The Awl has a good article about how Wikipedia, and Web 2.0 in general, have changed the way that knowledge is generated and accessed. Maria Bustillos fleshes out the implications of Wikipedia quite well, and as I will explain below, economics can benefit from open knowledge: By empowering readers and observers with transparent access to [...]
Archive for May, 2011
Opening Economics: Wikipedia, the Rise of Pluralism, and the WEA
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Alternatives, Economic Debates on May 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The sun is the best disinfectant
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Alternatives on May 18, 2011 | 1 Comment »
I tend to believe that most people prefer to avoid making consumption choices that lead to environmental degradation, exploitation of laborers, or financial crisis. The problem is that we often do so without knowing it, and thus entire genres of investigative journalism come about to expose these situations. The list is literally endless. The problem [...]
They Never Cared About Unemployment
Posted in Uncategorized on May 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Mark Thoma posts the following chart (via Derek Thompson) to show that folks are “forgetting about the unemployed”: Chris Hayes quips, “well, there you have it: unemployment’s over.” What’s striking, though, is that even in January of 2010, when unemployment was over 10%, deficits received equal mention as unemployment. The media is certainly culpable here, [...]
Faulty Towers
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged higher education on May 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
William Deresiewicz provides the best review of literature and issues concerning the crisis in American higher education that I have ever read. His article includes an analysis of the economics of higher education, which he argues is mirroring the broader American economy with a shrinking middle class and increasingly wealthy upper class. He discusses the [...]
Wal-Mart to DC: a Zero-Sum Game
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Labor on May 11, 2011 | 1 Comment »
About 6 months ago, Wal-Mart announced plans to open up 4 stores in my current place of residence, the District of Columbia. My immediate inclination was that this was problematic- Wal-Mart would certainly create jobs, but it would also destroy others. Absent good data on whether the creation would exceed the destruction, I surmised, it [...]
