[
  {
    "title": "Help wanted: incrementalist systems builder",
    "date": "2012-01-11",
    "url": "/writing/2012/01/help-wanted-incrementalist-systems-builder/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1702",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1702",
    "excerpt": "a.k.a Toolsmith a.k.a. Geek\n\nTo help forecast a hot CE product in one of the world's largest retailers (located in Seattle).  Apply within ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Dangling epsilons",
    "date": "2011-10-06",
    "url": "/writing/2011/10/dangling-epsilons/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1699",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1699",
    "excerpt": "Whenever I look at an estimation equation like this: from this paper , I wonder what's in that dangling epsilon term.  In this equation we have Y's on the left hand side.  And I think to myself, \"what kinds of things pro"
  },
  {
    "title": "New course in social psychology",
    "date": "2011-03-10",
    "url": "/writing/2011/03/new-course-in-social-psychology/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1696",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1696",
    "excerpt": "As I, fingers crossed, wind down my graduate work in economics, I am looking for new hobbies.  I was thinking about getting back into baseball.  I loved baseball when I was a kid and now, thanks to Moneyball and Baseball"
  },
  {
    "title": "The most subversive sentence I've ever written",
    "date": "2011-03-04",
    "url": "/writing/2011/03/the-most-subversive-sentence-ive-ever-written/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1694",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1694",
    "excerpt": "In a paper on the \"selection\" of Mexican immigrants where we find that Mexican immigrants to the US are about the same as non-migrant Mexicans in terms of observable skills like education and age but, as it turns out, th"
  },
  {
    "title": "R: solving a small system of equations fast",
    "date": "2011-02-20",
    "url": "/writing/2011/02/r-solving-a-small-system-of-equations-fast/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1690",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1690",
    "excerpt": "My google-fu failed me on this one, so for the next person googling \"stupid fast library for solving a system of equations in R such that the trade off between speed and 'robustness' is way on the speed side\", you're wel"
  },
  {
    "title": "Inequality Granger-causes growth",
    "date": "2011-02-18",
    "url": "/writing/2011/02/inequality-granger-causes-growth/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1688",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1688",
    "excerpt": "So say Andrews, Jencks and Leigh.  For what that's worth."
  },
  {
    "title": "Help, Help!  I'm being repressed!",
    "date": "2011-02-14",
    "url": "/writing/2011/02/help-help-im-being-repressed/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1683",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1683",
    "excerpt": "I'm watching the re-re-renewed debate about academic bias against conservatives with a little more skin in the game this time around.  Two facts about me: for some strange reason I'm considered conservative by my academi"
  },
  {
    "title": "23andMe data are in...",
    "date": "2011-02-01",
    "url": "/writing/2011/02/23andme-data-are-in/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1673",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1673",
    "excerpt": "... and I'm boring.  There's no traces of Indian in me (a now debunked family story ) and the white in me isn't that interesting either: This chart was produced using EURO-DNA-CALC (h/t Volokh ).  I'm 1/4 Italian-Swiss ("
  },
  {
    "title": "Does the Welfare State screw the poor?",
    "date": "2011-02-01",
    "url": "/writing/2011/02/does-the-welfare-state-screw-the-poor/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1678",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1678",
    "excerpt": "Milton Friedman's complaints about rent control and the minimum wage are cliche.  These programs hurt the people they're intended to help.  Unintended negative consequences are the first things I look for when I think ab"
  },
  {
    "title": "This post is intentionally left blank...",
    "date": "2011-01-31",
    "url": "/writing/2011/01/this-post-is-intentionally-left-blank/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1669",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1669",
    "excerpt": "... or is it? (PS - NBER has some good working papers out this week... stuff by Hall on the \"Long Slump\" and Chetty on micro/macro elasticities and then there's this look at poverty over the business cycle.)"
