Midwest Conservative Journal has the details, as well as some Fiskings of recent statements by some vicars who well and truly deserve to be called vicars of vacillation.

You, too, can make your own church sign (or mosque sign.)

LOWERING EXPECTATIONS. Let's see, this engineer doesn't keep time on the wayfreight and you're surprised that he can't bring the Flying Yankee in on time either. D'oh! Joanne Jacobs, Outside the Beltway, and Discriminations expand on the phenomenon in diverse ways.

72 VIRGINS DATING SERVICE. Shameless plug. Christmas is coming, shop for your favorite transgressives now!

WHO IS GRUMPING ABOUT DUMPING? Cotton? Grown in the Arizona desert using subsidized water? (Hint: there is a reason the Land of Cotton has fever swamps and alligators.) Jacob Sullum provides a useful summary of the corporate welfare, environmental degradation, and impoverishment of the Third World that converting portions of Arizona into Dixie Land brings with it. In other trade follies, Asymmetrical Information anticipates, gloomily, the likely fallout of the World Trade Organization objecting to the protective tariff for a few U. S. steel manufacturers.

HERE I STAND, I CAN DO NO OTHER. "By intervening in Iraq, against the majority of world opinion but with the courage of its own convictions and the support of a few allies, America showed that it was indeed a different nation from others: one prepared to shoulder responsibilities and to do what it thinks is right. Such behaviour is alarming precisely because it is bold and, by today's standards, different. It is never likely to bring forth a cascade of praise or gifts. It was done, however, in a way likely to reinforce the concern, as administration officials poured abuse on their foreign critics and, through their violations of human rights, damaged America's own moral authority. Now, though, the argument has to be won by creating facts on the ground." That's the conclusion of an Economist editorial generally praising the United States well worth a read.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: "And what the heck is "pre-K-20" education? Does Seattle assume that its public school system is so ineffective that kids will need to stay in it until they're almost old enough to legally drink?" That's Number 2 Pencil, looking at some expense-preference behavior by the Seattle school board that will only leave the children in their charge further behind. The answer to her question, depressingly, is yes. Here is the goal: "An integrated educational continuum ensures strength at all levels: universal access to quality pre-schools, mastery of reading skills by third grade and algebra by eighth, assurance that all educators are competent and current in their fields." That's taken from the Illinois P-20 initiative. (The "P" is equivalent to "pre-K," it means day care with structured lessons.) To repeat, "Forgive me the impertinence, but apart from the pre-school component, the effectiveness of which is not yet settled, isn't this what the common schools used to do?"

But the Seattle school board apparently isn't interested in finding out how well the experiments are working. Ms Swygert has it about right: "Ahh hah hah hah! What sort of Magical Thinking Class does a school board member have to take in order to believe that removing a test which shows how schools are failing will actually affect whether the schools are failing? Hey, this means if I throw my scale out the window, I can remove the 'public perception' that I've gained 20 pounds in the last two years. Yeah, that's the ticket!" Unfortunately, there is a market test. Cold Spring Shop has noted, and will continue to note, that there is a market test for academic achievement. Although school boards might be able to hide their failures by abolishing troubling assessment tests, ultimately the graduates of schools of all levels have to make their way in the world as producers and traders, and that world has a way of finding out who can do the work and who can not. And some school districts -- and some universities -- will find out the hard way that their graduates can not.

DISPLAY SIGNALS AND RUN AS SECOND NO. 10. Some of last night's posts have been updated.

OUR NEIGHBORS AT WAR. Trust a Veterans' Day observance at a University to take on an academic flavor, with references to Kipling, Orwell, and Popper in the speeches. I'm hoping that the police truck keeping traffic away was simply to provide some quiet around the flagpole and not a sign of the times we live in.

Around the Internet, visit Cox and Forkum, A Small Victory offers thanks and provides links to other posts, and Backcountry Conservative has his connection of links.

SECOND SECTION: Porphyrogenitus has thought through the importance that civilians who support the liberation of Iraq understand the sacrifices the troops are making on behalf of that idea. And don't miss this story of Kentucky and Tennessee police, emergency response, and fire personnel honoring a fallen soldier.

IMMIGRATION ROUNDUP. Dissecting Leftism links to news and editorial comment here and here.

PLAYING THE BADGERS BEFORE NEW YEAR'S DAY? Professor Bainbridge got the word about an extended Christmas closure at UCLA (motto: On! Wisconsin!) where apparently conditions are not quite as tight as they are at NIU (motto: BCS bites!) where there will be a 16 day closure, with December 22 and 23 becoming the forced vacation days or mandatory docking of two days' pay for non-instructional, non-exempt, and exempt employees. His characterization of the closure decision as "lousy" for lower-paid employees is spot on.

IF YOU COULD BUILD A RAILWAY WITH FREE STEEL, WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE? Knowledge Problem and Truck and Barter observe some imperfections with the theory of "perfect" competition. In defense of economic model building, I submit that it is worth understanding something about how people would allocate resources if they could quickly figure out what the most productive uses are, although I agree that absent some way of quantifying the opportunity costs of ignorance, I agree with their point that identifying inefficiencies by quantitative methods is not easy.

READ THE CLASSIC ARTICLES. Alex at Marginal Revolution asks, "In IO theory we teach our students that price discrimination requires monopoly power and monopoly power allows the firm to make above-normal profits. So why don't the industries that practice a lot of price discrimination seem especially profitable? Airlines, movie theatres, universities - all classic examples of users of price discrimination yet none seem especially profitable." Arnold at Econ Log addresses part of the puzzle: "My first reaction is that it is difficult for me to come up with an in industry where there is not price discrimination, which means the attempt to charge higher prices to customers willing to pay them. For example, software pricing is all about price discrimination. Microsoft tries to charge less to educational institutions and to home users than it charges business users. Drug companies try to charge less to groups that can afford to pay less." Quite so. Any coupon, or volume discount, or reward for loyalty such as a frequent flyer club, is an attempt to segment markets by providing an incentive for the low-marginal-valuation buyers to self-identify.

Turning to the question of profitability, let me offer two explanations. The first draws on a lot of ancient work on public utility pricing. In the presence of large sunk costs, marginal cost pricing does not provide sufficient revenue to cover the opportunity costs, including the sunk costs, of the firm. A two-part tariff, which is isomorphic to a coupon or a volume discount (too bad Alchian and Allen's University Economics is long out of print, if you have a copy, go and look it up) is one way of obtaining sufficient revenue. Under competitive conditions with differentiated products, there is no theorem that rules out a free-entry equilibrium with marginal cost pricing to marginal buyers and higher prices to buyers who don't qualify for the discount. (Monopolistic competition and spatial competition models with one price are characterization results.) Thus, movie theaters.

