Submitted by Shawn Fremstad on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 15:43
- Stephen Jay Gould, from For Want of a Metaphor: "We often think, naively, that missing data are the primary impediments to intellectual progress—just find the right facts and all the problems will dissipate. But barriers are often deeper and more abstract in thought. We must have access to the right metaphor, not only to the requisite information. Revolutionary thinkers are not, primarily, gatherers of fact, but weavers of new intellectual structures."
- Lionel Trilling, from Preface to the Liberal Imagination: "We cannot very well set about to contrive opponents who will do us the service of forcing us to become more intelligent, who will require us to keep our ideas from becoming stale, habitual, and inert. This we will have to do for ourselves. It has for some time appeared to me that a criticism which has at heart the interests of liberalism might find its most useful work not in confirming liberalism in the sense of general rightness but rather in putting under some degree of pressure the liberal ideas and assumptions of the present time. If liberalism is, as I believe it to be, a large tendency rather than a concise body of doctrine, then as that large tendency makes itself explicit, certain of its particular expressions are bound to be relatively weaker than others, and some even useless and mistaken. If this is so, then for liberalism to be aware of the weak or wrong expressions of itself would seem to be an advantage to the tendency as a whole."
- H.G. Wells, from Letter to James Joyce, Nov. 23, 1928: "My warmest good wishes to you Joyce. I cant [sic] follow your banner any more than you can follow mine. But the world is wide and there is room for both of us to be wrong."
Submitted by Matt Lewis on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 20:33
- Campaign for America's Future, Making It In America: Building the New Economy: "The next economy must be built on a solid platform. We need to rebuild our infrastructure, renew our manufacturing base and educate our people. America needs an industrial policy to help fit these pieces together. From workforce development to component manufacture, we need a strategic collaboration between the private sector and the government to reach our shared national goals. We need an opportunity for stakeholders to come together to remove obstacles, allocate resources, and create rules that work for everyone involved."
- David Cole, Can Our Shameful Prisons be Reformed?: "Even so, the imprisoned make up only two thirds of one percent of the nation's general population. And most of those imprisoned are poor and uneducated, disproportionately drawn from the margins of society. For the vast majority of us, in other words, the idea that we might find ourselves in jail or prison is simply not a genuine concern. For one group in particular, however, these figures have concrete and deep-rooted implications—African-Americans, especially young black men, and especially poor young black men. African-Americans are 13 percent of the general population, but over 50 percent of the prison population. Blacks are incarcerated at a rate eight times higher than that of whites—a disparity that dwarfs other racial disparities. (Black–white disparities in unemployment, for example, are 2–1; in nonmarital childbirth, 3–1; in infant mortality, 2–1; and in net worth, 1–5[1])."
- Howard Wial, Where is the Economy Recovering?: "After four quarters of decline, GDP finally grew, and at a pace--3.5 percent annually--not seen since the summer of 2007. As my colleagues Alan Berube and Bill Galston point out, and as I argued last month, signs of economic growth don’t necessarily mean a rapid recovery, a sustained recovery, or even a recovery that feels meaningful to the vast majority of Americans. But that’s not the horse I want to ride today. Instead, I want to read the tea leaves (the details of the GDP numbers for the third quarter of this year) to see what they suggest about the geography of the recovery--which metro areas are likely to be recovering and which aren’t."
- Whodini, Freaks Come Out at Night: Happy Halloween...
Submitted by Shawn Fremstad on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 10:06
- Zhenxiang Zhao and Robert Kaestner, Effects of Urban Sprawl on Obesity: "... we examine the effect of changes in population density—urban sprawl—between 1970 and 2000 on BMI and obesity of residents in metropolitan areas in the US. We address the possible endogeneity of population density by using a two-step instrumental variables approach. We exploit the plausibly exogenous variation in population density caused by the expansion of the U.S. Interstate Highway System, which largely followed the original 1947 plan for the Interstate Highway System. We find a negative association between population density and obesity and estimates are robust across a wide range of specifications. Estimates indicate that if the average metropolitan area had not experienced the decline in the proportion of population living in dense areas over the last 30 years, the rate of obesity would have been reduced by approximately 13%."