  },
  {
    "title": "The govenator",
    "date": "2011-01-12",
    "url": "/writing/2011/01/the-govenator/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1667",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1667",
    "excerpt": "I didn't vote for him, but Jerry Brown is... awesome! There's some sort of Nixon-going-to-China thing going on in California right now. Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! [caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"459\" caption=\"Jerry Bro"
  },
  {
    "title": "Labor mobility",
    "date": "2010-11-18",
    "url": "/writing/2010/11/labor-mobility/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1665",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1665",
    "excerpt": "If labor was perfectly mobile and suddenly there were massive dislocations requiring workers to relocate, you'd expect an uptick in the number of workers moving, right?  A corollary is that if you do not see an up-tick i"
  },
  {
    "title": "A link everyone will find useful",
    "date": "2010-11-08",
    "url": "/writing/2010/11/a-link-for-everyone/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1662",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1662",
    "excerpt": "I was at a practice job talk at a nearby university on Friday.  As preface to my work ((I'll post on it as soon as I get my job applications sent)), I pointed out that workers change careers many times, 3 or 4 times, ove"
  },
  {
    "title": "William Wallace Watch",
    "date": "2010-10-02",
    "url": "/writing/2010/10/william-wallace-watch-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1659",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1659",
    "excerpt": "Another Fed speech to throw in the William Wallace speech bucket.  \n\n\"They can take lives but they can never take our...  history contingent monetary policy!!!\"\n\n(h/t Sumner )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Quit picking on Japan, part II",
    "date": "2010-09-30",
    "url": "/writing/2010/09/quit-picking-on-japan-part-ii/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1654",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1654",
    "excerpt": "Will Wilkinson has been schooling the internets about division properly controlling for inflation when figuring real incomes, eliciting bored nods from those that have actually read Broda/Weinstein/Romalis (no links... t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Foreclosure deadweight?",
    "date": "2010-09-29",
    "url": "/writing/2010/09/foreclosure-deadweight/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1650",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1650",
    "excerpt": "Mike suggested for those interested in the foreclosure issue this paper .\n\nThat paper says this paper estimates the deadweight costs of foreclosures.\n\nNo it doesn't ((This is one of those cases where something is so blin"
  },
  {
    "title": "Increase inflation AND combat structural issues",
    "date": "2010-09-27",
    "url": "/writing/2010/09/increase-inflation-and-combat-structural-issues/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1646",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1646",
    "excerpt": "Inflation is below target.  Increasing output and decreasing or stagnant inflation is an indication that inflation expectations are becoming unanchored.  That's bad.  Inflation should not spend too long, too far from its"
  },
  {
    "title": "Question for those that want to stick it to the banks",
    "date": "2010-09-27",
    "url": "/writing/2010/09/question-for-those-that-want-to-stick-it-to-the-banks/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1648",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1648",
    "excerpt": "Some seem to really dig plans for the housing market that stick to the banks.  I'm down; I dig redistributional policy and we should encourage people to do what's best for them and their families (even if its bad for the"
  },
  {
    "title": "Did you know?",
    "date": "2010-09-25",
    "url": "/writing/2010/09/did-you-know/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1642",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1642",
    "excerpt": "After Kockerlakota dared suggest there are substantial structural problems in the labor market (right wing scum!), the very next paragraph was: Given the structural problems in the labor market, I do not expect unemploym"
  },
  {
    "title": "Question",
    "date": "2010-09-22",
    "url": "/writing/2010/09/question-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1639",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1639",
    "excerpt": "All the heat on the issue of AD policy overshadowed and even delegitimized discussion of policy to deal with structural issues in the labor market.  Suppose the latter policies were cheaper economically and politically. "
  },
  {
    "title": "Macro Model Mart",
    "date": "2010-09-07",
    "url": "/writing/2010/09/macro-model-mart/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1636",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1636",
    "excerpt": "John Taylor links to the Macro Model Data Base .  You are no longer allowed to critique macro for ignoring your pet \"obvious\" mechanism without having checked this list of models."
  },
  {
    "title": "Setting expectations",
    "date": "2010-09-01",
    "url": "/writing/2010/09/setting-expectations/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1631",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1631",
    "excerpt": "Evans and Honkapohja's work on learning in macro is important.  Watch this to get a sense for what they're doing:\n\n\nBut learning dynamics are not well understood empirically.  Prof. Evans describes the dynamics under ada"
  },
  {
    "title": "Quit picking on Japan!",
    "date": "2010-08-23",
    "url": "/writing/2010/08/quit-picking-on-japan/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1625",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1625",
    "excerpt": "Here's the per capita GDP for the G8 countries (relative to the USA): You can take two lessons from this chart. \n1) Japan hasn't had bad monetary policy relative to, say, the continental European countries\n   or \n2) Mone"
  },
  {
    "title": "Hints about the stochastic discount factor",
    "date": "2010-08-20",
    "url": "/writing/2010/08/hints-about-the-stochastic-discount-factor/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1619",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1619",
    "excerpt": "Its a great mystery (if you assume asset return volatility is all that matters) why investors don't hold more stocks.  Sharar Pitaru at the neat new investment tool Plantly , says : Yes, in general our rationale might le"
  },
  {
    "title": "What is structural unemployment?",
    "date": "2010-08-20",
    "url": "/writing/2010/08/what-is-structural-unemployment/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1622",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1622",
    "excerpt": "There seems to be a disconnect between how economists (and Fed economists in particular) use this term and how bloggers (and left bloggers in particular) use it.\n\nSome definitions:\n\"The unemployment resulting from wage r"
  },
  {
    "title": "A DSGE primer",
    "date": "2010-08-05",
    "url": "/writing/2010/08/a-dsge-primer/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1617",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1617",
    "excerpt": "Here ."
