7. More evidence on how good studying works, and might this also bear on the multi-tasking debates?

One reason why I'm still skeptical about high-speed rail

Tyler Cowen

There should be a betting market in how many of these projects actually end up being finished within, say, the next thirty years:  

But the biggest question mark hovering over the future of high-speed rail in the United States is funding. The $8 billion allocated in the stimulus package is not nearly enough, particularly because it is spread across a range of projects around the country. California’s new system alone could cost $40 billion. State governments will shoulder a substantial share of the costs, and they are grappling with budget deficits.

These days, many states are cutting or limiting spending on K-12 education.  You can argue "State and local taxes should be higher" (I don't agree), or "We should make drivers bear the full social costs of auto transport" (I do agree), but as they say "You've got to go to war with the army you've got."  So far the HSR expenditures are looking like a big white elephant.  It's very important to have a theory of public choice which consists of more than simply criticizing the politicians, parties, and voters you do not agree with.

The full story is here.

How did America pay for World War II?

Tyler Cowen

Peter Schiff offers some interesting observations, via Interfluidity. 

But to repeat the impact of World War II today would require a truly massive effort. Replicating the six-fold increase in the federal budget that was seen in the early 1940s would result in a nearly $20 trillion budget today. That equates to $67,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. Surely, the tremendous GDP growth created by such spending would make short work of the so-called Great Recession.

To a degree that will surprise many, the US funded its World War II effort largely by raising taxes and tapping into Americans' personal savings. Both of those avenues are nowhere near as promising today as they were in 1941 Current tax burdens are now much higher than they were before the War, so raising taxes today would be much more difficult. The "Victory Tax" of 1942 sharply raised income tax rates and allowed, for the first time in our nation's history, taxes to be withheld directly from paychecks. The hikes were originally intended to be temporary but have, of course, far outlasted their purpose. It would be unlikely that Americans would accept higher taxes today to fund a real war, let alone a pretend one.

That leaves savings, which was the War's primary source of funding. During the War, Americans purchased approximately $186 billion worth of war bonds, accounting for nearly three quarters of total federal spending from 1941-1945. Today, we don't have the savings to pay for our current spending, let alone any significant expansions. Even if we could convince the Chinese to loan us a large chunk of the $20 trillion (on top of the $1 trillion we already owe them), how could we ever pay them back?

A related question is whether the American public would consider the offsetting required restrictions on consumption, as documented by Robert Higgs.

File under "Reasons why WWII does not provide a good case for massive fiscal stimulus today."

Cineplex hopping, sentences to ponder

Tyler Cowen

The surrealists André Breton and Paul Éluard used to enter movie theaters at random and stay only a little while, until the plot became clear to them and the films’ images were drained of their power. In the Cineplex you can do the same thing all in one building. I did that one day this summer. What I saw was not excerpts from ten different movies, but one movie made up of ten interchangeable parts—the imperial power of Hollywood, still alive and well, surviving postmodern fragmentation and resisting détournement. 

Here is the adventure itself.  For the pointer I thank Paul Sas.

Business is about generating cooperation

Tyler Cowen

Here is an anonymous commentator over at Andrew Sullivan, via Conor Friedersdorf guest-blogging:

1. Business is much more about being organized and managing people than it is about ideas. Past a certain scale, ideas don't seem to matter much (unless you are a once-in-a-lifetime Steve Jobs type visionary). You and your competitors all have a basic concept of what to do. The areas that seem to offer the most scope for creativity are actually the areas where not enough data exists to formulate good ideas, and random guesses are worth as much as multi-million-dollar consultant reports. Much of the time spent discussing "ideas" in a business context is actually time spent slowly maneuvering large groups of managers into a compatible mind-space so that they can work together effectively - the results of the discussion in terms of ideas is worth nothing, whereas the result in terms of bonding, organizing, and motivating can be very valuable.

The post is interesting throughout.

