EclectEcon

The Importance of Learning English at a Young Age

Immigrants to the U.S. who do not speak English well tend to earn less. And their children might suffer, too. That's the conclusion of some work summarized in the NY Times by Austan Goolsbee:

By comparing the outcomes of English-speaking and non-English-speaking immigrants who arrived in the United States around the critical period age, they [Bleakley and Chin] document that poor English skills meant less schooling and substantially lower wages for immigrants and that these disadvantages often extended to their children, even if those children were born in the United States.



One of their simplest demonstrations of this fact compares immigrants from different islands of the Caribbean. They document that the wages and education levels of immigrants from non-English speaking islands like the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico look similar to those of immigrants from English-speaking islands like Jamaica and Trinidad — as long as the person originally came to the United States by age 11. For those who were older when they arrived, however, immigrants from non-English-speaking islands do significantly worse, on average, than those from English-speaking ones. Non-English speakers are much more likely to drop out of school and also have significantly lower-paying jobs when working. Their finding points strongly toward language as the deciding factor, since the differences exist only after age 11.



... In turns out that children whose immigrant parents came to the United States when young do just about the same in school regardless of whether the parents came from English-speaking or non-English-speaking countries. But the situation is different for children whose parents were older when they arrived. The children from non-English-speaking households do much worse than English-speaking ones. They are less likely to go to preschool and much more likely to drop out of high school.



When Professor Bleakley and Professor Chin compare the overall distribution of test scores of English- and non-English-speaking families, they find that the big differences appear mainly among children with the lowest performance. The top half of students from non-English-speaking households do just about as well as the top half from English-speaking households. It seems that a child with talent can succeed no matter what the parents' skills are, as has been true for centuries in this country. But parents whose English is poor have a big negative impact on the below-average children.

The Bleakley-Chin study is available here.

Worshipping at the Altar of International Law

David Bernstein, writing at The Volokh Conspiracy, says,

I've noticed in a variety of contexts that there are some rather well-educated, articulate individuals out there who have what seems to me to be a fanatical, quasi-religious belief in "international law", and the idea that it should trump any other conflicting consideration. In the constitutional law field, this is reflected in the argument that the president and the courts should ignore domestic law and the Constitution if they conflict with international law--even if the United States isn't a party to any binding international agreements on the particular subject at hand.

He points out that people who use this argument are akin to the religious devotees who respond to every argument with, "Because God says so."

I urge you to read the entire piece. Here's an excerpt from his conclusion:

The point of this post is ... to ask informed readers about when and how "international law" gained such cult-like status that well-educated people believe that merely invoking it (or their interpretation of it) is sufficient to settle even the most nuanced and contentious debates, that it should always trump domestic law, etc. ... (Or is "international law" largely invoked to try to restrain the actions of the U.S. and Israel, but largely ignored more broadly?--e.g., I haven't heard of any other nation's besides Israel's legitimacy being questioned because of past or even present real or imagined violations of international law.)

It might also be worth taking some time to browse through the comments there. Some are very insightful.



[h/t to BenS for the pointer]

The Bank of England: One Question

If you could ask the policy makers at The Bank of England just one question, what would it be?



Mine would be, "Why do you target interest rates if an overheated economy would drive up interest rates, requiring you to increase the supply of lendable funds, thus leading to an even hotter economy?" Maybe the answer is that they don't really target interest rates.



My class is going on a field trip to the Bank of England tomorrow, and we have been assured that at one point we will have a chance to ask questions.

Israel's Mistake

Tom Hanna, in noting that Israel was poised to re-exert some semblance of law and order in Gaza (my words, not his) said that perhaps this time Israel will rectify its past mistakes:

[T]he mistake was and continues to be negotiating as though the Palestinians are a victorious army and not the perpetual losers of this conflict. Lasting peace will require lots of things, but one of the most important is going to be the realization by Palestinians and Israelis that any Israeli concessions are gifts granted by a magnanimous victor and not spoils won in a Palestinian victory. Whether Palestinians or Israelis will get that message and which group will get it first remains to be seen.

