M.B.A.s Are Usually Swimming in Job Offers by Now.
Not This Year.
Monday, August 31, 2020
Silence is Golden
COVID-19 transmission would go down if we spoke
less, or less loudly, in public spaces
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Seeing the Lighter Side of Things
Teaching Modalities for Fall Semester - David Galef
offers a facetious look at the different ways of offering courses at U of All
People.
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/08/28/facetious-look-different-ways-offering-courses-fall-opinion
“Face/No Face: Combination of live and online teaching spitballed by remote administrators to regain lost revenue. Teachers address live, huddled-apart students while frantically eyeballing the rest of the class via thumbnail views on laptop. Live students must wear masks and are discouraged from nosers or neck-warmer styles. Online students must be at least half-attentive since they will form the next live group, when the formerly live group retreats to online or astral projection. Instructors are multitaskers used to driving while texting”.
“Face/No Face: Combination of live and online teaching spitballed by remote administrators to regain lost revenue. Teachers address live, huddled-apart students while frantically eyeballing the rest of the class via thumbnail views on laptop. Live students must wear masks and are discouraged from nosers or neck-warmer styles. Online students must be at least half-attentive since they will form the next live group, when the formerly live group retreats to online or astral projection. Instructors are multitaskers used to driving while texting”.
Abe’s Legacy
Abe Defied Expectations to Build a Better Japan
Shinzo Abe the globalist
Shinzo Abe was a better ally than we deserved
Leaders and Followers
It’s not just Trump.
Voters happily adopt their leaders’ views.
“Political science research shows that this “follow the leader”
dynamic is hardly limited to Trump. It occurs throughout history, on both sides
of the aisle and in other countries. It happens even when party elites try to
stop it. In general, the people who run our political parties — particularly
the most prominent and charismatic figures — have the ability to reshape what
voters in those parties think”.
Saturday, August 29, 2020
Elections in a Divided America
Rival Themes Emerge as Race Enters Final Weeks:
Covid vs. Law and Order
Related:
TV Ratings for Biden and Trump Signal an
Increasingly Polarized Nation
Friday, August 28, 2020
The Desperate Need for High Quality Political Leadership
Whatever happens in the election, America must
overhaul its government. To do so, it should look to two giants of the 19th
century.
Related:
The debate should be about the quality – not the
size – of government
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/513007-the-debate-should-be-about-the-quality-not-size-of-government
How Trump is destroying the civil service and bending the government to his will
How Trump is destroying the civil service and bending the government to his will
Pandemic's Impact on College Towns
Virus Hits College Towns
Coronavirus Will End the Golden Age for College
Towns
The College Tuition Debate
Why It Could Be Time for a Crash in College Tuition
https://www.barrons.com/articles/time-for-a-crash-in-college-tuition-51598047615
Related:
https://thehill.com/opinion/education/509101-the-covid-19-shock-may-fundamentally-alter-the-economics-of-private
https://www.barrons.com/articles/time-for-a-crash-in-college-tuition-51598047615
Related:
https://thehill.com/opinion/education/509101-the-covid-19-shock-may-fundamentally-alter-the-economics-of-private
Profile of Economist Heather Boushey
Heather Boushey is at the forefront of a generation
of economists rethinking their discipline — just as the government deploys
trillions to address a once-in-a-century emergency
“For decades, economists have often sought to frame
their discipline as being at an arm’s length from politics. But Dr. Boushey and
her peers, many of them Generation X, have embraced the field’s social and
political roots. Informed by mistakes made during the 2008 recession, members
of this cohort — including academics like Emmanuel Saez and Raj Chetty, and
Jason Furman on the policy side — have turned their attention to the structural
consequences of deepening inequality. They have eagerly addressed topics that challenge
neoclassical economic theory, such as climate change, generational wealth and
opportunity disparities”.
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Is Remote Instruction Really Worse than On-Campus Instruction?
Faculty members say they’re working harder than
ever to meet students’ needs through remote instruction, even if critics of the
model don’t know it.
Some Colleges Planned Early for an Online Fall.
