mwfogleman + economics   118

Why Black Market Entrepreneurs Matter to the World Economy | Wired Magazine | Wired.com
Robert Neuwirth: There’s a French word for someone who’s self-reliant or ingenious: débrouillard. This got sort of mutated in the postcolonial areas of Africa and the Caribbean to refer to the street economy, which is called l’économie de la débrouillardise—the self-reliance economy, or the DIY economy, if you will. I decided to use this term myself—shortening it to System D—because it’s a less pejorative way of referring to what has traditionally been called the informal economy or black market or even underground economy. I’m basically using the term to refer to all the economic activity that flies under the radar of government. So, unregistered, unregulated, untaxed, but not outright criminal—I don’t include gun-running, drugs, human trafficking, or things like that.

Wired: Certainly the people who make their living from illegal street stalls don’t see themselves as criminals.

Neuwirth: Not at all. They see themselves as supporting their family, hiring people, and putting their relatives through school—all without any help from the government or aid networks.

Wired: Why should we care?

Neuwirth: Half the workers of the world are part of System D. By 2020, that will be up to two-thirds. So, we’re talking about the majority of the people on the planet. In simple pragmatic terms, we’ve got to care about that.
commentary  economics  economy  taxation  china  america 
17 days ago by mwfogleman
James Wilson Obituary: The Obituary and Death Notice of James Wilson | Legacy.com
The ideas in his 1982 "Broken Windows" article in The Atlantic influenced successful community policing efforts in cities including New York and Los Angeles. Last month, Detroit announced it was beginning its own initiative.

"He's just clearly one of the foremost social scientists of the second half of the 20th century," Skerry said. "He was a very on-the-ground kind of scholar and brought a great insight and common sense to things."

Wilson and co-author George L. Kelling argued in The Atlantic article that communities must address minor crimes and their effects, such as broken windows, to prevent larger problems from developing.

"I think Jim and I caught a wind," Kelling said in an interview Friday. "Up until that time in policing, nothing seemed to work. ... By the late '70s, policing was kind of looking for a new approach and community policing was kind of on the horizon, although not yet being really articulated."

Kelling said the article instantly resonated with law enforcement and also caught the general public's attention because the "broken windows" metaphor was so effective.

"That was pure Wilson," said Kelling, now a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. "The thing about a metaphor is it takes a complex thing and simplifies it and makes it readily graspable."
metaphor  writing  crime  economics 
11 weeks ago by mwfogleman
Brian Basham: Beware corporate psychopaths – they are still occupying positions of power - Business Comment - Business - The Independent
"At one major investment bank for which I worked, we used psychometric testing to recruit social psychopaths because their characteristics exactly suited them to senior corporate finance roles."
banking  capitalism  corruption  economics 
january 2012 by mwfogleman
Hayek, The Use of Knowledge in Society | Library of Economics and Liberty
Wales cites Austrian School economist Friedrich von Hayek's essay "The Use of Knowledge in Society", which he read as an undergraduate,[16] as "central" to his thinking about "how to manage the Wikipedia project".[11]
economics  essay  information  knowledge  wikipedia 
december 2011 by mwfogleman
The Real Pirate Bay - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org
Set up a torrent tracker, get fined, go to jail.

Join a bank, destroy the economy, profit.

Let's draw out the distinction.

The Pirate Bay guys were criminally prosecuted for....violating (largely obsolete) copyright. Almost no one in finance has been held even civilly liable for vastly more economically damaging actions.

On the one hand, we have damages worth maybe (maybe) a few million. On the other, a few trillion.

On the one hand, innovation and better music is stifled - benefits are foregone. On the other, reform of a broken banking system is stifled - losses are incurred.

That's everything that's wrong with the economy in two sentences: the ongoing inability of today's leaders to deal with 21st century economics.
politics  comparison  distribution  internet  media  justice  economics  hypocrisy  economy  piratebay  bittorrent  finance  failure  financialcrisis  download  copyright  innovation  crisis  crime  legal  piracy  power 
april 2009 by mwfogleman
Overcoming Bias: On Liberty vs. Efficiency
The topic, as I see it, is the relative value/importance for economists of pushing "liberty," i.e., a policy of minimal government interference, and "efficiency," a standard policy evaluation metric that attempts to neutrally weigh policy consequences for different people.

I will choose in order to get what I want. But in my role as economic adviser, a role I admire and embrace, I will try to fairly and consistently suggest the most efficient deals, as the availability of such advisers offers a great opportunity for everyone to get more of what they want.

