Economics and similar, for the sleep-deprived

• Quotations relevant to investment and other matters

  Quotations relevant to investment and other matters
  
  I think this insight was originally from Henry Kissinger, but I can't source it. The quote I can't find was on the effect on a politician of being elevated to power and attending confidential briefings for the first time. The experience of [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 5:34am EST
  

• Things which are deadPunk. Jazz. ...

  Things which are dead
  
  Punk. Jazz. Scots Gaelic. Variety. The Independent.
  
  More to come, as various attacks of spleen affect me through the day.
  
  Update: Not really related to the theme, but a commercial idea that struck me over the weekend - would anyone (poss. David Bowie? [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 3:55am EST
  

• A few facts which might be of ...

  A few facts which might be of interest to Craig Murray and to Clarke Willmott LLP
  
  Regular readers might note that I have taken down a couple of posts recently which contained material that might be thought relevant to this affair. Rest assured, they have only been temporarily [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 9:10am EST
  

• On Meausrement, Management etcPhillip Hallam ...

  On Meausrement, Management etc
  
  Phillip Hallam Baker, from CT comments on an article on academic job application processes:
  
  The point I am making here is that the academic selection process does not get you the best candidates. In fact the best candidates will have nothing to do with [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 6:39am EST
  

• Accountancy newsHenry Jackson Society and ...

  Accountancy news
  
  Henry Jackson Society and Policy Exchange both made their respective filings with plenty of time to spare, well done to both organisations (particularly H'S'JS which continues to report a surplus on doubled turnover). The Quilliam Foundation remains overdue on its 2007/8 accounts, which were due on 20 [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 3:37pm EST
  

• Being Freakonomical With The ...

  Being Freakonomical With The Truth
  
  It's a real curse being better at coming up with titles than posts, I tell you.' [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 11:01am EDT
  

• Straw pollAm ...

  Straw poll
  
  Am I just having a bilious day, or is this an unusually toolish Friedman column? [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 4:16am EDT
  

• Getting your Companies House return and accounts ...

  Getting your Companies House return and accounts filed on time - it's not just a good idea, it's the law
  
  This week's offender: The Quilliam Foundation, company limited by guarantee, number 06432342, accounts due 20 Sept - no accounts have yet been filed ever by the QF which [...]
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  Posted: October 20, 2009, 8:03am EDT
  

• Superfreakonomics review!This is going to ...

  Superfreakonomics review!
  
  This is going to be a lot shorter than the Freakonomics one, and it is basically going to consist of this link, via the Paul Krugman blog, and the observation that if you find yourself writing, in all seriousness, as a practical proposal, the phrase "pumping" [...]
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  Posted: October 16, 2009, 5:47pm EDT
  

• In Which, I disagree with Professor Krugman, ...

  In Which, I disagree with Professor Krugman, but not about anything important
  
  Warning: contains extensive digressive footnote
  
  Via, I would submit that this is not really an awesome takedown - it's a pretty good polemic and thoroughly researched, but it's actually promoting what I consider [...]
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  Posted: October 16, 2009, 3:10am EDT
  

• The Wages of TerrorismThere are ...

  The Wages of Terrorism
  
  There are a bunch of advertising posters up on the Tube for The Times's Kabul coverage, which claim that "The Taliban pays $15 a day. The average wage in Afghanistan is $2 a day", and thus through some chain of causal reasoning, that we should' [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 3:41am EDT
  

• It's like raaaaaaiiiiieeeeeeeain on your wedding day

  It's like raaaaaaiiiiieeeeeeeain on your wedding day
  
  Ross Douthat of the New York Times writes on the subject of Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. I cannot help noticing that when the New York Times came and offered him a column, he did not turn it down saying "no, I" [...]
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  Posted: October 12, 2009, 4:53am EDT
  

• Hell freezes overyes folks, it's ...

  Hell freezes over
  
  yes folks, it's the last part of the Freakonomics review. I think I'll gather them all together and do a summing up post on Crooked Timber (this last bit added just simply as a sort of methadone for me to ease the cold-turkey process from sweet, [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 1:08pm EDT
  

• Deep ThoughtsIt ...

  Deep Thoughts
  
  It is not really as if the Dalai Lama or Aung San Suu Kyi have actually achieved all that much either. [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 11:36am EDT
  

• Scenes from the decline and fall of ...

