The Florida teacher who had a fling with a 14-year old student plans an insanity defense. The boy must be thrilled to hear his paramour's I-must-have-been-crazy plea. Perhaps this is a beginning of a trend away from government schools' obsession with students' self-esteem.

Since moving to Georgia seven plus years ago, I've maintained that Atlanta's traffic congestion could be mitigated by putting up toll booths at the interstate on-ramps in Cobb County, Gwinnett County, etc. This idea has now dawned on the powers that be.

From Tony Pierce.

My favorite:

"We used to say if a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a handgun."

Hat Tip: Matt Welch.

A writer for the Washington Post takes some good shots at crazy celebrity names. A taste:

Demi Moore and Bruce Willis are the parents of Rumer Glenn, Scout LaRue and Tallulah Belle. Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay singer Chris Martin recently begat Apple. Sylvester Stallone sired Sage Moonblood and Sistine Rose. Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette are the proud parents of Coco. Singer Erykah Badu -- herself on the celebrity all-name team -- has a child named Puma. John Travolta and Kelly Preston named their boy Jett. Christie Brinkley's youngest is a girl named Sailor. The late rock star Michael Hutchence named his daughter Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily. Long-ago rock star Bob Geldof calls daughter Fifi Trixabelle to dinner. Soccer star David Beckham and Victoria "Posh Spice" Adams's brood includes Brooklyn, Romeo and a soon-to-be wee one who reportedly may be dubbed San Miguel. Supermodel Claudia Schiffer has a girl named Clementine, as does Cybill Shepherd. Rob Morrow, of "Northern Exposure" quasi-fame, dubbed his baby Tu, as in Tu Morrow.

For those interested, Fryer and Levitt have a paper about "distinctively Black names" and find "no negative causal impact of having a distinctively Black name on life outcomes."

John Fund:

Phil Gramm was one of the most visible and outspoken members of the U.S. Senate until his retirement last year. Then he almost dropped out of sight to focus on his new career as an investment banker in New York. But now the American Spectator reports he is quietly lobbying to replace John Snow if the treasury secretary should depart sometime in the next year or so.

As most of you are aware, Marginal Revolution has a recurring theme of "markets in everything." I was reminded of MR's efforts by this story on an anti-Coke hedge fund.

I'm no fan of carbonated sugar water so ordinarily I would have no qualms about this chap's devoting his energy to harming Coke. However, I hope he's a miserable failure since my college has an unusually large share of its endowment funds in Coke and has already taken a large hit as Coke's share price has fallen from $80+ to $40. (Berry is not alone in having its endowment insufficiently diversified; Emory and Agnes Scott apparently also have large Coke holdings. I'm told that the colleges have been slow to diversify out of fear of angering donors.)

Here's a journal article by Hugh Grant.

A few selections (and comments) from my 4th grader's "social studies" text:

(1) Europeans first settled in the Americas in the late 1400s. Actually I think the first settlements came in the early 1500s, and amazingly there's no reference to Christopher Columbus?

(2) In the 1860s, slavery was made illegal in the United States. No mention of the Civil War?

(3) Norbert Hill [Native American education], Marian Wright Edelman [Children's Defense Fund], and former President Jimmy Carter [Habitat for Humanity] are examples of Americans who work to give everyone a fair chance. Gee and the millions of employers who give people jobs do what?

UPDATE: Frank asks if it shouldn't be called a "socialist studies" book. :-)

Seeing as how Ray Kroc's autobiography is one of the most useful autobiographies I have ever read, it would appear that I would have to get the new Mark Knopfler album.

Tom Bell:

So much, so good, but driving tunes come a dime a dozen. The lyrics of Boom, Like That mark it as something truly special. Reading Ray Kroc's autobiography, Grinding it Out, inspired Knopler to describe how the founder of McDonald's launched his fast food empire. Boom, Like That uses Kroc's own words to describe how he got the idea for a hamburger franchise after delivering milkshake mixes to a popular hamburger joint:

The folks line up all down the street,
And I'm seeing this girl devour her meat, now.
And then I get it—wham!—As clear as day.
My pulse starts to hammer and I hear a voice say:
"These boys have got it down!
Oughtta' be one of these in every town.
These boys have got the touch.
It's clean as a whistle and it don't cost much.
Wham, bam! You don't wait long.
Shake, fries, patty, you're gone.
And how about that friendly name?
Heck, every little thing oughtta' stay the same."

