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
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
A few updates
1. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is still not really going anywhere in the Pronunciation Theory of Geopolitics stakes. The newsreaders still don't give a crap, even though the Pronunciation Unit has apparently given guidance on how to pronounce it. The most recent radio broadcast I heard might have been considered a rise in his stock, as they appear to have started doing a Hebrew "h" at the start of his name, which is typically the first baby step British newsreaders make in the direction of making any effort to get a Middle Eastern name right. However it's no real improvement - all it does is turn "I'm a dinner jacket" into "Ach! I'm a dinner jacket".
2. First week back after half term at the Thomas Deacon Academy and still no real signs of local protest. I was close to declaring books closed on this one, but this story, indicating that Dr McMurdo has something of a my-way-or-the-highway approach to exclusions and thus might not be much of a democrat when it comes to his pet scheduling idea, means that I'm going to keep monitoring it at least until the New Year. Apologies to my readers for this; fun fact, despite my constant picking of fights and fellow travelling with evil, this topic is far and away the biggest email generator in the history of D^2D, the majority complaining that it is extremely boring.
3. "European Institute For The Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism" - still nish. I think Pollard is on holiday at the moment, so with any luck he will come back with all guns blazing and launch before Christmas. In the meantime, I am noticing a distressing tendency in some corners to demand that other people recognise Israel's right to exist "as a Jewish State", rather than simply "right to exist". I don't know what this additional caveat means (rather as I didn't understand what the craze of a couple of years ago for referring to "Eretz Israel" in English journalism rather than to the State of Israel) and I must say I'm rather suspicious of it.
PS: what about the Freakonomics review and the natural resource curse post? well, keep an eye on Crooked Timber.Labels: hobby horses
this item posted by the management 11/06/2007 02:25:00 AM
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