  },
  {
    "title": "The heartbeat of America",
    "date": "2010-08-04",
    "url": "/writing/2010/08/the-heartbeat-of-america/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1608",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1608",
    "excerpt": "Here's all the Jolts data (minus job openings): These are not seasonally adjusted so that's why you get the inverted-U shape every year for the hiring and quits series and the inclined saw shape for firings.  Still, you "
  },
  {
    "title": "Economists: the King's alchemists?",
    "date": "2010-07-23",
    "url": "/writing/2010/07/economists-as-political-slaves/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1606",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1606",
    "excerpt": "Delong : One of the embarrassing dirty little secrets of economics is that there is no such thing as economic theory properly so-called. There is simply no set of foundational bedrock principles on which one can base cal"
  },
  {
    "title": "Who are the long term unemployed?",
    "date": "2010-07-19",
    "url": "/writing/2010/07/who-are-the-long-term-unemployed/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1600",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1600",
    "excerpt": "A few weeks ago, Mike was asking me about the long term unemployed.  I'm running some regressions using CPS data so I have the data he asked about just hanging out on my desktop.  Public service:\n\nThe unemployed during t"
  },
  {
    "title": "More on immigration",
    "date": "2010-07-13",
    "url": "/writing/2010/07/more-on-immigration/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1598",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1598",
    "excerpt": "Ok.  I can't wait anymore.  Someday this paper (co-written with my advisor) will show up here .  The paper reviews trends in immigration in California and summarizes the findings of one of Peri's working papers .  In tha"
  },
  {
    "title": "Wow!",
    "date": "2010-07-08",
    "url": "/writing/2010/07/wow-3/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1596",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1596",
    "excerpt": "Categorize this chart in the \"must see the data to believe\" bucket."
  },
  {
    "title": "Isn't or Shouldn't?",
    "date": "2010-06-04",
    "url": "/writing/2010/06/isnt-or-shouldnt/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1594",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1594",
    "excerpt": "Sumner argues that if Krugman's claim is true that the Fed is too conservative, that they will do whatever to curb inflation, then fiscal policy won't work either. Fiscal policy moves the AD curve right, but the Fed will"
  },
  {
    "title": "Immigrants and native wages",
    "date": "2010-05-24",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/immigrants-and-native-wages/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1578",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1578",
    "excerpt": "I know I've had you riveted with the literature review in the last few posts about the effect of immigrants on native employment outcomes (i.e. wages and employment levels).  I thought it was important, though, to point "
  },
  {
    "title": "Davis > Santa Cruz",
    "date": "2010-05-22",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/davis-santa-cruz/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1576",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1576",
    "excerpt": "By revealed preference : Cameron Massoudi, who attends Irvine's Northwood High School, said he was upset to be placed on UC Davis' lengthy waiting list and decided last month to go with a solid acceptance from UC Santa C"
  },
  {
    "title": "The total effect of immigration is positive",
    "date": "2010-05-18",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/the-total-effect-of-immigration-is-positive/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1574",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1574",
    "excerpt": "Last time, I said that nobody really cares about the direct or partial effect of immigration on natives.  This isn't strictly true.  If immigration policy were changed to only allow immigrants of a particular skill-type "
  },
  {
    "title": "George Borjas and the national approach",
    "date": "2010-05-14",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/george-borjas-and-the-national-approach/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1555",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1555",
    "excerpt": "It has taken me too long to introduce the hero of this story.  Borjas has had a series of papers, books and editorials since the mid-80's that have each challenged the consensus economist's view on immigration in support"
  },
  {
    "title": "Partial derivatives are not total derivatives",
    "date": "2010-05-14",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/partial-derivatives-are-not-total-derivatives/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1559",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1559",
    "excerpt": "When Borjas says, \"immigration lowers the wage of competing workers,\" he is only looking at the direct effect of immigrants on similarly skilled natives controlling for spillover effects.  Immigrants affect natives in ot"
  },
  {
    "title": "A little better",
    "date": "2010-05-12",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/a-little-better/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1544",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1544",
    "excerpt": "Here's the cross-state plot of the effect of immigrants on native wages: This time you'll notice that I plotted the changes in the proportion of immigrants against the change in wages (these are changes from the 1990 to "
  },
  {
    "title": "Slam dunk?",
    "date": "2010-05-12",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/slam-dunk/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1550",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1550",
    "excerpt": "You'd think the question of whether there is an effect of immigration on native employment opportunities would be an open and shut case.  Carefully comparing nations, states, cities and occupations using cross-sectional "
  },
  {
    "title": "Non-experimental evidence",
    "date": "2010-05-11",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/non-experimental-evidence/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1536",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1536",
    "excerpt": "Angus Deaton recently said that all the attention that natural (and actual) experiments are getting is over blown.  He claims experimental data has no special status in a hierarchy of evidence.  I agree to the extent tha"
  },
  {
