Quote of the Day

"Wise management includes making the best use of scientific, technological and artistic knowledge". Becky Norton Dunlop. 

Quoting Bart Wilson

"The positive facts about how we became the most prosperous species in the history of the planet are unappreciated in the humanities, often because the facts and logic of wealth creation are regrettably unknown". Bart Wilson in, Economics as a Branch of Literature. 

The Trade of of Graduate Economists

"Most economists start graduate school not having spent much time thinking about social problems or studied much else besides math and economics. The incentive and hierarchy systems tend to reward those with the technical skills rather than interesting questions or research agendas." Dani Rodrik in, World Economics Association newsletter. 

John Kay Makes Sense of Money

"The transition from the world in which money is valuable because it is valuable to one in which money is valuable because it is money could happen only because centuries of experience had established confidence that such money would be accepted. There are two commodities-paper money and gold- whose price permanently exceeds fundamental value. But only two. But with gold looking as volatile as Bitcoin, perhaps only one." John Kay  

Sotomayor on Mercy

The Quality of mercy: "It blesseth him that gives and him that takes". Sonia Sotomayor, in , My Beloved World. Page 204. 

Will Information Be Free?

"The information revolution did not make information free. What it did was transfer the money from producers of information to the owners of the technologies that deliver it to their audience." Eduardo Porter, in, The Price of Everything; The True Cost of Living. p. 141. 

Quoting Steven Pinker

"By the late 20th Century, the idea that parents can harm their children by abusing and neglecting them (which is true) grew into the idea that parents can mold their children's intelligence, personalities, social skills, and mental disorders (which is not)."  Steven Pinker, in, The Better Angels of Our Nature: the Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes. p. 443.  

Recommended Reading for Some African Leaders

A number of nations on the African continent have been independent for half a century now. In that time, very few of these nations have had an unbroken series of hand over of political authority. Also instructive is that a good number of the individuals with economic clout have an existing or past connection with the governments. Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson have a book that explains by trawling through history how and why societies have generated economic prosperity and political stability. In their view, societies are either extractive or inclusive. Extractive societies are those in which political institutions channel power and wealth from the majority towards the minority while inclusive institutions exist where there is pluralism that allows for participation in public affairs and reduces monopoly in both markets or political power.

"However, in most cases of sub-Saharan Africa and many in Asia, the post-independence governments simply took a page out of Robert Michel's book and repeated and intensified the abuses of their predecessors, often severely narrowing the distribution of political power, dismantling constraints, and undermining the already meager incentives that economic institutions provided for investment and economic progress."  In, Why Nations Fail, Pages 112-113.

  

Nobel Prizes: Being Right and Wrong

"Nobel prizes are sometimes awarded to scholars who are wrong for the right reasons, but almost never to those who are right for the wrong reasons". Robert H. Frank in The Return of the Economic Naturalist. p. 90

Steven Pinker on Prediction

Image from amazon.com

"Social scientists should never predict the future: its hard enough to predict the past". Steven Pinker, in The Better Angels of Our Nature. P. 278.  

From Absurd Belief to Atrocities

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire 

Poverty and Entrepreneurship

"The enterprises of the poor often seem more a way to buy a job when a more conventional employment opportunity is not available than a reflection of a particular entrepreneurial urge." Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo in, Poor Economics. Page 226

Intelligence and Creativity

"Intelligence is not enough for creativity. So intelligent people defend the position given them by their intelligence  by claiming that creativity is not a learnable skill but an inborn talent-which they cannot be expected to acquire".  Edward De Bono in, Think! Before Its Too Late. p. 25

Umberto Eco on Simple Things

"Its only publishers and some journalists who believe that people want simple things. People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged. " Umberto Eco

Sad End for a Despot

"For the region, today’s events prove once more that the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end. Across the Arab world, citizens have stood up to claim their rights. Youth are delivering a powerful rebuke to dictatorship. And those leaders who try to deny their human dignity will not succeed". Barack Obama 

Atul Gawande on Finding and Executing Ideas

"But finding a good idea is apparently not all that hard. Finding an entrepreneur who can execute a good idea is a different matter entirely. " Atul Gawande in The Checklist Manifesto p.171.

Quoting Kenneth Elzinga

"The truly influential economist is one who affects how economists view fundamental problems in their own discipline and affects how non-specialists come to view the world of economic reality." Kenneth Elzinga.  

Tim Harford on Originality of Ideas

"Most original ideas turn out either to be not original after all, or original for the very good reason that they are useless. And when an original idea does work, the returns can be too high to be sensibly measured." Tim Harford in Adapt. p. 83.

Quoting Gary Kasparov

Reading Garry Kasparov's book, How Life Imitates Chess, I underlined very many passages in the book and now find myself having to choose only one for this post. It is found on page 212 of the paperback version.

"When preference overrides objectivity to too great a degree, our growth is inhibited."

Quoting Brian Micklethwait

" Governments are good at destroying stuff but tend to be shambolic at any kind of creativity. The more creative they try to be, the more destructive they end up being. People do creative, not governments". Brian Micklethwait at Samizdata.