Why do people continue to attend tedious, useless meetings? There can be only one answer, and here's support for it: a lot of people actually like meetings . ... Read more

"Snapshots of Endowment Spending" with the interesting table, " Proportion of Endowment Funds Spent by Universities With 25 Biggest Endowments, 1998-2007 ". One more reason I won't be volunteering money to Duke. ... Read more

David Beckworth, an assistant professor of economics at Texas State in San Marcos, answers Paul Krugman's recent claim that "unregulated, unsupervised financial markets" caused the Great Depression and that we are experiencing a repeat performance. First, there is a huge literature that show ... Read more

I just looked at what browsers people are using to view my page. Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape is now over 50% . ... Read more

" But You Know 'Annotated Bibliography'? " ... Read more

Neither can the New York Times 's economics reporter: " Can't Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club ". "Liquidity puts"? (Link via Marginal Revolution .) ... Read more

" Scientists Learn Why Hope Springs Eternal ". It's in the amygdala and the rostral anterior cingulate. (Where the phrase "hope springs eternal" comes from .) ... Read more

The Houston Rockets try to win their 23rd game in a row tonight. I caught parts of their last two games and thought they were quite entertaining. They're playing old school basketball: lots of teamwork and lots of spirit. So, in their honor, two Rockets items: Shane Battier is finally starting ... Read more

Buy, last Tuesday, 55,000 way out-of-the-money puts on Bear Stearns at about 15 cents per contract . ... Read more

A distinguished UCLA economist predicts that the U.S. will (narrowly) avoid a recession . ... Read more