    "title": "Even more zeros",
    "date": "2010-05-10",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/even-more-zeros/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1534",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1534",
    "excerpt": "There's more experimental-like evidence that immigrants have little or no negative effect on native employment opportunities, if you need it.\n\nIn 1962, 900,000 pied-noirs repatriated to France after fleeing Algeria follo"
  },
  {
    "title": "А русских евреев принять на нашу работу?",
    "date": "2010-05-07",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/d0-90--d1-80-d1-83-d1-81-d1-81-d0-ba-d0-b8-d1-85--d0-b5-d0-b2-d1-80-d0-b5-d0-b5-d0-b2--d0-bf-d1-80-d0-b8-d0-bd-d1-8f-d1-82-d1-8c--d0-bd-d0-b0-d1-88-d1-83--d1-80-d0-b0-d0-b1-d0-be-d1-82-d1-83/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1526",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1526",
    "excerpt": "Нет! ((Thanks Google Translate!))\n\nAn easy criticism of \"experimental\" data, like that from the Mariel boatlift , is it only applies to the particular situation under which the experiment was run.  Immigrants may have"
  },
  {
    "title": "Substitutability as default?",
    "date": "2010-05-07",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/substitutability-as-default/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1531",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1531",
    "excerpt": "I'm jumping ahead of my own narrative, but why does it seem ingrained in people (including economists) that immigrants must be competing with native workers?  Why is complementarity so much more unlikely in people's prio"
  },
  {
    "title": "Immigrants taking our jerbs?",
    "date": "2010-05-06",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/immigrants-taking-our-jerbs/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1519",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1519",
    "excerpt": "I'm writing a \"vulgarized\" immigration paper (my Italian co-author's adjective).  One thing we academics like to do is pick on the idea that immigrants take the jobs of native-born Americans.\n\nWatching Fox the last coupl"
  },
  {
    "title": "¿Los cubanos del Mariel toman nuestros trabajos?",
    "date": "2010-05-06",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/c2-bflos-cubanos-del-mariel-toman-nuestros-trabajos/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1521",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1521",
    "excerpt": "¡No!\n\nDavid Card's famous paper studied the impact of the sudden arrival of 120,000 refugees to Miami in 1980.  He estimates that the total labor supply in Miami suddenly increased by 7% and the Cuban work force increas"
  },
  {
    "title": "June 6, 1999",
    "date": "2010-05-03",
    "url": "/writing/2010/05/june-6-1999/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1517",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1517",
    "excerpt": "A week after my graduation from college, I ordered: The Virgin Queen by Christopher Hibbert, Measuring Customer Satisfaction by Bob Hayes, Unidimensional Scaling by McIver and Stocks for the Long Run by Jeremy J. Siegel."
  },
  {
    "title": "Angus Maddison RIP",
    "date": "2010-04-27",
    "url": "/writing/2010/04/angus-maddison-rip/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1514",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1514",
    "excerpt": "AC let me know that Angus Maddison has died .  He's the guy with all the historical data.  Some of it, they say, he made up.  But at least we were able to include Angus Maddison fixed effects in our specifications.  Now,"
  },
  {
    "title": "Stated preferences",
    "date": "2010-04-19",
    "url": "/writing/2010/04/stated-preferences/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1507",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1507",
    "excerpt": "I just finished the first happiness tracking cycle and they 've sent me my Happiness Report.  There's some unsurprising things like I'm happier on the weekends and when I'm doing stuff I want to do.  The surprises: I'm h"
  },
  {
    "title": "A story that never gets old",
    "date": "2010-04-13",
    "url": "/writing/2010/04/a-story-that-never-gets-old-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1505",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1505",
    "excerpt": "Or does it?"
  },
  {
    "title": "The computer thinks for us",
    "date": "2010-04-12",
    "url": "/writing/2010/04/the-computer-thinks-for-us/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1503",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1503",
    "excerpt": "Angus Deaton : Structural estimation is useful, not only for the estimates (whose credibility is often undercut by the panoply of supporting assumptions that are required to obtain them), but for understanding the empiri"
  },
  {
    "title": "PK and the literature",
    "date": "2010-04-03",
    "url": "/writing/2010/04/pk-and-the-literature/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1497",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1497",
    "excerpt": "I always laugh when Paul Krugman urges others to read the literature.  He's a brilliant economist, but he's not exactly the goto guy for literature reviews...\n\nToday he says that Sumner and Avant should read the literatu"
  },
  {
    "title": "Mike D's utility",
    "date": "2010-03-12",
    "url": "/writing/2010/03/mike-ds-graph/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1488",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1488",
    "excerpt": "Mike D commented on this post: Let’s think about two axes here. On the x axis, put altruism (the weight my assessment of your utility has in my utility function) and on the y axis, put respect (if I assess your situati"
  },
  {
    "title": "Genes or culture or both?",
    "date": "2010-03-10",
    "url": "/writing/2010/03/genes-or-culture-or-both/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1483",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1483",
    "excerpt": "An implication of Wilkinson's theory is that intergenerational mobility should decrease over time. Wilkinson claims intergenerational mobility has decreased.  It hasn't (estimates from Lee and Salon 2009 ): The \"intergen"
  },
  {
    "title": "Truth",
    "date": "2010-03-04",
    "url": "/writing/2010/03/truth-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1480",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1480",
    "excerpt": "esr speaks it: All data, including primary un-”corrected” datasets, must be available for auditing by third parties. All modeling code must be published. The assumptions made in data reduction and smoothing must be a"
  },
  {
    "title": "The unemployed aren't the only ones seeking jobs",
