Obama as law school lecturer

Here's a good NYT article on Obama's twelve years as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.

"So even some former students who are thrilled at Mr. Obama’s success wince when they hear him speaking like the politician he has so fully become.

'When you hear him talking about issues, it’s at a level so much simpler than the one he’s capable of,' Mr. Rodriguez said. 'He was a lot more fun to listen to back then.'"

According to Joe Klein, McCain dumbs things down quite a bit too:

Joe Klein: My big problems with McCain began with a simple question that I asked him at a press conference: "Why do always talk about Ahmadinejad as if he is the leader of Iran when he isn't?" And he said, "I beg to differ with you, he is." I said, "But you know, the Supreme Leader controls the nuclear policy and the foreign policy," and McCain said, "But Ahmadinejad is the guy who shows up at the United Nations and the average American thinks he's the leader."

Yugoslavian war doco

A few weeks ago (corresponding with a large gap in my blog posts) I watched a six-part 1995 BBC documentary on the Yugoslavian war by way of this Kottke.org post and Google Video. It is a fascinating documentary--many thorough, revealing interviews with political leaders, diplomats, and soldiers. Here's the first episode. Betcha can't watch just one.

Coincidentally, Bosnian Serb Radovan Karadzic was arrested four days ago for genocide and crimes against humanity during that conflict. Had I not seen the documentary a couple weeks before I'd have no idea who the guy is.

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the guy credited with ending the conflict in 1995, recently wrote this in the Washington Post on the subject of Karadzic and had this to say on NPR Talk of the Nation (essentially the same thing). He was an adviser to Hillary Clinton's recent campaign and a potential Secretary of State. It will be interesting to see if he pops up in an Obama administration.

You've been left behind, sucker

This Christian website offers true believers a way to deliver messages to their loved ones left behind after the rapture. It's worth a look through the site to see how it works--funny and scary. It involves a team of Christian couples logging into the site every day to demonstrate that the rapture hasn't occurred (no internet in heaven?!). If three of the four couples fail to log in for three consecutive days, then, of course, the rapture must have occurred and the stored messages from subscribers are sent out (see, because they should have been sucked up into heaven, too!). The site encourages people to upload their bank details with passwords so that those left behind can at least have some extra cash while they're attacked by scorpions with human heads.

Irrational agents

Dartmouth Economics Professor Annamaria Lusardi asked Americans the following questions to assess American financial literacy:

1. Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2 percent per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow?

a. More than $102
b. Exactly $102
c. Less than $102
d. Do not know

2. Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1 percent per year and inflation was 2 percent per year. After 1 year, would you be able to buy more than, exactly the same as, or less than today with the money in this account?

a. More than today
b. Exactly the same as today
c. Less than today
d. Do not know

3. Do you think that the following statement is true or false? “Buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.”

a. True
b. False
c. Do not know

Half the respondents age 50+ answered the first two question correctly; 1/3 answered all three correctly. Wow.

[more from the NYT Freakonomics blog]

What amazes me is not Americans' lack of general knowledge about such a conspicuous subject of current events. When god in school debates spring up in the news media I doubt people unfamiliar with theories of evolution rush to learn about it to keep up with things. The crazy thing about economic illiteracy is how obviously harmful it is to nearly any individual's self-interest.

If you're wondering like I am how the US can simultaneously have such a high percentage of idiots, be a democracy, and have the world's largest economy, here's an excellent NPR Science Friday interview of Michael Mauboussin on the subject of how markets might function in the absence of rational agents. Agent diversity, information aggregation mechanisms, and incentives are the critical components of Mauboussin's efficient economy low on rationality.

US economic forecasts

Just within the last couple weeks it's become a lot harder to find credible articles that downplay US economic troubles. This NYT article and this FT article are good examples of recent gloomier articles--both summarize how there's no good news for the US economy. While reading the articles it occurred to me that I've not come across any hypotheses on how the US might exit the current downturn. Authors write that the US Federal government needs to do something, but suggestions all revolve around short term, superficial actions. Also missing from US economic discussions is mention of the US economic future past 2010. The debate about opening restricted US coastal areas to oil explorations is a good example of such shortsightedness. Production time lines and short term effects on fuel prices should have little to do with the debate, but somehow they've become the central issues.

The stimulus package Congressional Democrats are working on sounds like a good start, but there's no chance they'll get it passed before the November elections and, as a result, their urgency seems cynical.

Ca-CA cancer collaboration

The Canadian government is giving Californian research institutes, in collaboration with Canadian researchers, $100m to study cancer stem cells. What does that say about US federal government funding? Californian researchers are looking to additional countries to fund research:

"'We are excited about the opportunities presented by this international collaboration with our Canadian colleagues,' stated Robert N. Klein, Chairman of the Governing Board of CIRM, the state stem cell agency. 'Coordinating scientific efforts should shorten the time that it takes to drive discoveries into the clinic and to patients. We hope to enter into several agreements with other nations to significantly expand this vital stem cell research and extend our ability to accelerate the field.'"