- Anne Power, Learning from City Recovery in Europe and the United States: "... older US 'rust belt' cities, having experienced steeper, longer decline than those in Europe, found it more difficult to recover. They have received less government support and experienced more polarised conditions. Their path to recovery is far less clear, and the impact of economic and environmental problems far starker. Although cities in Europe and the US face urgent pressures – including the need to reduce radically their reliance on fossil fuels – their underused spaces, existing infrastructure, knowledge and skills base, and diverse populations open up new opportunities for urban progress and environmental protection."
- USA Today, Most Teen Parents Not Raised in Poverty or By Single Parents: "A new look at the characteristics of teen parents finds that most aren't from single-parent households nor are they from households in poverty, according to a data analysis released Tuesday. The study by the nonprofit Child Trends for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, shows that of teens who report having a baby or fathering a child: 39% lived with both biological parents; 19% reported living with one biological and one step-parent; 28% lived in families with incomes below the federal poverty line. Those who have had a teen birth are disproportionately more likely to be from single-parent families compared to teens overall, but the study finds more than half of teen parents were themselves from two-parent families."
Submitted by Matt Lewis on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 00:24
- John Judis, End State: Is California Finished?: "Surely there are problems within California's schools. But the underlying problem that must ultimately be addressed is the segmented structure of California's economy that creates its own tracking system along the lines of income, race, and nationality within the schools. More than anything, that is what has been holding back the realization of Clark Kerr's dream for California."
- Joel Kotkin, There's No Place Like Home: "Thriving neighborhood restaurants are one small data point in a larger trend I call the new localism. The basic premise: the longer people stay in their homes and communities, the more they identify with those places, and the greater their commitment to helping local businesses and institutions thrive, even in a downturn. Several factors are driving this process, including an aging population, suburbanization, the Internet, and an increased focus on family life. And even as the recession has begun to yield to recovery, our commitment to our local roots is only going to grow more profound. Evident before the recession, the new localism will shape how we live and work in the coming decades, and may even influence the course of our future politics."
- Kent Cherny, Yuliya Demyanyk, Subprime Mortgages: Myths and reality: "Myth: Subprime mortgages went only to borrowers with impaired credit. The reality is that subprime mortgages went to all kinds of borrowers, not only those with impaired credit. The myth that subprime loans went only to those with bad credit arises from overlooking the complexity of the subprime mortgage market and the fact that subprime mortgages are defined in a number of ways – not just by the credit quality of borrowers."
Submitted by Shawn Fremstad on Sun, 10/25/2009 - 17:28
- Mark Nord (USDA), Food Spending Declined and Food Insecurity Increased for Middle-Income and Low-Income Households from 2000 to 2007 : "The combined evidence of declining food spending and increasing food insecurity in middle- and low-income households from 2000 to 2007 points to an increasing number of U.S. households struggling to put adequate food on the table during that period. This occurred during years generally characterized by economic growth. Food-access diffi culties are likely to have been exacerbated by the economic downturn that began in 2008. ....Changes in both food spending and very low food security were greatest in the second-lowest income quintile, in which spending for food declined by 16 percent and the prevalence of very low food security increased by about half. Most households in this income range can be characterized as working households with low income. Incomes of almost all households in the second income quintile are above the poverty line, and one or more adults are employed full time in a large majority of the households. Few households in this income range are eligible for food and nutrition assistance programs."
- Simon Chapple (OECD), Child Well-Being and Sole-Parent Family Structure in the OECD: An Analysis: "The meta-analysis of 122 studies from a cross-section of OECD countries excluding the United States concludes the average negative effect of sole parenthood on child well-being is small, a finding broadly consistent with earlier meta-analyses which were based largely on United States studies. The better the quality of the study, the smaller is the effect size found. ...."