Aberdeen, Scotland, is Gray

Last weekend, due to some snafus at ScotRail, I ended up spending two hours in Aberdeen, Scotland. I was struck immediately by how gray the city is:







Even the High Street Starbucks in Aberdeen is gray:

And the Travelodge along the main drag is gray, too:







Wouldn't you think there'd be some colour in some of the buildings' facades?

Capital - Labour Substitution at Wal-Mart

Wal-Marts and zillions of other businesses in Alberta are facing stiff competition from the oil patch in their attempts to hire unskilled and semi-skilled workers. With the price of oil booming, so is the demand for workers throughout the oil industry, but especially in and around the tar sands in Northern Alberta. Young people, especially, are declining to work for $10/hour at fast food establishments or in retail jobs when they can earn much more either in the oil industry or in support services for the oil industry.



The response has been two-fold.

1. Firms are recruiting even unskilled workers very agressively.
2. More interestingly for this item, firms are substituting capital for labour wherever possible.

In the case of Wal-Mart, one form of capital-labour substitution is the self-check-out. Because hiring labour and replacing those who quit is expensive, and because wage rates must rise to be attractive to those who have high opportunity costs (the opportunity of working in the oil patch), and because the cost of capital is comparatively low, the relative slope of the isocosts has changed. As a result, Wal-Mart is spending more on IT (information technology) specialists and on the machinery and equipment to operate self-serve check-outs and reducing the number of other employees they would otherwise have hired to operate the standard, old-time checkouts.

Dealing with Water Shortages in SouthEast England

The southeast of England, despite having had quite a bit of rain this past May, still faces water shortages this August.

• The water authorities tell us that the reason for the water shortages is that we have had droughts.... well, at least we have had two consecutive winters with extremely low rainfall, and the water levels in the ground are perilously low.
• The tabloids tell us that the reason for the water shortages is that the water system was privatized and the capitalist pigs won't spend the money to repair the leaks in the water system. Their evidence is that considerable amounts of water are lost every day in London due to leaks, while, at the same time, water companies are making supranormal profits.
• My neoclassical inner being tells me that the reason for the water shortages is that the price of water is too low.

My explanation is closer to the truth.



Water prices are regulated in England. The type of regulation is the standard rate-of-return regulation, in which various people argue before the regulatory body about what the appropriate price should be. The theoretical model is one of a natural monopoly (a firm which has high fixed costs and low marginal costs and hence a noticeably downward-sloping average cost curve relative to the demand curve), and the theoretical goal of the regulators is to set price equal to average total costs (i.e. where the demand curve intersects the long-run average total cost curve).

• The water companies argue that their costs are high, that their capital stock is such and such, and that a reasonable rate of return on their capital, given the risk, is so-and-so. Their approach is to determine what they refer to as their "revenue requirements" by looking first at all their costs, including the opportunity costs of capital.
• Consumer advocates argue that people cannot afford the water they "need" if prices are too high; these folks argue that the price of water should be low and that alternative forms of rationing (other than the price system) should be implemented.
• In contrast, environmentalists argue that the price of water should be raised to discourage what they consider profligate uses of water, e.g. big lawns, car washes, etc.
• Of course what bothers all of the above is that if the price system is used to ration water (i.e., if prices were raised until the water shortage disappeared) is that the water companies would get the profits. There are several ways to deal with this concern though.
  
  
  
  First, so what? If you think water companies are going to get rich off water, buy some stock in them. (It would be a better investment than lottery tickets). If you think that's despicable, then buy the stock and donate it to a charitable organization.
  
  
  
  Second, a different way to raise the price of water, without having the water companies profit from the higher prices, is to tax the use of water. One might hope that the tax would be revenue neutral, and that there would be off-setting tax reductions elsewhere, but taxing something that is underpriced in the market makes pretty good sense in this scenario.
  
  
  
  
• Sadly, most people argue that the price of water shouldn't be raised because then the poor would suffer. I am skeptical of this argument. I doubt that water is an inferior good (but I don't know): I expect that if the price of water were raised, it would affect higher income groups proportionally more than it would affect lower income groups.

When I discussed this last point with an executive of SouthEast Water (the local water company), he offered the suggestion that about 80% of water usage is deemed by the regulators to be essential. This was during a field trip with my students where I am teaching this summer.



