Top all-time · #1908
Conversable Economist
Personal blog · conversableeconomist.blogspot.comeconomicsbusiness
Conversable Economist is a personal blog at conversableeconomist.blogspot.com about economics and business. Since 2011, 41 different Hacker News readers have linked it 79 times, most often ““A Person Can Not Draw Up a List of Things That Would Never Occur to Them””. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Most-linked posts?
- “A Person Can Not Draw Up a List of Things That Would Never Occur to Them”2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-08-19
- Time to Abolish "Statistical Significance"?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-09-13
- The “No Brown M&Ms” Story: Contract Theory at Work2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-12-14
- What Do We Know About Angel Investors?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-10-07
What Hacker News says?
> But author is concerned about what this means for the state of supply chain verification. This is a brown M&Ms problem: https://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-no-bro... If they missed something as obvious as this, who knows what other problems are going on in supply chain security or total lack of QA.
Comment linking /2020/10/the-no-brown-m-story-contract-theory-at.html
on “Dell and HPE switches come with 'American Megatrands' stickers”Submitted How MTV's “16 and Pregnant” May Have Reduced Teen Pregnancy as a story · 105 points
HN discussionThere are countries with much lower corporate tax rates. E.g. Ireland is 15%, Panama is 0% (on foreign income). I'd say the optimal strategy is what Facebook and Google do with the double Irish Dutch sandwich http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2014/07/double-iris...
Comment linking /2014/07/double-irish-dutch-sandwich.html
on “Amazon Web Services revenue rises 81% year over year”Submitted Time to Abolish "Statistical Significance"? as a story · 104 points
HN discussionAnother powerful demographic force in the USA is the number of men who are ex-convicts: ""Few of us today are aware of the staggering size of this group. In a forthcoming study, Sarah Shannon, a sociologist at the University of Georgia, and five colleagues estimate that America’s criminal class (people with a felony conviction or prison time in their background) roughly quadrupled between 1980 and 2010 — from 5 mill…
Comment linking /2017/10/after-incarceration-how-and-male-labor.html
on “Most US jobs created since 2005 are not conventional full-time work”Submitted What is a “Good Job?” as a story · 83 points
HN discussionAbsolute vs relative improvements, vs cost of attainment, are two different questions. The largest overall reductions, and increases in life expectancy, come from very basic interventions. The problem w/ efficiency measures generally is that there's progress to some theoretical maximum, and it comes with diminishing returns. Breaking down life expectancy gains by demographics, the've moved more for men than women (s…
Comment linking /2018/04/inequality-in-us-life-expectancy.html
on “Sanitation conquered disease long before vaccines or antibiotics”Submitted Algorithmic Pricing and Competition: The Small-Town Gas Station Example as a story · 56 points
HN discussionPaper towels are more hygenic as it turns out that friction after you wash your hands is essential for removing some dirt & germs. The environmental impact of paper towels is minimally worse than air dryers. http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2012/12/paper-towel... Also have you ever tried to dry your face with an air dryer? Awkward is not nearly a strong enough term to describe it, let alone if there is someo…
Comment linking /2012/12/paper-towels-v-air-dryers.html
on “Dyson Unveils New 'Wet and Dry' AirBlade Faucet”Submitted Ricardo's Comparative Advantage After Two Centuries as a story · 41 points
HN discussionThe American Economic Association site: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie This site uses cookies to improve performance. If your browser does not accept cookies, you cannot view this site. In black and red lettering on a dark purple background. A summary is available here. It's the usual economist hand-waving.[1] [1] http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2015/08/since-1986-...
Comment linking /2015/08/since-1986-my-actual-paid-job-as.html
on “Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation [pdf]”Submitted Free Expression of Professors and Its Prudential Limits as a story · 26 points
HN discussionPublic sector pensions are bankrupting states around the country and widely mismanaged. Not to mention extremely politicized and an easy way to get votes by over-promising and kicking the burden to the future. For all the faults of 401ks and such, they aren't destabilizing state budgets around the country, and the market is in fact relatively stable if you keep it simple. They also aren't dependent on your company r…
Comment linking /2019/01/a-plan-to-fix-social-security.html
on “Too Many Americans Will Never Be Able to Retire”Submitted When the Desire for Learning Hit Winston Churchill as a story · 11 points
HN discussionFor decades people paid 2 cents for a nail[1]. Why do nails cost 0.5 cents now? Because once you figure out a way to make them cheaper than 2 cents, you can make more profit by charging less -- you take market share away from producers who can't go under two cents. This is a steady process that has been going on for centuries in all kinds of different products. If it doesn't happen with EVs, it will be because gover…
Comment linking /2012/04/price-of-nails.html
on “Cost of public EV charging rises by more than 42% in four months”Submitted Update on Carbon Capture and Storage as a story · 4 points
HN discussion> There are more people working in telecomms now than there were when we had buildings full of switchers. I don't think that's true. This blogpost [0] says there were 1.3m telephone operators in the U.S. in 1950. This BLS data [1] says that there are about half that many people in the entire telecom industry today. [0]: https://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2020/02/telephone-... [1] https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/i…
Comment linking /2020/02/telephone-switchboard-operators-rise.html
on “What coal and Jevons’ paradox tell us about AI and data”Submitted Economics of Information Overload: Thoughts from Herb Simon as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted “A Person Can Not Draw Up a List of Things That Would Never Occur to Them” as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Flynn Effect (Rising IQ Scores Over Time) Reverses as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Network Effects, Big Data, and Antitrust Issues for Big Tech as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted How Clones Can Experience Unequal Economic Outcomes as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST: Moore's Law at 50 as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Person Cannot ... Draw Up a List of Things That Would Never Occur to Him as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Will Workers Disperse from Cities? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Should Be Included in Income Inequality? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Need for Large Firms in Developing Countries as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How the US Startup Industry Is Faltering as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Are Firms Too Risk-Averse? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The US Rental Housing Market as a story · 2 points
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