Second, and again drawing on principles of public utility pricing, often the two part tariff is supervised by a regulatory commission. Used to be true of airlines (where there might be network scale economies or irreversibilities leading to equilibrium existence problems that I'm not qualified to discuss at length) and is true of universities. Under regulation, another phenomenon, which transport historian George Hilton called "The Basic Behavior of Regulatory Commissions," kicks in. (American Economic Review Proceedings, May 1972.) What is that basic behavior? It is to generate cartel profits somewhere in the industry and then dissipate them elsewhere. Under the regulation of air fares, the high air fares on busy corridors went to support non-stop flights from numerous smaller cities to coastal destinations (I will admit to taking some pride in learning about such things as a boy in Milwaukee) or to provide better food in first class. The universities are nests of expense-preference behavior, but that's a subsequent rant.

HUH? " Iraq's Constitution outlaws the privatization of key state assets, and it bars foreigners from owning Iraqi firms." That's Naomi Klein, for The Nation, which kindly provides all sorts of supporting links, objecting to the economic reorganization now under way. There is a bit more to Ms Klein's objection than the fear that some people might be getting rich, which appears to be Andrew Sullivan's take. But a Socialist Constitution, possibly (experts in comparative politics correct me if I'm wrong) a Ba'athist document, as the legal foundation for preventing privatizations?

IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM?? Reason's Cathy Young headlines her commentary on the controversial CBS editorial drama, "Mr. Moonves, tear down this series." Advantage, Cold Spring Shops!

CHECK OUT YOUR ECONOMIC WORLD VIEW. It's billed as an Austrian Quiz, but it is a useful refresher course on some Big Ideas in economic thought. (Hat tip: Hit and Run.)

SECOND SECTION: At Tech Central Station, Arnold Kling has a column on Austrian perspective with some thoughts about the usefulness of Austrian methods. He'd like devotees of the Austrian school to think more like a church than like a sect. It might be better for the devotees to think like scholars. (Hat tip: Pejmanesque.)

WHY STUDY ECONOMICS? Great Day by Day, for one. Or answer this question: There is a room full of pistachio nuts. People may eat as many pistachio nuts as they want in the room, provided they eat them only in the room and leave all the shells in the room. Outside the room is a vending machine, where a bag of pistachio nuts will be yours to eat as you like and clean up as you like, for a dollar. Will the vending machine ever be used?

THE LEISURELESS RECOVERY. Campaign satire, with an edge.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE. The Joke of the Day is courtesy of Common Sense and Wonder.

OPPORTUNITY COSTS. Lots of discussion of the meaning of productivity and the return to skills, if you know where to look. There are lamentations about the rising opportunity costs of haute cuisine at Crooked Timber ("There seems to be a lesson here. Why does “progress” lead to some things being worse? French cooking, higher education and typography to name but three. Often because it raises the relative cost of the real thing and there’s a cheaper sort-of-functional-but-crap-really alternative which can be deployed. We put up with it, and spend the money we saved on something else, but we know if we’re honest with ourselves that something of quality has been lost.") and Invisible Adjunct. Methinks their take is a bit pessimistic. As much haute cuisine is a matter of getting the right sauce and the right texture, there is likely to be some combination of chemistry and preservation that permits the flavor, consistency, and texture to be indistinguishable from fresh, it just hasn't been invented yet. Moreover, there is an element of the hobby in cooking properly (visit Vodka Pundit on Fridays; those aren't secrets of his day job you're reading) and people who genuinely enjoy traditional French cooking certainly can use their granite counter tops and cabinets full of one-purpose implements to produce such stuff if they want. (That is not intended as a criticism. I freely admit to having seven different soldering tools.)

Marginal Revolution notes that technological fixes akin to the freezing and marinade chemistry are at work in music, and Knowledge Problem adds a bit more.

Improvements in industrial technology, and open trade, have changed the way model railroaders do things. To build this baby, start with some brass sheet and bar, configure the milling machine, measure, bend, shape, cut, cuss, burn your fingers, cuss, measure, break, shape, cut, cuss, drill, tap, and screw around. Or plunk down about the same sum of money and take delivery of one already painted by industrial methods. (Many of the brass-working shops in Asia do the model railroad business as a small sideline to other business.) There is a definite generation gap in model railroading. The oldest modelers are often liquidating their collections of home-built stuff, which sometimes has a lot of potential and sometimes is just plain crude, and the stuff with potential is often cheap, because the newcomers to the hobby don't know how to improve it, but they do recognize a bargain on a factory-built model.

ARMISTICE DAY. Rev. Sensing's meditation.

IS THIS TRIP NECESSARY? Citizen Smash reports on civilians at airports volunteering to be bumped in order that troops on home leave from Iraq can board the next plane out. (I have seen some other reports of this phenomenon and will link to them as I turn them up in my history files.)

SECOND SECTION: Found this CNN transcript involving a different airport and a different airline, this story and related commentary noted by Magic in the Baghdad Cafe, and Intel Dump links to Washington Post coverage of a welcoming committee of older veterans helping shepherd the troops through Baltimore-Washington (evidently a major port of entry) and onward to home.

THE GALES OF NOVEMBER. Oglebay Norton iron ore boat Edmund Fitzgerald sank November 10, 1975, in a storm on Lake Superior, with the loss of all hands. Fitzgerald's course, the weather, and some chronology are here, the radio transcripts and the list of the crew are here, and some findings from dives on the wreck site may be of interest.

SECOND SECTION: Rosemary at Dean's World offers a remembrance.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MEANS DOING MORE THINGS. That means moving resources out of other activities. A hundred years ago, it was the vanishing farmers. (The idea of growing enough stuff to trade for manufactured products is pretty new in the scheme of things, if your scheme is geologic time.) Today, it is the vanishing manufacturers. Newmark's Door points to some useful references on the phenomenon.

SECOND SECTION: Deinonychus antirhopus weighs in.

CARNIVAL OF THE CAPITALISTS visits Accidental Jedi. There is a call for papers for the next Carnival posted.