- United Nations Development Programme, [2009] Human Development Report Challenges Common Migration Misconceptions: "Contrary to commonly held beliefs, migrants typically boost economic output and give more than they take. Detailed investigations show that immigration generally increases employment in host communities, does not crowd out locals from the job market and improves rates of investment in new businesses and initiatives. Overall, the impact of migrants on public finances—both national and local—is relatively small, while there is ample evidence of gains in other areas such as social diversity and the capacity for innovation. The authors demonstrate that the gains to people who move can be enormous. Research found that migrants from the poorest countries, on average, experienced a 15-fold increase in income, a doubling of school enrolment rates and a 16-fold reduction in child mortality after moving to a developed country. ....Also released today as part of the 2009 Human Development Report was the latest Human Development Index (HDI), a summary indicator of people’s well-being, combining measures of life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and GDP per capita. It shows that despite progress in many areas over the last 25 years, the disparities in people’s well-being in rich and poor countries continue to be unacceptably wide."
Submitted by Shawn Fremstad on Thu, 10/22/2009 - 12:59
- Mori Dinauer, Lightning Round: "I think Pat Buchanan's shockingly honest lament for white racial superiority has induced others to offer up candid summations of anachronistic world views. How else to explain a Goldman Sachs adviser's remarks that "We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all" or an Oklahoma state representative's explanation that in the Sooner State "we have a very strong feeling that women aren’t capable of making reproductive decisions when it comes to terminating a pregnancy."
- Crooked Timber, Rules for Contrarians: 1. Don't Whine. That is All: "The whole idea of contrarianism is that you’re “attacking the conventional wisdom”, you’re “telling people that their most cherished beliefs are wrong”, you’re “turning the world upside down”. In other words, you’re setting out to annoy people. Now opinions may differ on whether this is a laudable thing to do – I think it’s fantastic – but if annoying people is what you’re trying to do, then you can hardly complain when annoying people is what you actually do. If you start a fight, you can hardly be surprised that you’re in a fight. It’s the definition of passive-aggression and really quite unseemly, to set out to provoke people, and then when they react passionately and defensively, to criticise them for not holding to your standards of a calm and rational debate. If Superfreakonomics wanted a calm and rational debate, this chapter would have been called something like: “Geoengineering: Issues in Relative Cost Estimation of SO2 Shielding”, and the book would have sold about five copies."
- Matthew Yglesias, The Wages of High Wages: "It’s common for friends of mine to go visit Philadelphia and then come back outraged by how expensive everything is in DC. This is, however, largely a case of the wages of high wages. Mean annual earnings in the DC metro area are $57,080 a year, way above the national average of $42,270. Philly, by contrast, is close to average at $46,410 while Oklahoma City is well below average at $36,880. The ones who really seem to be losing out on this deal are the New Yorkers, whose beer costs slightly more than DC’s despite somewhat lower wages. What I’d really like to see is the full dataset from Intellaprice, then you could make a “price of beer vs average wages” scatterplot."
Submitted by Shawn Fremstad on Mon, 10/19/2009 - 09:10
- Arlie Hochschild, The State of Families, Class and Culture: "If Americans came to this country as restless seekers in search of a new and better life, capitalism made superb use of that impulse. We believe in the new? Here is a new car, a new iPhone. We buy. We discard. We buy again. In recent years, we’ve been doing it faster. The economist Juliet Schor shows in her research on “fast fashion” that we consume and discard dresses, shoes, toys, furniture and cellphones at a quicker pace than we did in the past. Could this “fast-fashion” culture be filtering into our ideas about human connection? On Internet sites and television shows, we watch potential partners searching “through the rack” of dozens of beauties or possible beaus. Some go on “speed dates”; others go to “eye-gazing parties” — two minutes per gaze, 15 gazes — to find that special someone. If advertisers first exploited the “restless spirit” by guiding consumers’ attention to the next new thing, a market spirit now guides our search for the next new love. The culprit is not the absence of family values, I believe, but a continual state of unconscious immersion in a market turnover culture. It is this that sets us apart from a more stable Europe."
