I had a read of a recent Jeffrey Sachs article from Project Syndicate. This spurred a spate of reading/watching/listening of his and of one of his counterparts Paul Collier. Have a listen to this interview with Paul Collier from EconTalk, and to this interview with from Radio Economics. I prefer Russ Roberts (EconTalk) mode of interviewing to that of James Reese (Radio Economics), but that could just be me. I prefer Roberts's mode of inquiry, though I often disagree...

As many of you will know there has been a fair amount of coverage of Zwelinzima Vavi's (the head of COSATU) statements relating to Zuma, specifically the statement "kill for Zuma", which the Human Rights Commission has asked him to retract, or to face subpoena and investigation. Similar statements have been made by Julius Malema (Motsoko Pheko has a comment on both here). In this piece in the M&G he is quoted stating that "We are prepared to die in defence of one...

is both interesting and crazy...Here and commented on here. (Hat TIP: Mike)....

Quality of education is essential to the achievement of students. This is the central thesis of two PodCasts with Eric Hanushek (left) offered on EconTalk (I am catching up on the archive, forgive me). Hanushek has written extensively on this topic and I read a number of his papers for my Honours Economics thesis back in 2004 when I was trying to comment on the South African adoption of Outcomes Based Education and the problem of resources, school and teacher quality....

Andy Shlafly - have a look here and hereLarray Fafarman - have a look here (in the comments) and hereThese two humans are on some kind of war against Dr. Richard Lenski and his co-researchers. It really is rather entertaining. What will random humans battling against evolutionary theory do ne...

I just read the article How is the Internet Changing Literary Style? (hat tip Marginal Revolution) I think that the author has some decent comments, but fails to address the question of the differences in the kind of writing and the incidence of the reading of such writing. For example, I enjoy reading the long magazine articles from the New Yorker magazine (caught out), or from various other decent publications. However, doing this means that I focus my attention...

If you haven't yet read it, I strongly advise having a look at Chris Anderson's article Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business, it is the lead-up to his new book on Free. I was listening to the PodCast from Russ Roberts at EconTalk where he interviews Anderson on the concept of 'free'. This is a fantastic concept and the rapport between the two of them is brilliant. Anderson is a superb interviewee. You can have a look at Anderson's blog on the interview. I've...

Chinese opinion on Obama....

Plants Recognising their Relatives - Loyal to Its Roots (NYT)Cooperation of humans as a function of being a prey species - will have to read the book to comment rigorously on this. Wake up and Smell the Coffee - is the effect of smelling coffee as good as drinking it?Blinder on Bubbles - fairly sensible look at financial bubblesResponsibility of the media in the Property Bubble - Brad DLDumb people and sinning - SpurretCool ancient link between South American and A...

This is brilliant. Hat tip to Brad De Long (can I hat tip Brad De Long...

I was listening to this podcast (April 2008) from EconTalk where Russ Roberts (he and Don Bordreux blog at Cafe Hayek) provides his theories about jobs, unionization, inequality and the stratification of the economy. I will comment solely on his argument about unionization. He argues that unionization rates in the United States dropped on account of the movement away from labour intense work, such as manufacturing and agriculture. He argues that they had moved from...

You might have seen a recent post of mine commenting on the fact that polls show that Obama has substantially more support amongst most countries in Europe than Mr McCain does (quelle surprise?). Anyway, I wish to refer you to an Op-Ed piece by Thom Friedman on him, indicating that Obama seems to have fairly good support in Egypt too. Oh, and if you haven't seen this piece (or this one) on how Japanese residents of Obama support Obama then have a look just for the...

Global Food Crisis vs. Pop GrowthAnother person doesn't seem to understand Malthus properly, or modern development economics. The capabilities of hybrid seeds and fertilizer (NYT) in Sub-Saharan Africa (read this comment on the NYT article for a critique, Jeffrey Sachs and other support this, De Long and others are more skeptical, Rodrik gives some good commentary.) are completely avoided by the article. Mashimbye comments:I know that economists, sociologists, psychologists,...