Knopler hardly portrays Kroc as some sort of Randian hero. Rather, he shows the hamburger magnate as a fellow just as happy to offer a friendly buy-out as to throw a sharp elbow into a competitor's ribs. Knopler makes Kroc out not an idealized titan of commerce, nor an blandly evil capitalist pig, but rather as a hard-driving, rough-hewn, hamburger hustler. The refrain of Boom, Like That, which follows immediately after the verse quoted above, neatly captures Kroc's character:

Or my name's not "Kroc"—that's "Kroc" with a "K."
Like "crocodile" but not spelled that way, now.
It's dog eat dog, rat eat rat.
Kroc-style. Boom! Like that.

Here and elsewhere on Shangri-La, Knopler offers a fascinating and realistic view of the human side of business. Though sympathetic to his subjects, he cuts them no slack. So much the better, to my taste; I like music with an edge to it. Knopler accomplishes what few artists even attempt: he makes commerce sound gritty, dramatic, and, in an all-important word, cool.

From Morgantown's Dominion Post:

Paul Whitlock, former manager of Kanawha Cinemas in Charleston, was the victim of too much capacity in the Charleston market. His theater, owned by United Artists, went out of business in 2000 after Marquee Cinemas built a 12-screen theater in Southridge Centre in 1999.

The Beckley-based business is building a 14-screen movie stadium-seating theater in the Suncrest Towne Centre off W.Va. 705.

. . .

Whitlock said Charleston, with a population of more than 195,000 people countywide, was not big enough to support three large multiplexes. Kanawha's competition, Park Place Cinemas, upgraded its theater to stadium seating and sound. When Kanawha didn't follow suit, it lost out.

"We had a theater that was in disrepair, we couldn't get funds to replace the roof," Whitlock said. "We went from being a profitable organization to losing about $30,000 a month."

In an effort to compete with the new theaters coming into town, Carmike will begin retrofitting its theaters to bring them up to contemporary standards, according to Judy Russell, director of investor and public relations for the company based in Columbus, Ga. Carmike intends to put in stadium seating and a new sound system in each of its eight theaters.

[Hat Tip: William Trumbull]

We've added links to a couple of sports economics blogs to the blogroll. The Sports Economist offers up sports economics commentary from Clemson's Skip Sauer. Sabernomics is run by John Charles Bradbury of Sewanee; he specializes in econometric studies of baseball. Happy reading!

The folks at PNC bank have calculated the cost of purchasing all the items from the classic song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

The cost comes to $17,296.91 up from $12,623.10 in 1984. This increase "closely mirrors that of the government’s Consumer Price Index." If you include all the repititions from the song, the total cost is $66,344.46 up from $62,427.10.

Interestingly, and consistent with Baumol's cost-disease problem, services now account for 74 percent of the index compared with just 38 percent in 1984.

(1) I ran the Thanksgiving Day 10k in 44:23 (7:09/mile pace) which is a good, though not great, time for me. I finished 605th out of 8923 participants. My wife ran her first-ever 10k in 1:03:10. Congrats!

Best t-shirt I saw: "The Pride Lasts Longer Than The Pain"

(2) This fellow criticizes my inflation adjustment of the Thanksgiving dinner price.

Um, so what? News flash folks: Life is not "adjusted for inflation."

But he's wrong. Life is in fact adjusted for inflation because our wages and salaries go up with (and typically by more than) inflation. The whole point of adjusting for inflation is to see if the price of something, in this case Thanksgiving dinner, is going up faster or less fast than most other things (including your wages). The fact is that Thanksgiving dinner prices have risen less than other prices (including wages) over time.

Yes, many (sometimes questionable) assumptions have to be made about how to do inflation adjustments. But to argue that there's no value in trying to do so makes no sense to me.

Btw, this is my favorite publication (.pdf) looking at the real prices of things over time. ATSRTWT.

I prefer a bow tie over a four-in-hand, though I wear both. I, therefore, found this story delightful. (Hat tip: Mini-me)

By the way, I've looked for Adam Smith bow ties but had no success. If any reader knows of a source, I'd be most grateful.

ADDENDUM: While searching for Adam Smith bow ties, I found the St. Andrews Liberty Club. Among other things it sells FREE trade coffee. Fabulous!