My response was to bristle. I suggested that they consider how much water people use today relative to how much water people used 50 years ago (about half) and then tell me again how much of today's water usage is essential and for what.



But here's the kicker: 70% of the households in this area are not on water meters and have the right to refuse water meters. The company might be able to vary the price of water from month-to-month, charging more in July and August, but they cannot vary the charges according to how much water these people use. Raising the monthly price for these customers will have no impact on the marginal cost of using another litre of water. In fact some have argued that if the price were raised to these customers, they would feel entitled to use more water.



In other words, using the price system ration water when there are no meters is probably out of the question, at least until the houses change hands, at which time water meters can be installed.



As a footnote, though, let me add that the representative of SouthEast Water gave an excellent presentation to my students on our field trip last month. I was delighted and pleased with the time SouthEast Water took and with the quality and depth of their work.

My Office Window is Behind Me

Here is a photo of me, standing on the roof outside the window to my office here at Herstmonceux Castle.

To add some perspective, here is a photo without the zoom and cropping:







(photos courtesy of Ms. Eclectic)

A Little Canadian Humour

I do not often (if at all) post jokes here, but this one really tickled me [h/t to Jack], and what the heck, it's a new teaching term for me here at the castle:

Lost in Nova Scotia Two American tourists were driving through Nova Scotia. As they were approaching Shubenacadie (shoe-been-aack-id-dee), they started arguing about the pronunciation of the town's name.



They argued back and forth until they stopped for lunch. As they stood at the counter, one tourist asked the cashier,



"Before we order, could you please settle an argument for us? Would you please pronounce where we are... ver-r-ry slo-o-owly?



The cashier leaned over the counter and said:



"Tiiimmmmm Hoorrrrttoooonnns"

If the U.S. Economy Slows Down, Will the Rest of the World Be Able to De-couple?

Nouriel Roubini continues to predict that the U.S. economic growth rate will ease back to 2% during the latter portion of 2006. I expect he's right or pretty close. Here is a summary of his position:

1. high oil prices hitting burdened US consumers whose real incomes were not growing much;

2. the flattening of a housing bubble hitting a shopped-out and saving-less consumer that was highly indebted;

3. rising inflation rates – partly because of high oil and commodity prices – forcing the Fed to tighten more than expected by markets and leading to higher short and long term interest rates.

... In addition to the above vulnerabilities, the U.S. economy suffers of [sic] a number of other structural vulnerabilities: a high fiscal deficit that will mushroom in the next few years if all the tax cuts of 2001-2003 are made permanent; a large and growing current account deficit; low private savings and negative household savings; an increase in income and wealth inequality; falling real wages as headline inflation has been above nominal wage growth.

He further argues that when the U.S. economy slows down, the rest of the world will be dragged down with it — they will not be able to de-couple their economies from whatever happens in the U.S. He presents 12 reasons the rest of the world will not be able to de-couple [thanks to MA for the link]. The essence of his argument is that the U.S. is a big economy, and that no matter what other gubmnts might do, they are affected by what happens in the U.S. --- economic activity is affected increasingly by global events, and even flexible exchange rates cannot alter this trend.

Danish Exports to the US Increased by 17% Last Quarter

Christopher Hitchens has the following postscript to one of his Slate pieces:

Postscript: A note of cheer to all those Slate readers who either attended the Solidarity With Denmark rally, or sent encouragement, or rallied round to buy Danish goods. I have today received a note from one of the Copenhagen editors who published the original cartoons, informing me that in the last quarter, Danish exports to the United States have increased by 17 percent and that, overall, the Danish economy has more than compensated for the results of the unjustified Muslim boycott [emphasis added]. Let us keep this example in mind.

Boycotts do not work when others think the boycotts are unjustified morally and politically and do their best to counteract the effects. Before seeing this, I had already booked a weekend in Copenhagen myself.



But if the Danish economy is NOT struggling, it will be interesting to see what happens to the Danish money supply and rate of inflation.

Conflicting Freedoms

Recently, I have been having some e-discussions with some friends about freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and multiculturalism.



I expect it has long been obvious to most of you, but it became clear to me during these discussions that the U.S. Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights cannot logically try to guarantee all these freedoms (and multiculturalism) at the same time.



