24 | December | 2012

Friday, May 24, 2013

The college textbook bubble and how the “open educational resources” movement is going up against the textbook cartel

Mark J. Perry | December 24, 2012, 7:12 pm

The chart above shows the percent changes since 1978 for the CPI series “Educational Books and Supplies” (which is mostly college textbooks), the CPI series “Medical Services,” the median price for new homes from the Census Bureau, and the CPI … read more >

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Season’s Greetings and Happy Christmas

James Pethokoukis | December 24, 2012, 2:01 pm

Probably won’t post again until Wednesday — well, not much at least. Until then, here is the lovely holiday image from my favorite band, Sigur Ros.

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John Maynard Keynes versus Deirdre McCloskey on the gift of work

James Pethokoukis | December 24, 2012, 1:51 pm

We don’t have a 15-hour work week as J.M. Keynes once hopefully and optimistically predicted for the grandchildren of workers in 1930s. And some liberals see that as a problem, as outlined in this Big Think essay, “Why do we … read more >

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Should we tax lobbying to help stem crony capitalism?

James Pethokoukis | December 24, 2012, 12:49 pm

Nice catch by my pal Arnold Kling as his new blog, a pointer to a study on lobbying: We study how ex-government officials benefit from the personal connections acquired during public service. Lobbyists with experience in the office of a … read more >

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Creating an enforcement mechanism for entitlement reform

James Pethokoukis | December 24, 2012, 12:25 pm

James Capretta, an AEI visiting scholar, outlines a way to bring Democrats and Republicans together on entitlement reform: Similarly, it’s imperative that Republicans not enter into a budget agreement without an ironclad assurance that it will result in real entitlement … read more >

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Four days in December produced an historic change in economic policy

James Pethokoukis | December 24, 2012, 12:02 pm

The groundwork was laid in the blogosphere. But all those efforts by folks such as Lars Christensen, Scott Sumner, David Beckworth really bore fruit in December, as Mohamed El-Erian explains: In a four-day period in mid-December, three seemingly unrelated developments suggested … read more >

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The great escape from the middle-income trap

James Pethokoukis | December 24, 2012, 11:16 am

If you want to be the champ, you gotta beat the champ. And economist Simon Johnson notes that all the contenders for “the world’s top economic dog” — China, India, Brazil, the EU — have to tackle some very difficult … read more >

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Pethokoukis Podcast: My chat with Erik Brynjolfsson, co-author of ‘Race Against the Machine’

James Pethokoukis | December 24, 2012, 10:23 am

On my new Ricochet podcast, I chat with Erik Brynjolfsson, director of MIT’s Center for Digital Business at the Sloan School of Management. Brynjolfsson is also co-author, along with Andrew McAfee, of Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating … read more >

Paul Krugman's Strange Ireland Prediction

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Krugman vs. … Krugman on doomsday cults and the national debt

James Pethokoukis | December 24, 2012, 9:52 am

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman uses the passing of the Mayan date of apocalypse as a news hook to attack debt hawks, such Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, as ”cultists” who keep predicting fiscal disaster is just around the corner: Regular … read more >