  Scenes from the decline and fall of Freemasonry
  
  A plan of Sandusky, Ohio, town-planned by the Master of the local lodge in 1818, and with the masonic square-and-compasses clearly set out in its street plan[1]
  
  Sandusky, today. Still visible if you squint, but the compasses [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 4:31am EDT
  

• Environmental newsApparently parakeet season ...

  Environmental news
  
  Apparently parakeet season starts today. These parakeets (descended from a pair that escaped from London Zoo apparently) are meant to be a serious plague over London's parks, but I don't think I've ever seen any. The closest I've ever come is when I used to go [...]
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  Posted: October 03, 2009, 1:41pm EDT
  

• Statistical significance vs practical significanceWhat ...

  Statistical significance vs practical significance
  
  What a depressingly sordid week, every other news story seems to be about child abuse. The Vatican PR guy decides that attack is the best form of defence, having a go at other major world religions and passing on the comforting news that [...]
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  Posted: September 29, 2009, 9:11am EDT
  

• JuxtapositionTop two headlines on Reuters ...

  Juxtaposition
  
  Top two headlines on Reuters right now:
  
  1. Anger in France and Poland after Polanski arrest
  
  2. Poland okays forcible castration for pedophiles
  
  Talk about mixed messages. ("mieszane wiadomości")
  
  Update: The Polish bill apparently also "criminalises any attempt to justify paedophilia". [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 1:21pm EDT
  

• Stands still the clock at ten to ...

  Stands still the clock at ten to three? And is the Economist Big Mac index still fundamentally misconceived?
  
  I think this year must mark the fifteenth anniversary of my first letter to the Economist pointing out that the Big Mac is, in fact, not a homogeneous commodity worldwide [...]
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  Posted: September 25, 2009, 1:10pm EDT
  

• A short note on KeynesLots ...

  A short note on Keynes
  
  Lots of people appear to be forgetting this one or getting it wrong; the important difference between "rational expectations" and Keynesian macroeconomics really doesn't have all that much to do with behavioural psychology, stock market bubbles or any such. Keynes did write chapter 12' [...]
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  Posted: September 25, 2009, 4:47am EDT
  

• More snubs, pleasequite. I ...

  More snubs, please
  
  quite. I am wholeheartedly glad that Obama snubbed Brown, and hope he keeps snubbing him for the forseeable future. It was Will Rogers who noted that the United States of America never lost a war or won a conference; they could whip the whole world [...]
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  Posted: September 24, 2009, 8:15pm EDT
  

• Denis Gets It Done

  Denis Gets It Done
  
  I note from the Companies House website that the annual return for EISCA Ltd has now been filed, three months late. Congratufuckinglations. [...]
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  Posted: September 01, 2009, 5:42am EDT
  

• Business modelsI thought I had ...

  Business models
  
  I thought I had already made this point, but the search function suggests I hadn't. The Prince James Murdoch[1] critique of the BBC appears to be that it is "too big" and "over-reaching". The idea being that while the BBC website exists and provides excellent content' [...]
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  Posted: September 01, 2009, 3:28am EDT
  

• Poetry CornerCoincidence? I suspect otherwise:

  Poetry Corner
  
  Coincidence? I suspect otherwise:
  
  We are the hollow men
  We are the stuffed men
  Leaning together
  Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
  Our dried voices, when
  We whisper together
  Are quiet and meaningless
  As wind in dry grass
  [...]
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  Posted: August 31, 2009, 1:58pm EDT
  

• The Ballad of Frederick ChilubaThis ...

  The Ballad of Frederick Chiluba
  
  This week in Zambian politics:
  
  Monday, 9am: Former Prime Minister Chiluba facing prison, for embezzlement. Hurray for the new Africa, etc, fighting back against all that corruption that concern trolls like William Easterly tell us is their real problem, not starvation or [...]
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  Posted: August 21, 2009, 10:10am EDT
  

• But hey, what if we held a ...

  But hey, what if we held a panel discussion on the future of paid content on the Web and everybody came?!?!
  
