Econlinks for 27-12-’07

  • How to avoid recession in USA: Greg Mankiw’s answer. Gary Becker and Richard Posner advocate a similar perspective (the argument is centered, of course, on the subprime housing mess). Former Fed boss Greenspan already said that one should do absolutely nothing and wait for the bubble to break on its own, just as the people above (e.g.
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Econlinks for 27-11-’07

  • Becker and respectively Posner, on tax evasion. Why is tax compliance higher than one would expect (with a reservation here: it also follows from Posner’s argument than in fact tax evasion isn’t necessarily lower than rationally expected…) and is that mainly due to the rational fear of punishment or to the taxpayers’ feeling of moral duty/ fairness etc?
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One hour conversation with Richard Freeman (on YouTube)

Shortly after having posted a link to an IZA clip about Richard Freeman among a recent ‘econlinks’ post, I discovered, via Greg Mankiw, this other link to a very recent (October 31st) whole one hour interview with Freeman on YouTube, within the “Conversations with History” series, having Harry Kreisler as host.
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Best “Political Compass” so far. And where I stand on the left-right political-economic plan

You should do this ‘politiquiz‘ (particularly if you are already a politician/ decision maker or consider a career in this direction :-)). There are lots of things that can still be improved in it, but it is the best “where you stand on the political/ economic dimensions” questionnaire I’ve encountered so far.
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