From ESPN's Jayson Stark:

... these words provide such an eloquent endorsement of free-market economics, they could practically have been written by John Kenneth Galbraith.

I'm back in town for a day between the Southern Econ meetings and a family trip for Thanksgiving. A few highlights and lowlights from the Southerns in New Orleans:

1. Washington University grad student Art Carden was showing off his clever dissertation at the job market poster fair. He uses lynchings as a proxy for the (lack of) rule of law to study its effect on economic growth in the U.S. South. Art's work isn't on the web yet but I'll post an update when he makes it available. His methodology and findings are similar to those in my friend John Dawson's 1998 Econ Inquiry paper.

2. I went to several good sessions on sports economics and saw papers by top-notch folks like Brad Humphreys, Craig Depken, Dennis Coates, John Fizel, Skip Sauer, and Bruce Johnson. Not only are these guys good economists, they're also a collegial bunch. Sauer's paper testing the Moneyball hypothesis is particularly interesting.

3. While there were lots of good sessions at the conference, much of the benefit of conferences is doing some brainstorming with other economists. To this end, my friend John Charles Bradbury of Sabernomics and I spent a few hours and a couple of cigars kicking around a paper idea. I expect to have more on this in a few weeks.

4. About a year ago, I received a lousy referee report. The lousy part wasn't that it recommended rejecting my paper but how it went about doing so. On one hand, it's no big deal--we'll all get (maybe even write) a mediocre report at some time in our careers and we'll all probably benefit from an unduly generous report at some time or another. On the whole, I have nothing to complain about. Nonetheless, I heard lots of griping about this journal's mediocre refereeing from other folks, some of whom indicated they wouldn't be submitting there again soon. Who says reputation effects don't matter ...

5. I had lunch Sunday less than 10 feet from Paul "Broken Window Fallacy" Krugman. I wish I'd had a copy of Bastiat's essay--it would have been fun to ask for an autograph.

6. Dinner Sunday was at the Crescent City Brewhouse. The weiss and dark lager (black forest) were tasty.

7. At the airport yesterday I stopped at Subway (the best of mediocre set of choices) for a sandwich. A large and heavily accented Scottish fellow behind me in line had some difficulty communicating with the sandwich artists. A certain movie character came to mind.

I was tempted to write something on this article by Nick Gillespie, but Tim Lee beat me to the punch.

One of the reasons I like Gwartney, Stroup, Sobel and MacPherson as a textbook is the focus on thinking like an economist - especially the focus on thinking "on the margin." While I enjoy Nick's writing, it's clear he doesn't think like an economist (something you need to do if you want to effectively criticize economic research).

Roy Cordato discusses calls for higher corporate income taxes in The Freeman.

One of my many regrets from my former job is that I didn't do enough basic economic education. While I realize that state-based think tanks have a different role than FEE, I still think the payoff from doing basic economic education is higher than op-eds on narrow policy topics.

One of the difficulties in doing basic economic education through op-eds is convincing editors to run them since their timeless quality frequently means they are never as timely as something else sitting in front of the editor. Really good writing usually could overcome this problem, such as in this piece by Ralph Frasca "Businesses Are People Too" or this one by Bob Lawson "Real Fundamental Tax Reform."

O.J. Simpson provides an object lesson on how high marginal tax rates reduce the incentive to work.

“I’ve said this so many times, I’ve said it to Fred’s face in debtor hearings: ’If I have to work to pay them, I won’t work,”’ Simpson told WSVN-TV in Miami on Tuesday. “It’s that simple. So I’ll just play golf every day.”

Dan Drezner has more.

This best part is his parody of the genre:

Diane had longed to bandwagon with Jack since their first year in grad school. In their own prisoner's dilemma, she now knew that she wanted more than just tit-for-tat -- she had to have Jack's grim trigger. This wasn't just a one-shot interaction for her. She wanted repeated play -- and although she would never say this out loud, she sensed that Jack had a very long shadow of the future.

Brad DeLong asks

We've spent $10,000 per Iraqi on the war, and we can't even get Iraqi children fed?

Gee, Brad, isn't this the same government that spends almost $10,000 per kid and can't get them educated?

Isn't it amazing how often the editorial side and the news side of a particular newspaper are at odds?

Consider this article in Sunday's Columbus Dispatch about the rapid growth of local charter school enrollment versus today's editorial about the "risks" of charters.