  I see Matthew is considering "going paywall". Rest assured, readers, that D-Squared Digest still Gets It, is still Web 2.0 (perhaps even 2.1alpha), and will continue to [...]
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  Posted: August 08, 2009, 8:55am EDT
  

• Secret Society Blogging - E Clampus Vitus

  Secret Society Blogging - E Clampus Vitus
  
  One of the more colourful of the drinking societies which were a key part of the secret society craze. Note the parodies of Freemasonry, initial base in the mining industry, etc.
  
  What's interesting about the Argus writeup of the Clampers' [...]
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  Posted: August 07, 2009, 5:42am EDT
  

• Is this nutpicking? I think no

  Is this nutpicking? I think no
  
  From time to time, I like to print a selection of the latest from Melanie Phillips. She is still a columnist for the UK's most popular newspaper, a regular panelist on "The Moral Maze" and referred to as "my friend" by people like' [...]
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  Posted: July 28, 2009, 11:03am EDT
  

• Tharrr she blows! Think! Think Ahoy!

  Tharrr she blows! Think! Think Ahoy!
  
  OH MY GOD!!! It's here! "Understanding and Addressing the Nazi Card", a report prepared by the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism! Only ten months late, and at a cost of slightly more than £500 per page! And on a' [...]
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  Posted: July 24, 2009, 12:05pm EDT
  

• A minor example of what I'm talking ...

  A minor example of what I'm talking about
  
  MacShane gets his name in the papers again, on the basis of being Chairman of EISCA. Perhaps he would care to take some time out from his busy day to file the fucking Companies House Annual Return for the company' [...]
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  Posted: July 10, 2009, 6:17am EDT
  

• The Seals Of DimbleboreHere's an ...

  The Seals Of Dimblebore
  
  Here's an evening's slightly masochistic amusement for people who are no longer of an age and constitution to play the Withnail and I drinking game. Sit down and watch "Question Time" on the BBC, and try to applaud every time the audience does, for an [...]
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  Posted: July 03, 2009, 4:48pm EDT
  

• Real exchange ratesThis story ...

  Real exchange rates
  
  This story (via) reminds me of one of the first ever posts on D-Squared Digest, on the subject of the astonishing cheapness of British public officials and MPs, relative to the price of buying one in the USA.
  
  As you can see, [...]
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  Posted: July 02, 2009, 10:23am EDT
  

• Swells, shrivelsI was just looking ...

  Swells, shrivels
  
  I was just looking around to see what Steven Wells thought about the USA vs Spain game, and found he's gone and died on us. What a fucking shame. He was probably the first journalist who I actually recognised as being a distinct entity, having previously [...]
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  Posted: June 25, 2009, 9:42am EDT
  

• Oh nukemen, will you never change?

  Oh nukemen, will you never change?
  
  Felix hops down to a sandwich show, at which apparently great big swigs of industry Kool-Aid were served to wash down the Pret a Manger. Apparently, the presiding GE nukeman:
  
  was there, talking about nuclear power, and specifically what he calls [...]
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  Posted: June 24, 2009, 12:00pm EDT
  

• If this is analysis of Anti-Semitic tropes ...

  If this is analysis of Anti-Semitic tropes in contemporary media, I want my £20,000 back
  
  Back in March, Denis MacShane (who is a privy councillor[1]) took office as Chairman of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism. In the press release announcing his appointment, the EISCA [...]
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  Posted: June 23, 2009, 6:18am EDT
  

• Covering the issues that matter!In ...

  Covering the issues that matter!
  
  In the early days of blogging, a particular comments moderation policy was independently invented by a number of us, specifically that "if something would earn you a punch in the face if you said it to someone in a pub, you're not allowed to'" [...]
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  Posted: June 23, 2009, 3:44am EDT
  

• Big picture awardThis week's "seeing ...

  Big picture award
  
  This week's "seeing the big picture" award goes to these guys.
  
  Basically what happened here is that in one of their whacky referenda a few years ago, the state of California hypothecated some money from a gasoline tax into a trust fund which [...]
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  Posted: June 19, 2009, 11:49am EDT
  

• The future of content on the internet ...

  The future of content on the internet lies elswhere, I hope
  
  Well, quite. As a matter of economics, it is indeed true that if the excellent-quality news website which is currently provided to me for free by the BBC were to disappear, then it would be easier for [...]
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  Posted: June 18, 2009, 7:47am EDT
  

• Political campaign endorsementIt is a ...

