In Soviet America, Natural Resources Exploit YOU!

A good rule of thumb when educating yourself about the current financial situation is to avoid sources that use terms like “free market fundamentalism” and “socialism.” Usually these words are used as nothing more than pejoratives, and one suspects that many of the people who use them couldn’t even provide a good definition of either [...]

Read Full Post »

What, Fisticuffs?

In perhaps the most unintuitive graphic I’ve ever displayed, it appears Belgian schoolchildren (of the French variety, moreover) are wont to throw down, while Americans and Germans are as docile as can be:

My primary and secondary education did not expose me to too many fights, either as observer or participant. This may be because that [...]

Read Full Post »

Incentives Matter

I just noticed today’s WSJ has an article about the tighter job market in the US and this accompanying graph listing the best-paid jobs. Economics does better than most while philosophy ranks below elementary education:

The question is, does the relative valuation of the professions tell us anything about the relative value of the graduates themselves?

Read Full Post »

A Central Problem

Suppose for a moment that the federal government of some rich, free Western democracy called Upper Slobovia recently instituted a policy that drastically altered the way its citizens received news. Instead of private broadcasters, the main source of news would now come directly from the Upper Slobovian News Service, a department of the government. [...]

Read Full Post »

A Negative Relationship

As identified by The Economist:
[A]cross the world, the less students know about science, the more optimistic they are about the chances of solving the planet’s environmental problems.
This is, of course, a key explanation behind Americans’ bubbling idealism.

Read Full Post »