"Technology Gets a Piece of Stimulus"

Excited about funneling money to electronic health records (How will we keep them secure? Biometrics!), but what function should technology play in a 21st century stimulus package when old-fashioned public works projects are time-tested?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/technology/26techjobs.html?pagewanted=1&em

What's going on in England?

Hey guys, what's going on over there!? The US news media is overly preoccupied with the US economy, so we don't get much news about the UK...but this article is terrifying. What is the feeling in the city?

The Myth of the Autocratic Revival

Interesting article in the January/February Foreign Affairs about the relationship between politics and economy...namely, capitalism in a liberal democracy (ie, US/UK) versus capitalism in an autocratic government (ie, China/Russia). The authors argue that capitalism is best supported by a liberal democracy, and that current autocratic nations will continue to liberalize as their rising middle class demands transparency and greater control over decisions impacting their lives and wealth.

Third Runway at Heathrow

After years of debate, it looks like there will be a third runway at Heathrow.

Wall Street's Structure and the Root Causes of the Financial Crisis

One of the best and clearest explanations that I have read on the root causes of the financial crisis by someone who was lived through (and helped cause) several of them: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200812/blodget-wall-street

Chief Performance Officer of the United States

Obama just introduced Nancy Killefer as the first Chief Performance Officer. She is a big-wig at McKinsey and will be tasked with making government more efficient. Will it work? Does corporate strategy have a place in government?

The Value of Brands

What are the real values of the brands that businesses spend so much to build? Do they have tangible values that can be bought and sold, or are they more closely tied to actual products so that they can disappear overnight if product quality diminishes?

In recent years there has been great focus on building brands and rating their values, but, like the sub-prime loan debacle, is this another case of assigning tenuous values to dubious qualities that could disappear overnight?

http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/hey-wait-minute/2008/12/22/whats-name-0?page=0,0

European Opposition to the US Auto "bridge loan"

European automakers seem to view the US governments "bridge loan" to US automakers as an unfair subsidy to bolster competitiveness.

Obesity Tax?

Interesting article by NY Governor David Paterson about childhood obesity. He wants to treat unhealthy food as any other consumable product and tax the hell out of it. yay for economics. How will food/beverage companies react? How will consumers, especially the poor, react?

I'm especially concerned given the current debate of nationalized health care. I fear that future health care costs in the US will be significantly higher than they are today because of our unhealthy eating habits, and I wonder if proponents of 'universal health care' have accounted for these additional costs? Should healthy tax payers fund the by-pass surgery of a citizen who knowingly eats unhealthy food?

In the current US insurance system, unhealthy citizens (ie, tobacco users) pay a higher insurance cost to compensate for the additional problems they will inevitably encounter.

John Bird, Founder of the Big Issue

http://www.cambridgebusinesslectures.com/john-birds-talk-online/

Good talk on social entrepreneurship.

Obama's team of centrist rivals...

...Jim Jones, Hilary Clinton, Rahm Emmanuel, Eric Shinseki, Larry Summers, etc. Recipe for success or disaster? And does he risk losing the left wing of the democratic party?

The Napoleon Dynamite Problem

Remember that PMP on prize money? This contest "has galvanized nerds around the world." Predicting human behavior...

Does the free market corrode moral character

Not sure if you've been following the 'big questions' conversation in The Economist and Foreign Affairs magazines, but the Templeton foundation will be hosting a webcast with 3 of the contributors on Wednesday, Dec 3 at 19:00 GMT.

www.templeton.org/market

About the Speakers

Jagdish Bhagwati is University Professor of economics and law at Columbia University, senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the author of In Defense of Globalization. He writes widely on public policy and international trade.

John Gray is emeritus professor at the London School of Economics. Among his recent books are False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism (Granta) and Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia (Penguin).

Bernard-Henri Lévy, the French philosopher, has written more than thirty books, including the New York Times bestseller American Vertigo (2006) and, most recently, Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism (2008), both published by Random House. www.bernard-henri-levy.com

Obama New Deal

Good article from a Cambridge Professor comparing and contrasting the situations inherited by FDR and Obama.

Wal-Mart Commits to Powering 360 Sites in Texas With Wind

"They have a very compelling case for their sustainability and environmental effort."

Chuckle from Texas Instruments

THANK AN ENGINEER

And a bottle of rum...

Pirates going for the big time: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27787397#27787397

Mercenary action: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27789400/

Send us your rum and women!: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/19/somalia.pirates.boomtown.ap/index.html

Is this nuts to anyone else? Some random (and admittedly not well formed) thoughts:

1) Naval officials the world over must be scrambling to redefine their doctrines to counter this threat
2) Goodbye nation-state, hello globalisation of security - Pirates operating out of a failed state, state-run navies helpless to intervene, and companies hiring mercenaries
3) What will this do to insurance rates on international shipping? And what will that do to world trade?
4) If this continues, can someone say 'military intervention in Africa'?
5) Piracy is widely supported by the African populace - they see only benefit and poetic justice from it. How might this relate to failed states that spawn terrorists?

Lots of Wonks...

Does Obama's new cabinet seem very tilted towards current or former congressmen to anyone besides me?

Guide to US Planned Missile Shield

Fun illustration if nothing else.

HRC

Hillary Clinton as the U.S. Secretary of State--yes, no, maybe so???