I just finished reading Tim Harford's book, "The Undercover Economist" and can heartily recommend it to anyone who has even the slightest interest in how all sorts of markets work from coffee shops, supermarkets, to sulfur and carbon emissions markets all the way through national economic policy surrounding globalization and free-trade. The subtitle reads "Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, Why the Poor Are Poor--And Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car!" As the Economist magazine quotes inside the front cover, it's really "A playful guide to the economics of everyday life." The whole book is a witty and quick 250 page read. I would even go so far as to say that it is probably the best, most witty and readable articulation of fundamental economics principles that I have come across. And while I enjoyed Steven Levitt's Freakonomics book, this one was much better at articulating and detailing fundamental principles. Now many folks might be put off by that description, but trust me, the whole work is an engaging read with stories and anecdotes that relate the principles in the process, quite unlike any boring textbook on the subjects. Here is ...

Last week's post on the Globalization of Leadership ended with a clarion-call for change. Given that the entire US economy is built upon a foundation of energy and energy policy, it makes sense to start looking there to see where the biggest economic levers lie.  Here, I offer a somewhat more analytical approach than can be found in the general media.

The older I get, the more I am a believer in the power of free markets.  The natural balancing and moderating influences of free trade have been fundamental to our nation's economic power and health.   I'm also a big believer in exposing people to what this means in their daily lives as early as possible.  So I couldn't resist forwarding this post from Janet over at her "Adventures in Science and Ethics" blog entitled "I owe my soul to the classroom store."

Did anyone else happen to notice the new buildings going up in Dubai?  I mean besides the giant artificial islands they have been creating in the gulf over the last several years. The nearly completed Burj Dubai is now the world's tallest building, a true marvel of architecture, Art, design, engineering, and initiative.  And oh yes, it is a beacon that screams of the fantastic economic wealth that underpins the great endeavor.

I came across this graphic this morning, which really tells the story of the decline and fall of television news. Check out "30 Minutes with CNN." What is worse, there are other "news" stations that are worse, having mostly replaced factual reporting with talking heads screaming at each other.(click on image for larger version)With all of the news now ad-supported, the key financial goal of the "news stations" has become to keep viewers watching as long as possible so they see as many commercials as possible. Sadly, Americans would rather be entertained than informed, and so departed the news, international first, and then almost everything else.It would seem to me that there MUST be an opportunity for a next-gen CNN with more factual reporting, even if we real news wonks have become a tiny niche...

Sometimes the right picture is worth more than a thousand words. There's a fine art to representing data to clearly illuminate an issue, and this one takes my nomination for the graph of the year. This graphic comparing our government's nutritional recommendations to its actual spending tells the story of money (from lobbyists) over morals. Hat tip to Sean over at Cosmic Variance and Ezra Klein.

Here's an interesting chart via Ohm Malik's blog on the OECD telecommunications outlook report on the cost of broadband Internet in different countries. It's an interesting metric on industrialization. Sadly, we're not looking so good.

Hi all,Sorry for the recent sparseness in postings. Work got crazy for a bit, and now I'm in Davos Switzerland for the World Economic Forum as MobiTV was chosen as one of the Technology Pioneers of 2006.More to come next week on how we techies got a chance to to rub elbows with the powerful and try to explain how technology could help make the world a better place.

Judging by a recent paper from the Journal of Economic Perspectives, it would appear that I stand in good stead if I ever want a job in economics accedemia, and I have my father to thank for it.And no, it's not just because he was such a great dad and taught me how to fend for myself and all. Not that he didn't help set me on numerous paths of opportunity. He did indeed. But one step would appear to have accrued simply from sticking with the country's naming tradition.A paper entitled "What's in a Surname? The Effect of Surname Initials on Academic Success" by Liran Einav and Leeat Yariv (of Stanford and Caltech)showed some rather comprehensive data that showed measurable advantage to those with names starting with letters earlier in the Alphabet.The more elite the selection criteria, the more the bias was evident. Check out the paper.In retrospect, I can remember that just through the happenstance of my last name, I usually ended up first in or second in line whenever a class was organized, and got to start projects earlier than most. Maybe that sort of things add up. So all you teachers ...

Check out the Death and Taxes Poster in this zoomable Flash applet. It's not the easiest interpretation to decipher, but it is packed with visually interesting information, and does attempt to show relative budgets by the circle sizes. (Also note that this just covers the discretionary budget that is voted on, and approved every year, and does not include service on ongoing programs like Social Security). Here are a couple excerpts related to some of our recent foreign endeavors:And on the domestic front:If all that doesn't already depress you, just note that the circle for the national debt of over $9.3 trillion is larger than the entire chart in its expanded form. Wasn't fiscal discipline supposed to be a fundamental plank of the Republican party? What happened?