Cherchez la (les) femme(s)

This recent article in “Psychology Today” is not a bad research summary, despite that it has been written by social scientists other than economists :-). A user’s manual on the evolutionary perspective applied to human nature, targeting a very general audience (and therefore, perhaps unavoidably, plagued by sensationalism; fortunately, the compromise does not appear to be critical).
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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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Song of the day: “Madness”, by Marlango

Enter Marlango, possibly the best Spanish jazz band ever! Since today I declare myself their biggest fan. Now, of course I’ve already seen and admired Leonor Watling, the actrice,- wiki, IMDb– playing Alicia in “Hable con Ella“, one of my top 10 movies of all times (set to stay in top 10 for quite some time…).
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How intelligent should leaders be?

Although I think there is more to the story, quite insightful thoughts from Richard Posner and Gary Becker on the relationship between intelligence and leadership. A few potential caveats I’d point out very rapidly:
  • the examples considered are clearly selected to fit the theory advanced (though it is far from clear that if one considered, say, all -succesful and unsuccesful – political leaders within the last century, from all over the world, not just the USA, the correlation between intelligence and leadership would turn positive)
  • “leadership failure” is far from easy to define.
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