- Kieran Healy, Pissing Off the Other Crowd: "... the best riposte to the “Annoy a Liberal” sticker is simply the same thing with the target swapped out: “Annoy a Conservative: Work. Succeed. Be Happy”. The effect is more or less the same as the original, especially if placed on the back of your Lesbaru. Temporarily suspending my longstanding irritation at divisions of this sort, much of what passes for “Pissing off Conservatives” is really an effort to rebut some ridiculous charge or other, instead of a genuinely symmetrical attempt to piss someone off. Or, as the story has Lyndon Johnson arguing, it’s better to kick off the conversation in a way that forces the other guy to deny that he’s a pig-fucker."
- The New Yorker, Books Briefly Noted, San Tanehaus, "The Death of Conservatism": "What’s the matter with conservatives? They were damaged in the last elections, but, more important, Tanenhaus writes, “on the great issues of the day they are virtually silent.” Silent doesn’t mean quiet: conservatives shout a lot, but what they say signifies almost nothing in terms of the lives of ordinary Americans, to whom they have little to offer, “apart from a plea for their votes.” The problem, essentially, is that, freedom fries notwithstanding, conservatives are too French—alternately Robespierrean and revanchist—looking to transform and undermine rather than to curate and build on tradition. In the “genuine Burkean” sense, they are not conservative at all, and the “modern era’s two true conservative presidents” were Eisenhower and Clinton. Tanenhaus’s case is concise and persuasive. He cautions liberals not to celebrate the current situation: “America needs a serious, rigorous opposition,” and at the moment it has nothing of the sort."
Submitted by Shawn Fremstad on Thu, 10/15/2009 - 14:37
- Royal Swedish Academy, Press Release: "Elinor Ostrom has challenged the conventional wisdom that common property is poorly managed and should be either regulated by central authorities or privatized. Based on numerous studies of user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, Ostrom concludes that the outcomes are, more often than not, better than predicted by standard theories. She observes that resource users frequently develop sophisticated mechanisms for decision-making and rule enforcement to handle conflicts of interest, and she characterizes the rules that promote successful outcomes."
- David Bollier, Putting People Back in Economics: "Now Professor Ostrom has won the Nobel Prize for Economics, the first woman to be so honored. It is a well-deserved recognition. Professor Ostrom holds a special place in the history of the commons because she has done so much to make it visible in our time — first to academics, and then to many policymakers and now to the general public. Perhaps because she is not an economist, Ostrom was able to see that free-market theories fail to explain many things of economic importance. Perhaps because she is a woman, she was more attentive to the relational aspects of economic activity — the ways in which people interact and negotiate with each other to forge rules and informal social understandings. The social, moral and political, she realized in the 1960s as a graduate student, may hold many important clues for how communities can govern themselves and manage collective resources. It’s not all about economics (as traditionally construed)."
- Jay Walljasper, Tradegy of the Commons R.I.P.: "The Nobel Committee’s choice of Ostrom is significant considering that many winners of the prize since it was initiated in 1968 have been zealous advocates of unrestricted markets, such as Milton Friedman, whose selection helped fuel the rise of market theory as the be-all end-all of economics since the 1980s. Policies based upon this narrow worldview sparked the rise of corporate power and the diminishment of government’s role in protecting the commons. While right-wing thinkers scoffed at the possibility of resources being shared in a way that maintains the common good, arguing that private property is the only practical strategy to prevent this tragedy, Ostrom’s scholarship shows otherwise. “What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people involved,” she explains."
- Steven Levitt, What This Year's Nobel Prize in Economics Says About the Nobel Prize in Economics: "If you had done a poll of academic economists yesterday and asked who Elinor Ostrom was, or what she worked on, I doubt that more than one in five economists could have given you an answer. I personally would have failed the test. I had to look her up on Wikipedia, and even after reading the entry, I have no recollection of ever seeing or hearing her name mentioned by an economist. She is a political scientist, both by training and her career — one of the most decorated political scientists around. So the fact I have never heard of her reflects badly on me, and it also highlights just how substantial the boundaries between social science disciplines remain."
