Greek Complexity

The modern phenomenon of nonsense jobs

Snip: "In 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, by century's end, technology would have advanced sufficiently that countries like Britain or the United States would have achieved a 15-hour working week. There's every reason to believe he was right. In technological terms, we are quite capable of this."

More: http://ift.tt/14fyRyf

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list.

The rediscovery of India

Snip: "Is India even a country? It’s not an outlandish question. 'India is merely a geographical expression,' Winston Churchill said in exasperation. 'It is no more a single country than the Equator.'"

More: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/asia-pacific/the_rediscovery_of_india

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list.

 

America's economy: Meh Ceiling?

Snip: "Why haven't financial markets been more perturbed by the dangerous game being played in Washington? There are plenty of explanations circulating, but we shouldn't ignore the most straightforward one, however unlikely it seems: because the game isn't that dangerous."

More: http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/10/americas-economy

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list.

So you hate cyclists? Read this

Rational arguments don't always work when it comes to emotive topics. However, for what it's worth:

You might be stuck behind a cyclist for 8 seconds. Usually much, much less. I know it seems like a long time, but it’s not. It’s 8 seconds. That’s with heavy oncoming traffic. However, you’re not stopped for that time, you’re traveling at 20mph. This means that slowing down, waiting for traffic to clear and passing the cyclist safely costs you about four seconds… max. Do you want to risk my life (permanently) and you being a murderer (forever) for four seconds? Really?

[...]

Imagine if all those people on bikes that you hate commuted downtown one-per-car. What would that do to your commute? What would that do to your parking availability downtown? What would those additional heavy cars do the pavement condition (remember that my bike doesn’t wear the road at all) ? I’ll give you a hint … you’re a lot better off with the cyclists. They’re doing you a favor. They’re saving you money. They’re paying the same as you for that road, but using it less. You should be thanking them. You should be handing me a cupcake through the window.

Ok, so someone tell me again why this is even an issue, let alone an emotive one?

Plenty more here: You're going to kill someone

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Of course, soon after I post this, I (barely) see a Darwin Award candidate on a black TT bike, dressed in black on a dark street without a headlamp. Idiot.

Gujarat: Myth and reality

Excerpt: "For the last several years, [Gujarat's Chief Minister] Modi has been successful in projecting his "vibrant Gujarat" as a role model of economic growth and himself as ''Vikas Purush". Though one must give due credit to Modi for his effective skills in making projections, one must also critically analyse this "growth story of Gujarat" based on facts and figures"

More here: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-12/edit-page/32176123_1_gujarat-narendra-modi-industrial-growth

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list courtesy IFTTT. See http://ifttt.com

The economics of crime with Gary Becker

Excerpt: " In 1968, University of Chicago economist Gary Becker solved the problem that had plagued law enforcement officers, politicians, and city planners since, well, the dawn of civilization: How do we stop criminals from committing crimes, and is stopping crime even desirable? Becker’s paper, “Crim"

More here: http://chicagomaroon.com/2012/05/25/the-economics-of-crime-with-gary-becker/

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list courtesy IFTTT. See http://ifttt.com

Money, Money, Money. Can we talk about something else?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/opinion/sunday/money-money-money-can-we-talk-about-something-else.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=opinion

I wonder if the writer knows anything about Singapore. Probably does, to his chagrin. Separately, does anyone think there's scope to run a successful time bank in Singapore?

Capitalism's Crises

This isn't a macroeconomics blog (what blog is it?) but this video was sufficiently thought-provoking that I thought it a must-post:

The speaker is the academic David Harvey.

The World at Work

Just saw this great chart from McKinsey (click to enlarge):

I didn't know Singapore's median age was into the 40s! Nor that America's median age was well above China's. It's not obvious to me from casual observation. As a friend once asked me, "Why do people say that Singapore has an aging population? I see plenty of children on the street with their parents." In comparison, one rarely sees children in Japan. But the numbers tell a different story from the perception.

One other interesting point to note is the way the authors have classified the countries. Most countries are classified by their levels of education and age of population. India and China, though, get their own independent categories! That speaks for itself. Another way to do it would have been to separate out urban India and urban China, and lump them in with other parts of the world with similar characteristics. Urban China and India are older and wealthier than the rest of each country, so this could substantially alter the picture.

This chart is from a longer McKinsey report called The World at Work, which is available for free download.

Another great source of this sort of data, visualised just as nicely as this, is the absolutely spectacular website Gapminder. If you're reading this blog, you're probably aware of this website already.

Links of the, well, many days

For some reason, my little ifttt hack didn't work and the articles I bookmarked onto my radar over the past several days didn't actually make it to the blog. No matter. I emailed them. I'm sure they'll reply with a fix.

Meanwhile, here are some of the things I posted to my radar since my last blog post. If you get my email newsletter, you've already seen most of these. I'll disable the double-posts once the ifttt problem is fixed.

• Why Germany is phasing out nuclear power
• The Revenge of Wen Jiabao
• America’s dream unravels
• Has E-commerce Really Fallen Out Of Favour With Indian VCs?
• 7 Ways to Automate Your Life With ifttt: I still love ifttt even though it didn't work for me.
• Procreation vs. Overpopulation: The case against kids: This piece doesn't try to be as conclusive as its title pretends.
• Online behaviour: March of the tastemakers: From interests to the social graph to the interest graph. Things come full circle.
• The Credit Card Is The New App Platform
• How to Avoid Getting Fired from Your Own Startup: Article doesn't really match the title. Still interesting.
• Investors demand change at ailing techs: Interesting to see moves reminiscent of private companies playing out in listed companies

This is one of those few times I've actually sat down and looked at the kinds of stuff I post on the radar. Quite a hodge-podge. Plus there's stuff I read but don't post. Wonder how much my radar overlaps with other people's.