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Some Fairly-Recent Must- and Should-Reads...

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  1. Ursula K. LeGuin (1973): the ones who walk away from omelas: "With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the Festival of Summer came to the city of Omelas, bright towered by the sea...

  2. Ezra Klein: @ezraklein on Twitter: "I don’t know what the [New York] Times should’ve done with Thrush. But I watched the efforts to plant oppo and smear @lkmcgann in the aftermath of her reporting. Anyone who thinks coming forward with these experiences is easy, even now, is wrong. I am beyond proud to be her colleague..."

  3. Graydon Saunders: Dubious Prospects: "Under One Banner will be off to first-pass copy edit in the first week of 2018...

  4. Adam Tooze: War in Germany 1618-2018: "For much of modern history Germany was Europe’s battlefield...

  5. Zac Auter: U.S. Uninsured Rate Rises to 12.3% in Third Quarter

  6. Binyamin Appelbaum: Senate Confirms Jerome H. Powell as Fed Chairman: "Brown and other Democrats questioned the qualifications of Marvin Goodfriend... [who] repeatedly predicted after the 2008 financial crisis that the Fed’s actions were about to unleash higher inflation...

  7. Hendrik Bessembinder: Do Stocks Outperform Treasury Bills?: "Most common stocks do not outperform Treasury Bills...

  8. Brink Lindsey and Steven M. Teles: The Regulatory Subsidy for Extreme Leverage: A Reply to Mike Konczal: "We do not argue—although Konczal suggests we do—that the problem with financial regulation is a dearth of 'economic liberty'...

Some Fairly-Recent Links:

  1. R. J. Littman and M. L. Littman (1973): Galen and the Antonine Plague 2.J. F. Gilliam (1961)**: The Plague under Marcus Aurelius
  2. Procopius of Caesarea: The Secret History: "Xii. Proving That Justinian and Theodora Were Actually Fiends in Human Form..."
  3. Praise be darkness, and creation unfinished: John Scalzi: Ursula K. Le Guin, the spiritual mother of generations of writers: "Nearly every lover and creator of science fiction and fantasy can give you a story of how Le Guin, through her words or presence, has illuminated their lives..."
  4. Mike Konczal: How Ideology Works: "You can’t fully understand what happened unless you see the way these elements empower each other. Rodgers’s call to take them piece by piece gets us further away from seeing this..."
  5. Wikipedia: Michael Beschloss
  6. Guido Alfani and Cormac Ó Gráda, eds.: Famine in European History
  7. Pranab Bardhan: Gujarat model of hate is evident everywhere: Economist

Highlighted | Teaching | Reading, Videos, etc.

Must-Read:

Should-Read:

Recent Links:

  1. R. J. Littman and M. L. Littman (1973): Galen and the Antonine Plague 2.J. F. Gilliam (1961)**: The Plague under Marcus Aurelius
  2. Procopius of Caesarea: The Secret History: "Xii. Proving That Justinian and Theodora Were Actually Fiends in Human Form..."
  3. Praise be darkness, and creation unfinished: John Scalzi: Ursula K. Le Guin, the spiritual mother of generations of writers: "Nearly every lover and creator of science fiction and fantasy can give you a story of how Le Guin, through her words or presence, has illuminated their lives..."
  4. Mike Konczal: How Ideology Works: "You can’t fully understand what happened unless you see the way these elements empower each other. Rodgers’s call to take them piece by piece gets us further away from seeing this..."
  5. Wikipedia: Michael Beschloss
  6. Guido Alfani and Cormac Ó Gráda, eds.: Famine in European History
  7. Pranab Bardhan: Gujarat model of hate is evident everywhere: Economist
  8. Leonard Susskind: Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life and Mind?: The Cosmological Constant
  9. Josh Marshall: Party Taxonomy: "Our politics begin to make sense when you realize that the GOP is two parties: Party A, a rightist, ethno-nationalist party similar to rightist parties in Europe and Party B, a center-right pro-business party that is distinct from but controlled by Party A..."
  10. Facebook: (51) The Ludwig von Mises Institute and Racism
  11. *J. Vernon Henderson, Tim Squires, Adam Storeygard, and David Weil *: Global Distribution of Economic Activity: Nature, History, and the Role of Trade: "24 physical geography attributes explains 47% of worldwide variation and 35% of within-country variation in lights [at night]..."
  12. Noah Rothman: Stark generational divide over Trump in the GOP: "Mostly over the acceptability of loose morals and reckless antagonism for its own sake. The kids are against it..."
  13. Karl Smith: The Future of U.S. Mining and Manufacturing is Bright: "The dynamic nature of the U.S. economy and the resource wealth of North America combine to produce a natural export machine. That machine hasn’t been in operation, not because we lack the capacity, but because we are so wealthy that most of the world can’t afford U.S.-made products..."
  14. Ryan Hagemann: The Coming Age of Genetics is Now Coming-of-Age: "These technologies aren’t on the far-flung horizon; they’re at our front door.... Science... described how gene therapy techniques have already begun improving the lives of those with cancer and heritable genetic diseases..."
  15. John Quiggin: A taxonomy of never-Trumpers: "The smallest group... those who have remained politicaly conservative.... By 2020, it will probably be an empty set. That obviously raises the question of what will remain of the conservative movement when and if Trump is defeated..."
  16. Wikipedoa: Abundances of the elements
  17. Justin Klosky: (88) How to Fold a Fitted Sheet in 30 seconds
  18. James Pogue: The GOP’s Biggest Charter School Experiment Just Imploded: "ECOT grew up... with the support of state politicians and national GOP power brokers... in many ways... served as a model.... Now, the same districts ECOT pulled its funds from are scrambling to find a way to take in its former students..."
  19. P.Z. Myers: "Spaceship building is never going to be a selectively advantageous feature—it’s only going to emerge as a spandrel, which might lead to a species that can occupy a novel niche. And that means that spaceship builders are only going to arise as a product of chance, which will mean they’re going to be very rare..."
  20. Liz Hipple: Can the financial benefit of lobbying be quantified?: "Carpenter and Libgober estimate that banks that commented on the proposed rules had stock market returns of between $3.2 billion and $7 billion more than they would have had if they hadn’t participated..."
  21. Bridget Ansel: Dinner table entrepreneurship on both sides of the Atlantic | Equitable Growth: "kids who grow up with entrepreneurial fathers are more likely to start a business in the same industry and be more successful at it..."
  22. Daniel Shaviro: Greg Leiserson on dynamic scoring: "I think...insufficient adjustment for the massive tax planning opportunities that the act has encouraged and that we will be reading about in the newspapers within a year or two, if not sooner..."
  23. Bridget Ansel: Weekend reading: “lobbying and entrepreneurship” edition: "A new working paper by... Daniel Carpenter and Brian Libgober... quantify[ing] the benefits of lobbying for businesses..."
  24. Ezra Klein: Government shutdown: this a perfect example of Trump-era governance: "Taken in its entirety, the 'shithole shutdown' is the perfect encapsulation of governance in the Trump era: dysfunction and chaos driven by anger and fear toward America’s changing demographics, and the congressional GOP’s cowardly acquiescence to Trump’s ever-shifting demands..."
  25. Matthew Yglesias: Worth noting: "Congressional GOP is: 1) Sufficiently committed to Trump to back a partisan purge of the FBI on his behalf. 2) Doesn’t trust Trump to conduct a legislative negotiation with Chuck Schumer..."
