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Monday, January 25, 2010

A Rose by any other Name?

Some interesting musings on the origins of the word "capitalism." My favorite:
It's also true that capitalism is a truly social system, a system that unites the world in cooperation, peace and trade. Thus, if all were tabula rasa socialism might be a good name for capitalism.

That's Alex Tabarrok, who leans right-of-center by the usual econ metric.

7 Minutes of Econ Awesomeness

Good Words on Investment and Growth

From the Economist:

The optimal level of investment is the rate that generates the highest sustainable level of consumption over time. That, in turn, depends on a country’s “marginal product of capital”, or how much output is produced by new investment. The higher this measure, the more it should invest. Assuming extra investment increases output by progressively smaller amounts as the capital stock expands, then at some point extra investment will reduce, not increase, the long-run sustainable level of consumption.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

More Semi-Random Links

Here are some links about medium- to long-run ideas about Haiti:
1. Help Haiti idea #1 (importing labor)
2. Help Haiti idea #2 (exporting security and bureaucracy)
3. Help Haiti idea #3 (exporting institutions)
and some lighter links...
4. A song about Paul Krugman. Take with the appropriate portion of salt.
5. A comic about statistics