- Jared Bernstein: The President’s Economics Speech, First Impressions: "I thought the President gave a resonant and powerful speech…. There’s little in here the President didn’t touch on back in 2005…. What’s different is that in 2005 he was saying 'here’s what a president should do', in 2013 he’s saying 'here’s what I’d be doing if we had a functional political system'…. And he still doesn’t know what to do… a compelling economic vision… [and] a uniquely hostile Congress… beyond making his case to the people as he did today, taking executive actions, and exhorting private sector actors (CEOs, college presidents; he clearly has some executive orders loaded; I’m hoping one involves improving the job quality of workers on government contracts)…. The arrival of Barack Obama on the national stage… was a source of great hope for those like myself back in 2005…. But at least this progressive economist, one who worked for his administration in the early years, hears him with a very different, and sadder, set of ears today than back then." * James Feyrer, Dimitra Politi, and David N. Weil: The Cognitive Effects of Micronutrient Deficiency: Evidence from Salt Iodization in the United States: "Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of preventable mental retardation in the world today. The condition, which was common in the developed world until the introduction of iodized salt in the 1920s, is connected to low iodine levels in the soil and water. We examine the impact of salt iodization on cognitive outcomes in the US by taking advantage of this natural geographic variation. Salt was iodized over a very short period of time beginning in 1924. We use military data collected during WWI and WWII to compare outcomes of cohorts born before and after iodization, in localities that were naturally poor and rich in iodine. We find that for the one quarter of the population most deficient in iodine this intervention raised IQ by approximately one standard deviation. Our results can explain roughly one decade's worth of the upward trend in IQ in the US (the Flynn Effect). We also document a large increase in thyroid related deaths following the countrywide adoption of iodized salt, which affected mostly older individuals in localities with high prevalence of iodine deficiency."
- Rufus F.: Cultural Institutions in Flux: "I bemoaned the situation at a local university library, which was then in the process of 'updating' the holdings by moving the books to storage and removing the shelves to make room for the ever-increasing Internet café that seems to be consuming most public spaces like an ill-omened Lovecraftian mist…. The arguments for remaking libraries in the image of an internet café tend to sound like a shallow take on Heraclitus’s river that one can never step in twice: something like 'change is constant, society is in flux, and institutions must enter into a state flux as well, in order to survive'. The exact type of change needn’t matter, nor should the direction of the change; the important thing is that the institution be seen as willing to continually alter itself and its mission for the sake of change. No institution wants to appear like the French nobility in 1789. This will to change, in any and all directions at once, is seen as suppleness. Instead, let’s be honest, it reads as weakness." * Tim Duy: Negative Feedback Loops?: "I find a lot of inconsistency in Fedspeak of late. If the economy needs continued support, why even begin the tapering discussion? And if the economy needs continuing support, then the rate rise represents a real tightening of monetary conditions, not just a lessening of accommodation, so how can Fed officials cheer-lead the rate rise?… We no longer know the Fed's reaction function. The reaction function does not appear to be entirely dependent on unemployment and inflation. There was never any reason to adjust QE on that basis, that's why Bernanke's post-FOMC comments caught everyone by surprise…. The Fed appears to have a financial stability variable now built into their reaction function. Perhaps that variable reflects concerns about leverage, perhaps… it reflects liquidity issues… [or] Housing Bubble II…. Still too early to conclude the extent of the negative feedback of the recent rise in rates. Moreover, it is not clear to what extent Fed officials are unhappy with that feedback." * Jonathan Webb: Fake memory implanted in mice with a beam of light: "Admittedly, 'Uh-oh, Place A!' is not on the same level as the elaborate, special effects-laden falsehoods that featured in Christopher Nolan’s Inception. We cannot script new memories… we will never know exactly what the mouse remembers. The artificial firing of those selected cells is unlikely to conjure the full experience of being back in Place A, though it is certainly enough to influence behavior. The mice who were returned to Place A after the 'hijacking' spent about a third of their time frozen; other mice only froze for about 10% of the time. Hapless laboratory animals have been enduring this type of behavioral testing for nearly a century. It is no surprise that we can train a mouse to dislike a room. But to do so while the mouse is in another room entirely, by triggering a memory with light? Science like this was impossible a decade ago." Alan I. Abramowitz and Ruy Teixeira: “Missing Voters” in the 2012 Election: Not so white, not so Republican | David Leonhardt: Gary Solon: Mobility Prophet | Ed Kilgore: I’ve taken to heart various warnings about using the language of warfare to describe political fisticuffs. So I am resisting the temptation to say that Ta-Nehisi Coates 'demolished' or 'destroyed' a column from Victor Davis Hanson predictably defending racial profiling. So how about 'exposed' or maybe 'subjected him to a pantsing?' | Sources And Methods: The Ancient Viking Game Every Intelligence Professional Should Play | alicublog: COME ALONG, WE'RE GOING TO THE TRANS-LUX TO HISS WILLIAM BUCKLEY | Michael J. Casey: How Japan Could Go from Deflation to Hyperinflation in a Heartbeat | Norm Ornstein: The Unprecedented—and Contemptible—Attempts to Sabotage Obamacare | The Official LGM Rude Liberal Unicorn Contest | Sy Mukherjee: Very Few Employers Have Actually Cut Workers' Hours Because Of Obamacare |