Here's a survey rating of municipal flags from the good folks at the North American Vexillological Association. Looking to design your own flag? They offer tips here.

According to the American Farm Bureau's annual estimate of the price of a Thanksgiving Dinner, this year's feast will be 60 cents cheaper than last year's.

The table below gives AFB's figures since 1986 along with my calculations for the real Thanksgiving Dinner Price. Although the nominal price has increased by almost $7, the inflation-adjusted price is over $14 cheaper (in 2004 $) than it was in 1986.

Year Nominal Real (2004 $)
1986 $28.74 $49.74
1987 $24.51 $40.58
1988 $26.61 $42.26
1989 $24.70 $37.54
1990 $28.85 $41.25
1991 $25.95 $36.05
1992 $26.39 $35.53
1993 $27.49 $36.02
1994 $28.40 $36.26
1995 $29.40 $36.52
1996 $31.66 $38.18
1997 $31.75 $37.51
1998 $33.09 $38.52
1999 $33.83 $38.40
2000 $32.37 $35.51
2001 $35.04 $37.64
2002 $34.56 $36.39
2003 $36.28 $37.44
2004 $35.68 $35.68

This is a wealthy country and we have all sorts of niche trade groups and professional associations, but I doubt many people would have guessed that there is a North American Restroom Association.

The folks from this august organization are busy celebrating--I bet you wouldn't have guessed this one either--World Toilet Day. Yup, November 19 is World Toilet Day and it is being celebrated with a gathering in China. For a NPR World Toilet Day report that is flush with potty puns, click here (scroll down).

In case you want to get a headstart on your travel plans, the next World Toilet Day conflab will be held in Belfast. Things have been peaceful there for a few years, but let's hope s#*t doesn't hit the fan and disrupt the conference.

Be careful what you pack--or at least take out the batteries.

Czech communists are displeased about their country's joining the EU.

NB: My blogging will be light over the next week as I'm off to the Southern Economics meetings and then a family trip. I hope all my readers and co-bloggers have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I recently posed the question: How did Arafat accumulate millions of dollars of wealth?

Now The Weekly Standard has a hilarious parody on the topic.

Florida and a few other states require that school buses be equipped with seatbelts. I strongly suspect (and vaguely remember seeing research supporting) that this requirement is also cost ineffective. Here's some background; here's an unfortunate story of a child being killed on a seatbelt equipped bus.

Ok, I know this is a "dog bites man" kind of thing, but the NYT has an article about the overwhelming number of Democrats relative to Republicans among faculty in colleges and universities.

The article cites some work by Dan Klein of Santa Clara University (who is one of the best young and most innovative economists in the country). Here are a couple factoids:

Professor Klein found a nine-to-one ratio of Democrats to Republicans on the faculties of Berkeley and Stanford.

The ratio of Democratic to Republican professors ranged from 3 to 1 among economists to 30 to 1 among anthropologists.

Related to my last post, let's compare that cheap $630,000 road safety device against the NTSB's new regulations on power window switches.

I'm guessing this regulation will cost tens of millions of dollars, and yet according to the NTSB only "an average of three fatalities every two years have been confirmed" as a result of the current switches.

Ok, here's the test:

Option A: For a cost of tens of millions we can save 1.5 people per year.
Option B: For a cost of $630,000 we can save (likely) dozens per year.

Why are we bothering with Option A before we've exhausted opportunities to spend money on Option B?

Check out this very cost-effective safety innovation. The way I read it this one-time expenditure of $630,000 has already saved many lives.

Economists are often accused of being cold, heartless beasts for complaining that some safety devices are too costly. But these critics really miss the point. Let's suppose we have $1 million to spend and two safety devices we can buy. Option A will save 1 person per year and Option B will save 20 per year. Which should we choose? Obviously B.

The economist's point is that spending money on low-yield options like A means that we forgo spending on high-yield options like B. People are less safe not more safe as a result. Non-economists will ask why we can't do both A and B, but the economic reality is that scarcity precludes us from doing everything we want. In a world of scarcity, it is important that we choose options like B before options like A.

The sad fact is that all too often our political process forces us to spend resources on options like A instead of B.

The Economic Freedom of the World index that I work on is available for many countries back to 1970 (in five year intervals). For some countries it may be possible to push backward in time much earlier. We simply don't have the resources to do this.

