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- HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT. (2)
- GREECE’S ADVANTAGE IN THE CHICKEN GAME. (2)
- Nick: That makes sense. It reminds me of the stories Pater Familias would tell me about how in Boston the person with...
- Dick Weisfelder: Greece seems to me to be playing a game that Karl Deutsch called “underdog.” While one...
- FOOTBALL PLAYERS DELIBERATELY CAUSING CONCUSSIONS? (3)
- Nick: It was my understanding that boxing gloves were to protect the puncher’s hands and not the...
- Dick Weisfelder: Remember the Roman arenas? Bare knuckled boxing? Such injuries were taken as natural and accepted in...
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This isn’t about football. Or even sportsmanship. Well, it is about sportsmanship. But what...
- A 25 % CHANCE OF A EURO DEFAULT? (1)
- Nick: The fact that this has gone on for so long is pretty perplexing. The Economist is referring back to articles it...
- DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE. (1)
- Dick Weisfelder: One can be very open to new technology, but also risk averse. The recent debates about how to...
- THE EUROZONE—A CHICKEN GAME WHERE EVERY MEMBER CAN BLOW IT UP? (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This is not a matter of chicken. These are all turkeys.
- PLAYING WITH MATCHES NEAR A GASOLINE TANK. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Why would the French care? As long as they take down Britain?
- NORWAY’S CHRISTMAS BUTTER SHORTAGE. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Christmas with a butter cookie shortage–in Scandinavia. This isn’t even Scrooge. This...
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Monthly Archives: October 2007
MUSSOLINI, THE INFLUENTIAL–GOVERNMENT.
MUSSOLINI, THE INFLUENTIAL–GOVERNMENT. When I wrote yesterday about the pervasiveness of unofficial government by gangs, there was an echo in my mind of a passage from the great Murray Kempton. (Kids, Murray Kempton was a proud journalist and a brilliant … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, History, Journalism, Politics
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GOVERNMENT BY GANGSTERS: STALIN.
GOVERNMENT BY GANGSTERS: STALIN. Orlando Figes, in a review of YOUNG STALIN by Simon Sebag Montefiore, in the current New York Review of Books, says that “we have come to see the young Stalin as a mediocrity” because of the … Continue reading
Posted in History, Politics
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HOW PRESIDENT SARKOZY MET HIS WIFE.
HOW PRESIDENT SARKOZY MET HIS WIFE. My brother Elmer and I will often make conversation by asking spouses how they met. The answer is usually romantic and sometimes surprising (a lady told Elmer that she met her husband when he … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
2 Comments
THE SPIKE.
THE SPIKE. Benefit-cost studies show the enormous value of getting people to wear seat belts by mitigating the consequences of accidents.. Economists will point out, however, that wearing a seat belt will tend to make a driver less careful because … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
3 Comments
“ALL ECONOMISTS ARE RAPT, FANCIFUL CREATURES.”
“ALL ECONOMISTS ARE RAPT, FANCIFUL CREATURES.” From the story “The Charlottetown Banquet” by Robertson Davies: “[A]ll economists are rapt, fanciful creatures; it is necessary to their profession.”
Posted in Economics
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THE STANDUP ECONOMIST.
THE STANDUP ECONOMIST. My son, Nick Schaefer, has done standup several times at Caroline’s on Broadway. Here is a link to the “standup economist”, Yoram Bauman, appearing at Caroline’s on Broadway. To give you an idea, one of his jokes … Continue reading
DOING WELL BY DOING DIRTY WORK.
DOING WELL BY DOING DIRTY WORK. Here is the abstract of an article in USA Today which describes how a business that collects dog poop from yards can make its franchisees millionaires. The full article also described how a business … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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LOSING ONE HUNDRED THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS IN ONE DAY—UPDATE.
LOSING ONE HUNDRED THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS IN ONE DAY—UPDATE. Almost one month ago I posted on how the brilliant speculator Victor Niederhoffer had once lost one hundred thirty million dollars—all he had to invest and lose—in one day. In that … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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ALICE BRADLEY AND GENDER.
ALICE BRADLEY AND GENDER. Just as with the Brontes, a mystery developed as to whether James Tiptree was a man or a woman. Alice relished the opportunity that Tiptree gave her to write from what she considered to be a … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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ALICE BRADLEY—THE LIFE AND THE STORIES.
ALICE BRADLEY—THE LIFE AND THE STORIES. Julie Phillips finds convincing connections between Alice Bradley’s life and her stories, beginning with the connection between the horrors that Alice encountered as a child in Africa and the horrors of Alice’s dark science … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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