If it is a strong tenet of a fundamentalist religion that heretics must be killed or punished for expressing their disagreement with other tenets of that religion, then freedom of religion and the freedom of expression cannot logically co-exist. Unfortunately, I don't think Andrew Coyne gets this [see: National Post; Date: Jun 17, 2006; Section: Issues & Ideas; Page: 23 (no link available), h/t to Jack].



This conflict of freedoms is the source of the clash of cultures that we face in the west. We firmly believe in tolerance, in freedom of expression, and openness to differing points of view. The problem is that this very openness means we allow others to promote views diametrically opposed to openness and freedom of expression.



This conflict cannot persist. Either we must assign freedom of religion to a subservient role and elevate other freedoms to a more dominant position, or the other freedoms will disappear. Logically there is no middle ground.

You Say "Lobster",I Say "Langostino"

BenS says this meat is very good, low in fat, etc.

From cold, fresh salads to steaming, creamy bisques, the Chilean Langostino Meat is flavorful, versatile and attractive. This product is prepared from the finest langostinos caught in pristine waters off the coast of Chile. ...



The Food and Drug Administration recognizes this product as lobster which allows Langostinos to be advertised and listed on menus as lobster. Recently a restaurant chain in Southern California ran a lobster taco and burrito promotion using our Langostino Meat which was a great success.

In case you are wondering whether they feel pain when they are steamed, you might want to read this (courtesy of Jack, my physician friend).

Internet Advertising Overtaking Traditional Media

From the UK's Daily Telegraph:

Internet advertising in Britain is up around 60pc this year, with two-thirds of that related to online searches on sites such as Google, as the web continues to grab market share from traditional media in a UK advertising market worth more than £9bn a year.



... "Internet advertising is boosting overall spend with a 25pc year-on-year increase worldwide in 2006," [media buyer, Carat] said.



It added that, in the US, internet advertising spending was expected to overtake newspapers in 2008, while in the UK, it will outstrip magazines this year, having already taken a bigger share than outdoor advertising last year.



Spending in the US remains strong, with unchanged growth forecasts of 5pc, while spending in China is expected to rise 20.5pc.



Robert Lerwill, Aegis chief executive, said that the real growth driver was digital media. "Investment in digital media has now definitively moved from 'experimental' to 'essential'," he said.

More Support for Awarding Richard Posner a Nobel Prize in Economics

Anytime people open postings on this blog, they are greeted with the following line, just under the title banner:

Richard Posner deserves the next Nobel Prize in Economics

Others, including Economics Nobelist, Gary Becker, agree. From Tim Harford's interview with Gary Becker [link courtesy of Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution]:

Posner was once a possibility for the US Supreme Court ("I don't think there's anyone, including [Chief Justice] Roberts, on the Supreme Court who's anywhere near the equal of Posner") but Becker now tips him for a Nobel prize in economics.

Why Cell Phones Are Better; reason #37

A slightly offensive but hilarious ad for cell phones (h/t to MA)

Who Would Have Thought That Watching Someone Juggle Three Balls Could Be So Fascinating

Watch the choreography in this video. It is intriguing, to say the very least.



[h/t to cmt]

Innumeracy and the Failure of North American Education

I recently received an e-mail relating the following (possibly apocryphal) story:

Last week when I was purchasing a coffee at Dunkin' Donuts for $1.58, the counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her.



She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried.

I have no idea how common this incident is, but I suspect it is not terribly rare, having run into similar situations myself once or twice [albeit without the hailing of a manager and without the tears].



I do not mean to seem like a horrible, hard-hearted person, but this cashier should be fired. If people cannot do that level of math in their heads, they should not be allowed to handle money.



Furthermore, all public school students should learn that cashiers who can't do this math soon lose their jobs.

Digression: I once gave my 2nd-year university students a problem that involved having to make a calculation something along the lines of 1.0 divided by 1/106.78. About 10% of the students complained because I wouldn't let them use calculators and they tried to do the division long-hand (and every one of that bunch got the wrong answer!).

Noam Chomsky:a clear example for whom tenure should be revoked due to incompetence

From an interview of Noam Chomski, quoted at MEMRI:

"Personally, I'm very much opposed to Hamas' policies in almost every respect. However, we should recognize that the policies of Hamas are more forthcoming and more conducive to a peaceful settlement than those of the United States or Israel. So to repeat: The policies, in my view, are unacceptable, but preferable to the policies of the United States and Israel.



"So, for example, Hamas has called for a long-term indefinite truce on the international border. There is a long-standing international consensus that goes back over 30 years that there should be a two-state political settlement on the international border, the pre-June 1967 border, with minor and mutual modifications. That's the official phrase. Hamas is willing to accept that as a long-term truce. The United States and Israel are unwilling even to consider it.



"The Hamas is being... The demand on Hamas by the United States and the European Union and Israel... The demand is first that they recognize the State of Israel. Actually, that they recognize its right to exist. [EE: Where? in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea?] Well, Israel and the U.S. certainly don't recognize the right of Palestine to exist, nor recognize any state of Palestine. [EE: Really? So to whom were they sending all those billions in aid that Arafat squirreled away? What do you call Gaza?] In fact, they have been acting consistently to undermine any such possibility.

I have been told that Noam Chomski is a very smart man, but that last paragraph is just plain wrong. And just because Chomski utters such falsehoods, that doesn't make them correct.

A True Eye-Sore

Here's something that puzzles me.



The colleagues of mine teaching here at the castle who are probably best described as left-ish, don't mind the intrusion of the London Eye on the London skyline. I think it is a travesty (though I gather it is very popular and earns lots of money for someone).

And yet they don't much care for The Gherkin (aka The Dildo), which I think is quite attractive, shown here behind the abbey that Shakespeare attended when he was in London.











For more on the London Eye, see this.



And for more on the Gherkin, see this.









What is happening? How is it that the self-proclaimed chair of the Philistine Liberation Organization doesn't like the London Eye?

Three-Day Emergency Food Supply

I have never been in a situation where I couldn't get some food and water for more than a day or two. We have had some serious power outages that lasted a couple of days due to ice storms and once due to a major transformer fire, but that's about it.



So even if you figure there is no reason to stock up several month's worth of supplies to prepare for a possible avian flu pandemic, you might want to be prepared for a comfortable two or three days should your power and water ever be cut off. For some good advice along these lines, you might want to look at this site. Here is a summary:

What does a three-day emergency food supply look like? What should you consider and where do you start?



As you prepare your three-day food supply, keep the following in mind:



* Store food you like and normally eat.

* Rotate and use food and water every 6 to 12 months.

* Consider small can sizes that provide just the number of servings you will consume at one time. If your power is off, refrigerating leftovers is not an option.

* Keep a manual can opener, and eating utensils on hand.

* If you don't have an alternative way to boil water, do not include instant foods*.

* Store foods packaged in cardboard boxes, thin plastic, or paper in a metal, glass or rigid plastic container to avoid insect and rodent damage.

* Choose shelf-stable foods that do not require a refrigerator or freezer for storage. Once opened or prepared, many foods no longer are shelf stable.

The site has a number of additional useful suggestions for types of food and appropriate storage.



But this advice is not for everyone. I expect that the marginal value of space is higher, ceteris paribus, for people who have small apartments with little storage space. For these people, the marginal opportunity cost of using that space for storage may very well outweigh the expected incremental benefits of using it for storage for three-days' worth of supplies. After all, let's face it: we're not going to die from a lack of food over three days, and nearly all of us have a three-day supply of beverages (or can get one from the toilet tanks, etc.).

Promoting Ignorance "Out of Respect"

What if we taught only old-time Keynesian economics in our intro courses? What if we taught that the gubmnt multiplier is very large and that interest rates are not very important in the economy? What if we taught that demand curves are vertical for all "necessities"? What if we did all these things out of respect for our elders who actually believed all those things?



We would lose our funding, or worse, I should hope.



And yet something very similar is happening with regards to the teaching of evolution in Canada's North (h/t to Brian Ferguson)

Students in the northern Quebec town of Salluit should have an open mind and think for themselves, but not teaching them Darwin's Theory of Evolution is an issue of respect, says the region's school board.



... [T]he board says it expects teachers to "respect the culture of the people they are privileged to live with, and to teach."



... While saying the board wouldn't censor teachers, a member of the community's school committee told CBC that teachers would be told if they deal in matters sensitive to the community.