Biti Arrested & Charged with TreasonMDC Leaders ArrestedMbeki Firm on Zim StanceDA: Mbeki must rebuke Zim villainsVote for MDC is a vote for warMugabe deploys war vetsMbeki says that "We will also continue to argue that the people of Zimbabwe will have to unite to extricate their country from the economic crisis in which it is immersed, and that we will contribute everything we can to support the realisation of this objective."Firstly, the crisis is not only ECONOMIC!...

Kaushik Basu is giving a series of lectures here at UniSi as a chair of Economics and Ethics for Collegio St. Chiara. He gave his first lecture today, which was a theory-based seminar on a paper, which includes a model that he and a student of his have constructed on child labour in which consumer boycotting can result in negative outcomes for the household. The main counterintuitive result that they present is the fact that increased boycotts can result in a lowered...

Something which has been hot in the science news of late. If you haven't read it, the please do it is one of the most important pieces of work to have been undertaken in some time and provides incredible evidence for evolution at play. Also, read Mike's commentary on this he gives some cool insights and it makes it easier for me not to have to worry about convincing you of the relevance of this study....

Here are a couple novels of late (past few months), which I enjoyed a fair amount, but didn't managed to finish. The one is Bret Easton Ellis's Lunar Park. I enjoyed some of it, but it just didn't seem to have the energy of his earlier books, it seemed more self indulgent and a bit staid, as if he were trying to do the whole drugs and sex thing he'd done in other novels, but with a depressed, middle aged, I don't know, mien? I read and read, and then I just really...

Hints of structure beyond the known universeWhy the brain follows rules'Logical Proof' of the Existence of a Divine Creator (Sorry but I had to put that in quotes, hat tip to Mike, central argument of this piece is that 10 000 buildings can't build themselves, a variant on the 'spontaneous Boeing 747 argument, the author seemingly hasn't read enough science, evolutionary biology or chemistry). Anticipating the Future to 'See' the Present, more on visual perception,...

Have a look at this. Absolutely fantastic....

Haruki Murakami is one of my favourite contemporary fiction writers. From Dance, Dance, Dance to Norwegian Wood to Kafka on the Shore his writing is sublime. This article from The Guardian is an extract from his essay on running What I talk about when I talk about running, which itself is a play on the title of Raymond Carver's legendary collection of short stories, What we talk about when we talk about love, which, if you haven't read it, you should!...

Ok, so one of the topics in the course for which I have an exam soon has some references to Hayek. I have thoroughly enjoyed the articles of his that I read, The Use of Knowledge in Society and The Pretence of Knowledge. The latter was his Nobel address. Probably my favourite quote in the Nobel address was "I prefer true but imperfect knowledge, even if it leaves much indetermined and unpredictable, to a pretence of exact knowledge that is likely to be false." He is...

I learned today of a friend's father's passing away. I sometimes wish I knew more to say. When things like this happen to me, when deep emotional occurrences sweep me into their embrace I often feel it is necessary to go to poetry, or to music. But poetry especially.The poem below is by one of my favourite poets, Galway Kinnell. He wrote it for his sister. It can be my condolence. We are with you my friend. Our love and affection are with you, even from distant...

So I am not a Hillary supporter. Personally, I support Barack Obama. Not that this is particularly relevant for a South African, but nevertheless. The video below though is particularly disturbing in terms of how people in the media in the US have and, in all likelihood, will continue to contribute to the oppression of women in power. It really is despicable. Sexism Sells -- But We're Not Buying...

For all those fans of the academy out there, take a look at this debate between Sam and Milton in 1990. It was a part of Friedman's revamp of his 1980 series 'Free to Choose'. Download it and then fast forward to around the 30th minute....

In the picture above you have (L to R): Sebastian, Burak, Ana, Erik, Me and Sladjana. Erik took us out for lunch, the lucky ones who decided to 'indulge' him. He was indulging us more like it! In discussions of theories of (distributive) justice, what constitutes exploitation (Roemerian,or Marxist, or whatever) and a host of other things from a discussionof his trip to South Africa last year, spending time in Soweto andother stuff (e.g. inheritance laws). Anyway, I...