Monday, December 31, 2007
extremism and social learning
Glaeser and Sunstein on Credulous Bayesian learning.
http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/glaeser/files/socproof19.pdf
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Econ 311 Greg Mankiw's Blog: A Homework Problem from China
A Homework Problem from China
Chapter 9 of my favorite textbook presents the standard analysis of a tariff (a tax on imports) and shows that it reduces economic welfare as measured by the sum of producer surplus, consumer surplus, and tax revenue. Even though the tariff makes domestic producers better off and raises some revenue for the government, these gains are more than offset by losses to consumers, leading to a deadweight loss.
This news story suggests a good homework problem extending the analysis:
This news story suggests a good homework problem extending the analysis:
China, the world's biggest grain producer, will tax exports of wheat, corn and rice to increase domestic supply and control rising food prices. Exporters of wheat will start paying a 20 percent tax on Jan. 1, while the tax for corn and rice was set at 5 percent, the Finance Ministry said.Draw the graph that describes the market for grain in an exporting country (assume that with respect to these grains China is a small country). Use your graph to answer the following questions.
- How does an export tax affect domestic grain prices?
- How does it affect the welfare of domestic consumers?
- How does it affect the welfare of domestic producers?
- How does it affect government revenue?
- What happens to total welfare in China, as measured by the sum of consumer surplus, producer surplus, and tax revenue?
- How does the analysis change in the five parts above if China is a large country with respect to these grains?
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Dad's computer has a max of 2GB of memory. Currently it is running on 1GB total.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=1052308477&Configurator=MemoryConfigurator&CFG=CFG003Dimension+2400+Series&name=2GB+(2+x+1GB)
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Dad's computer has a max of 2GB of memory. It currently is using 1GB in two slots.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Roger's Rules: Will Smith, Hitler, and the perils of benevolence
Benevolence is a curious creature. Its operation tends to be more beneficent the more specific it is. This was a point that James Fitzjames Stephen, the great nineteenth-century critic of John Stuart Mill, made in his book Liberty, Equality, Fraternity:
The man who works from himself outwards, [Stephen wrote] whose conduct is governed by ordinary motives, and who acts with a view to his own advantage and the advantage of those who are connected with himself in definite, assignable ways, produces in the ordinary course of things much more happiness to others … than a moral Don Quixote who is always liable to sacrifice himself and his neighbors. On the other hand, a man who has a disinterested love of the human race—that is to say, who has got a fixed idea about some way of providing for the management of the concerns of mankind—is an unaccountable person … who is capable of making his love for men in general the ground of all sorts of violence against men in particular.
Political correctness tends to breed the sort of unaccountability that Stephen warns against. At its center is a union of abstract benevolence, which takes mankind as a whole for its object, with rigid moralism. It is a toxic, misery-producing brew.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
» Keep your cool when cleaning a glossy-screen Mac | The Apple Core | ZDNet.com
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
The Adversarial Campus (Originals)
December 17, 2007
The Adversarial Campus
By Mark Bauerlein
Against repeated accusations of leftwing bias on campus, professors have mounted many rejoinders disputing one or another item in the indictment. They claim that the disproportion isn't as high as reports say. Or that reports focus on small pockets (women's studies, etc.). Or that party registration is a crude indicator. Or that conservatives are too greedy and obtuse to undergo academic training.
The denials go on, and sometimes it's hard to tell whether professors really believe in their own neutrality or whether they just hope to brazen out the attacks. One response, however, stands apart, precisely because it doesn't deny a darn thing in the bias charge. Indeed, it concedes every empirical point - "Yes, left-wing people, left-wing ideas, and left-wing texts dominate," but it adds, "And that's exactly as it should be."
It's a refreshingly straightforward assertion. I heard it at an MLA Convention session awhile back when a young man in the audience talked about getting shot down by his professor when he voiced in class a conservative opinion. One of the panelists replied by telling him to quit complaining, then enlarged the rebuke to all conservative critics. "Look," he grumbled, "conservatives have taken over every where else [this was before the 2006 election], and now they want the campus, too, the one place where liberal values can still prevail."
I'm paraphrasing from memory, but the implication was unmistakable. We need the campus to remain solidly liberal to keep conservatism from swamping the entire present. We might call this the Adversarial Campus Argument. It says that the campus must contest the mainstream, that higher education must critique U.S. culture and society because they have drifted rightward. For the intellectual and moral health of the nation, the professoriate must drift leftward. Kids come into college awash in the three idols that, in the eyes of the teaching liberal, make up the American trinity: God, country, and family. Instruction meets its mind-opening duty by dislodging their acculturation, dismantling the dangerous corollaries of each one, namely, fundamentalism, patriotism, and patriarchy/homophobia.
Several points against the Adversarial Campus Argumetn spring to mind, but a single question explodes it. If Democrats won the White House in 08 and enlarged their majorities in Congress, and if a liberal replaced Scalia on the Supreme Court, would adversarial professors adjust their turf accordingly? Would Hillary in the White House bring Bill Kristol a professorship or Larry Summers a presidency again?
Hardly, and it goes to show that the Adversarial Campus Argument isn't really an argument. It's an attitude. And attitudes aren't overcome by evidence, especially when they do so much for people who bear them. For, think of what the Adversarial Campus does for professors. It flatters the ego, ennobling teachers into dissidents and gadflies. They feel underpaid and overworked, mentally superior but underappreciated, and any notion that compensates is attractive. It gives their isolation from zones of power, money, and fame a functional value. Yes, they're marginal, but that's because they impart threatening ideas. The powerlessness they feel rises into a meaningful political condition.
This is why professors get so upset over the bias issue. It touches a delicate formation. And so, when conservatives enter bias debates with professors, they should realize that not only do they argue over political opinions and campus turf. The academic personality is at stake, and the figures who threaten it can only appear downright offensive.
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Mark Baulerlein is a Professor of English at Emory University and former Director
Monday, December 17, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Friday, December 07, 2007
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
FW: Motorola RAZR V3 + Bluetooth + Powerbook = Bad Ass
------ Forwarded Message
From: Gerald McIntyre <mcintyre@oxy.edu>
Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2007 23:30:15 -0800
To: Gerald McIntyre <mcintyre@oxy.edu>
Conversation: Motorola RAZR V3 + Bluetooth + Powerbook = Bad Ass
Subject: Motorola RAZR V3 + Bluetooth + Powerbook = Bad Ass
From: Gerald McIntyre <mcintyre@oxy.edu>
Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2007 23:30:15 -0800
To: Gerald McIntyre <mcintyre@oxy.edu>
Conversation: Motorola RAZR V3 + Bluetooth + Powerbook = Bad Ass
Subject: Motorola RAZR V3 + Bluetooth + Powerbook = Bad Ass
http://www.shawnhogan.com/2004/12/motorola-razr-v3-bluetooth-powerbook.html
------ End of Forwarded Message
Monday, December 03, 2007
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Saturday, December 01, 2007
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