The Canterbury earthquake

Tyler Cowen

The NZX 50 Index of stocks climbed in Wellington, led by building-related companies. Insurers fell. New Zealand’s dollar rose to 72.41 U.S. cents from 72.07 cents in New York on Sept. 3. The nation’s bonds declined, pushing 10-year yields to their highest in more than a month.

Here is more.  The costs of repair are estimated at about two percent of gdp.  Milk supply from New Zealand has not been disrupted.

Western Cape prison gangs during and after apartheid

Tyler Cowen

Have you ever seen a more appealing table of contents?:

Introduction

Chapter 1: Nongoloza and Kilikijan

Chapter 2: The functions of violence I—Making men (and not children)

Chapter 3: The functions of violence II—Making men (and not women)

Chapter 4: Prison on the streets, the streets in prison

Chapter 5: Warders and gangs

It starts off a little slow and cliched, but picks up.  Excerpt:

Once the drinking rituals have been completed and Kilikijan has discovered that his bandit brother drinks poison, Po instructs the two men to take the hide, drape it over the rock on which the band's diary is inscribed, and press it against the rock, until the diaries are imprinted on the animal's skin. The words of the diary, now duplicated—one on the rock, the other on the hide—are to become the law of the gang. Whenever there is a dispute about what bandits ought to do, Po says, consult the hide or the rock, because they are a record of how things were done at the beginning, and how things ought to be done in the future. Nongoloza rolls up the hide and takes it with him. Kilikijan is left with the rock.

That story is part of the opening myth of the piece.  Read the whole thing, especially if you're into "strange and compelling, while laden with Erving Goffmanesque social science."  It's ideal for Instapaper.  Suddenly there comes:

The notion that order in the prisons was maintained by a delicate system of unwritten rules is one that begs for a control experiment. What happens when one side breaks the rules, when either ndotas or warders threaten to kill one another? Interestingly enough, there was a kind of control experiment in the 1980s: the medium-security, criminal prison on Robben Island.

The original pointer comes from Bamber.

Assorted links

Tyler Cowen

1. Time waster, but it made me giggle.

2. Do ethicists treat their parents better?

3. Cleaning tips from an expert.

4. The culture that is Russian fiscal policy.

5. Chimps outwit human hunters.

Markets in Everything, Except Greenhouse Gases

Alex Tabarrok

In 2002 Time named Richard Sandor a "Hero of the Planet" for founding the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). The CCX traded permits based on voluntary but binding commitments from firms to cutback on carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases.  Without enforced limits, however, or, if you prefer, without property rights in emissions, the market is not self-sustaining and CCX is cutting workers and may be wound down.

CCX founder Richard Sandor had hoped the exchange would become the hub for a national regulated market for greenhouse gas emissions to be kick-started by a U.S. climate change bill.

But prices for the carbon credits traded on the bourse since its 2003 launch, which were based on voluntary but legally binding emissions reduction commitments by its members, have crashed to around 10 cents a tonne from all-time highs of over $7 in 2008, and trading volumes have largely dried up.

Although the U.S. has vowed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and despite the House of Representatives narrowly passing an ambitious climate bill in June 2008, several similar bills have stalled in the Senate in the past year.

"(The layoffs) seem to indicate that this market player thinks any U.S. climate action is still a way off," said commodities house FCStone...

Would you like more "plain talk" from airline employees?

Tyler Cowen

Robert, a loyal MR reader, writes to me:

Are there any airlines where the flight staff speak/behave more "naturally," as opposed to the robotic beauty queen default? I don't mean this in a snarky way. I'm just curious, since customers don't seem to be overly fond of the default mode, and some folks actively dislike it. I also imagine the enforced pleasantness to be a relatively tough/emotionally costly act for most flight attendants to keep up. However, I am not sure how customers would react to more natural flight-attendant speech, body language etc., given expectations of default behaviour.

