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1.Time for the Kids? A Teaser and a Bleg (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
Today's parents are spending dramatically more time on childcare than their parents did. What's more, this rise has disproportionately occurred among those with the most education.
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2.Today in Aptonyms (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
A well-named plant scientist recently weighed in on the European Commission's decision to "to allow genetically modified potato varieties to be grown in some European Union countries."
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3.Should Fashion be Protected by Copyright Laws? A Guest Post (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
Last week, Kal Raustiala and Chris Sprigman took us behind the scenes of fashion copycatting, and explained why the practice is actually good for the fashion industry. This week, they explore historical and current efforts to protect fashion from copy...
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4.Inside The Hurt Locker Suits (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
Foreign Policy's recent photoessay offers readers a look at life on real Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams.
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5.Job Creation: Myth vs. Reality (www.britannica.com)
Since December 2007 the U.S. economy has lost 8.5 million jobs. In 2009 the federal government’s massive economic stimulus bill tried to create jobs through spending on physical infrastructure projects, such as roads and bridges.
Now the U.S. Congres...
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6.Economic reform in Malaysia: Out with the new (www.economist.com)
Najib wavers over undoing affirmative-action policiesWHEN Najib Razak took office last April as Malaysia’s prime minister, the timing could hardly have been worse. The export-led economy was in recession. The ruling coalition was in the dumps aft...
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7.Emergency Room Myths (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
The overutilization of emergency rooms is often cited as a dangerous symptom of America's broken healthcare system. But a new Slate article from Zachary Meisel and Jesse Pines offers a rosier picture of emergency room usage, and dispels several pervas...
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8.Quotes Uncovered: The Real McCoy and Acting Locally (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
Each week, I've been inviting readers to submit quotations whose origins they want me to try to trace, using my book, The Yale Book of Quotations, and my more recent research. Here is the latest round.
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9.Last Words (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
Last words on death row.
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10.The Shade Premium (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
A new pricing scheme for Miami Dolphins tickets.
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11.Correction: Bank administrative costs (www.economist.com)
The administrative costs per $1m lent by the World Bank and the International Development Bank during 2009 were $20,600 and $15,314 respectively, not $19,000 and $26,833 (“Cap in hand”, March 6th). And despite "general consensus", sharehold...
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12.Chinese local-government debt: Shell game (www.economist.com)
Beijing signals a crackdown on borrowing by local governmentsENDLESS arcane pronouncements spew forth from China’s bureaucracies. But some matter much more than others. In recent weeks a number of the country’s senior leaders and regulators...
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13.Labour markets: Distemper (www.economist.com)
Temporary work may dim future employment prospectsIS ANY job better than no job? Some research has suggested that unemployed workers should take up any job they can get, including temporary work, as a bridge to higher-paying employment. But what may be...
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14.Economics focus: The inflation solution (www.economist.com)
The merits of inflation as a solution to the rich world’s problems are easily overstatedIT HAS long been considered a scourge, an obstacle to investment and a tax on the thrifty. It seems strange, then, that inflation is now touted as a solution ...
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15.MetLife buys Alico: Snoopy sniffs an opportunity (www.economist.com)
AIG reluctantly hands its crown as America’s global life insurer to MetLifeANOTHER week, another opportunity for AIG’s rivals to expand at the American insurer’s expense. Days after sealing a $35.5 billion deal for its Asian life-insu...
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16.Spanish banks: All talk, no walk (www.economist.com)
A financial system in suspenseTHAT old Spanish stereotype of putting things off until manana still applies today. For nearly two years bankers have been talking about the need to restructure a bloated financial system, particularly the country’s ...
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17.Microinsurance: Security for shillings (www.economist.com)
Insuring crops with a mobile phoneONE of the things holding back agriculture in developing countries is the unwillingness of farmers with small plots of land to invest in better seed and fertiliser. Only half of Kenyan farmers buy improved seed or spen...
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18.Sovereign debt and the euro: All for one (www.economist.com)
Eurocrats offer up half-baked ideas to prevent a future sovereign-debt scareNOW that Greece has given in to pressure from its peers for a more austere budget, the euro zone’s policy brass suddenly seems more sympathetic towards its most troubled ...
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19.Buttonwood: Apocalypse, not now (www.economist.com)
The alarming future for Japan's financesCASSANDRA’S curse was that her warnings would never be believed. Doom-mongers in the Japanese government-bond market have suffered a milder fate: they were just far, far too early.The trade has seemed obvio...
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20.Equality or Flexibility? (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
Transactions costs are involved in most small-scale activities we engage in. Living in a country, and coping with its institutions, also involves transaction costs.
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21.14.71 Economic History of Financial Crises (MIT) (www.pheedcontent.com)
Provides a historical perspective on the determinants and consequences of economic growth. Changes in population, education, technology, institutions, business organization, financial markets, labor markets, and government regulation are examined. Focu...
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22.A Reversal of the "Missing Women" Phenomenon? (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
In at least one Asian country, however, there's reason to believe the missing women phenomenon may someday disappear. South Korean parents, who have historically preferred sons, are now more likely to express a preference for daughters.
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23.Who Drives Better, Men or Women? (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
We've established that men are more likely to take the wheel when a couple rides together, but should we care? I say we should. Aside from the cultural, sociological and psychological implications, the gender driving disparity might be costing us lives...
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24.Synchronicity (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
A splendid graph, showing high-frequency data on water consumption in Edmonton during the men's Olympic hockey final (on February 28), and comparing it with the rather smoother pattern seen the day before.
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25.An Organic Discount? (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
For most products, an "organic" label results in a significant price premium. However, a new study finds that the opposite is true for California wines labeled as "made from organically grown grapes."
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