Here’s What They Learned.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/some-colleges-planned-early-for-an-online-fall-heres-what-they-learned
College Is Everywhere Now
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/style/college-collab-houses-coronavirus.html
Yale students in Barbados. Michigan students in Brooklyn. Berkeley students in Las Vegas? Off-campus housing is way off-campus now.
--
College Is Everywhere Now
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/style/college-collab-houses-coronavirus.html
Yale students in Barbados. Michigan students in Brooklyn. Berkeley students in Las Vegas? Off-campus housing is way off-campus now.
--
The Greatest Teaching Techniques Don't Compute Over
Zoom
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-12/the-greatest-teaching-techniques-don-t-compute-over-zoom Pro-Market versus Pro-Business Policies and the Future of Capitalism
To make capitalism more attractive, policymakers
must emphasize pro-market (not pro-business) policies
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/513956-to-make-capitalism-more-attractive-policymakers-must-emphasize-pro-market-not
Related:
Related:
Bank lobbying group launches ad backing Collins
re-election bid
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/514026-bank-lobbying-group-launches-ad-backing-collins-reelection-bid
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/514026-bank-lobbying-group-launches-ad-backing-collins-reelection-bid
Tech Startup, Trying to Be Amazon for Farms, Runs into
Ag Giants
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-startup-trying-to-be-amazon-for-farms-runs-into-ag-giants-11598811850 Crisis Leadership
Wealthy nations applaud their leaders’ covid-19
responses. The U.S. and U.K. are the exceptions
Rise of Work-From-Home Towns
The Rise of Work-From-Home Towns
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-27/scenic-towns-enjoy-boom-as-work-from-home-becomes-pandemic-norm
Related:
Affluence Killed New York, Not the Pandemic
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/who-new-york/615715/
Related:
Affluence Killed New York, Not the Pandemic
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/who-new-york/615715/
Kevin Baker notes:
“The more New York has allowed working people and
small businesses to be driven out of the city, the more it has come to depend
on the very wealthiest—people and firms with the wherewithal to move if they
don’t get the subsidy or tax break they demand.
New York never got over its beggar’s mentality from
the ’70s; even at peak affluence, it was still tossing huge, needless subsidies
to corporations and developers in exchange for fanciful promises of job
creation. The Hudson Yards development, for instance, cost New York $6 billion
in taxpayer subsidies. Yet more than 90 percent of the office workers there
were simply relocated from offices in Midtown Manhattan, just a few blocks away”.
Fed's New Approach
New Economic Challenges and the Fed's Monetary
Policy Review
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/files/powell20200827a.pdf
The Federal Reserve’s New Strategy Comes with Major
Risks
Fed Chair Sets Stage for Longer Periods of Lower
Rates
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/business/economy/federal-reserve-inflation-jerome-powell.html
Fed Can’t Talk the U.S. Economy into Inflation
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-27/fed-jackson-hole-meeting-powell-can-t-talk-u-s-economy-into-inflationFed Can’t Talk the U.S. Economy into Inflation
Fed changes its approach to inflation, as leaders
aim to navigate future crises and reach full employment
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/27/powell-jackson-hole-inflation/
Fed Unanimously Approves Shift on Inflation Goal,
Ushering in Longer Era of Low Rates
Fed Sets Stage for Longer Periods of Lower Interest
Rates
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Why There is No Mathematical Theory of Everything
How Gödel’s Proof Works
His incompleteness theorems destroyed the search for a
mathematical theory of everything. Nearly a century later, we’re still coming
to grips with the consequences.
US Monetary Policy – Tricky Choices Ahead for the Fed
The Fed’s Big Rethink on Monetary Policy
Here’s What Could Go Wrong with Yield-Curve Control
Pandemics Upend Classic Measures of Inflation
Countering China
To Deal with China, Trump Should Learn German
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/opinion/trump-china-germany.html
To counter China, some Republicans are abandoning
free-market orthodoxy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/26/republicans-favor-industrial-policy/
College and School Reopenings
Universities sound alarm as coronavirus cases
emerge just days into classes
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/08/25/college-coronavirus-cases/
Stop Campus Partying to Slow the Virus? Colleges Try but Often Fail
Stop Campus Partying to Slow the Virus? Colleges Try but Often Fail
Colleges Worried About Covid-19 Cases Tell Students to Stop Partying
Covid in the Classroom? Shhh. Some Schools Are Keeping It Quiet.
