Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

Blogging in Cuba: Generation Y

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez reports being beaten up and abducted by Cuban...quasi-authorities, for being a "counter-revolutionary" (i.e. having an independent blog). Check out her blog Generation Y.

The optimal number of things to think about

I think our minds (brains, whatever) are like a multi-product firm. We have to decide how many things to think about -- how many different products to produce. We don't think about just one thing all the time; but we don't think about an infinite number of things either. There must be fixed costs of thinking about each thing, so initially increasing returns, otherwise we would think a little bit about everything. But eventually, as we think more and more about one particular thing, we run into diminishing returns. So we think about more than one thing. Each topic of thought has a U-shaped average cost curve, or inverse-U-shaped average product curve.

Reader Survey

We are just curious to know who is reading this blog, and would love to know a little bit more about you, including those who don't usually comment.

1. What is your nationality or country of residence? (What proportion of our readers are Canadian?).

2. What is your profession/occupation? Private/government/education sector?

3. How much economics background do you have? None? Read a few economics books? Taken a few courses? BA, MA, PhD?

4. Any other comments or suggestions about the blog?

Feel free to comment anonymously, if you wish.

Thanks!

The silence of the keynesian econ-bloggers

OK. I'm trying to attract your attention. But I'm not knocking Keynesians. I'm more or less a Keynesian myself, especially under current circumstances. And I'm coming at this question from a Keynesian perspective.

Is it good economic policy for Hillary Clinton to try to persuade China to continue to buy US Treasuries?

Why have economics bloggers, US and Keynesian economics bloggers in particular, remained almost silent on this issue?

Economics blogging and academia

I've been wondering for some months about the role of blogging for an academic. How does it fit into my job as an economics professor? What's it worth?

My own views, of course, are coloured by personal experience. But that personal experience is more influenced by the current economic times than by my own biography.

The (economic) benefits of civility

I can think of three benefits from people being civil, in arguments about economics (for example).