Economics and similar, for the sleep-deprived
A subtle change has been made to the comments links, so they no longer pop up. Does this in any way help with the problem about comments not appearing on permalinked posts, readers?
Update: seemingly not
Update: Oh yeah!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Stands still the clock at ten to three? And is the Economist Big Mac index still fundamentally misconceived?
I think this year must mark the fifteenth anniversary of my first letter to the Economist pointing out that the Big Mac is, in fact, not a homogeneous commodity worldwide - it differs from country to country in fat content, calorific value and even weight, according to local tastes. Thinking about it, the Big Mac Index can plausibly claim to be the major methodological forerunner of Freakonomics, as it combines the two methodological techniques of choosing "quirky" instruments more valuable for their amusement value than their validity, and not checking anything to see whether it's economically meaningful.
Trivia point: Nick Leeson claimed to be able to distinguish the Big Macs sold in different SouthEast Asian countries in a blind test. I am not sure how the logistics of this one might have worked so it might be apocryphal.Labels: hobby horses
this item posted by the management 9/25/2009 10:10:00 AM
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