My New Reading List

I am really excited about the books that I received this year for Christmas. I have lots of good reading material for the new year.

Economics
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
Naked Economics  by Charles Wheelan
Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski

Other
The Next 100 Years by George Friedman
The Business of Value Investing by Sham Gad
The Best American Sports Writing 2010 edited by Peter Gammons
Eating Well's Healthy in a Hurry Cookbook

I was also surprised by my wonderful girlfriend who gave me an Amazon Kindle, the top selling eReader. I am in the process of learning how to use my new gadget, but you can expect a post about it in the coming weeks.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! I hope everyone is able to enjoy this special time of year with their loved ones.

Economic Hardship - The Ozarks and Winter's Bone

When people are facing economic adversity, what choices do they have? One option, is to turn to family and friends for help. But what happens when an entire community is struggling?

I was forced to think about these questions and others when I watched the Sundance Film Festival Best Picture Winter's Bone. It is based on the book by Daniel Woodrell written in 2006. The film tells the story of a community in the Ozarks by focusing on one particular family. Sadly, some residents of the community have turned to cooking crank (methamphetamine) to earn a quick profit.

After seeing the movie, and listening to this NPR interview with the book's author, I am really interested in learning more about the history of the Ozark region and how people there have dealt with economic hardship. Although the book is fictional, it is inspired by events that the author has experienced while living in the Ozarks. I have only listened to excerpts, but I do plan on reading Winter's Bone the novel. The character descriptions from the interview are captivating. Here is an eerie description about one of the main characters, Uncle Teardrop:

"Uncle Teardrop was Jessup's elder and had been a crank chef longer, but he'd had a lab go wrong and it had eaten the left ear off his head and burned a savage, melted scar down his neck to the middle of his back. There wasn't enough ear nub remaining to hang sunglasses on. The hair around the ear was gone, too, and the scar on his neck showed above his collar.

Three blue teardrops done in jailhouse ink fell in a row from the corner of the eye on his scarred side. Folks said the teardrops meant he three times done grizzly prison deeds that needed doing, but didn't need to be gabbed about. They said the teardrops told you everything you had to know about the man, and the lost ear just repeated it. He generally tried to sit with his melted side to the wall."

You can hear author Daniel Woodrell read this description at 3:20 in the interview. If you have seen the movie or read the book, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Measuring Teacher Quality Series

This month I will be writing a blog series on teacher quality. I will share my own insights from teaching, current economic research on the topic, and more. Look for the first post in the series during the next few days.

For now, I will leave you with this...

1 Year of Free Amazon Prime For Students

With any student email address, you can sign up for an entire year of FREE Amazon Prime for students. The main benefit with this promotion is free two-day shipping with no minimum order quantity.

I already had an account with Amazon.com, but I had to set up a new one for the promotion to work. It is worth the extra few minutes if you plan on doing any shopping on Amazon this year.

Feel free to share any of your own holiday shopping tips, websites, or ideas in the comments section below.

Projected Federal Budget Deficits

Check out this graphic from the Washington Post that depicts the projected US budget deficit over the next ten years.

What is your first reaction to this graph? Please leave a comment below. I would love to hear your thoughts. I will post my reaction as well as some further research on the topic in the next few days.

Conflict on the Korean Peninsula

On the Korean Peninsula, the drama continues to unfold. For the second time in the last year, the North appears to be provoking military action from the South Koreans. On Tuesday, two civilians and two military members died when the North launched artillery shells at a South Korean Island. This is the first time that an attack of this kind has been carried out since the early 1950s. Earlier this year in March, the North caused greater casualties when it sank a South Korean vessel with a torpedo, killing 46 sailors. North Korea has vehemently denied responsibility in public statements, claiming that the South Korean "traitors" fabricated the whole thing.

Assuming the North Koreans are in fact responsible all of the recent devastation, the South Korean government is in a tough spot. Do they retaliate and risk the potential for all out war, or do they sit back and wait for the next North Korean act of aggression? The route they take will likely be somewhere in the middle with a lot of non-verbal retaliation (public statements, sanctions, etc), 

Given that the North and South Korean neighbors are struggling to coexist peacefully at this point, strategic allies such as China (ally to North Korea) and the US (ally to South Korea) are going to start playing major roles. This is alarming because the US already is sending an aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington to the Yellow Sea. The last thing we need right now is another foreign war. The wars in the middle east have already cost our country over 1 trillion dollars. Does anyone else think it is a poor idea for the US Government to jump in the middle of the Korean conflict? As with any political decision, their are costs and benefits. Calll me crazy, but I am fairly confident that the risk of war with North Korea and the risk of damaging our economic relationship with China more than outweigh the benefits of flexing our muscles in the Yellow Sea.

Is Randy Moss Rubbing Off on Vince Young?

Despite some of his questionable behavior on and off the field, Vince Young is the Titans' best QB. There is a very compelling story over at the Sports Economist that compares the performance of Vince Young and Kerry Collins. The primary conclusion: Vince Young is much more likely to win than Kerry Collins. In the two seasons (2006 and 2009) that they each started a share of the games, Kerry Collins went 0 for 9, while Vince Young went 16 and 7. Unfortunately for Vince and the Titans, Sunday's injury and temper tantrum could prevent them from making the playoffs. Vince Young's passer rating of 98.6 this season is the best of his career. The Titans have a relatively easy stretch of games coming up, and this was Vince Young's chance to prove himself as a premier quarterback. Now his future with the Titans is uncertain according to the media.

Given that I live in Nashville, I would like to see the Titans do well despite the fact that I don't consider myself a "Titans Fan." I have always perceived Jeff Fisher as a top notch guy. He is obviously not pleased with his quarterback's antics nor his apology via text message. However, I am watching this story very closely to see what Jeff Fisher decides to do. Although I think Vince Young has some serious growing up to do and acted like a prima donna on Sunday, I will find it ironic if the organization decides to get rid of Vince Young for his actions, as they just picked one of the leagues biggest drama queens in Randy Moss.

Some of My Favorite Economics Books

Freakonomics by Stevin Levitt and Stephen Dubner

The Undercover Economist and The Logic of Life by Tim Harford

Gang Leader for a Day Sudhir Venkatesh

What Makes a Terrorist by Paul Krueger

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

Swarm Intelligence

I recently read an interesting article from the Economist about a type of artificial intelligence called swarm intelligence. Swarm intelligence models the behavior of ants and birds to solve complex problems and increase the efficiency in a system. Applications of swarm intelligence include the routing of a fleet of delivery trucks to the proper destinations and the routing of information in a digital communication network.

Here is the link. Enjoy!