I haven’t linked to the Baby Name Wizard in awhile. . . . Laura Wattenberg takes a look at the question, “Does a hard-to-pronounce baby name hurt you?” Critical thinking without “debunking”—-this is the way to go.
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Posted inArticle
Primary election fraud rumor
Two different people pointed me to this discussion of a claim of fraud in primary elections. I can’t even figure out what they’re claiming, so I won’t even try to evaluate the claims. If nothing else, it’s an interesting example of intensity of beliefs. It’s probably a good thing that people can put this sort […]
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Charles Murray on the new upper class
1. I was unfair to call him a Tucker Carlson. 2. Murray talks a lot about upper-class liberals. That’s fine but I think his discussion would be improved by also considering upper-class conservatives, given that I see the big culture war occurring within the upper class. 3. Using the case of Joe Paterno as an […]
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What the sophisticates thought in September 2008
James Fallows writes, “Try to think back to when sophisticated people thought that Sarah Palin was the key to Republican victory.” All I can say is, Fallows wasn’t hanging out with the right sort of sophisticates! Overall, Fallows’s article seems fine to me; I was just struck by that offhand remark about Palin. I have […]
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Lingsanity
I remember when I heard that Ronald Reagan had appointed a guy named Ling to be Secretary of Agriculture, I thought, Cool—-he appointed an Asian. Then it turned out that it was actually a white guy named Lyng.
Posted inEducation in America
Progress in U.S. education; also, a discussion of what it takes to hit the op-ed pages
Howard Wainer writes: When we focus only on the differences between groups, we too easily lose track of the big picture. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the current public discussions of the size of the gap in test scores that is observed between racial groups. It has been noted that in New Jersey […]
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A tax on inequality, or a tax to keep inequality at the current level?
My sometime coauthor Aaron Edlin cowrote (with Ian Ayres) an op-ed recommending a clever approach to taxing the rich. In their article they employ a charming bit of economics jargon, using the word “earn” to mean “how much money you make.” They “propose an automatic extra tax on the income of the top 1 percent […]
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Reporting of the economy
Jay Livingston considers how different news organizations are spinning the recent news of 2.8% economic growth. The Houston Chronicle splits the difference with the headline, “Is 2.8% GDP growth good news? Texas Democrats say it is, Republicans say it’s a fluke.” And, unsurprisingly, Fox News described the 2.8% as “modest.” Livingston was surprised, however, to […]
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Meta-analysis, game theory, and incentives to do replicable research
One of the key insights of game theory is to solve problems in reverse time order. You first figure out what you would do in the endgame, then decide a middle-game strategy to get you where you want to be at the end, then you choose an opening that will take you on your desired […]
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Convenient page of data sources from the Washington Post
Wayne Folta points us to this list.