  Political campaign endorsement
  
  It is a minor source of etymological amusement that despite the name, the "Speaker" of the House of Commons is actually meant by constitutional convention to shut up. By which I mean that the Speaker ought not to give public voice to his personal political opinions, [...]
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  Posted: June 12, 2009, 11:26am EDT
  

• Cheese and the OnionAre the ...

  Cheese and the Onion
  
  Are the only two things I know about the state of Wisconsin. But now, a third factoid - according to the CDC, it is the USA's capital of swine flu, with 2217 confirmed and suspected cases, thrashing Texas's meagre 1670 and California's 973. Not' [...]
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  Posted: June 09, 2009, 5:10pm EDT
  

• Idea for a sitcomDoes anybody ...

  Idea for a sitcom
  
  Does anybody else think that "The Accidental Guerilla" would be an excellent title for a sitcom?
  Instead, their aims are local and rational. They want above all to survive, to pursue their interests, and to be left alone to maintain their primary identities. [...] [...]
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  Posted: June 07, 2009, 8:45am EDT
  

• Vale of BlearsAnd indeed,

  Vale of Blears
  
  And indeed, Vale, Blears. Back to "the people of Salford", the people dearest to her heart.
  
  My view on Blears as the Last of the Corporation Socialists have been rehearsed a couple of times round these parts, but I still think I [...]
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  Posted: June 03, 2009, 9:22am EDT
  

• The past is a different country ...

  The past is a different country ...
  
  Am I really the first UK commentator on the expenses scandal to think of excerpting a few of the more bracing bits of "Plunkitt of Tammany Hall"?
  
  Now, a few words on the general subject of the so called shame [...]
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  Posted: June 02, 2009, 6:06am EDT
  

• Secret Society Blogging: The United American Mechanics

  Secret Society Blogging: The United American Mechanics
  
  "This group was formed by a small coteries of men who were opposed to immigrants coming to the United States. The men met in a grocery store in Philadelphia on July 8, 1845, to form the organization called Union of Workers. The" [...]
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  Posted: June 01, 2009, 6:39pm EDT
  

• This sort of behaviour certainly deserves to ...

  This sort of behaviour certainly deserves to be publicised
  
  Via PDF, the authentic voice of the English Democrats, ladies and gentleman. Have a look; this is apparently the sort of person who votes English Democrat. D^2D would never presume to tell anyone how to cast their vote[1], but [...]
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  Posted: June 01, 2009, 2:35pm EDT
  

• What if God was one ...

  What if God was one of us?
  
  Frankly, the only surprise is that this hasn't happened a couple of times before. I call dibs on the sitcom rights.' [...]
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  Posted: June 01, 2009, 12:08pm EDT
  

• Just in passingI think I ...

  Just in passing
  
  I think I speak for every bonus-earning banker in the country when I say a heartfelt "thank you" to Members of Parliament for pushing us far down into the relegation zone of the national shit-list. Through a combination of
  
  a) fiddling the system for [...]
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  Posted: May 26, 2009, 4:16am EDT
  

• "Built to last" vs "Built for a ...

  "Built to last" vs "Built for a purpose"
  
  This week I have been mostly reviewing David Aaronovitch's "Voodoo Histories" over at Aaronovitch Watch. In doing so, something struck me about a particular form of argument, advanced several times by Aaronovitch in his book on conspiracy theories, but also' [...]
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  Posted: May 15, 2009, 9:46am EDT
  

• Idea for a DVD concept - "Star ...

  Idea for a DVD concept - "Star Trek - Virtual Girlfriend Edition"
  
  OK, some of the previous sitcom ideas have been a bit ropey, but this one is pure gold for the nerd market.
  
  Basically, it's an edition of the Star Trek DVD box set where as' [...]
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  Posted: May 15, 2009, 5:48am EDT
  

• The thing about silent masses is, they're ...