Richard Johnsson (he has a cool website too) of Sweden's Ratio Institute has laboriously constructed the index for Sweden back to 1950. The entire report is now available in English here. Here's a copy of the abstract.

The Economic Freedom of the World Index (EFI) is presently available for the years 1970-2002 for Sweden. In this paper I present Swedish Economic Freedom Index (SEFI), an attempt to create a corresponding index for the period 1950-70. By combining EFI and SEFI, it is possible to see the changes in the economic freedom in Sweden for the longer period 1950-2002. On an aggregate level, the economic freedom seems to have been fairly constant 1950-80, then increasing somewhat 1980-95, but seems to have been falling slightly since 1995. The overall level is, however, rather moderate. The most conspicuous decline in economic freedom during the period is related to the size of government and it’s growth. A certain amount of stabilization has occurred in this area, but the overall level is still considerably lower than the already moderate level of 1950. The decline in economic freedom since 1995 is also associated with infringements of the freedom to exchange with foreigners. Only in one case has the economic freedom been increasing considerably from an earlier low level of economic freedom, namely when it comes to the less restricted foreign capital market exchange (i.e. possibilities to own foreign currencies, at home and abroad).

ATSRTWT.

A couple weeks ago I registered for the 95th Annual Thanksgiving Day 10k Race in Cincinnati. The problem is that I just found out that I have a stress fracture in my foot (2nd metatarsal). It's not that painful or serious, but I'm not supposed to run for 3-4 weeks to let it heal.

But I've already signed up for the race! The economist in me says that my registration fee is now a sunk cost and whether I run in the race or not the registration fee is gone. I know that if I hadn't already signed up, I would not run it with this injury. So, the economist reasons that I will not run the race.

Guess what? I'm going to run. I do hate to let that registration fee go to "waste".

Note to students: When it comes to sunk costs questions on exams you should follow the old saying, "do as I say not as I do."

A bunch of folks on my campus are trying to force through a "service learning" requirement into our general education program. I just filled out a survey for them. Here's what I said:

I'm opposed to this ideological indoctrination in the guise of academics. Service learning, everywhere I've seen it defined and practiced (and I have seen it in practice up close), is about glorifying the poor and downtrodden and blaming he rich. The anti-business, pro-government slant of such programs is shameful. "We must 'serve' humanity because evil rich people and businesses are out to screw us," is the message. Aside from being total nonsense, such normative views have no place in a required general education program.

An elderly couple in London, Ohio apparently voted twice, and a local school levy failed by 1 vote.

How about a "do over"?

Networks use televised sports as ad platforms for their other programs. This one didn't work out as planned.

Here's (3rd item down) what I thought of a previous cross-marketing endeavor.

Heavy Lifting has a nifty chart depicting the falling share of medical expenditure paid for out of pocket and the rising per capita medical expenditures. It brings to mind the saying about eating at a restaurant: If you're paying I'll have steak.

In fairness, I suppose one could quibble that causation does not run from falling out of pocket payment to higher expenditure but that higher expenses caused by other factors (malpractice issues?) have lead to a decrease in the share paid out of pocket. However, while more evidence on the matter might be welcome, the RAND Health Insurance Experiment established that lower out of pocket payment causes people to utilize medical services more frequently. How about that--incentives matter and demand curves do slope downward!

I do not arbitrarily dismiss copy-editors’ suggestions. I usually consider them and find them to be stupid beyond belief.*

*Thomas Sowell, "Some Thoughts About Writing."

Steve Malanga writes on the working poor in City Journal. Among other things, he dissects Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed. Hat tip: John Hood

USA Today ponders the question of what will happen to Arafat's millions. Here's a better question: How did a bloke who did little or any real work in his life and who did not inheret his wealth end up with millions to be disposed of? Oh how the stench of corruption is in the air.

UPDATE: One of my co-bloggers sent this interesting story:

Your Arafat post reminded me of the old Jersey City mayor/boss (Frank Hague) who had a desk with a lap drawer that opened outward toward his visitor. This was to allow them to place the envelopes filled with cash into the drawer! This man had no other job in his life and his official pay never exceeded $8000/yr and yet he died with a multi-million dollar estate.

Yet another example of the media reporting an increase in the rate of a disease that in all probability is mostly a result of an increase in reporting.

[The Columbus Health Department] worked with doctors and gay organizations, posting fliers and leaving cards in bars and coffee shops about free tests.

