Here’s a pile of links I’d bookmarked for myself; realistically I’m not going to be able to write insightful commentary on most of them but thought I’d share anyway.
WSJ Opinion - An American has a stroke while visiting London and contrasts US and UK healthcare.
Cafe Hayek - A six part series on income inequality (this links to part 6).
Brad Setser comments on Bernake’s global savings glut theory (re: savings rates, asset inflation and low interest rates).
Cafe Hayek - The “Beef - it’s what’s for dinner” type ads are actually a congressionally organized mandatory program - beef producers are required by law to contribute to this advertising.
Calculated Risk has many, many excellent posts on the housing market. This is the latest -http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2005/06/when-bubble-will-burst.html
Arnold Kling at Econlog finds some interesting data on economic success of immigrants.
Also fromEconlog, commentary on “[T]he more things improve the louder become the exclamations about their badness.”
Tyler Cowen’s followup to Freakonomics: Why does crack precipitate so much more crime than other drugs? - http://crookedtimber.org/2005/05/23/looking-forward/
Tyler Cowen - Do immigrants depress wages?
Tyler Cowen - The economics of urban decline.
Intelligent commentary on the estate tax (as opposed to mine) -
Tyler Cowen, The Becker-Posner Blog (1 , 2)
Tyler Cowen - Some interesting technical research on effective advertising; how do people remember their actual experience with a product vs. what advertising has told them? “[C]onsumers cannot recall whether a memory orginates from a genuine consumption experience or from exposure to advertising…advertisers will concentrate their efforts on past customers, because experienced consumers will be more likely to trust that their positive feelings toward the brand are genuine.”
Zimran Ahmed - Deterrence, Game Theory, and the Geneva Convention
Zimran Ahmed - A sweet graph of US marginal tax rates. I know I’ve been consulting too long when I admiringly say “sweet graph” after seeing a chart that efficiently communicates a clear message.
Zimran Ahmed - Measured IQ has increased significantly over time. What are the implications?
Always Low Prices - What is the effect of passing ‘living wage’ laws?
Ed Felten - Dissecting how a worm spreads across the internet
Two great Coyoteblog posts on teaching -
The teacher salary myth
Great Moments in Mediocrity:
Energy Outlook gives the most readable explanation of gasification that I’ve seen to date. This will become more important as petroluem and natural gas prices continue to rise (they are structurally very unlikely to go down over the long term) and the US refocuses on using some of it’s enormous domestic coal reserves.