  The thing about silent masses is, they're awfully silent
  
  Looking a bit brighter for that BNP election prediction that had me worried a few months ago. The polls are coming in, and BNP support is basically slap bang where it was in 2004 - about 4%' [...]
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  Posted: May 13, 2009, 8:23am EDT
  

• Moments in languageMelanie Phillips'

  Moments in language
  
  Melanie Phillips' latest post on the Spectator weblog is entitled "Another rancid dropping from the British camel corps". The phrase "camel corps" is meant to refer to pro-Arab British journalists. Is this acceptable? What would a parallel description of pro-Israel British journalists be, and can' [...]
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  Posted: May 12, 2009, 2:44am EDT
  

• Schmonspiracy theoryMonday quiz:Q: ...

  Schmonspiracy theory
  
  Monday quiz:
  
  Q: If I know a few blokes who have their eye on a bank, and I know another bloke who's got some gelignite, and I put them in touch with each other, then when they go out together and rob a bank, am I' [...]
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  Posted: May 11, 2009, 9:35am EDT
  

• Friday quiz!Clive ...

  Friday quiz!
  
  Clive Crook has been to a symposium on a forthcoming book by Matt Ridley, applying his profound knowledge of evolutionary biology to modern economics, and particularly to the connections between excess testostorone and financial risk-taking.
  
  Q: why is this hilarious? [...]
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  Posted: May 08, 2009, 10:05am EDT
  

• Never underestimate the importance of careerism

  Never underestimate the importance of careerism
  
  Matthew Yglesias repeatedly and correctly banging his head against the general tendency of the USA to get played in its dealings with Pakistan, among other savvy client states:
  
  "After all, United States pressure played an important role in easing the military" [...]
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  Posted: May 06, 2009, 4:41pm EDT
  

• Big news for fans of Denis MacShane!!!

  Big news for fans of Denis MacShane!!!
  
  I can't believe I missed this one. Denis MacShane is going to be the new Chairman of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism!!!!! Wow, it's extraordinary. To think that only a few months ago people had written MacShane [...]
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  Posted: May 06, 2009, 3:27am EDT
  

• It's no longer Moroning In America

  It's no longer Moroning In America
  
  Good God, Michael Savage is on the Home Secretary's list of arseholes not welcome on these shores. American readers, come one, come all to this blessed isle, where Rush Limbaugh is hardly known and Michael Savage is not allowed at all.
  [...]
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  Posted: May 06, 2009, 3:04am EDT
  

• Secret Society of the Week - the ...

  Secret Society of the Week - the Prince Hall Masons
  
  This is going to be a bit of an ongoing theme in Encyclopedia-of-Fraternal-Organisations-blogging, as the heyday of the fraternal lodge and secret society craze in the USA overlapped with the heyday of segregation. This week, a society that is [...]
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  Posted: May 05, 2009, 7:59pm EDT
  

• Idea for a TV show: "Britain's Least ...

  Idea for a TV show: "Britain's Least Haunted"
  
  Basically, Professor Richard Dawkins (check contract availability; otherwise Simon Hoggard) shows up at a house or castle which has a lot of colourful local legends, and then stays there overnight, and literally nothing happens except that Dawkins stares coldly into the' [...]
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  Posted: April 29, 2009, 8:18am EDT
  

• Secret Society of the Week: The Order ...

  Secret Society of the Week: The Order of Camels
  
  I've been neglecting the old blog - a few proper articles to come shortly, but for the time being, playing myself back in with a short post on one of my favourite American fraternal organisations:
  
  Founded in 1920 in' [...]
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  Posted: April 28, 2009, 6:19pm EDT
  

• In memoriam: JG ...

  In memoriam: JG Ballard [...]
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  Posted: April 23, 2009, 8:04pm EDT
  

• Only six months till International ...

  Only six months till International Talk Like A Pirate Day
  
  ... which is September 19. Here's a useful resource if you're planning on celebrating this year. [...]
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  Posted: April 14, 2009, 8:49am EDT
  

• More parables of the crisis... ...

  More parables of the crisis
  
  ... this one relevant to the "Geithner Plan", and the business of providing subsidies via FDIC guarantees ...
  
  Reader, imagine that you are a very bad person. Imagine, in fact, that you are Al Capone, and you have been paying off the local [...]
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  Posted: April 03, 2009, 8:55pm EDT
  

• Secret society of the week: The Order ...