My longstanding view is that half of them dislike or sometimes even despise their customers and that their natural speech patterns, given their true feelings, would come across negatively.  Perhaps Air Genius Gary Leff can comment on the cross-sectional variations vis-a-vis different airlines.  But the problem is a tough one.  They face lots of customers, with varying and often unreasonable expectations, and they have few resources to buy them off with.

In which sectors do the service staff have the highest opinions of their customers?  (Do you have nominations?  How about the old days at Tower Records?  How about an indie bookstore?)  I would expect a greater extent of plain speak in those situations.

What should we infer about doctors?  Ladies of the evening?  Economics professors?

Addendum: Gary responds.

Fiscal stimulus coming to Haiti

Tyler Cowen

Experts said the presidential and legislative elections could very well be the economic stimulus quake-ravaged Haitians have been awaiting since the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake left an estimated 300,000 dead, and wiped-out jobs. The campaigns are expected to hire tens of thousands of Haitians.

``It's like a cash transfer to the population, a sort of cash-for-work program,'' said Leslie Voltaire, a former government minister who plans to hire 10,000 Election Day monitors and a helicopter to get around Haiti's mountainous terrain.

The full story is here.  And was the last election a model of Downsian competition?  Maybe not:

In the 2006 presidential race, which saw Haitian President René Préval beat out 34 other candidates, experts speculated that a candidate needed between $3 million and $6 million to mount a strong challenge.

It is now also believed that the country can no longer afford to have senatorial elections every two years.

Adam Phillips on happiness

Tyler Cowen

For better and for worse, being able to feel our frustration is the precondition for becoming absorbed. When this is impossible the pursuit of happiness tends to take over. The right to pursue happiness may be, at its worst, the right not to feel frustrated. And if frustration is not allowed to take its course, to take its time, there is no absorption, only refuges from unhappiness. The child is fobbed off with happiness when what she really wants is to get her appetite back. The right to the pursuit of happiness can be a cover story for the wish to hide.

Here is much more, hat tip goes to The Browser,

Markets in everything

Tyler Cowen

Deep-fried beer.

From a Texas state fair, it seems:

Fried Beer is a beer-filled pretzel-like dough pocket that's shaped like ravioli. Take a bite and the beer pours out.

There is also a deep-fried frozen margarita.

Assorted links

Tyler Cowen

1. Good short essay on how much China can change, or not.

2. The highest paid athlete of all time?

3. Via Michelle Dawson, "who will speak next?"

4. Chinese buy washers but not dryers.

5. The boom in the Colombian stock market.

Lester D.: "Science you never knew you needed"

Tyler Cowen

He is possibly Vaughn Bell's favorite psychologist.  Bell links to this blog post:

For example, Lester D. has discovered that:

Mormons view the afterlife as less pleasant than Jews.

On average, there is no difference in the height from which men and women jump to their deaths.

Wives of coast guards and no more likely than wives of firemen to be depressed following a family move, but are more likely to be taking antidepressants.

There is no relation between religiosity and death anxiety in Kuwait.

Both anxiety about computers and internet skills affect how likely you are to buy a textbook online.

Among organ donors, homicide victims were more likely to have blood types O and B. Suicides showed no differences.

Macintosh users have significantly greater anxiety about computers than PC users.

Here is the explanation:

When searching for psychology research, I inevitably come across a study by ‘Lester D’, who is apparently a psychologist in an obscure college in New Jersey who seems to be interested in everything.

Mostly, the things you’ve never thought of, and probably never even thought of thinking of, and perhaps don’t even have the capacity to conceptualise.

To be fair, he has a clear interest in suicide research and does a great deal of important work in this, and other areas, but what consistently amazes me are the diverse topics he investigates.

The ugly carpets of Vegas

Tyler Cowen

I have a friend who teaches at Cornell's famous School of Hotel Administration; she has a lot of casino designer contacts. According to her, the carpets are deliberately designed to obscure and camouflage gambling chips that have fallen onto the floor. The casinos sweep up a huge number of these every night. So the carpets are just another source of revenue.

There is more at the link, including some striking photos.  For the pointer I thank Arun Eamani.