Yesterday, a U.S. Navy destroyer helped the crew of a North Korean freighter recapture their vessel from a band of marauding pirates off the coast of Somalia. It’s an unusual news item, not because piracy is rare — around the world, pirate attacks have surged over the last decade — but because we’re more used [...]

I was in Mexico City the other day, giving a talk at a conference sponsored by the Mexican Stock Exchange, which is considering going public. The conference was primarily an educational one (except for my talk). Among the big issues of the day: offering Mexican investors some of the shiny financial instruments that Americans are [...]

(Photo: Scott Adams)
Last week, we solicited your questions for Dilbert creator and author Scott Adams. Here are his answers. They are great, and so were your questions; thanks to Scott and thanks to you. Here’s what I found most interesting:
1. From his answers, Scott Adams would appear to be a poster boy (poster man?) for [...]

An interesting article written by Jeremy Hsu on Scienceline.org does further damage to the Spinning Dancer’s already damaged reputation.

Magazine introduces “pay what you want” subscriptions. (Earlier)
Which U.S. natural disasters have been the most expensive? (Earlier)
Do “superagents” really exist in professional sports?
Could Google’s slides spell the end of PowerPoint? (Earlier)

Congratulations to my friend and colleague Gary Becker who will receive the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. He’ll have to find a place in his trophy cabinet, which already has a Nobel Prize, a National Medal of Science, the John Bates Clark Medal, and sixteen honorary doctorates.
No economist of Becker’s [...]

I have a favorite thought exercise: look at an issue that’s important, complex, and interesting — something like healthcare, education, or electoral politics — and pretend that you could rebuild the system from scratch, without the convoluted histories and incentives that currently exist.
What would the new system look like? How differently would you think about [...]

Some Red Sox fans are doubly happy this week: not only did their team win a World Series, but they also get a rebate on the furniture they bought during a special Red Sox incentive deal last spring.
Hopefully none of them got a brown couch whose color is described, on its tag, with the use [...]

Video

It is fairly well known by now that Levitt has more than a passing interest in poker, and he’s occasionally shown some promise.
(His blackjack skills, meanwhile, are subject to debate.)
It is also well-established that, as a parent, he’s less interested in reading a standard bedtime story than in teaching his kids to think creatively [...]

The major news media (see for instance here and here) have been reporting recently on the hypothesis that banning lead from gasoline caused a reduction in crime. This follows a similar article in the Washington Post a few months ago, which I blogged about at the time.
Since a lot of people have written to us [...]

Huge percentage of world’s births & deaths go undocumented.
Making your baby smarter: the myths continue. (Earlier)
Should paying line-standers to hold seats at Congressional hearings be banned?
Happiness levels linked to race. (Earlier)

I saw some “organic beef jerky” at the grocery store today.
Are there actually people who eat beef jerky who care whether it is organic?
Next up we’ll have organic chewing tobacco and organic Pringles.

That’s the question asked by the Wharton economists Fernando Ferreira and Joseph Gyourko. But they are not talking about national political parties. In that realm, party affiliation has indeed been shown to have a strong effect on legislation and policy. No, Ferreira and Gyourko are interested in whether party affiliation matters on the local level [...]

I made a quick visit to Los Angeles last week, in an attempt to jump start my languishing acting career. (I’ll let you figure out whether I’m joking. If you aren’t sure, ask someone who knows me.) Here’s how I always know I am in L.A., and not at the University of Chicago:
1. Everyone [...]

Female economist works to found Ethiopian commodities market. (Earlier)
Nintendo decides against Wii price cut. (Earlier)
Sports fans convinced their actions can bring good luck to their teams.
Stanford professor to lecture on “a world without agriculture.”