Submitted by Matt Lewis on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 21:32
- NYT, As New York Adds Housing for Poor, Market Subtracts It: "Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is closing in on a milestone: building or preserving 165,000 apartments and homes for low-, moderate- and middle-income families, the goal of a $7.5 billion housing plan he announced in 2002 and expanded in 2005. James T. Hadden, a barber, on Lenox Avenue in Harlem, where he lives. He pays $1,300 a month for a one-bedroom apartment in an area where, he says, there is frequent gunfire. It has already financed the creation or preservation of 94,000 units, including 72,000 for low-income households, city officials say. But those efforts have been overwhelmed by a far larger number — the 200,000 apartments affordable to low-income renters that New York City has lost during the mayor’s tenure."
- NYT, Bloomberg Has Added Jobs, and Lost Some, Too: "Even in the downturn, the city has 130,000 more jobs than it had when Mr. Bloomberg became mayor, according to state labor statistics. Working-class New Yorkers who kept their jobs or stayed in the same field saw their pay rise faster than the rate of inflation. But the overall job market constantly shifts, particularly in a recession, when the economy sheds jobs and even whole industries. And in New York, middle- and working-class jobs that have disappeared — in fields like manufacturing, wholesale distribution and administrative services — have been replaced by jobs in sectors like retail, food service and home health care that generally pay less."
- NYT, Still on the Job, but at Half the Pay: "Bryan and Tracy Lawlor, who is also 34, have hidden their straitened circumstances from their four young children, mainly at his insistence. But as their savings dwindle, Christmas, a key indicator in the Lawlor family, will mean fewer presents this year. The Lawlors have made a practice of piling on toys and new clothes for their children at Christmas, buying relatively less the rest of the year. That will make a cutback noticeable this holiday season, and the parents are concerned that their children will begin to realize why. “You don’t want to see disappointment on their faces; that makes me feel horrible,” Mr. Lawlor said. “You can be the best pilot in the airline and make the best landings, and in their eyes, I am not going to be as important as I was.”
Submitted by Matt Lewis on Tue, 10/13/2009 - 01:22
- LA Times, Flawed County System Lets Children Die Invisibly: "Miguel Padilla died much as he had lived: alone and out of sight, his suicide the final step in a failed journey through Los Angeles County's child welfare and juvenile justice systems. At least 268 children who had passed through the child welfare system died from January 2008 through early August 2009, according to internal county records obtained by The Times. They show that 213 were by unnatural or undetermined causes, including 76 homicides, 35 accidents and 16 suicides"
- Mark Thoma, Will Stimulating Nominal Aggregate Demand Solve Our Problems?": "Thus, according to this view, some part of the sectoral imblances is of a "physical, technological nature," and standard demand side policy does not help. Policy may be able to induce people to stop sticking around for jobs that will never materialize and move on, but those typically aren't the kinds of policies typically associated with stimulating employment, e.g. tax credits to encourage hiring."
- Simon Reynolds, One Nation Under a Moog (The Guardian): "The synth-pop era really kicked off in June 1979, when Tubeway Army's Are 'Friends' Electric? hit No 1. The sound and visuals owed a substantial debt to David Bowie's Berlin trilogy and his stranded alien in The Man Who Fell To Earth. Chuck in some Europe Between The Wars atmospherics and you had the recipe for Visage's Fade To Grey and The Damned Don't Cry; Japan's Nightporter and Ghosts; Ultravox's Vienna And bringing up the rear were the pioneers, the chaps who'd coined the whole mittel Europa/Mensch-Maschine shtick in the first place: Kraftwerk, No 1 in February 1982 with their 1978 tune The Model. But synthesizers in popular music actually go back much further than the mandroid melancholy of Gary Numan."