  Secret society of the week: The Order of Desoms
  
  More from the Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Institutions:
  
  This order of deaf men is relatively new compared to most fraternal societies. It was formed in the state of Washington in 1946. The name Desoms is an acronym for deaf [...]
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  Posted: March 15, 2009, 7:04am EDT
  

• Parables of the crisis, once more

  Parables of the crisis, once more
  
  Back in the days when the B+I Line sailed from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire, the ferry crew occasionally used to go on strike. This was inconvenient from a financial point of view, and became steadily more difficult to organise during the 1980s, as [...]
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  Posted: March 09, 2009, 1:01pm EDT
  

• Secret Society of the week: The Western ...

  Secret Society of the week: The Western Bees
  
  I've got hold of a copy of "Fraternal Organisations: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Institutions", and so will be restarting this series, one entry a week... this week ... well, many secret societies have strange and amusing creation myths surrounding the' [...]
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  Posted: March 08, 2009, 3:17pm EDT
  

• Episodes from my brief but ...

  Episodes from my brief but illustrious civil service career
  
  Paul Krugman has it absolutely right in calling Ted Truman the George Smiley of international economics. I once helped to show him how to get from the Bank of England to Bank tube station. [...]
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  Posted: March 06, 2009, 7:06pm EST
  

• Iran's nuclear reactorApparently ...

  Iran's nuclear reactor
  
  Apparently they're starting the final round of tests. So far, it is 34 years behind schedule and approximately 12 times over budget. I think they may have taken some tips from the British nuclear power industry. [...]
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  Posted: February 28, 2009, 3:27pm EST
  

• Capital Decimation Partners: slight returnOK, ...

  Capital Decimation Partners: slight return
  
  OK, wife and kids are off at the seaside, a couple of gin and tonics in the back of the neck … let's talk three thousand words of medium to high-end financial economics. General interest readers are excused this one, although I don't intend [...]
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  Posted: February 18, 2009, 6:56pm EST
  

• Confidential to MYDo you ...

  Confidential to MY
  
  Do you really want to go there? It wasn't so long ago, you know.
  
  One doesn't want to be too mean about Grameen, because their heart is in the right place, (albeit their bank is in a very different place on the [...]
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  Posted: February 18, 2009, 12:43pm EST
  

• Israeli election punditryWell, it's not ...

  Israeli election punditry
  
  Well, it's not clear what it all means, or who's going to form a coalition with whom. Is Netanyahu right to say that it's a "victory of the right-wing bloc" or is Livni right that the winner was the party who got the most seats?' [...]
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  Posted: February 11, 2009, 6:34pm EST
  

• Idea for a panel show; ...

  Idea for a panel show; Mrs Merton meets Question Time
  
  Episode 1: So, Clive Crook of the Economist and Financial Times, what do you think about the practice of organising a claque and stroking its prejudices? [...]
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  Posted: February 10, 2009, 4:15pm EST
  

• I still think that this could be ...

  I still think that this could be the defining case of Alan Dershowitz's career
  
  ... an Islamist rebel group that has fired rockets into the capital city. No country on earth could tolerate this. They hide in an urban area, shielding themselves behind civilians. This is a war crime,' [...]
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  Posted: February 09, 2009, 11:09am EST
  

• Citation!!!!!This is, as far as ...

  Citation!!!!!
  
  This is, as far as I'm aware, the second time in twelve years that my article "Remuneration and Risk" has been cited. I wasn't actually a "senior economist" in 1997 - I was a Trainee Bank Officer (Graduate), which was at the time the second lowest [...]
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  Posted: February 09, 2009, 9:20am EST
  

• Moral Hazard: A parableI'm still ...

  Moral Hazard: A parable
  
  I'm still not talking about the crisis; specifically I'm not talking about all these plans which, at this late date, are still banging on about "moral hazard" and "the need to bail in private creditors" and so on. But I can tell stories:
  
  I [...]
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  Posted: February 05, 2009, 3:16pm EST
  

• Pushback! Featuring Anthony Wells

  Pushback! Featuring Anthony Wells
  
  Anthony comments on my Guardian piece about the BNP - he thinks it's a lot closer and more volatile than I do. I now have about fifty quid riding on this with various bets, so I'm not taking any more. [...]
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  Posted: February 04, 2009, 9:38am EST
  

• Republican is the new punk rock? Yes, ...