"If the town complains and says no, the committee can ask the principal or the director of teachers to approach the teacher and say, 'Look, this is not the subject to be taught here in this town, or in this place, because we know we have been humans from the beginning, '" said Molly Tayara.



"I don't personally accept my children being taught that they came from some species from Africa somewhere.



"Here in the North there is no such thing as monkeys."

And one of the problems in such areas is that they are too small, population-wise, for vouchers to have much of an effect.

A Few Urinals I Have Known

I was speaking with some women the other day about public facilities or "conveniences". They simply refused to believe my description of the troughs in men's public toilets, found in many pubs in England and elsewhere (e.g. the old exhibition stadium in Trono). So here are photos of three different examples. I guess some people just cannot wrap their heads around the idea that men might urinate against a wall or into a trough, so here's the proof.



The first one (top left) is in some public facilities provided about a block inland from the sea in Brighton.



The second one (on the right) was taken in a pub near the railway station in Brighton. It reminds me, in its shape, of the old troughs out under the grandstands at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium.



The third one (lower left) is in The Marine Pub in Eastbourne. Washing one's hands here was quite a challenge, as you can see.



[note: Phil Miller thinks it is sick to take photographs in public restrooms. In deference to decency, I did wait until nobody else was in them before taking the photographs.]

Is Economics a "Hard" Science?

Of course it is, and by "hard" I don't mean difficult, necessarily. All I mean is that we use the scientific method most of the time, and we revise our hypotheses in light of new evidence.



Recently AlexK sent me this quote about, of all things, chemistry:

It is disconcerting to reflect on the number of students we have flunked in chemistry for not knowing what we later found to be untrue.

I googled that quotation, attributed to Robert L. Weber, and found at least five pages of references to that specific quotation.



I had several reactons when I read it.

1. Was that quote really about chemistry and not about economics? [recall the old joke about the macroeconomist who gives the same exam questions every year but the correct answers change over time]
2. If chemists feel that way about their subject and are viewed as a hard science, then surely economics qualifies. We have immutable laws, too, like the law of demand (if only half the members of our profession and all the politicians understood it!).

Why Are So Many Leftists So Anti-Israel?

Melanie Phillips has recently linked to a possible set of answers provided by Richard Baehr some time ago in The American Thinker.

The left in this country includes large numbers of academics, journalists, human rights activists, environmental and animal rights activists, entertainers, and some church groups, women’s groups, racial advocacy groups and unions. There are also liberals who are members of these same groups. I distinguish between leftists and liberals by one key test: how they feel about the country in which they live. If you tend to regard America as a primarily flawed, evil, unjust, racist country (or at least when Republicans are running it), and most importantly, believe that the US is the primary threat to world peace internationally, then you are a leftist, and not a liberal. Of course, many leftists are perfectly happy to be living here, amidst all their complaints about the country, and regrettably all too few Hollywood artists carried through with their threat to leave the country after the 2000 election.



... But there are differences between the anger towards Israel and that directed against America. The level of anger directed against America seems to depend to some extent, among some critics at least, on the party controlling the White House and Congress. Leftists hated America less when Clinton was president than they do now. Some leftists seem so agitated by President Bush, they have become unhinged from any ability to see the world except in conspiratorial, and apocalyptic terms. With Israel, the party in power makes little difference in terms of the attitudes towards it in academia, or for others on the left. A left of center Israeli government may make Israel easier to defend for some Jews, but does not change the nature of the historical crime that was committed in establishing the Zionist state for most leftists.



... WHY DOES THE LEFT HATE ISRAEL?



I believe there are several reasons:

1. It is an easy way to express one’s hatred for America.

2. Israel is viewed as an outpost of colonialism , and an active practitioner of it.

3. Israel is a western nation, and hence can be judged by the left. Israel is not protected by cultural relativism, as the Arabs are.

4. Leftist Christian churches can escape any lingering guilt about the Holocaust, by turning Israel into a villain. Some leftist churches hate Israel because they think this will help protect their members in the holy land- in other words they feel threatened.

5. Ferocious Muslim hatred of Israel and the Jews reinforces the natural cowardice of many on the left who go along with the Muslims to stay out of their line of fire.