I accept that such deals may not always contain the most liberty possible, because while people do usually want liberty, all else equal, they often want other things that conflict with liberty. In my role as a neutral adviser, it is not my place to tell people they should want something other than they do want; my job is just to get them more of what they want.
economics  debate  argument  bias  truth  prediction  influence 
april 2009 by mwfogleman
The high costs of running YouTube. - By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine
It's possible that over the next few years, Google's engineers could find a way to reduce dramatically the costs of hosting such a service. (They're capable of amazing things.) But that proposition is iffy. As Wayne argues, there's a very real possibility that YouTube as we know it is doomed. The company may have to institute restrictions to keep its bandwidth in check, or it could unveil any number of pay-per-use schemes (as some other video sites have done). Then the video free-for-all that we've grown to love will come to an end.
That would be unfortunate. Time wasn't wrong: YouTube and its fellow user-contributed sites really did change the world. Too bad nobody could find a way to pay for it.
video  web2.0  advertising  content  bandwidth  entertainment  slate  businessmodel  bandwith  cost  socialmedia  digital  entrepreneurship  youtube  facebook  economy  business  article  internet  economics  media  google  technology  news  web 
april 2009 by mwfogleman
SourceWatch - SourceWatch
Welcome to SourceWatch—your guide to the names behind the news. SourceWatch is a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy to produce a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. A primary purpose of SourceWatch is documenting the PR and propaganda activities of public relations firms and public relations professionals engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy. SourceWatch also includes profiles on think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests. Over time, SourceWatch has broadened to include others involved in public debates including media outlets, journalists, government agencies, activists and nongovernmental organizations. Unlike some other wikis, SourceWatch has a policy of strict referencing, and is overseen by a paid editor.
politics  reference  culture  tools  business  blog  web2.0  news  wiki  activism  research  economics  media  government  journalism  propaganda  watchdog  sourcewatch  progressive  democracy  information  blogs  policy  resources  analysis  alternative  search  database  pr 
april 2009 by mwfogleman
BBC NEWS | UK | Attenborough warns on population
The broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has become a patron of a group seeking to cut the growth in human population.
BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin said population was a fraught area of debate, with libertarians and some religious groups vehemently opposing measures by governments to influence individual fertility.
In turn, the Trust accuses policy makers and environmentalists of conspiring in a "silent lie" that human numbers can grow forever with no ill-effects.
science  economics  atheism  environment  nature  bbc 
april 2009 by mwfogleman
Are Bicyclists Free Riders? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
Do bicyclists contribute their fair share to the transportation network? An Oregon lawmaker thinks not, and has proposed a law requiring cyclists to pay a $54 registration fee every two years. A Portland bike blog interviewed the lawmaker in question, who explained the proposal this way: “[B]ikes have used the roads in this state forever and have never contributed a penny. The only people that pay into the system are those people who buy motor vehicle licenses and registration fees.” Considering the enormous benefits of investments in bicycle infrastructure, can even a tax-hating bicyclist concede his point, at a registration cost of just over 7 cents a day?
biking  freakonomics  interesting  economics  transportation  taxation  taxes 
april 2009 by mwfogleman
The way Americans pay for college is a mess. Here's how to fix it. - By Eliot Spitzer - Slate Magazine
Promoting these "smart loans" as a way of making higher education universally available is worth the attention of the Obama administration and Congress.
politics  education  interesting  college  economics  finance  policy  friedman  slate  loans  spitzer 
march 2009 by mwfogleman
Overcoming Bias: RAND Health Insurance Experiment
So unless the marginal value of medicine has changed in the last thirty years, if you would not pay for medicine out of your own pocket, then don't bother to go when others offer to pay; on average such medicine is as likely to hurt as to help.
health  economics  statistics  medicine  overcomingbias  bias  healthcare 
january 2009 by mwfogleman
Op-Ed Columnist - Time to Reboot America - NYTimes.com
Generally, I’d like to see fewer government dollars shoveled out and more creative tax incentives to stimulate the private sector to catalyze new industries and new markets. If we allow this money to be spent on pork, it will be the end of us. America still has the right stuff to thrive. We still have the most creative, diverse, innovative culture and open society — in a world where the ability to imagine and generate new ideas with speed and to implement them through global collaboration is the most important competitive advantage. China may have great airports, but last week it went back to censoring The New York Times and other Western news sites. Censorship restricts your people’s imaginations. That’s really, really dumb. And that’s why for all our missteps, the 21st century is still up for grabs. John Kennedy led us on a journey to discover the moon. Obama needs to lead us on a journey to rediscover, rebuild and reinvent our own backyard.
politics  friedman  education  technology  usa  america  economics  economy  finance  ideas  recession  trends  us  favorites  depression 
december 2008 by mwfogleman
Depression: How You Label Determines How You Feel
In their fascinating study “Would you be happier if you were richer?”, published in Science, Princeton professors Alan Krueger and Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize for his work in behavioral economics, found that perhaps the best indicator of happiness was frequency of eating with friends and family.
psychology  science  economics  health  communication  timferriss  depression  thought  suicide  friends  personal  food  happiness  mind  brain  gratitude 
december 2008 by mwfogleman
Dirty Secret Of The Bailout: Thirty-Two Words That None Dare Utter
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency
huffpo  bailout  paulson  business  politics  crisis  recession  crime  fascism  republicans  election  america  usa  money  bush  economics  finance  corruption  democracy 
september 2008 by mwfogleman
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