    "date": "2010-03-03",
    "url": "/writing/2010/03/the-unemployed-arent-the-only-ones-seeking-jobs/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1471",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1471",
    "excerpt": "Work with me here.  In normal times, say 2004 through 2007, suppose 10% of the working population are looking for jobs while still employed (do you know of a better estimate?).  This means about 13 to 14 million employed"
  },
  {
    "title": "Glen Whitman isn't feeling the love",
    "date": "2010-03-02",
    "url": "/writing/2010/03/glen-whitman-isnt-feeling-the-love/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1465",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1465",
    "excerpt": "In his latest post , he worries that his excellent series critiquing Libertarian Paternalism (start here ) isn't getting many comments.  \n\nIf you've read a couple or all of these posts, leave a comment to let him know ho"
  },
  {
    "title": "England since, like, ever",
    "date": "2010-03-02",
    "url": "/writing/2010/03/england-since-like-ever/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1467",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1467",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Clark sits in the \"what revolution?\" camp among economic historians that try to date the industrial revolution.  His data : Why does this matter?  Well, if there was no revolution, only evolution, to modern industr"
  },
  {
    "title": "A definition of paternalism",
    "date": "2010-02-26",
    "url": "/writing/2010/02/a-definition-of-paternalism/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1461",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1461",
    "excerpt": "Just read Mankiw's new paper and this occurred to me:\n\nI'm definitely a jerk if I don't have other's outcomes in my utility function.  I'm a paternalist if I have other people's consumption in my utility function, not th"
  },
  {
    "title": "Another earthquake",
    "date": "2010-02-04",
    "url": "/writing/2010/02/another-earthquake/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1458",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1458",
    "excerpt": "This one's only 6.0.\n\nUPDATE: No injuries.  No damage.  No power outages.  They're not even letting the kids out of school."
  },
  {
    "title": "Haitian Coffee",
    "date": "2010-01-30",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/haitian-coffee/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1456",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1456",
    "excerpt": "From an article about Haitian coffee (ht MR ): Atlantic Food Channel contributor Jerry Baldwin, co-founder of Starbucks and the company's first roaster and buyer, agrees. He now owns Peet's Coffee and Tea, and he says th"
  },
  {
    "title": "ばかですよ",
    "date": "2010-01-28",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/e3-81-b0-e3-81-8b-e3-81-a7-e3-81-99-e3-82-88/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1454",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1454",
    "excerpt": "I was reading a very important article linked to by The Economist when I noticed the domain name was bakadesuyo.  This is an expression the Real Scientist uses all the time, often in reference to things I've said or done"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"Zero Rate Bound, RIP\"",
    "date": "2010-01-26",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/zero-rate-bound-rip/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1451",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1451",
    "excerpt": "I'm filling this one under \"William Wallace Watch\" ( ref ).  Is there a difference between level targeting and Taylor rules if there's no zero bound?"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"perhaps THE economic historian\"",
    "date": "2010-01-25",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-28/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1443",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1443",
    "excerpt": "From a letter sent to NPR: I think you should interview Peter Lindert at UC-Davis. He's an economic historian (perhaps THE economic historian) that welfare state scholars look to. His book Growing Public: Social Spending"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"My beef with Scott Sumner\" OR \"Dude, you've already won the debate!\"",
    "date": "2010-01-25",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/my-beef-with-scott-sumner-or-dude-youve-already-won-the-debate/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1446",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1446",
    "excerpt": "Pleasantries: brilliant blog .  Anyone remotely interested in monetary policy, a.k.a. \"the only remotely possible technocratic method to manage an economy\", should read it.\n\nOk.  Prof. Sumner is absolutely right that the"
  },
  {
    "title": "Negative externalities of Congress",
    "date": "2010-01-22",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/negative-externalities-of-congress/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1441",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1441",
    "excerpt": "So they're going to torpedo Bernanke's nomination because they need his blood to placate their base.  Ms McArdle says : I see the political logic, but the economic logic is pretty poor.  Bernanke didn't become Fed chair "
  },
  {
    "title": "What is progress?",
    "date": "2010-01-15",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/what-is-progress/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1435",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1435",
    "excerpt": "I'm a political newb, but even I can see why progressives would concern themselves with \"stagnating\" middle class wages rather than poverty (e.g. here ).  Poor folks don't vote, but if you can convince the middle class ("
  },
  {
    "title": "Great Moderation, RIP?",
    "date": "2010-01-15",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/great-moderation-rip/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1438",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1438",
    "excerpt": "Yuriy Gorodnichenko does some of the funnest research in macroeconomics.  I've seen him talk about the Finnish Great Depression (subtitle: \"From Russia with Love\") and his test of some theories of informational rigidity "
  },
  {
    "title": "Catholic Relief Services",
    "date": "2010-01-14",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/catholic-relief-fund/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1428",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1428",