"It said, 'Bring the card in, we'll give you a syphilis test quick and easy; you'll be a priority,' '' said Joni Finley, coordinator of prevention services for the sexual-health program at the Columbus Health Department.

I used to find test days dull (just sitting and watching my suffering students) but not anymore. Just look at some of the goodies I found:

1. Beyond Stage One has a nice parlor game called "Let's Play Find the University." Besides UGA and UF, I think the counties for UVA, UNC, and Indiana U. show up in blue.

2. One thing that has bothered me is trying to sort out fact and fiction on the Patriot Act. Today's WSJ (sorry subscription required but Barr's website is here) has a nice article on the topic by Bob Barr.

3. Dennis Coates has more on the DC baseball stadium ripoff. (Hat tip: The Sports Economist)

4. JC Bradbury of Sabernomics has a nifty post on predicting no-hitters. Speaking of JC, I'm looking forward to my session with him and Skip Sauer of The Sports Economist at the upcoming Southern Econ meetings.

The last student just finished my exam so I need to stop blogging and get my conference paper finished ...

The Sinclair Broadcast Group preempted tonight's scheduled airing on ABC of 'Saving Private Ryan' because they say they fear it could run afoul of the FCC's crackdown on indecency. You can read the Sinclair press release here.

An excerpt: It is similarly unfortunate, however, that the actions by a small but vocal group of individuals in the past have influenced the FCC to the extent that broadcasters are fearful of exercising their First Amendment rights, lest they result in fines by the FCC or action being taken against their licenses. We ask that our viewers join with us in letting the FCC and our elected officials know that censorship is dangerous and that the current rules have gone too far.

Have you ever been to Storrs [CT], so named, Lou Holtz once quipped, because the town now has two?*

* "Most Rootable Teams," Sports Illustrated on Campus, 11 November 2004.

Having written just yesterday a very negative review of a book by a Marixist sociologist, this article was pretty timely.

Best one liner: Marxism is an emotional disorder, not a political philosophy.

[Hat tip: Ann Reed]

A boss uses spanking as a management tool.

The Gambles of Norwood, Ohio (a Cincinnati suburb) have their house stolen by the city.

When council completed their action on the holdout properties, some of the property owners began chanting, "Shame on you. Shame on you."

[Hat tip: Paul Goins]

Don't know why I never noticed this before Itunes spit it out today, but "Rock Island Line" by Johnny Cash is a good introduction to price discrimination.

Here are the lyrics to the first section of the song:

Read More »

Tom Wolfe on liberal elites.

Or we can just let Geraldine Ferraro make his point:

"You know what? Just let me make one point. You were talking about the map before. If indeed all those blue states all got together and seceded from the union, think what would be left for those red states, nothing. There would be no educational system. You would have nothing. What would be left to you? I mean, where is all of this talent in this country? It's on both sides, the Northeast corridor."

(Source: "Hannity and Colmes" November 5. Hat tip: Wilson Mixon.)

ADDENDUM: Apparently Ms. Ferraro is not alone in her despair. Kerry's defeat has led to an upsurge in distraught liberals seeking therapy.

This story reminded me why I'm anti-abortion.

I confess that have some respect for the pro-abortion position intellectually. On moral grounds, pro-abortionists can assert that life does not begin at conception. I think it does, but I understand their position. On consequentualist grounds, I appreciate their argument that making abortion illegal will only create a black market which makes things worse. This argument has merit to be sure.

I should mention that I have NO respect for the typical so-called pro-choice argument since most of the people--excluding libertarians--saying abortion should be a woman's "choice" certainly don't believe she should have the choice to work for less than the minimum wage or be a doctor without a license or not pay taxes.

But emotionally I read about this young man and I can think only of all the other lives lost to abortion over the years. I can't get over that thought.

"New profs must be Christian or Jewish" at Ashland University.

The Catalogue of Philanthropy has released its 2004 Generosity Index. I haven't looked at the underlying methodology carefully (and I wonder if the differences are caused by interstate cost of living differentials), but it appears that those awful benighted red-staters are more charitable than states populated by lots of caring liberals. MS, AR, and OK are the top three while RI, MA, and NH are the bottom three. Amazingly, the top 25 states are all states that went for Bush.