THAT'S COMRADE MEDIAN, COMRADE DEPARTMENT CHAIR. Quote of the day: "People construe free speech to mean freedom from being told they are wrong." That's King at SCSU Scholars reacting to the latest missive from a cadre who might have been wandering in the wilderness since 1941, or perhaps since 1991. That cadre doesn't get portrayed too sympathetically in the recent Masterpiece Theater version of Doctor Zhivago. Many of the apparatchiks sound like newly minted humanities Ph.D.s, but with less conviction. And the character development in the show, which changes the settings but preserves many of the scenes of the 1965 movie is different in that the revolutionaries become jaded by 1922. (The 1965 movie began and ended at a Stalinist dam site. Communism is Soviet power plus electrification and all that. If the script writers at PBS are moving away from that, perhaps even Comrade Median will re-educate herself.)

THE FAILURE OF CORPORATE WELFARE. "The Brewers have a new stadium, and they have $15 million in revenue sharing, but they're still in last place, and they're still warning us that their best players will have to go somewhere else because they can't afford them." That's a new, tax-supported stadium with a leaky roof, best known as the location of the unresolved All-Star game. More here.

FAILURE TO YIELD. Why run a mainline railroad in a city street, asks Transport Blog. Often, because there was no other good place to put the tracks. To this day, interurbans of the South Shore Line call at the 11th Street Station in Michigan City, Indiana, but rest assured, serious freight trains also use these rails. Once upon a time, the freight motive power was a monster electric locomotive built for the Trans-Siberian Railway; today it's a diesel. Until recently, Soo Line (first, and later, Wisconsin Central) freight trains occupied Division Street in Oshkosh. Wisconsin Central was a late builder of track in the Fox Valley, and often had to make do with whatever property became available. Oakland, California was another good place to watch trains in the streets. The original California Zephyr loaded in a city street, and the Coast Starlight uses some street trackage near Jack London Square. (A quick pass through some of the usual archives did not turn up any pictures to link to.)

CHEESEHEADS UBER ALLES. It's not just serious locomotives that demoralize the Germans. Monday Night Football reports that the sauerkraut factory in Green Bay packs more sauerkraut than the entire country of Germany.

SHOCK AND AWE. The December 2003 issue of Railfan and Railroad includes some photos of the scrapping of Union Pacific's Big Boys. The accompanying article relates the story of a German prisoner of war enroute to a camp somewhere in Idaho who awakens an entire coach of comrades at Cheyenne, Wyoming, to witness an enormous steam locomotive with two sets of eight driving wheels starting a 100 car freight train. Although these Germans had already seen a lot of the United States, when they saw this train (routine in those days) they concluded there was no way their Vaterland could beat the United States.

The locomotive that finally resolved the debate in favor of diesels and ended the hopes for the gas turbine electric was the Electro-Motive Division SD40-2 (the one in the linked image is a former Chicago and North Western unit.) It's not as powerful as the gas turbine or as exciting to watch as a Big Boy, but three or four of them will walk off with a similar size train, and unlike some other diesels I could name, they don't have to be rebuilt after each trip.

The SD40-2 and its successor locomotives have the potential to become world locomotives. Consider the Foster Yeoman Class 59 stone train locomotives (builder specification JT26CW-SS, why not use the North American alpha code and call them FLD40-2s) which Foster Yeoman requested after Electro-Motive demonstrated that a real diesel did not have to have a backup. In the early 1980s, Foster Yeoman was shopping for some switching locomotives. A sales representative for Electro-Motive sold them an SW1500 and convinced them that the company only had to buy one, there was no reason to buy a spare. The sales representative was correct, and Yeoman's experience with the yard switcher convinced them to seek out an SD40 engineered to the British loading gauge. And now, Where Worlds Collide readers, you know that the 59 is not a repackaged 45.

RECOMMENDED RAILROAD READING. Live from the Third Rail. (Hat tip: Transport Blog.)

CHOKE POINT. If a train derails near the Western Avenue interlocking in Chicago (Tower A-2) regular service on the Milwaukee Road North, Milwaukee Road West, Wisconsin Central, and Geneva Subdivision will be disrupted, as will empty stock workings for service out of both Union and North Western Stations. It could have been much worse.

40 CENTS OFF THE PRICE OF POP THIS WEEK. The food service at the Northern Illinois University student center has gotten into the football frenzy at a penny a point a pop. (There are probably too many other things changing to get a price elasticity of demand for Mountain Dew from the consumption and score information for each week.) The opponents? Nine points. Further north, Wisconsin woes continue.

GORGEOUS ECLIPSE. Severe clear, and a little bit chilly, but perfect viewing conditions for the lunar eclipse. The last few days have been a bit hectic, and other business continues to make its demands. Possibly some new intensively researched posts Sunday or Monday evening.

VANGUARDISM. A nonscientific sample of the impression the Democratic Party is giving with its reaction to Governor Dean's rather clumsy appeal to white blue-collar voters. Go here or here or here or here.

MORE ON CERTIFICATION U? The Calico Cat, clearly neither a regular reader of several widely read, frequently heard, or wide-ranging University of Chicago-based weblogs nor a college football fan, reacts to this installment of the Certification U posts. But how many fallacies can you spot in this: "This is the standard argument one would expect from a university faculty member who is defending his job's very existence. While there is nothing wrong with loving learning, most taxpayers would probably prefer doing something else than their current job, so it doesn't seem fair that their tax dollars should be spent to enable other people to do something they love." It's not the economists who suffer when the humanities programs close down. It's not evident to me that academicians as a class like their work more than other sorts of workers do, and it is the economists who refer to something called a "compensating differential" as a way of quantifying those preferences.

Careful readers will note it is with Calico Cat's reasoning that I disagree, not his impressions about the failure of universities (heck, the education establishment in toto) to develop human capital in their graduates. My dad observed some 20 years ago that his children knew more basic electrical engineering than the trainees at his firm, all from well-known colleges of engineering, did.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR, YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT. David Broder sees the phenomenon at work.

BUT DO WE GET THE ELECTROLINERS BACK? Knowledge Problem sees connections between a merger of power companies in Illinois and the possible repeal of the Public Utilities Holding Company Act, an obscure but significant Depression era law that as a possibly unintended consequence led to the end of the interurban railroads (any guesses how much the taxpayers will spend to restore interurban service to the Old Orchard shopping center) but probably not to the end of the last streetcars.

PASSENGERS WILL PLEASE REFRAIN. Technorati is wonderful!

ALL KINDS OF POTENTIAL FOR MISCHIEF:

"Students will identify unjust, de-humanizing, and oppressive policies and practices of individuals, authorities, and social institutions within the dominant culture and their impact on the treatment of various disenfranchised groups."

Does that include Aristotelians in the English Department?

(From SCSU Scholars, with more new posts on College Follies than I have time to deal with tonight. Get thee over there!)

MR MOONVES, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL.