    "excerpt": "... is where we donated.  They had 300 staff in Haiti already and they have a large existing staff in the Dominican Republic.  They can hit the ground running, so to speak.  Also because a large majority of the populatio"
  },
  {
    "title": "William Wallace Watch",
    "date": "2010-01-11",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/william-wallace-watch/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1418",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1418",
    "excerpt": "From MarketWatch : [St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard] said he would like the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee \"to adopt a state-contingent policy rule that would allow for the adjustment of a"
  },
  {
    "title": "Japanese unemployment",
    "date": "2010-01-11",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/japanese-unemployment/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1420",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1420",
    "excerpt": "In November, Japanese unemployment was at 5.2% .\n\nMany folks are comparing the Fed's action today to those of the Bank of Japan in the \"lost decade\" ( e.g. ).  I can't quite peg down the comparison being made by Sumner, "
  },
  {
    "title": "Why a good \"policy stance\" might matter",
    "date": "2010-01-11",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/why-a-good-policy-stance-might-matter/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1425",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1425",
    "excerpt": "I haven't read John Taylor's newest working paper yet, but its about the Fed's start-stop policy stance under the ancien régime.  The story he's riffing on in that paper is pretty standard.  There was high and variable "
  },
  {
    "title": "Earthquake",
    "date": "2010-01-09",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/earthquake/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1406",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1406",
    "excerpt": "At 4:27 pm, a magnatude 6.5 earthquake hit about 27 miles due east west of my childhood home : Everyone in the family is accounted for and fine (it turns out half were out of town for a cheerleading contest).  Broken gla"
  },
  {
    "title": "Knittel vs. the internets (?)",
    "date": "2010-01-07",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/knittel-vs-the-internets/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1402",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1402",
    "excerpt": "The numbers guy goes after Knittel's Woods study.  I'm not sure Knittel and coauthor having had to take a mulligan should be seen as an embarrassment.  BB (\"before blogs\"), to get the same feedback they got within hours,"
  },
  {
    "title": "Amen brother",
    "date": "2010-01-04",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/amen-brother/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1400",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1400",
    "excerpt": "Agent Contnjdida... AC says macro should be taught as a branch of computational economics.\n\nIf I had made that connection two years ago I would have been on the  job market this year."
  },
  {
    "title": "Phrasing to warm Sumner's heart",
    "date": "2010-01-03",
    "url": "/writing/2010/01/phrasing-to-warm-sumners-heart/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1398",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1398",
    "excerpt": "Slide 1 shows the path, from the year 2000 to the present, of one key indicator of monetary policy, the target for the overnight federal funds rate set by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). --- Ben Bernanke"
  },
  {
    "title": "Be anonymous?",
    "date": "2009-12-30",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/be-anonymous/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1396",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1396",
    "excerpt": "Back in the dark ages there was a debate about whether or not aspiring academics should blog pseudonymously before tenure.  There was some speculation that Dan Drezner lost tenure at Chicago because of his blog and I rem"
  },
  {
    "title": "But innovation is endogenous, too",
    "date": "2009-12-29",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/but-innovation-is-endogenous-too/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1386",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1386",
    "excerpt": "Risk aversion usually makes investments look less attractive.  In the standard story, then, as risk aversion goes up, we would spend less money today to avert future catastrophes. Martin Weitzman argues, however, this re"
  },
  {
    "title": "What is a catastrophe?",
    "date": "2009-12-29",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/what-is-a-catastrophe/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1391",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1391",
    "excerpt": "In the previous post, I mentioned two types of catastrophe: cliff-diving and gradual.  Suppose the first is a sudden major decrease in output.  How much would returns to capital have to decline to get 1% average yearly r"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"Tiger Woods hurt us all!\"",
    "date": "2009-12-28",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/tiger-woods-hurt-us-all/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1378",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1378",
    "excerpt": "That was the subject of an email from Prof. Knittle to the economics mail list regarding his new event study .  The SF Examiner writes it up better than I can, but here's the key graph. Companies that had endorsed Woods "
  },
  {
    "title": "The constraint that shall not be named",
    "date": "2009-12-28",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/the-constraint-that-shall-not-be-named/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1382",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1382",
    "excerpt": "The big problem with this system is that it doesn’t appeal to politicians who want to fiddle with everything in sight. --- Daniel Lakeland"
  },
  {
    "title": "Woods hurt everyone except Professors doing event studies!",
    "date": "2009-12-28",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/woods-hurt-everyone-except-professors-doing-event-studies/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1384",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1384",
    "excerpt": "Knittel on TV:"
  },
  {
    "title": "Best political economy indicator?",
    "date": "2009-12-22",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/best-political-economy-indicator/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1375",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1375",
    "excerpt": "I don't think it's unemployment.  The hire rate ?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Prediction: no William Wallace speeches from Ben",
    "date": "2009-12-21",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/prediction-no-william-wallace-speeches-from-ben/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1371",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1371",
    "excerpt": "In the next two years --- before the memory of this recession fades, but long enough from now that it doesn't risk unanchoring expectations --- Ben Bernanke will begin peppering his speeches and testimony before Congress"
  },
  {
    "title": "Japan data",
    "date": "2009-12-18",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/japan-data/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1359",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1359",
    "excerpt": "Japan bashing is popular.  Looking at the data since QE started: Real per capita GDP has risen 1.4% a year and yet prices have been constant .\n\nI'm not sure why any one inflation target (positive or negative) is better t"
  },
  {
    "title": "I must be crazy",
    "date": "2009-12-18",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/i-must-be-crazy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1363",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1363",
    "excerpt": "Because the rest of the world seems crazy.  Even Cowen and Sumner seem to think changing the inflation target right now would be a good idea.\n\nFirst, does the Fed have an inflation target and are expectations anchored, i"
  },
  {
    "title": "Costs of discretion",
    "date": "2009-12-18",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/costs-of-discretion/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1369",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1369",
    "excerpt": "In the previous post, I argued upping the inflation target would have no impact on unemployment and it would risk unanchoring inflation expectations.  If expectations became unanchored we would be trading off a permanent"
  },
  {
    "title": "The positive nature of normative analysis",
    "date": "2009-12-14",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/the-positive-nature-of-normative-analysis/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1357",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1357",
    "excerpt": "When you first take a grad level economics class, it occurs to you the discipline appears to be \"social physics\".  Where you thought the discipline was \"a tool for understanding and social criticism and an instrument for"
  },
  {
    "title": "Super cool",
    "date": "2009-12-13",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/super-cool/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1351",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1351",
    "excerpt": "Data analysis!"
  },
  {
    "title": "Dissertations I'd like to read",
    "date": "2009-12-13",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/dissertations-id-like-to-read/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1353",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1353",
    "excerpt": "Monetary policy and unemployment: welfare costs of lagged unemployment and optimal policy Time consistent fiscal policy: the case for an independent fiscal authority Banking crises cause monetary shocks: evidence from an"
  },
  {
    "title": "Question",
    "date": "2009-12-13",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/question/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1355",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1355",
    "excerpt": "Why is it always assumed that \"philosophy\" or \"pictures and talk\" are substitutes for mathematical analysis?  I mean, they're compliments right?"
  },
  {
    "title": "The data are available at BLS.gov and BEA.gov",
    "date": "2009-12-12",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/the-data-are-available-at-bls-gov-and-bea-gov/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1343",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1343",
    "excerpt": "Right on the front page.  The price level has been accelerating (increasing at faster rates) since last fall: and output is increasing: and unemployment is not increasing:"
  },
  {
    "title": "Accelerating output and prices equals additional stimulus?",
    "date": "2009-12-11",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/accelerating-output-and-prices-equals-additional-stimulus/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1337",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1337",
    "excerpt": "The Fed made a mistake last year.  No doubt the Fed chairwoman 70 years from now will give a speech admitting fault for the \"Great Recession\".  Fine.\n\nIt does NOT follow from this that we need more aggregate demand stimu"
  },
  {
    "title": "A model",
    "date": "2009-12-05",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/a-model/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1330",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1330",
    "excerpt": "Blanchard and Gali (2008) incorporate unemployment into the standard model.  They have some interesting findings, but this one stuck out: This is the response of the unemployment rate over time to a 1% decrease in produc"
  },
  {
    "title": "Stories",
    "date": "2009-12-04",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/stories/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1325",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1325",
    "excerpt": "The problem with academic macroeconomists is that they're terrible at telling stories.  We say recessions are caused by real and nominal shocks and people snore.  And monetary policy is too boring to be the best aggregat"
  },
  {
    "title": "Models",
    "date": "2009-12-04",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/models/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1327",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1327",
    "excerpt": "The problem with most stories is that they're just words.  With just words its easy to sound like you're making sense, that the one thing you said leads to the other.  For example, Ryan Avant says we need more stimulus a"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis in the (local) news",
    "date": "2009-12-02",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/uc-davis-in-the-local-news/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1323",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1323",
    "excerpt": "Stevens' research in the Las Vegas Sun .  According to the article, Vegas has 4,000 homeless students in its public schools.  Either Vegas is much bigger, younger and poorer than I had thought or this number is wrong."