  26. Kim and Kanye name their new baby Chicago West
  27. Jen Kirby: The sex abuse charges against USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, explained - Vox: "Gymnasts he abused are telling their stories. They damn more than just the doctor..."
  28. Peter Leyden and Ruy Teixeirad: The Great Lesson of California in America’s New Civil War: "The great lesson of California, the harbinger of America’s political future... there is no way that a bipartisan path provides the way forward..."
  29. Tressie McMillan Cottom: In An Age Of Wicked Problems, Beware Of Simple Solutions: "Wicked problems... bring out the shysters... 'thought leaders'... who profit from selling certainties in uncertain times... elixirs for all that ails us..."
  30. Peter Orszag: Extraordinary Stress and Pessimism Take a Grim Toll: "Low-income Americans report significantly higher levels of daily stress than high-income Americans do. But Graham also notes that the type of stress they typically experience is especially harmful to health, because it seems to be outside the individual’s locus of control..."
  31. Christopher Pissarides and Jacques Bughin: Embracing the New Age of Automation: "Rapid advances in automation and artificial intelligence... worried about a jobless future and sky-high levels of inequality. But the large-scale technologically driven shift currently underway should be welcomed, and its adverse effects should be managed with proactive policies to reinvest in workers..."
  32. Andy Weir: Andy Weir on the Economics of Sci-Fi and Space (Ep. 31)
  33. Tyler Cowen: Oumuamua and the Fermi paradox: "Given the Fermi paradox, shouldn’t we assume a fairly high probability this is in fact some form of alien contact or display? It’s like when you are expecting a package from UPS and then finally the doorbell rings..."
  34. Douglas Almond, Kenneth Chay, and Michael Greenstone: Civil Rights, the War on Poverty, and Black-White Convergence in Infant Mortality in the Rural South and Mississippi: "The benefits of the 1960s Civil Rights legislation extended beyond the labor marker and were substantially larger than recognized previously..."
  35. Ankaret Wells: Unrolled thread from @AnkaretWells: "Twitter, let's talk historical definitions. If someone is arresting women for being too poor, too old or too weird, that's a WITCH HUNT. If instead they are arresting men for being part of a powerful network with too much money and influence, that's a KNIGHT TEMPLAR HUNT..."
  36. Brent Simmons: Evergreen RSS Reader
  37. David Scheer: Bridgewater's Steinberg Killed in Plane Crash With Family: "[Bruce] Steinberg, his wife Irene, and their sons William, Zachary and Matthew were aboard the single-engine plane when it crashed in the northwestern province of Guanacaste shortly after takeoff..."
  38. Wikipedia: OODA loop - Wikipedia: "Observe, orient, decide, and act..."
  39. Glen David Brin (1982): The Great Silence: The Controversy Concerning Extraterrestrial Life
  40. Jennifer Rubin: With Bannon gone, we can see Trumpism for what it really is: "Trump has long been about Trump, a cult of personality with ample helpings of racism, xenophobia, protectionism and nativism. His only 'genius' is in manipulating and conning those looking to justify grievances (usually based on race)..."
  41. Wikipedia: Anunnaki: "Although the names of the Anunnaki in Hurrian and Hittite texts frequently vary, they are always eight in number. In one Hittite ritual, the names of the old gods are listed as: 'Aduntarri the diviner, Zulki the dream interpress, Irpitia Lord of the Earth, Narā, Namšarā, Minki, Amunki, and Āpi'..."
  42. Malory Ortberg: I don't understand the Wars of the Roses: "I’LL SAY IT AGAIN: MINIMIZE YOUR BURGUNDIAN INTERLUDES, MAKERS OF PERIOD DRAMAS..."
  43. Greg Grandin: The Death Cult of Trumpism: "Through racism and nationalism, Trump leverages tribal resentment against an emerging manifest common destiny..."
  44. Malory Ortberg: Marcus Aurelius Prepares For The New Year: "I, Emperor of Rome, son of Marcus Annius Verus, heir to Hadrian, know, on some level, that just “drinking more water” isn’t magically going to fix everything, that eventually when it comes to drinking water you experience diminishing returns, and that it’s not going to suddenly clear up my skin and make me the sort of person who gets cheerfully out of bed at gallicinium, ready to face the sunrise..."
  45. Leslie Hook: California fights back against Trump’s federal agenda: "Mr de León says... unusual times call for unusual measures: 'When you have an occupant in the White House who is a clear and present danger, not just to the state of California, but to the entire United States and the entire world — this is not an ordinary moment in our nation’s history'..."
  46. Elizabeth Kolbert: The Psychology of Inequality: "Researchers find that much of the damage done by being poor comes from feeling poor..."
  47. Branko Milanovic: What these early-20th-century scholars got right about 21st-century politics: "Hobson on inequality, Weber on democracy and demagoguery, and Marshall on migration..."
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