(via Right Voices)

Broadcast giant CBS has moved the Ronald Reagan mini-series from its broadcast division to a cable division. Mrs. James Brolin is not happy with the development: "This is censorship, pure and simple. Well, maybe not all that pure. Censorship never is. Due to their experience with the restrictive English government, the framers of our constitution specifically included a ban on prior restraint in the First Amendment, which is an attempt to stop information from getting out there before the public has a chance to see it at all - exactly what is going on in this case. Of course, CBS as a company has the legal right to make decisions about what they do and do not air. However, these important decisions should be based on artistic integrity rather than an attempt to appease a small group of vocal dissidents." A Small Victory is also troubled, although not going so far as to call the pressure brought to bear on CBS "censorship."

Repeat after me: Censorship is the use of the police power of the state to prevent the circulation of information. A decision not to present something because it might lose a lot of money is not the same thing. If there is any censorship here, it is in the use of government resources to set up, and then give away, twelve VHF channels and some sixty UHF channels.

None of which stops some people from saying some silly things. Consider Tim Cusprisin of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "Finally, you have to wonder which knucklehead at CBS got this going in the first place.

"Why now? There's no demonstrable demand for such a movie, no noticeable wave of Reagan nostalgia."

Give me a break. First CBS does a Hitler mini-series that ties the Enabling Act to terrorism; it then does a show that the editorial board of The New York Times characterizes as of a "notoriously unreliable" format. "Actors made up to look like famous people spout made-up dialogue that often sounds as if it had been written with the primary purpose of keeping viewers tuned in during the sweeps season." Quite. Tightly Wound has more.

LENGTHEN THE SHADOW OF THE FUTURE. Lengthy Two Blowhards essay on the evolution of cooperation in prisoners' dilemmas, the possible shortcomings of traditional economics, and the usefulness of a different paradigm in economics. Why? The post deals with evolutionarily stable strategies, and with the central theorem in a 1982 paper, "Rational Cooperation in the Finitely Repeated Prisoners' Dilemma."

I WENT TO THIS BOXING MATCH AND A HOCKEY GAME BROKE OUT. Knowledge Problem proposes an extension of the Peltzman Effect to ice hockey. Any such research would have to look for self-selection among hockey fans. I remember some Detroit Red Wings games in which great plays drew only polite applause, but the fights got the fans out of their seats. Nyekulturni.

SUCK IT UP. "University of Wisconsin System President Katharine Lyall asked the UW Board of Regents Tuesday to suspend further consideration of $98,000 worth of increases in salary ranges she had requested for senior university executives, including herself." Read all about it.

HOW DO YOU SAY "HOLD MAIN LINE AT LAST NAMED POINT?". This Washington Post article reports on extreme shortages of basic school supplies in Iraq and on the measures, including use of the railroad, by which such goods are being delivered. If you read between the lines, you get a sense that the reactionary elements in country are military professionals, from the preponderance of attacks on supply convoys.

IT'S OPTIMAL TO LEAVE SOME CHILDREN BEHIND. Joanne Jacobs discovers that the Phoenix United School District is seeking a millage increase to pay for small, select high schools to serve students whose parents are moving out of the district or putting their children in private schools. That's one millage increase that just might pass. In yesterday's elections, the millage and school bond referenda tended to go down in flames, which may say more about the voters' tolerance for failure than it does about any tax rebellion. The rewards to people for learning higher-order skills are extremely high, and the practice of providing only some low-order skills in order that less-motivated people might view themselves as schooled is an unsustainable waste of resources.

I'LL BET I CAN. I've discovered Blog of a Math Teacher, where I find a complaint about the absence of proofs in geometry class because "You can't test proofs with a multiple choice test." Oh yeah? Ever hear of the Lobachevsky Postulate? (Presumably these are tests in plane geometry.) Ever rearrange the ratio of line segments in a plausible-looking way that involves dividing by zero? (that's the trick in the old 1=0 proof.) The mind boggles at the possibility of inventing substitutions and postulates that students might inadvertently on purpose bite on. (Regular readers will now understand why I tell my students, "You do NOT want me to give you a multiple choice test.")

LIBERATING TOLERANCE AT WORK. Tightly Wound notes that Speechcodes.org has a particularly mock-worthy addition to the Hall of Shame.

SIDE-OUT, POINT HUSKIES. (I could have used "People respond to incentives, but then I could probably head each post that way, hmmm, April Fool's Day is coming...) High school volleyball games will be decided using rally scoring (in which there is a point on each serve, no more service breaks (which volleyball calls a"side out") with the opportunity to score only with the serve (which is still the rule in tennis.)) Kettle Moraine Lutheran High coach Doug Hext sees a difference: "It makes our practices go quicker, it makes more emphasis on playing better defense and it puts more pressure on making your serves." Quite so. Under the old rules, a team could serve aggressively, and not suffer a penalty for serving into the net or out of bounds, and then gain only the opportunity to score by breaking the opponent's serve. Under the new rules, the serving team gives up a point for such an error and gets it back for breaking the other team's serve. Because there are only thirty points to give, the new rules provide a penalty for error that was not present in the old rules. The article also notes some research into why advocates of the new rules believe matches will be shorter.

POST HOC ...? Common Sense and Wonder link to another Opinion Journal editorial on whose fiscal policies make more sense. Key sentence for today's post: "Most of the decline in interest rates and the increase in government surpluses came after the Gingrich Republicans took over Congress and started putting caps on spending growth and government expansion. Of course, now that the Republicans elected on that platform have either retired in disgust or are now among the old guard protecting their own fiefdoms, spending is once again spiraling out of control. In fact, it's worse now, since the Democrats by inclination are big spenders and now the Republicans have joined in the pork parade to help them keep their jobs anything that used to act as a brake on government spending, which was never very much, is completely gone." There are several macroeconomics dissertations waiting to be written about the first sentence, and at least one public choice dissertation lurking in the last.

ICH SCHWARE DIESE HEILIGE EIB.... Gene Healy of the Cato Institute provides some history of the Pledge of Allegiance. (The Puritan in me is sympathetic to the argument that public displays of piety are, well, impious.)

THIRTY YEARS TOO LATE. One of the hot spots for work and play among young singles is now ... Milwaukee??!?

CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES No. 59 calls at Wizbang, dressed up properly for Election Day, which was yesterday in much of the U.S.