  Republican is the new punk rock? Yes, that's about right
  
  By which I mean, punk is dead and so is movement conservatism. Seriously, what is it with rightwingers trying to identify themselves with "punks" and their opponenents with "hippies"? Why would anyone want to do this to' [...]
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  Posted: February 03, 2009, 4:29am EST
  

• Old communist jokesThe "old Communist ...

  Old communist jokes
  
  The "old Communist joke" Krugman mentions today was brought to the West by JK Galbraith (he recounts being told it at a meeting of the Polish Economic Association). Personally I prefer the story on the preceding page of "A Life in Our Times":
  
  In [...]
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  Posted: January 29, 2009, 12:37pm EST
  

• Twenty20 hindsightI wonder if, in ...

  Twenty20 hindsight
  
  I wonder if, in the early days of association and rugby football, there were a load of old farts reminiscing about day-long village matches, muttering that the flashy attractions of the 90-minute code were all very well if they attracted young players, but shouldn't take' [...]
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  Posted: January 27, 2009, 6:42am EST
  

• From the department of "what could possibly ...

  From the department of "what could possibly go wrong?"
  
  Private equity to assist in nuclear shutdown.
  
  Just to make this clear to any passing environmentalists; I don't actually believe that nuclear power stations are particularly dangerous to human health. However, the reason why they're not dangerous to [...]
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  Posted: January 27, 2009, 6:09am EST
  

• Notes on NationalisationBanks, land, ...

  Notes on Nationalisation
  
  Banks, land, it's all the same thing. See here, in comments to a post on Ethiopian land reform, where two of my commenters argue (in retrospect, more convincingly than I thought at the time), that the spectre of compulsory nationalisation can have very deleterious' [...]
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  Posted: January 27, 2009, 2:21am EST
  

• Popular music: some logical investigationsPremis: ...

  Popular music: some logical investigations
  
  Premis: I don't really like U2
  Premis: I don't like Radiohead
  First Lemma: I don't need to bother with Coldplay (ie, a linear combination of Radiohead and U2)
  Second Lemma: I don't need to trouble myself overly with Franz Ferdinand (ie, a linear extrapolation [...]
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  Posted: January 24, 2009, 2:09pm EST
  

• High Concepts, part 2Idea for ...

  High Concepts, part 2
  
  Idea for a show: "Speed Detectives". Basically, all those Morse/Poirot/Miss Marple programmes that used to be on, but aren't any more because people stopped watching them. They're just too slow for the modern audience. The only interesting bit is the last five minutes, when the [...]
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  Posted: January 24, 2009, 2:03pm EST
  

• Zimbabwe in its own wordsOne ...

  Zimbabwe in its own words
  
  One of the huge problems in trying to understand what the hell is going on in Zimbabwe is the fact that the UK media report everything from a very strange point of view. It's not so much that they're anti-Mugabe (everyone is) as that [...]
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  Posted: January 22, 2009, 7:29pm EST
  

• Cohen on Justice and Equality Non-Reading Group

  Cohen on Justice and Equality Non-Reading Group
  
  Blahdy blahdy twenty nine quid book. This thread is exclusively for the use of people who haven't read the text, but who nonetheless wish to comment on it. Personally I think the souffle recipe is finicky.
  
  Update: Also don't forget [...]
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  Posted: January 22, 2009, 2:58am EST
  

• Performance related pay for teachers: a dialectic

  Performance related pay for teachers: a dialectic
  
  Thesis: Teachers go mad mental crazy when you ever suggest putting them on performance related pay.
  
  Antithesis: On the other hand, education is actually the performance-measuringest business you ever did see. At least a quarter of the workload of the [...]
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  Posted: January 14, 2009, 5:29pm EST
  

• A public service announcement for the attention ...

  A public service announcement for the attention of Professor Stephen Walt
  
  I am a British citizen, and a reasonably representative member of the class of people among whom Prof. Walt would generally care to have a reputation. In respect of this blog post, I'd like to make it' [...]
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  Posted: January 09, 2009, 4:44pm EST
  

• Genuine question, which might look disingenuous

  Genuine question, which might look disingenuous
  
  As we all know, the only position on Israel/Palestine which can possibly be held by reasonable, normal, liberal etc people is the "Two-state solution". This comes in various flavours, depending on how much land you want to end up in each state and [...]
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  Posted: January 09, 2009, 4:29am EST
  

• Idea for a sitcom: set in a ...