“Officials often cite privacy laws such as the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act when arguing against disclosure. Yet neither law bars public schools from releasing information about cases as long as they do not provide personal details about those who are infected, the federal education and health departments have said — and in some situations, even that might be allowed.
“School notification is an effective method of informing parents and eligible students of an illness in the school,” the Education Department wrote in March.
Schools have often abused privacy laws to hide damaging information that could expose them to lawsuits or negative media coverage, said Mr. Calvert at the University of Florida. “In the name of protecting personal privacy, many of those districts are really sacrificing public health concerns,” he said”.
---
---
Brain Deficits, Nerve Pain Can Torment Covid
Patients for Months
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-26/brain-deficits-nerve-pain-as-covid-torments-infected-for-monthsTuesday, August 25, 2020
Lessons in Investing: Market Timing
So You Think You Can Time the Market?
All it takes is a couple of lucky trades to end up
with a false belief in one’s ability to jump in and out at the right times.
Monday, August 24, 2020
Will the Political Center Return to Power?
Can Joe Biden’s Center Hold?
Related:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bidens-election-will-end-national-nightmare-20/2020/07/28/f9c01df0-d0f7-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html
Inequality, Polarization and American Politics
Inequality, Polarization and American Politics
For Conservatives to Have Any Hope, Trump Has to
Lose
After Trump, a Different GOP: Win or lose, the
party won’t return to the old orthodoxy. Populist ideas have put down deep
roots.
Biden understands what Twitter doesn’t: Democrats
need a big tent
Why Democrats Still Have to Appeal to the Center,
but Republicans Don’t
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/opinion/sunday/democrats-republicans-polarization.html
Trump is ‘Fox’s Frankenstein,’ insiders told CNN’s Brian Stelter — and here’s the toll it’s taken
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/trump-is-foxs-frankenstein-says-cnns-brian-stelter--and-heres-the-toll-its-taken-on-the-network/2020/08/21/d3af1288-e3ad-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html
Trump is ‘Fox’s Frankenstein,’ insiders told CNN’s Brian Stelter — and here’s the toll it’s taken
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/trump-is-foxs-frankenstein-says-cnns-brian-stelter--and-heres-the-toll-its-taken-on-the-network/2020/08/21/d3af1288-e3ad-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html
Whatever Happened to the GOP of Lincoln, Reagan and
George H.W. Bush?
Fox News has always been partisan. But has it become
propaganda?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house
Related:
The Labor Market Squeeze is Coming
‘Not just a low-wage recession’: White-collar
workers feel coronavirus squeeze
In the Covid-19 Recession, Europe Props Up Jobs
While the U.S. Props Up Workers
Europe Tried to Limit Mass Layoffs, but the Cuts
Are Coming Anyway
Related:
This Plan Pays to Avoid Layoffs. Why Don’t More
Employers Use It?
Asian Financial Centers
Can Dubai enter the premier league of financial
centres?
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/08/22/can-dubai-enter-the-premier-league-of-financial-centresHong Kong security law sparks race for Asia's next financial capital
International Business Case Study
Should the US entertainment industry compromise on its principles
(assuming it actually had some principles to begin with) in order to please the Chinese
Communist Party leaders and maintain access to the lucrative mainland market?
China is turning American movies into propaganda.
Enough is enough.
The Rise in US Federal Government Debt
Coronavirus Lifts Government Debt to WWII
Levels—Cutting It Won’t Be Easy
The Real Danger With $26.5 Trillion of U.S. Debt
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-24/the-real-danger-with-26-5-trillion-of-u-s-debt
For America’s creditors, the cost of servicing our
borrowings took a back seat to questions about how our government operated.
Exploding public debt: A cause for concern?
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/501486-exploding-public-debt-a-cause-for-concern Sunday, August 23, 2020
Will the Covid-19 Pandemic Exacerbate Economic Inequality?
Will the pandemic exacerbate or reduce economic
inequality in the US?