SUPPORTING REFORM IN IRAQ. Andrew Sullivan links to an Iraqi weblogger who is becoming discouraged with the view from the States and recommends that sympathetic readers bookmark Healing Iraq. Effective today, Cold Spring Shops will maintain a collection of links to sites that deal directly with the establishment of popular sovereignty (the Superintendent prefers a constitutional republic) in Iraq. These links will be in place for the duration.

TAXES, creepily cumbersome, and deceptively flat.

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENIN' HERE. What it is, Tightly Wound says to fear. There's a group with a statement over there, telling me stuff I've heard before. (Didn't that song also have a line about "paranoia strikes deep?"

THE DADDY TRACK? Dan Raftery of the Chicago Tribune covers the phenomenon, which is subject to the same tradeoffs, "Yet, in today's struggling economy, many men wrestle with whether taking paternity leave--paid or unpaid--is a smart move. They worry that taking time out will leave them out of the loop on key projects or prompt supervisors to view them as less committed to their careers. Some worry that ultimately they'll be passed over for promotions or raises" and the same potential, "Let's face it--offering a benefit like paid paternity leave is a pretty cheap way in these economic times to keep employees happy," as paid maternity leave. Some gains from trade remain to be picked up: "Finally, fathers should create clear plans about who will take over their work responsibilities during the paternity leave." The remaining gain from trade: setting up these plans in such a way that other workers also benefit by it, something that is currently missing from the workplace.

HOW OTHERS SEE US. Fred on Everything is on the universities for non-performance. (Via Common Sense and Wonder.)

It doesn't help when defenders of the University use an elastic definition of what constitutes the University of California for purposes of assessing affirmative action preferential admissions policies.

FIGHT THE POWER. Critcal Mass is pleased that students and parents are resisting the Thought Police, although some of the powers that be remain in denial. It helps that many students no longer identify with the politics of their professors. (The article, which requires registration, suggests that some of that non-identification is rebellion.)

WORDNOISE. Catallaxy Files notes another effort to prevent it; offers a few suggestions about how to instill prevention in beginning writers.

TODAY'S WICKED THOUGHT. "He started drinking in prep school, and was an irresponsible drinker till his marriage at 33. Then he grew up, sobered up and hasn't had a drink in 22 years." Joanne Jacobs tells you who he is.

AVOIDING THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS. Dean's World suggests a likely trigger: "Americans, and the current administration, have been highly restrained since September 11. Furthermore, we are not and never have been the kind of people who launch indiscriminate nuclear attacks. But one or two more major attacks on American soil and the gloves will come off." Ralph Peters would like to avoid that outcome, and proposes that the liberation of Iraq is an opportunity to move events away from that outcome: "Our only hope of building a constructive, long-term relationship with the people of the Middle East is to focus on what Americans do best: Work. Starting in Iraq.

"Leave the bilious rhetoric to the demagogues. Work to bring positive change. Let our deeds proclaim themselves. Prove our accusers wrong. Prove that our values breed success."

Peter Brookes suggests the stakes are quite high: " Success - or failure - in Iraq could be the pivotal event in the history of the United States in this century.

"President Bush is right to stay the course. But to succeed, he must actively engage his opponents - and skeptics - about the continuing U.S. role in post-Saddam Iraq. The president must clearly explain to the American people why their continued support and sacrifice is justified, because victory on the battleground of ideas at home is key to winning the battle abroad."

Dennis Byrne has high hopes for logic and content carrying the day, to the detriment of some current international institutions: "Even the International Red Cross and the United Nations have cut and run now that they are coming under attack from vicious barbarians who don't mind slaughtering people of their own faith or blood. At some point, the Iraqi people will notice that those countries that have stayed to fight on their behalf are not the ones who are miffed at the United States for 'going its own way.'"

There is also some soul-searching going on in opposition circles in the United States. Ronald Reagan complaining about the Democratic Party leaving him is one thing; this working mom is quite another. This post offers some useful advice to members of the opposition who argue like college sophomores from somewhat more responsible positions. Promises to be an interesting conversation to watch.

ROUND AND ROUND ON IMMIGRATION AMNESTY. Modify the rules for licensing drivers, recommends the Chicago Tribune. (Illinois allows people to register to vote when they obtain driving licenses but requires proof of citizenship. That's one reason not to burn your draft card. I have entered Canada on the strength of it and a picture ID on occasion.) Philip Peters calls for a time-out in legal immigration so as to sort out the existing population of migrants, a proposal that will make staffing economics departments more difficult. Mark Krikorian suggests that such a time out might help the current migrants to assimilate.

TAKE CARE OF THE O-RINGS. Basra, Iraq is enjoying 24 hour electric service and something resembling normal life. To what extent is the training in basic Arabic phrases that the British troops received helping?

IN PRAISE OF NO-LONGER-OUT-OF-THE-WAY PLACES. Improvements in communication technology reduce the incentive for people to cluster in large cities in order to transact commerce, and improvements in logistics reduce the division-of-labor advantage a London or a New York City has in providing a broad variety of goods and services. Joel Kotkin sees a positive evolution in the quality of life as a consequence.

DO SEATBELTS KILL? Newmark's Door looks for unstated biases in the DeLong family's investigation of the Peltzman Effect.

BEER AND CIRCUSES. After the official Hallowe'en parties in Madison, Wisconsin, comes the unofficial party, which got out of hand. No evidence of skin flick producers acting as agents provocateurs.

JOBS CHANGED IN FORM? Econo Pundit has been busy evaluating the expansion, the forecasts, and the changing nature of work. Three million lost manufacturing jobs netted agains five million new jobs in other sectors can still involve serious adjustment costs for people with abilities in manufacturing that are not readily transferrable to the other sectors. Watch both political parties spar over those adjustments in the coming campaign.

OUR NEIGHBORS AT WAR. First Lieutenant Brian Slavenas, of Genoa, Illinois, was piloting the Chinook helicopter shot down Sunday. The helicopter was ferrying troops to Baghdad International Airport where they were to head Stateside on leave. Spare a moment's thought for their families and friends, and for the recovery of the injured.

A SHAMEFUL ACT OF VANDALISM. But if you know where to look, there are still visible bits of New York's original Pennsylvania Station, if you know where to look. (Some of the original steel-lattice columns in the train shed area also survive, truncated to support the floor of Madison Square Garden, with the trusses coated with fire-retardant and then hidden behind a cladding that fits the theming of the station building.)

The New York Times editorial that condemned the commencement of demolition of the above-ground parts of the station ended, "we will be judged by the monuments we have destroyed." Indeed, and not just for the destruction of Pennsylvania Station.

STRETCHING TWO MINUTES INTO TWENTY. Final two minutes of the game included some penalties, several times out, a replay challenge, a touchdown, and an on-side kick. From the Rollerdome, Packers 30, Vikings 27.

