Our Word is Our Weapon

Good post from Duncan and discussion from commenters. Like Duncan, I don't pretend to understand the dynamics of commodity markets or how they affect food security in poor countries, but it's an area worth keeping on eye on.

Path dependence in social models: "Equality can multiply due to the complementarity between wage determination and welfare spending. A more equal wage distribution fuels welfare generosity via political competition. A more generous welfare state fuels wage equality further via its support to weak groups in the labor market."

Worth reading, as always

'The great likelihood is that the world economy will need aggressive monetary and fiscal policies far longer than many believe. That is going to be make policymakers – and investors – nervous…

Last year the world economy tipped over into a slump. The policy response has been massive. But those sure we are at the beginning of a robust private sector-led recovery are almost certainly deluded. The race to full recovery is likely to be long, hard and uncertain."

You've got to admire the optimism of the spirit that came up with “Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World” as a book title.

Wonderful visualisations of randomness in numbers. I liked the ones on Bedford's Law and the Law of Large Numbers best.

Oh, I'm looking forward to this: "This major philosophical work, by one of the world's leading public intellectuals, constructs a new theory of justice, not from abstract ideals or notions of what perfect institutions and rules might be, but from what the results of a system are practically, in the world. It highlights the importance of public reasoning and argues that a system of justice should require the agreement not just of the community which is making laws, but of outsiders who might be affected, or who might have valuable perspectives to offer. The methods and conclusions of the book have implications for many different fields of intellectual activity, not only those connected with justice. It is the most ambitious and wide-ranging book Amartya Sen has yet written. "
Due out in July.

In short, if temperature goes up 4c, we're mostly screwed.

Interesting research by Philip Oreopoulos: "Canadian applicants that differed only by name had substantially different callback rates: Those with English-sounding names received interview requests 40 percent more often than applicants with Chinese, Indian, or Pakistani names (16 percent versus 11 percent). Overall, the results suggest considerable employer discrimination against applicants with ethnic names or with experience from foreign firms."