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/513308-will-the-pandemic-exacerbate-or-reduce-economic-inequality-in-the-us
Related:
The Pandemic Recession Is Approaching a Dire Turning Point
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/08/600-week-pandemic-unemployment-families/615580/
The Once-in-a-Century Impact of Covid-19 Deaths
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-24/covid-19-death-rates-in-new-york-city-are-likely-to-top-1918-flu
Related:
The Pandemic Recession Is Approaching a Dire Turning Point
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/08/600-week-pandemic-unemployment-families/615580/
The Once-in-a-Century Impact of Covid-19 Deaths
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-24/covid-19-death-rates-in-new-york-city-are-likely-to-top-1918-flu
Should Western Universities Reconsider Their China Ties?
It’s Time for Western Universities to Cut Their
Ties to China
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/19/universities-confucius-institutes-china/
China is killing academic freedom in Hong Kong
China is killing academic freedom in Hong Kong
How strained US-China relations are playing out in
American universities
China’s influence on campus chills free speech in
Australia, New Zealand
Chinese Students in the US – The New Red Scare
The Himalayas
The secret side of the world's greatest mountain
range – and how to see it for yourself
Economics of Higher Education
The Corner That State Universities Have Backed
Themselves Into
For schools to do the right thing would be financial
suicide.
Smith notes:
“College tuition has increased over the years, but not nearly as much as people think. For example, at private nonprofit institutions, which includes elite schools, net tuition — the price students actually pay — is about the same as it was at the turn of the century.
Instead of raising prices overall, these universities have raised the price they charge wealthy students, while using need-based financial aid to hold down the price paid by students of modest means.
But this gives universities an obvious incentive to admit more students from rich families. Under the need-based financial-aid system, a rich student is a profit center while a poor student represents a financial loss”.
Covid-19 will be painful for universities, but also bring change
Covid-19 will be painful for universities, but also bring change
The COVID-19 shock may fundamentally alter the economics of private colleges
Is There a Tech Bubble?
Dot-Com Survivors Give Their Verdict on the Current
Tech Boom
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-22/dot-com-survivors-give-their-verdict-on-the-current-tech-boom
Bubble-hunting has become more art than science
Bubble-hunting has become more art than science
Stressed About U.S. Stocks, Investors Are Betting
Big on Europe
Bears Are Going Extinct in Stock Market’s $13
Trillion Rebound
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Britain is a Mess
Why the Covid crisis will hasten the break-up of
Britain
The A-Levels Fiasco
British higher education sector is facing problems
on multiple fronts:
Brain and Behavior
How our brains numb us to covid-19’s risks — and
what we can do about it
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-risks-stop-seeming-so-scary/2020/08/21/09c286c4-cc49-11ea-bc6a-6841b28d9093_story.html
Is the Lockdown Making You Depressed, or Are You Just Bored?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/opinion/covid-depression-boredom.html
Time to ditch ‘toxic positivity,’ experts say: ‘It’s okay not to be okay’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/toxic-positivity-mental-health-covid/2020/08/19/5dff8d16-e0c8-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html
Is the Lockdown Making You Depressed, or Are You Just Bored?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/opinion/covid-depression-boredom.html
Time to ditch ‘toxic positivity,’ experts say: ‘It’s okay not to be okay’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/toxic-positivity-mental-health-covid/2020/08/19/5dff8d16-e0c8-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html
Friday, August 21, 2020
Stock Market Investing: Small-Caps versus Mega-Caps
A strategy to outsmart the S&P 500 ‘bubble’
Related:
Goldman Reports Show Hedge Funds, Mutual Funds
Split on Megacaps
What missing out on $150,000 in Tesla gains taught
him about good investing—‘I feel like an idiot’
Role of Government in Society - The Quality versus Size Debate
The debate should be about the quality – not the
size – of government
Highly recommended:
What the Pandemic Revealed
The Dead End of Small Government
Free Markets and Limited Government Reconceived
The Stock Market and the Economy
Rising stock market would be in the red without a
handful of familiar names
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/19/tech-stocks-markets/
‘This Market Is Nuts’: S&P 500 Hits Record, Defying Economic Devastation
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/business/stock-market-record.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/19/tech-stocks-markets/
Stocks Are Soaring. So Is Misery
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/business/stock-market-record.html
This Market Is a Tech Market. If Bond Yields Rise,
Watch Out.