Matt Hisrich channels Garrett and Sobel

Thankfully this crook is headed for the pokey. Maybe the next Representative for my parents district can restrain himself to honest graft.

Apparently this previous post of mine is derived from this famous passage in Albert Venn Dicey's classic book Law & Public Opinion in England (1914).

"The practical man, oblivious or contemptuous of any theory of the social organism or general principles of social organization, has been forced, by the necessities of the time, into an ever-deepening collectivist channel. Socialism, of course, he still rejects and despises. The individualist town councillor will walk along the municipal pavement, lit by municipal gas, and cleansed by municipal brooms with municipal water, and seeing, by the municipal clock in the municipal market, that he is too early to meet his children coming from the municipal school, hard by the county lunatic asylum and municipal hospital, will use the national telegraph system to tell them not to walk through the municipal park, but to come by the municipal tramway, to meet him in the municipal reading-room, by the municipal art gallery, museum, and liberty, where he intends to consult some of the national publications in order to prepare his next speech in the municipal town hall, in favour of the nationalisation of canels and the increase of Government control over the railway system. `Socialism,' Sir, he will say, `don't waste the time of a practical man by our fantastic absurdities. Self-help, Sir, individual self-help, that's what made our city what it is."

Dicey himself puts the story of "the practical man" in quotations, attributing it to the English socialist Sidney Webb.

[Hat Tip: David Mayer]

If an angry mob of white students surrounded and threatened a group of peaceful minority students....

An interesting paper from Lisa Barrow and Cecilia Elena Rouse.*

The abstract:

We examine whether school expenditures are valued by potential residents and whether the current level of public school provision is inefficient by estimating the effect of state education aid on residential property values. We find evidence that, overall, state aid is valued by potential residents and that school districts do not overspend on education. However, we find that districts may overspend in areas where residents have fewer schooling options but find no difference in efficiency by the degree of district unionization. One interpretation of these results is that increased competition may reduce overspending on public schools in some areas.

My take: Here are the really interesting findings:

Page 1764: "Overall, it appears that districts with poorer and less-educated residents overspend on schools relative to wealthier and more highly educated districts."

Pages 1761-1762: "The results, in Table 5, suggest that changes in state aid for education increase education expenditure, decrease school district tax rates, and have no effect on total local revenue for public schools... A $1 increase in state aid per pupil increases total expenditures per pupil by approximately 83 cents."

*Lisa Barrow and Cecilia Elena Rouse, "Using market valuation to assess public school spending," Journal of Public Economics 88, nos. 9-10 (August 2004): 1747-1769.

I've made it through my Micro and Macro midterms and my Math Econ final alive and thus will be coming out of blogging hibernation.

I'd like to thank Frank and Bob for keeping things going in my absence. I'd also like to thank John Moser for his eloquent election day post.

Fox Butterfield of the New York Times discovers that incapacitation works. (Hat tip: Jon Sanders)

The Sports Economist has the following quote from the Washington Post's Michael Wilbon:

The people who do all the screaming in the town hall-style meetings probably don't make it to Denver or Cleveland to see what sports stadiums and arenas have done to revitalize those cities, to lure businesses that create new jobs, and lure developers who want to build new housing, which creates real-estate taxes. Sometimes, I can't believe the stupid junk I read from academics who spin their silly obstructionist excuses on what stadiums don't bring, when all you have to do is look at what they actually contribute in Cleveland and in Denver, or for that matter along 7th Street near MCI Center, which around here ought to be Exhibit A.

Yes, Mr. Wilbon, let's do take a look at Cleveland. In an October 6 posting I wrote:

Below is part of a Gwen Ifill question in last night's vice presidential debate:
IFILL: Mr. Vice President, the Census Bureau ranked Cleveland as the biggest poor city in the country, 31 percent jobless rate.

This (and a couple of subsequent comments about poverty in Cleveland) struck me as interesting because Cleveland is often held out as a stadium-driven economic development success story. (In the last decade or so, Cleveland has build new football and baseball stadia; I think there is also a new basketball arena. The Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame is also often lumped in the tale of success.) Ifill's question suggests that maybe this strategy hasn't been successful; this would hardly be surprising since--developers' claims and Cowboys propaganda notwithstanding--there's a strong body of research showing that stadia don't boost local economies. (For an example, click here.)

Just wondering--does Michael Wilbon think Ifill's figure of 31% unemployment constitutes a success story for Cleveland?