Behavioral Econ at Harvard

Courtesy of Marginal Revolution.

How Hard is the Fed's Job?

Ben Bernanke thinks that a machine can do it.

Field of Dreams

Kevin Hassett writes on the story behind ethanol as an alternative fuel.

Michael Crichton, Journalist of the Year

Catch this, and other great riffs this week from the inimitable Dr. Bob Park.

Fortune's Formula

Anyone who enjoys reading this blog will enjoy William Poundstone's Fortune's Formula. The book is chock full of great anecdotes, and tells the incredible story of the enigmatic Claude Shannon. Most of the book is dedicated to the method of wagering developed by Texan physicist John Kelly, who died tragically at the age of 41, and how the method is linked to Shannon's information theory.? The book is one of the best examinations of the orthodoxy surrounding the Efficient Market Hypothesis I've read, and paints a pretty unsavory picture of its devotees. In my opinion, any good scientist would roll their eyes at most of this theory. The book features a huge cast of characters, and I've certainly learned a lot from it. For instance, Leo Breiman (famous for CART and Random Forests) published a method for portfolio allocation in Naval Research Logistics Quarterly (to say nothing of the story of Ivan Boesky)

Economic Sociology and History

Here are some great recent books that discuss the sociological aspects of economies:

Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism by Charles Perrow

The Sociology of the Economy by Frank Dobbin

The New Economic Sociology, A Reader by Frank Dobbin

It's funny to consider this work alongside Martin Whitman's recent letter to shareholders.

Unstoppable

Perhaps I'm the last person to hear about them, but these comics are the funniest things I've seen in a while.