What explains the widening gap between Wall Street and Main Street?
Thursday, August 20, 2020
The Collapse of the Liberal World Order
Remember the ’90s, Don’t Long for a Return
“… the West is being forced through another major
crisis that may be bigger in scale and scope than September 11, the wars that
followed, the Arab Spring, EU expansion, and the financial crisis. Panetta told
me that in the two decades following the 9/11 attacks, successive U.S.
administrations—Republican and Democrat—took their eye off the ball, turned
inward, and left a vacuum of leadership in the world that adversaries
exploited. Instead of developing a strategy for the world that was emerging,
the U.S. became trapped in rolling crisis management, reacting and withdrawing
and, ultimately, failing to hold rival powers to American lines in the sand.
The world today is the consequence. “We paid a price for that,” he said”.
Flattening of the Phillips Curve
Why does low unemployment no longer lift inflation?
https://www.economist.com/schools-brief/2020/08/22/why-does-low-unemployment-no-longer-lift-inflation
Inflation is losing its meaning as an economic indicator
Inflation is losing its meaning as an economic indicator
https://www.economist.com/special-report/2019/10/10/inflation-is-losing-its-meaning-as-an-economic-indicator
Update: The Great Inflation Debate Is Heating Up with Trillions at Stake
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-25/the-great-inflation-debate-is-heating-up-with-trillions-at-stake
Update: The Great Inflation Debate Is Heating Up with Trillions at Stake
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-25/the-great-inflation-debate-is-heating-up-with-trillions-at-stake
Relative Bargaining Power and the Stimulus Debate
Here's Why Democrats Have an Edge Over Republicans
in Stimulus Negotiations
https://www.newsweek.com/heres-why-democrats-have-edge-over-republicans-stimulus-negotiations-1526269
Related:
America’s fiscal federalism is less superior than you might think
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/08/20/americas-fiscal-federalism-is-less-superior-than-you-might-think
Related:
America’s fiscal federalism is less superior than you might think
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/08/20/americas-fiscal-federalism-is-less-superior-than-you-might-think
Wednesday, August 19, 2020
Tackling the China Threat
How China reversed the new Great Game of strategic
competition
https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/How-China-reversed-the-new-Great-Game-of-strategic-competition
China Has Blown Its Historic Opportunity
China Has Blown Its Historic Opportunity
Can India economically decouple itself from China?
Covid-19 - Macroeconomic Developments
Markets Tell the Fed It’s Finally Getting an Edge
on Inflation
Virus Alters Where People Open Their Wallets,
Hinting at a Halting Recovery
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
The Pursuit of Scientifically-Oriented Research
My favorite modern day physicist, Lisa Randall, notes:
“The paradox scientists have to contend with is that
while aiming for permanence, we often investigate ideas that experimental data
or better understanding will force us to modify or discard. The sound core of
knowledge that has been tested and relied on is always surrounded by an
amorphous boundary of uncertainties that are the domain of current research.
The ideas and suggestions that excite us today will soon be forgotten if they
are invalidated by more persuasive or comprehensive experimental work tomorrow”.
More insights from Lisa Randall:
“The notion of effective theory is a valuable concept
when we ask how scientific theories advance and what we mean when we say
something is right or wrong. Newton’s Laws work extremely well. They suffice to
send a satellite to the far reaches of the solar system and to construct a
bridge that won’t collapse.
Yet we know that quantum mechanics and relativity
underlie Newton’s descriptions. Newton’s Laws are approximations that suffice
in the effective theory for objects with low enough speeds or of sufficiently
large size. Only when we need to know more about the object’s fundamental
nature do we have to change our description.
This notion of effective theory extends beyond the
realm of science. It is how we approach the world in all its aspects. We can’t
possibly keep track of all information simultaneously. We use a map that has
the scale we need. It’s pointless to know all the small streets around you when
you’re barreling down a highway.
The effective-theory idea is practical and valuable,
but we should also be wary: It can sometimes make us miss things in the
world—and in science. Effective theory concerns what is most obvious to us, but
beyond that might lie the more fundamental truth. Recognizing the effective
theory’s limitations to get outside our comfort zone is what we strive to do—and
what ultimately leads to progress.”.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)