CARNIVAL OF THE CAPITALISTS, with lots of food for thought, visits Insults Unpunished.

TODAY'S WICKED THOUGHT. This one has been making the rounds on emails.

"Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs. His wife Hillary got $8 million for hers.

"That's $20 million for memories from two people who for eight years repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything."

HOW OTHERS SEE US. Tease for a new investigative report on one of the networks: "M.B.A. Ph.D. T&A?" Topic: college students working their way through college as cast members or extras in skin flicks.

TAKE AWAYS. Four touchdowns off of turnovers highlight a 48-23 Northern Illinois win over Ball State in DeKalb.

DO IT YOURSELF ECONOMIC FORECASTING: The American Mind points to Gene Sperling's recommendations of sources that will give the reader a feel for the wiggles of the business cycle. (Mr Sperling advised President Clinton.) There are a number of useful reports with hyperlinks there, it might be wise to add them to your favorites folder before the article goes to archives somewhere. It is still useful to develop your intuition, as the best published sources are still at best lagging slightly behind what's really happening. You can see a lot just by watching, and the published sources will confirm what you are seeing with some time lag.

SPINELESS ADMINISTRATORS (Excuse the redundancy.) John Leo has a short list of exemplars. (Hat tip: Betsy's Page.)

VULGAR VERSIONS OF THE COASE THEOREM. Will at Crescat Sententia doesn't like them, for very good reasons.

ODD-MANNING WITH THE DEVIL. Marginal Revolution comments on a Crooked Timber post (with some very good comments) on the optimal time to take the Devil up on an offer to release you from Hell, if in a series of N flips of a fair coin (that's why I recommend the comments; why in Hell would there be a fair coin, and what is your soul doing there in te first place?) at least one of the flips comes up "heads." The Devil offers one flip on the first day, two flips on the second day, three flips ... with the proviso that your soul gets only one chance to play: if in N flips no heads come up, there will be no further offers forever thereafter.

There are some parallels between the coin flip from Hell problem and the St. Petersburg paradox, which Will at Crescat Sententia has comments on here and here. (Let me offer one brief explanation for the use of logarithmic valuation functions as a way of defanging the St. Petersburg paradox, which may or may not be less abstruse than those offered here, depending on your investments in human capital. In economics, it's often useful to think about the proportionate effect of a change in a variable, which introduces something called an elasticity. Natural logarithmic functions produce effortless elasticities.)

INTERESTING BOOKMARK PAGE. Very readable collection of links to academic weblogs, based on Crooked Timber's group effort, maintained by Professor Orihuela at Universidad de Navarra, where you have to be careful about being bullish.

HIS SUCCESSOR WILL BE WORSE. That is how an experienced colleague characterizes university administrators. The succession is particularly ugly at Boston University.

ANY STOLYPIN CARS? Preview of "Doctor Zhivago" after re-education camp. (It's a PBS production. Lead us not into temptation.)

THE PERILS OF AMTRAK. For want of $460 m, it's back to conference for this year's subsidy.

PASSENGERS WILL PLEASE REFRAIN FROM ... It had to happen. Cell-phone yakker on train answers nature's call and ... major disruption of service.

TAKE IT PRIVATE? Invisible Adjunct links to the latest Stanley Fish commentary, this time a proposal to take the once state-supported, more recently state-assisted, now state-located universities private. The comments at Invisible Adjunct's site have already noted that soon-to-be-ex-Dean Fish likely erred in doubling tuitions and doubling his revenue: there is this thing called an elasticity of demand, and a tuition increase might bring in more revenue even after encouraging some marginal applicants to stay away, if the demand is sufficiently inelastic. But it is to Dean Fish's conclusion that I wish to speak. He writes, "And best of all, the decisions we made would be the right ones because they would be responsive not to the whims of legislators or the ambitions of governors or the self-serving pieties of newspaper editors, but only to our sense of what a liberal education should be. Now, wouldn't that be a new idea!" Things that make you go hmmm.... is Dean Fish seeking a freer hand for more expense-preference behavior (you can buy an expose here (the original article noted here has gone to Desktop Jones's locker) or for more diversity boondoggles or more content-free majors? If so, it's privatization without accountability, in the face of a market test. As this Jeffrey Selingo article (cited by Stanley Fish) observes, "Lawmakers increasingly view higher education as a private good that should be supported more by students and donors, rather than as a public good that deserves state support. While college officials welcome less intrusion by legislators, almost none are willing to give up the public dollars that come with being called a state university." But that's the attitude that has brought the university establishment to the pass it finds itself in: no accountability. For long. There is growing recognition that the state support is often a subsidy to the middle class, the private benefits are substantial, some degrees are more remunerative than others, the big bucks are in demanding fields while the enrollments (not necessarily graduations) are often in the less demanding fields, and the degree is losing its signalling value (via Joanne Jacobs.) Put it all together and you have lots of accountability. The legislature is simply one messenger. Those employers looking at standardized test scores are another. Pretending that privatization will somehow make the accountability go away makes the high hopes for California power deregulation with only lower prices look like sound, sober thinking.

A NEW FORM OF TENURE QUOTA? Invisible Adjunct and King at SCSU Scholars use this report on four of six professors at Wisconsin's Carroll College who were recommended by their departments and the college promotion committee for tenure but denied by the college president. Invisible Adjunct and King Banaian both draw parallels between the president's action and administrative tyranny elsewhere, and in particular with whether Carroll's administration might be behaving badly by attempting to replace tenure-track faculty with temporary faculty, as an economy measure.

The Chronicle article, however, is misleading in part: "Every year professors at colleges around the country come up for tenure -- and, inevitably, some of them miss the mark. But what has made the decisions here so unsettling and unusual, some people say, is that by all accounts each of the four professors excelled in teaching, research, and service -- the traditional standards by which tenure candidates are judged. Nonetheless, Carroll's president and trustees simply decided that it didn't make good business sense to keep them.

"Financial issues typically don't figure into tenure cases unless a college is facing financial collapse, or enrollment is declining and a college wants to close a program. Neither is the case at Carroll."

Actually, financial issues do matter, and they have mattered for a long time. Some university administrators keep track of something they call tenure "depth," referring to the proportion of a department currently tenured, and I have an old set of suggestions for students on the job market that includes looking at the dean's strategic plan, if you have an interview with the dean as part of your visit. The author of these suggestions noticed that one such dean had characterized the economics department as tenured up, and presumably took a job elsewhere. Moreover, during my time at Wayne State, we were able to hire a very good demographer and economic historian who became available to us because a dean at Cornell decided that department already had one of those specialists with tenure. Nearly 30 years ago, The Progressive did an article on the phenomenon of universities discovering that it was cheaper to do searches at seven-year intervals rather than grant tenure. The Carroll College case might be unusual, but not astonishing.