6. Jewish leftists are prominent in the anti-Israel movement. This opens the floodgates for everybody else.

7. Israel is attacked because the secular left is appalled by the influence of religious settlers and their biblical connections to the land of Israel, and by the support for Israel by evangelical Christians, and Christian Zionists.

For his development of these themes, please read the entire piece. I would add that many leftists seem to have a need to support victims, the downtrodden. Until 1967, many leftists supported Israel as the David against the Arab Goliath, but after that war, it became clear that Israel could look after itself. Meanwhile, the Palestinians did a superb job of painting themselves as victims, thus attracting interest from the world's leftists.



Also see this piece by Evelyn Gordon.



And note the anonymous comment here. No good leftist would even allow people to ask whether probabilistic profiling might be a good idea.

A Full Flintstones Episode in One Minute

JJ sent me this link with the note, "If only they would do this with 'reality' television, too!"

Snakes on a Plane has officially jumped the shark

Do you have any idea what the phrase, "Snakes on a Plane has officially jumped the shark" means?



See here for a partial answer.

Why Textbook Prices Will Continue to Outpace the Rate of Inflation

Bill Polley has a very insightful piece on textbook pricing. In it, he points out that

There is no doubt that textbook prices are rising more quickly than inflation. When I was in college in the early '90s, an intermediate macro text sold for around $50 (I still have the price tag on it). Today, a similar text sells for over $130. The CPI meanwhile has increased from around 125 to about 200.

He notes that newer texts come bundled with CDs and password-subscription websites, but he doubts whether the extras completely account for the higher prices of textbooks today.



My guess is that the CDs and (especially) the password-subscription websites that are bundled with textbooks have the effect of reducing competition for new book sales by making the used textbooks less valuable as substitutes. If the owner of a textbook finds it difficult to resell access to a required website, then more students will purchase new textbooks in following years, thus driving up the demand and price for new textbooks. At least that seems to be the case with some economics textbooks.



At the other extreme are the freely available textbooks on-line. Polley continues,

I predict that textbook prices will continue to outpace inflation. There are alternatives to the traditional textbooks. Preston McAfee and Roger McCain are two notable examples of freely available on-line texts in economic principles. ... As some professors leave the market for freely available texts, that leaves a more inelastic demand curve facing the publishers. The effect on the revenues of the publishers will necessarily depend on how many customers leave the market and how much they are able to recoup with price increases. But if, as I suspect, those professors most likely to use the free texts are those who are most price sensitive (on their students' behalf), we should see textbook prices continue to rise.

Nice application of the concepts of product differentiation and price elasticity of demand.

Ontario Human Rights Commission to be De-fanged

from Judeoscope, via BenS:

Imitating a similar reform in British Columbia, Ontario will strip the Ontario Human Rights Commission from its public prosecutor role. The Canadian Arab Federation is adamantly opposed, reports the Canadian Press.

This should be good news for anyone who favours the rule of law and a constitutional separation of powers. During the 1980s and 1990s, too many provincial human rights commissions obtained prosecutorial and judicial authorities that meant they were far removed from both parliamentary law and judicial review. They were not completely removed, but the cost of pursuing cases beyond them had become extreme.



Further, for such commissions to hold both a prosecutory AND a judicial role has been insane in that it has created considerable bias for the prosecutorial position taken by the human rights prosecutors.



My criticism is not of the pursuit of human rights. And many of us might disagree about what should or should not be included in definition of human rights. Rather, my criticism of what has gone on for far too long in the past is that the process has been misguided, biased, and unfair. This decision to require that human rights commissions no longer have a prosecutorial role is a step in the right direction.

Hockey and Water

Former student, Ravi, sent me this link to a graph showing normal water use in Edmonton (the green wiggly line) in contrast with water use in Edmonton on May 23, 2006, during game three of the Edmonton Oilers' National Hockey League playoff matchup with Anaheim (the blue jagged line). The spikes in water usage at the end of each period are predictable and taken into consideration by the water and sewage authorities in their planning. My guess is that the other, lesser spikes occurred during commercial time-outs after icing, off sides, and penalty calls.



We know the spikes occur, but seeing them on a graph sure is fascinating.