Yes, I take about ten different placebos each morning... a multiple vitamin, vitamin C, Vitamin D, ... etc.Now I can take a real placebo each morning [h/t to Brian Ferguson]:
Over-the-Counter [...]
On September 30 2000, two days after Ariel Sharon, then the leader of Israel’s opposition Likud Party, went for a walk on Temple [...]
I will be visiting Houston for the next little while, acting as a nanny /housekeeper for our granddaughter while my son and his wife go back to work/school. We're delighted to be able to help out.
This is our 5th granddaughter and our [...]
Regular EclectEcon reader, Kevin, sent me this link about the changing wage structure in Cuba.
Cuba is to abolish its system of equal pay for all and allow workers and managers to earn performance bonuses, a senior official has announced. [emphasis in the original as a sub-headline]
Vice-Minister [...]
The history of [...]
This analogy has been made explictly by my colleague, Salim Mansur in his most recent weekly column for the Sun papers:
The good news from Iraq, as the Economist reports, is the guns have begun to fall silent. American and Iraqi casualties are down sharply,the sectarian-ethnic conflict is mostly [...]
A single statistic tells the tale. As against the 10 percent or fewer of American whites who hold negative views of blacks, the same mid-1990’s [...]
Ironman, at Political Calculations, presents a graph showing,
In simpler words, we confirm that individual Americans are not
consuming an ever-increasing amount of oil. We can therefore eliminate
increased U.S. consumption of petroleum-based products as a significant
contributor to the recent spike in the world price of oil.... As we [...]
In March of this year, Ed Leamer predicted that the US would narrowly avoid a recession [link via Newmark's Door, still my first read each day]. This forecast clearly reflects updated information, given his discussion over two years earlier, in which he expressed dismay about the US [...]
The execution of two Afghanis by Islamists in Pakistan stands out in sharp contrast to western treatment of prisoners of war. As Powerline says,
In Pakistan today, just across the border from Afghanistan, Taliban goons got their hands on two Afghans who they claimed had collaborated in a Predator strike on [...]
Everyone's for a free Tibet but nobody's for freeing Tibet.
...
If Rumsfeld were to say, 'Free Tibet? Jiminy, what a swell idea! The Third Infantry Division goes in on Thursday,' the bumper sticker crowd [...]
The most ironic thing about the bill is its provisions for both massive [...]
Council bans 'brainstorming'
A council has banned the term "brainstorming" - and replaced it with "thought showers".
Officials Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in Kent feared the phrase might offend epileptics or the mentally ill. ...
But Margaret [...]
More likely than not, the U.S. will experience a recession. The housing recession and credit crisis are ongoing [...]
"What can we do," the Syrian Finance minister asked, "to increase Chinese investment?" "Well," the Chinese minister replied, "before we invest in Syria you most open your markets, cut your subsidies, and reduce regulation..."This quotation is from Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution, still one of my first [...]
As the [US] presidential campaign drones [...]
It looked like a routine decision that Steven Levitt had to make. The co-editor of the "Journal of Political Economy" (JPE), who is most [...]
Dani Yatom, a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, was invited to attend a NATO conference in Brussels last year. While reviewing the agenda, Yatom, a retired major general, was surprised to see that the meeting was titled “The Iranian Challenge” and not “The Iranian Threat.”
When a [...]
The human-rights tribunals are a censor’s dream. Under Canada’s human-rights act, commissioners can convict if they believe any published material is “likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt.” Since they are “remedial” institutions and not real [...]
Reports from Canada say Hezbollah operatives have been detected conducting surveillance on Jewish targets in Toronto, including schools and synagogues. U.S. sources have confirmed increased Hezbollah activity as well. Intriguingly, the reports specifically said the men conducting the surveillance were Hezbollah members, not just men of Middle [...]
Apart from the obvious problems of traffic and transportation, the growth created other confusing complications. Today, out of the city's eighty-five thousand streets, there are about eight hundred fifty called Juárez, seven hundred fifty named Hidalgo, and seven hundred known as Morelos. [...]
Sorry, folks, but the SUV is dead ...Sorry, Pop-Mech, but it isn't.
Unions are about, at least in part, protectionism (protecting the jobs of people who would lose them in a completely open market). [...]
It seems the down economy is hurting every business, even the oldest profession. The Moonlight BunnyRanch in Carson City, a legal brothel featured on HBO's "Cathouse," is offering the first 100 customers who show up with their stimulus rebate checks twice the "services" for [...]
The African-American Illinois senator amplified one of his campaign themes in condemning absent fathers who have "abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men."
"You and I know how true this is in the African-American community," Obama said, [...]
London, May 26 (ANI): Naming his sniffer dog "Allah" has resulted in in prison officer Chris Langridge, 28, being shifted out of Britain's top Belmarsh high-security jail.
Though Langridge insisted that his labrador was called Ali, and not [...]
In case [...]
Most of the media in Canada and the United States ignored the British Columbia “Human Rights” Tribunal that took place last week in a windowless basement in Vancouver. Now, a group of provincial human-rights commissars will decide whether or not National [...]
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Wednesday that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's expressed support for Israel stems from his fear that the Mossad would assassinate him, just as it did President John F. Kennedy.
"We suspect he may fear being killed [...]
LOS ANGELES - A federal judge overseeing an obscenity trial exploring the extreme fringe of pornography posted explicit photos and videos on his personal Web site, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
Alex [...]
In posting once again on [...]
Carrie Dashow dropped a large dollop of lemon sorbet into a glass of Guinness, stirred, drank and proclaimed that it tasted like a “chocolate shake.”
[...]
A secret NHL report detailing the ticket revenues of its 30 teams reveals [that]... The six Canadian teams account for 31 per cent of the $1.1 billion (U.S.) in league ticket revenue, and have gone through league-leading double-digit increases over last season, [...]
10:16 AM
They?re going to call, among others, Dr. Andrew Rippon, [...]
What principle of economics suggests that markets are working well when the price of one asset (say, housing) rises, but not when the price of [...]
# Plojhar (via Bloomberg): More rate increases will be needed, up to 11% this year, in face of overheating, high inflation, and a potential renewed currency weakness
# March inflation [...]
The University and College Union (UCU) ... passed a motion that would allow for the reintroduction of a boycott of Israeli academia.
At its annual congress in Manchester, the motion was passed without debate and by a show of hands.
The motion follows last year's [...]
Here's how it works. All new hires [...]
"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and [...]
During the World War II German occupation of Poland, Sendler lived in [...]
Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to [...]
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