TESTING THE PERMANENT INCOME HYPOTHESIS? Insta Pundit links to a Cointelpro post that suggests Scrapple Face (first pedantic note: a professor might move from UCLA (motto: On! Wisconsin!) via Boston University via Fisk to MTSU, but not via Columbia) and Counterspin Central are praising, the first for fun, the second for profit, Democratic fiscal policy going back to the first Clinton-Gore administration. It's worth thinking about the tax rate cuts, the tax rebate checks, the deficit, and the third quarter growth rate figures in perspective. President Bush's original 2001 proposal included cuts in marginal tax rates, which were to be phased in over ten years and then abolished. (At a discount rate of eight percent, which is my best guess as the right risk adjustment for Congressional action in eight ((2011-2001)-(2003-2001)) years, the effect of that abolition, or not, on my perceived permanent income is neglgible.) The compromise that went into effect that year included some immediate tax rebate checks (anybody else remember the assurances that the last batch WOULD be mailed out after September 11, assurances that did stand up?) which contributed immediately to larger deficits and which provided transitory income to consumers. The compromise this year involved more rapid decreases on marginal tax rates and some supplementals to the earned income tax credit, which, again, provided transitory income to some people and immediate enlargement of the deficit. The lower marginal tax rates, provided they stay in effect for the next eight or ten years, imply changes in peoples' permanent income. Should be plenty of dissertation topics in the next few years to tease out the effects of the permanent (within meaningful discounting) and transitory tax changes.

Daniel Drezner has some additional coverage, including some good news about inventories being drawn down. (The existence of inventories to draw down is one source of a "jobless" recovery: reported sales and thus national income increase, but inventories represent past jobs that might not have to be filled immediately.) He's also linked to Outside the Beltway, with more cross-references and a reminder that Presidents take too much blame for recessions and claim too much credit for expansions.

One further phenomenon that bears watching is the possible shortening of the business cycle. I was at a steel industry technical session in beautiful Merrillville, Indiana, last night at which I learned that where steel used to enjoy two good years in seven (this would be from the mid-1970s on) it's now more like enjoying two good months in a year. Going to have to dig out the Metal Statistics and take a closer look.

STAY THE COURSE. Ralph Peters takes stock of the Iraqi resistance and evaluates criteria for success in the Global War on Terrorism. We are unlikely to live long enough to see a dispassionate analysis of the war, which would require an assessment of how many attacks were disrupted prior to September 11, 2001; how many have been disrupted since; have the plots subsequent to September 11 been more frequent and more clever, more frequent and less clever, less frequent and more clever, or less frequent and less clever. (No doubt the historians will come up with more precise categorizations. A 2x2 classification works for many economics problems, which no doubt influences my classification scheme.)

POSSIBLE SOURCE OF COMPANY MAIL. Steven D. Krause's Official Blog compares and contrasts life in the academy with life in industry. Well worth a look, not just for the MAC connections. (Via Invisible Adjunct.)

TODAY'S AMNESTY PUZZLE: William Raspberry, looking at differing willingness among states to offer in-state tuition to children of illegal immigrants: "The guy who illegally makes himself at home in my shed may turn out to be a pretty good deal for me. Maybe he keeps the grass cut and the snow shoveled and the porch painted -- all for less than I could manage on the "legal" market.

"But it doesn't follow that I have to put him in my will or otherwise give him the status of family. Isn't the in-state tuition rate for family?

"And even that misses the point, which is: If the federal government fails at its job of keeping the illegals out of the country, why should it fall to the states to pay the costs produced by that failure?

"The problem, at bottom, is the inability of the federal government to enforce existing immigration policy and its refusal to reform it. The states are simply stuck with the unhappy result."

All of the foregoing presupposes that the policy is a failure. The facts recited above are consistent with a coherent policy. There is room for further research, to investigate the hypothesis that states are using the in-state-tuition as an instrument to further fine tune the mix of illegal, but productive, immigrants within their borders.

(Thanks to Milt's File for finding the column.)

NOTICE OF LINE RELOCATION. The Knowledge Problem has moved to a new site, with a new design. (I can't offer any suggestions on the Internet Explorer glitch noted here.) The posts appear without any truncation problems if I use the horizontal scrolling arrows to read the posts. (That cuts out the extensive link list. Scroll to the left and look around.)

MARKING OFF. Expect light or sporadic posting the next few days. Business and other pleasures will come first.

THOSE PURITAN ROOTS ARE SHOWING:

(Via Betsy's Page.)

WELCOME DISSECTING LEFTISM READERS. The post Professor Ray found worthy of linking is here. There is a cross-reference to it at this Invisible Adjunct Gender Poll (and if you're reading the university weblogs and haven't discovered Invisible Adjunct, have a look.) There are at least three interpretations of my post that people are discovering. First, it is making fun of academics, because they deserve it. Second, it is laying down a marker in the culture wars, which is what I suspect Dissecting Leftism is reading, and at least one commenter on the poll concurs. Third, it is being excessively pedantic, which drives another commenter slightly around the bend.

(But "conversation ender?" (toggle irony)What a limp-wristed, quiche-eating perspective to take.(/toggle irony) There has been a shift in usage, and it has coincided, whether causally or accidentally, with the emergence of Race-Class-Gender theory ... all three of these terms being used to indicate dimensions of a person's identity that are objectively defined by attitudes beyond that person's control. Years ago, when I was helping construct Divisia indices of labor quality for two-digit industries, the index had a five-way classification: Sex, Age, Education, Experience, Occupation. Employment and enrollment applications had a space to indicate "Sex." The substitution of "gender" on applications and as the name of the regressor formerly identified as "sex" has been within the past fifteen or twenty years. And in that time some academics who misname themselves as "theorists" have proposed additional "genders." Trans-sexuals appear on campus only in screenings of Rocky Horror Picture Show)

Back to the Dissecting Leftism cross-reference. There's another post, here. Suggestions for a more accurate three-word summary of this are welcome. (I have not been able to rule out a logician sympathetic to Leftist arguments defending tu quoque fallacy as the summary. Fire away!)

CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES visits Who Censored Blogger Rabbit? (not Who Framed Blogger Rabbit, as erroneously noted in the vanity post.) The Superintendent at Blogger Rabbit advises me that the movie, "Who Framed ..." is loosely based on a book titled Who Censored Roger Rabbit (details or compare prices.) The things you learn participating in this new medium. Welcome, Carnival readers, and thanks to Who Censored Blogger Rabbit for hosting it.

Carnival 59 will call at Wizbang, which means I have to have something extra special to tease Tim Hall.

RECOMMENDED RECREATIONAL READING. National Public Radio war correspondent Anne Garrels has written Naked in Baghdad (you'll have to read the book, the usual details or price comparisons for your use.) Well written and a quick read. My copy has some unusual annotations in it as I was reading it on Train 1243, the 3.58 semi-fast to Aurora, which got into an interesting drag race with a late-running Southwest Chief that featured two trains running flat-out, nose-and-nose, from Berwyn to Clarendon Hills.

TONIGHT'S WICKED THOUGHT. I received a form from Staff Benefits that had a few fields blank, including one marked "Gender." I crossed out the word "Gender" and enterered "Sex: Male." I resisted the temptation to send a memorandum back reading as follows:

I was brought up to understand that "sex" was a biological term and "gender," a grammatical term. I understand that some people use the term "gender" as a way of making the point that the actions people take, including acting on their sex, have elements that have evolved over time, something loosely described as "socially constructed." My sense is that your office is using the term "gender" to determine my biological makeup, which is "male." You probably are not interested in my gender, which is "Non-Quiche Eating Real Guy," a category probably deserving of protected status as under-represented around the University.

SECOND SECTION: The Gender Genie (correct use of the terminology, as it is looking at evolved patterns of writing) strongly agrees:
Words: 143
(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 39
Male Score: 437

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

In this longer post, it's another boot to the head for the quiche-eaters:
Words: 684
(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)
Female Score: 679
Male Score: 1349
The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

IDEAS MATTER MOST. Porphyrogenitus has been writing and generating commentary on the continued conversation over the role of the Trivium and Quadrivium, particularly in light of the conversation over Certification U or preferred alternatives thereto. Porphyrogenitus proposes another (ranting screed?) shortly. It is not to that post that I wish to speak tonight. Rather, it is to his contrasting of cyclical and linear time, particularly as viewed by the academic Left. I'm not sure there's that much of a contrast, particularly if one uses the Fourth Turning (details or compare prices.) The notion of cyclical history bothers me for the same reason that cobweb cycles bother me: the existence of a cycle implies the existence of an arbitrage opportunity, which has the effect of dampening the cycle. There is, however, a dialectic present in the cyclical view of history: the thesis, antithesis, contradiction, and synthesis appear in recursive, rather than convergent, ways.

THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES. Apt. 11-D, Invisible Adjunct, and Sara at Crescat Sententia weigh in on the tensions between moms caring for their kids full time, women caring for their kids and doing paid work, and women without kids doing paid work. (I hope that distinction is consistent with 11-D's and Invisible's observation that raising kids is work and not really equivalent to a hobby.)

But there is a deeper theme running through several of the paid media posts inspiring the commentaries linked above. In Ellen Ostrow it's this: "The problem, it seems to me, is that issues of equity have been framed in the context of balancing work and family life. Understandably, this renders the concerns of people without children or other family obligations as irrelevant." Cady Wells puts it this way: "As a childless faculty member I wonder why the ability for me to have evenings and weekends is not as important. I'm sympathetic to the difficulties of the faculty parent, but it's not necessarily easier being childless. The pressures are just different." And Lisa Belkin goes beyond the Battle of the Sexes: "Women started this conversation about life and work -- a conversation that is slowly coming to include men. Sanity, balance and a new definition of success, it seems, just might be contagious. And instead of women being forced to act like men, men are being freed to act like women. Because women are willing to leave, men are more willing to leave, too -- the number of married men who are full-time caregivers to their children has increased 18 percent. Because women are willing to leave, 46 percent of the employees taking parental leave at Ernst & Young last year were men."

But methinks Belkin doth claim too much, and Ostrow and Wells doth protest too much. We are all ... whether raising children or not, whether working late with the help of artificial light or not, whether tenured or not, whether taking derivatives or playing on the Internet ... seriously underemployed compared to our ancestors of 100 or 150 years ago. Consider, for example, the time squeeze that comes from making time to work out, or to run, or to get the kids to a sporting event. Fast-rewind to a time when we got PAID to work out, shoveling coal into a locomotive, or walking behind a plow, or doing the laundry on a washboard, or chopping wood for the cookstove, or gathering water. Whether I'm keying into Maple or checking the math with paper and pencil, I'm not burning anywhere near the calories I would on any of those other jobs.

And, as I have argued before, we are likely to have a de facto 35 hour work week in the United States, and without the French to legislate it. On the other hand, as I have also noted before, some high-achievers are going to self-identify by working harder than others and that phenomenon is likely to be more visible at universities than in private-sector businesses, because the transaction costs involved in setting up a high achiever university from scratch are likely to be more daunting than the costs involved in similarly setting up a high achiever business.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OTHERS' SUBSIDIES? Spoons Experience notes that prescription drugs are often expensive in the United States and cheap in other countries because the single-payer health care providers in other countries use a form of monopsony power (sell to us at the price we offer, or sell nothing at all) with the effect that U.S. consumers bear most of the burden of research and development (if the single-payer's price exceeds the avoidable cost of producing the drugs, taxpayers in other countries are kicking something in toward research and development.) Such price policies set up a short-term arbitrage opportunity (this Chicago Tribune editorial recognizes the point) to buy abroad at the controlled price and consume here, which has the effect of exacerbating the shortage of drugs abroad (it is no accident, comrades, that "socialism" comes just after "shortage" and just before "sophomoric" in the dictionary) albeit by reducing the revenues the drug producer expects to earn from the open-market (is it really an open market price with a constraint on overseas prices?) price. Insults Unpunished has been following the price-control and reimportation debate for some time, and the posts cited therein are worth a look.

In other health economics commentaries, Shark Blog notes, yet again, the deleterious effect of third-party payments on the incentive to shop for the best price, a phenomenon also present with guaranteed student loans.

REDISCOVERING APPRENTICESHIPS? Joanne Jacobs notes that trade schools, many of which are private and for-profit stand to benefit as rising populations and tight budgets lead to stiffer admission standards in Arizona (motto: we don't match outside offers to potential Nobel laureates,) a development which is likely to please Highered Intelligence, and perhaps will get the institutions of lower and higher learning to rethink what the highest result of their efforts might be.