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Cheaptalk post on the theory and history of open source software (with link in their text to the very interesting new NBER paper by Schwarz and Takhteyev)
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“A neat project would be to infer the extent of school spirit from the estimate of the price elasticity implied by the prices that different university cemeteries charge“– very much so, indeed– though looks only applicable/relevant for a few places in the USA (most likely unrepresentative even of the USA entire university universe, not to even mention Europe or others). Nevertheless, very selective sample aside, this is an interesting idea: read Dan Hamermesh’s entire post on Freakonomics.
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Niall Ferguson concise on Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? and the whole craze to re-regulate finance…, via Alex Tabarrok on MR.
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Buffett and Munger seem to like it finance-simple, though they surprinsingly appear to entirely blame the scientists & the science rather than the practioners who learnt and applied the science wrongly, especially so when this science is typically very clear about its assumptions (but could be the journalist’s fault here, e.g., by taking things out of the context… hopefully). See also a related earlier article in Wired.
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The Economist’s gloomy snapshot of Central and Eastern Europe facing the crisis. Not over yet, but so far not as bad as it could have been…