  Idea for a sitcom: set in a Ku Klux Klan-owned dry cleaners
  
  Seriously, these things look like they would be a bugger to wash, and when you consider that their main outings would be to small fires in grassy fields, the staining would be terrible. The economic basis [...]
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  Posted: January 08, 2009, 7:24am EST
  

• High Concept/Alan PartridgeIdea for a ...

  High Concept/Alan Partridge
  
  Idea for a television show, possibly an "ER" spinoff. ER: The Finance Department. Would revolve around a debt collector working for an American hospital, who has a limited amount of discretion to waive bills in circumstances of true hardship. Every week, he investigages the circumstances of [...]
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  Posted: January 04, 2009, 12:45am EST
  

• CounterpointLet's ...

  Counterpoint
  
  Let's not. [...]
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  Posted: January 03, 2009, 5:54pm EST
  

• When you read the Morning Star, makes ...

  When you read the Morning Star, makes no difference who you are
  
  Now free to web, according to your needs. [...]
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  Posted: January 02, 2009, 4:23pm EST
  

• Harold Pinter's poetry, a defence(The ...

  Harold Pinter's poetry, a defence
  
  (The Guardian blog didn't go for this, so my career as a noted obituarist has stalled a bit. Nevertheless ...)
  
  Such a shame to hear of Harold Pinter’s death. What particularly makes me want to write something about him is that as the [...]
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  Posted: January 02, 2009, 8:57am EST
  

• A brief note on proportionalityMuch ...

  A brief note on proportionality
  
  Much comment around and about the commentosphere about what is and isn't "disproportionate". The same gang of chuckleheads were pissing out squid ink around this fairly simple concept of international law two years ago, during the invasion of Lebanon. Typically the way it goes [...]
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  Posted: December 29, 2008, 3:13pm EST
  

• The most dangerous job on earth?

  The most dangerous job on earth?
  
  I hadn't realised what an insanely dangerous job it is being President of the USA. Four sitting presidents (just less than 10% of the total) have been murdered while in office, something I think we can fairly class as a job-related death. [...]
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  Posted: December 18, 2008, 8:27am EST
  

• Those who don't read Will Rogers are ...

  Those who don't read Will Rogers are condemned to repeat him
  
  I note in passing that Will Rogers wrote in the 1930s that the USA "is going to be the first nation in history to go to the poorhouse in an automobile", and think it rather a shame that [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2008, 2:50am EST
  

• Yup, that's about the size of it

  Yup, that's about the size of it
  
  I seriously doubt that any of my regular readers were or are confused about the relationship between pension and healthcare costs and the financial problems of US automobile manufacturers, but I am a sucker for a good timeline, particularly when carried [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2008, 8:38am EST
  

• Northern Ireland Numeraire - updateSo, ...

  Northern Ireland Numeraire - update
  
  So, how are things in Iraq, twelve months after "the surge"? As longtime readers know, the numeraire that this blog uses to measure horror and chaos is the 479 troubles-related deaths in Northern Ireland in 1972 (the worst year of the troubles by [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2008, 7:02am EST
  

• RwandalandA particularly annoying species of ...

  Rwandaland
  
  A particularly annoying species of Afrobollocks is the use made in opinion journalism of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. I've written about this before - basically, for purposes of editorialising all one needs to know is that "nobody intervened and therefore hundreds of thousands of people were killed". [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2008, 5:01am EST
  

• Melanie Phillips writes ... ... ...

  Melanie Phillips writes ...
  
  ... regarding her journalism on family issues during the 1990s:
  
  Then as now, I was scorned and vilified by the ‘progressive ‘ intelligentsia. I had become reactionary, right-wing, ultra-right-wing, a harker-back to some mythical golden age of the fifties, a moraliser, an extremist, [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2008, 1:01pm EST
  

• Kapelwa MusondaAs promised for some ...

  Kapelwa Musonda
  
  As promised for some while, I find myself marooned in JFK airport for a few hours, and so have typed in three of my favourite articles from the Zambian satirist, Kapelwa Musonda. These articles appeared in the 1960s and 1970s; the influence of Will Rogers and Myles [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2008, 9:59pm EST