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Archive for June, 2012

Mixed to-froms

June 26th, 2012 Comments off

 

Fortunately for the economy, World War II soon led to unprecedented spending and deficits, which the Federal Reserve willingly financed with easy money. Federal spending rose to 44 percent of G.D.P. in 1943 and 1944 from 9.8 percent in 1940, and the budget deficit went from 3 percent to 30 percent of G.D.P.

Bruce Bartlet NYT 6/26/12

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Expected Wealth vs Actual Wealth

June 22nd, 2012 Comments off

Click on image to expand

Inequal distribution

Inequality

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Tests, Polls, Studies and Mental Maturity

June 21st, 2012 Comments off

I’ve been reading a lot of books and articles recently that make their point through academic studies that base their results on tests or polls done with the subects taken from academia–that is, college students.  True of both liberal and conservative sociological/political studies.

But the human brain is not fully developted until about the age of 25.  That is, the prefrontal cortex, where reasoned judgement is performed, is immature until well into the middle of the third decade.

So what does that say about the validity of these studies?

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Oil Prices and Election–Who Says We Ain’t Smart?

June 21st, 2012 Comments off

It’s wierd.  Oil prices go down, so gas prices go down, so the public thinks, Great!  We’re rich! and it’s better for Obama’s chances of re-election, when actually oil prices are down because the economy (around the world) is tanking, and we’re the opposite of rich and not great at all.

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Protagonismo

June 20th, 2012 Comments off

A good Italian word, protagonismo: the desire, the need, the demand, the desease of needing to be the center of the world’s attention.

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The Terrible Inflation of Food Prices

June 9th, 2012 Comments off

 

food prices

Food Prices Compared

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Estonia. Pretty good, but…

June 6th, 2012 Comments off
estonia gdp chartKrugman’s Estonia GDP graph

Estonian president blasts Krugman over GDP graph

 

 

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