Monday, August 15, 2011

Links

1.) Mission impossible: stop another recession - Dr. Doom (FT)
"There has been little job creation, weak growth and flat consumption and manufacturing production. Housing remains depressed... Fiscal policy is now contractionary in both the eurozone and the UK... and in the US, state and local authorities, and now, the federal government, [have] cut spending... QE2 produced a growth bump of barely 3 per cent, for one quarter. QE3 will be much smaller, and will do much less."

2.) Do Property Rights Increase Freedom? - Noah Smith (Noahpinion)
"Since the dawn of time, libertarians have equated property rights with freedom... But is that right? What would it feel like to live in a society where almost every single thing is privately owned and priced? Walking around urban Japan, I feel like I am seeing a society that is... close to that ideal... [In Japan] there are relatively few free city parks... there are also very few public benches... Many green spaces are private and gated off... outside your house or office there is basically nowhere to sit down that will not cost you a little bit of money. Public buildings generally have no drinking fountains; you must buy or bring your own water... Does all this private property make me feel free? Absolutely not! Quite the opposite..."

3.) Arctic Ice Thinning 4 Times Faster Than Predicted - Joe Romm (ClimateProgress)
"... analyses of sea ice trends that don't model ice thickness and volume... miss crucial feedbacks... today's winter ice cover is thinner, meaning it breaks up more easily under the influence of winds and currents... smaller chunks of ice drift more quickly and drifting ice is more prone to export and melting at lower latitude.. although it's impossible to say for sure when we might see an ice-free Arctic... things do seem to be getting progressively worse... [we'd] better start with the interventions even earlier. Now."

4.) How Riots Start, and How They Can Be Stopped - Ed Glaeser (Bloomberg)
"During the Republican National Convention in 2004... NYPD arrested more than 1,000 people and let them go. The New York strategy protected the city... Light penalties widely applied and serious penalties applied to a few can both deter unlawful behavior... But in the case of riots, it is awfully hard to actually prove wrongdoing and extremely important to clear the streets. Arresting widely and temporarily is far more effective."

5.) Why Wall Street Should Fear the Tea Party - James Surowiecki (New Yorker)
"... the agreement to lift the debt ceiling... was a clear victory for congressional Republicans, traditionally corporate America's best friends... [but] the spending cuts... hit infrastructure, basic research, and defense--from which corporate America reaps benefits... it's possible that Republicans will block the extension of unemployment and... also be emboldened in their attacks on the Fed, which they argue has been overly loose in its monetary policy (when in fact it's been too tight). The economy needs strong doses of both fiscal and monetary policy. The debt deal makes it more likely that we'll get neither."


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