Monthly Archives: April 2008

Securitized mortgage lending has disappeared

Posted on April 30, 2008 by NC

From a recent presentation by Peter Hooper, Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank Securities: A picture worth a thousand words?

Posted in Clippings, Economics, Finance and Investments | Leave a comment

Transportation costs and local manufacturing

Posted on April 26, 2008 by NC

A question from Yahoo! Answers: Will higher fuel prices lead to more manufacturing and agriculture in the US.? For decades cheap transportation has made globalization possible. Quality manufacturers were always global. You still have to go to Italy to get … Continue reading →

Posted in Answers, Economics, History | 1 Comment

Swapping images dynamically

Posted on April 25, 2008 by NC

In response to a question from Yahoo! Answers, here’s a little JavaScript snippet that dynamically (and randomly) swaps images: For those who want to see how it works, here’s an HTML file with relevant code.

Posted in Answers, Technology | 1 Comment

Brad DeLong’s slides on China

Posted on April 24, 2008 by NC

Brad DeLong posts a lot of interesting slides on the state of the Chinese economy…

Posted in Clippings, Economics | Leave a comment

Paul Krugman’s backstory of “Limits to Growth”

Posted on April 24, 2008 by NC

Paul Krugman writes: I’ve been getting some correspondence asking me where today’s resource concerns fit with the old “Limits to growth” stuff that received a lot of publicity 30+ years ago. Actually, there’s a bit of a backstory there. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Clippings, Economics, History | Leave a comment

Making WordPress Private

Posted on April 23, 2008 by NC

Every once in a while, it may be necessary to build a WordPress-powered site only accessible to registered users. Interestingly, a very simple theme hack can take care of this. All you need to do is to include the following … Continue reading →

Posted in Random, Technology | Leave a comment

Dani Rodrik on financial innovation and financial crises

Posted on April 21, 2008 by NC

Dani Rodrik writes: Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff’s new paper (summary here) makes the obvious but important point that financial globalization and financial crises are related. In their words, “Periods of high international capital mobility have repeatedly produced international banking … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | Leave a comment

Outsourcing to India: the other side

Posted on April 21, 2008 by NC

About two years ago, Brad DeLong mused about outsourcing to India: So what will the U.S.’s comparative advantage be? And how will it use that comparative advantage as a base to keep upgrading the productivity of America’s workers? To which … Continue reading →

Posted in Business | Leave a comment

Paul Krugman wants to be a songwriter

Posted on April 17, 2008 by NC

Paul Krugman writes: Oh my God. How could I have missed the fact that Suzanne Vega is blogging for the Times? In my next life I want to be a songwriter — precisely because I can’t imagine how it’s done. … Continue reading →

Posted in Clippings, Random | Leave a comment

Eugenics and evolutionary theory

Posted on April 13, 2008 by NC

A question from Askville: Is eugenics rooted in and inspired by evolutionary theory? The New Oxford American Dictionary defines eugenics as “the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Developed … Continue reading →

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