Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Links Dec. 20, 2006

Neweconomist blog on Mixed Joys of Privatization
Government's natural advantage is in raising money cheaply. The private sector's is in running organisations efficiently. Public-private ventures should capitalise on these core strengths, with the government raising the money - perhaps via bonds, as Ken Livingstone has suggested - and the private sector partner running the operation. This makes economic and fiscal sense - but has the key failing of not taking government capital spending 'off the books'.

and Wal-Mart in India
After abandoning disastrous forays in South Korea and Germany, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is coming to India. The opportunity is no doubt sizzling, though if Wal-Mart is not careful, it might end up making a hash of it...

Mark Liberman in
Language Log

This reinforces my conclusion that in today's public discourse, science is treated not as a search for the truth, but as source of edifying fables.

More by Liberman on
Science stories

As I've watched the reaction to Louann Brizendine's book over the past few months, I've concluded that "scientific studies" like these have taken over the place that bible stories used to occupy. It's only fundamentalists like me who worry about whether they're true. For most people, it's only important that they're morally instructive.


John Quiggin on
Stern Report
and David Maddison on
Stern Report
.
New York Times on
Sleeping Over It
and
Exercising
.

No comments: