My final December e-link is a WSJ column that, looking back at the decade’s economic anomalies, tries to understand why they happened.
December e-links: Doggy and Economist Interviews
From this month’s first e-link of doggy co-op interviews, today, I’ve gone to the other extreme with a thought provoking talk between two economists.
Production Possibility Frontiers: Entering (and Exiting) a Discovery Void
After technological innovation multiplies, might the pace of discovery slow down? Think of the history of antibiotics. Starting with the Sulfa drugs that were first discovered during the 1930s, the new antibiotic timeline is congested until 1962. Yes, recently, new antibiotics classes were introduced.…
Income Inequality: Food History
After reading Tom Standage’s An Edible History of Humanity, we can see the connection between food and income inequality and the surprising significance of the pineapple. First, some history… Ancient hunter-gatherer groups had to be egalitarian. With sharing the best way to…
Stagnation or Education?
Is the problem stagnation or education? For George Mason economist Tyler Cowen, it was all about his grandmother. Debating MIT economist Erik Brynjolfsson, Cowen reminded us that a long list of innovations including cars, antibiotics and refrigerators revolutionized his grandmother’s…