  },
  {
    "title": "The CBO says... moooo",
    "date": "2009-12-01",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/the-cbo-says-moooo/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1316",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1316",
    "excerpt": "I imagine this is how it worked for court alchemists.  The CBO says that it has been ordered to give a prediction of the effect the ARRA and so it has .\n\nThe Economists suggests this reverse crystal ball gazing is valid "
  },
  {
    "title": "They're both speaking English, I think",
    "date": "2009-12-01",
    "url": "/writing/2009/12/theyre-both-speaking-english-i-think/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1321",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1321",
    "excerpt": "How is it possible that this person (and his commenters) and this person live on the same planet?\n\nA definition of economics is \"the study of incentives\"; an idea that's pretty well baked into my brain at this point.  Th"
  },
  {
    "title": "Cool.",
    "date": "2009-11-29",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/cool-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1314",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1314",
    "excerpt": "Data!"
  },
  {
    "title": "Cool down, cool down",
    "date": "2009-11-25",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/cool-down-cool-down/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1312",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1312",
    "excerpt": "Even if The Emails discredit all the \"science\" on tree-rings, there's still ice cores and bore hole data.  And even if all paleoclimatology is BS, thermometer readings of temperatures show a sharp spike in the last coupl"
  },
  {
    "title": "Rhetoric matters",
    "date": "2009-11-24",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/rhetoric-matters/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1306",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1306",
    "excerpt": "I recognized myself in Krugman’s remarks about otherwise bright, educated people who need to have arguments about international trade explained to them in baby talk. I’d hate to be on the side of the creationists in "
  },
  {
    "title": "Are macro forecasters paid to make good forecasts?",
    "date": "2009-11-24",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/are-macro-forecasters-paid-to-make-good-forecasts/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1310",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1310",
    "excerpt": "I hope not.  In the 1990's, Macroeconomic Advisors GDP forecasts performed worse than random walk forecasts (basically guessing next year's GDP will be the same as last year's) in 6 out of 9 years (Fed WP, Anderson 1998)"
  },
  {
    "title": "Other people's emails",
    "date": "2009-11-23",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/other-peoples-emails/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1302",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1302",
    "excerpt": "I agree with McArdle who agrees with Cowen and Hanson .  There appears to be consensus in the literature...\n\nLesson one: scientists are people, people are jerks and that Mann guys seems to be an especially big person.\n\nL"
  },
  {
    "title": "A neat application of Robustness",
    "date": "2009-11-23",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/a-neat-application-of-robustness/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1304",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1304",
    "excerpt": "Robustness is a fledgling literature in Macro.  The primary concern of robust analysis is that we don't know the exact model of the economy and this model uncertainty has policy implications.  Also, the math is neat.\n\nUn"
  },
  {
    "title": "An aggressive post about Crooked Timber",
    "date": "2009-11-22",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/an-aggressive-post-about-crooked-timber/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1300",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1300",
    "excerpt": "Somebody has the mistaken impression that people read CT for the posts.  The comments are the only reason to \"read\" ((i.e. skim the post and head straight for the comment section)) CT.  \n\nThe posters at CT deserve some c"
  },
  {
    "title": "Fellow grad student in the News",
    "date": "2009-11-18",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/fellow-grad-student-in-the-news/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1296",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1296",
    "excerpt": "Travis Berg's paper on statistically identifiying recessions (watch out NBER dating committee!) not surprisingly got James Hamilton's attention ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Economists gone wild!",
    "date": "2009-11-18",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/economists-gone-wild/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1298",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1298",
    "excerpt": "Oh man, the latest NBER working papers are hot!  Hotter than usual!  Come on inside and take a peek! Taylor and Jorda on the much talked about carry trade An argument that inflation in the US should be high to take advan"
  },
  {
    "title": "Advisors in the News",
    "date": "2009-11-17",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/advisors-in-the-news/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1292",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1292",
    "excerpt": "Peri finds more evidence that in the long run, there are no costs to immigration only benefits. Ann Stevens is the \"persistent effects of job displacement\" guru She just wrote a paper on the short run effects of job disp"
  },
  {
    "title": "I wish this editorial wasn't at CATO",
    "date": "2009-11-17",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/i-wish-this-editorial-wasnt-at-cato/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1294",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1294",
    "excerpt": "\"Conservatives\" hate the unemployed so the facts on display in this editorial are obviously ideologically tainted. (h/t Wilkinson)\n\nLook at the JOLTS data yourself:  unemployment is being driven by a slow hire rate (fire"
  },
  {
    "title": "Dear liberal overlords",
    "date": "2009-11-15",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/dear-liberal-overlords/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1290",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1290",
    "excerpt": "Meta-listen to this guy: Liberals pundits should listen to Krugman’s economic analysis of monetary policy, and ignore his pessimistic political views on its feasibility. when you listen to that guy.  And consider the f"
  },
  {
    "title": "UCD econ in the news",
    "date": "2009-11-13",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/ucd-econ-in-the-news-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1288",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1288",
    "excerpt": "Knittle on gas prices mpg in American cars Rapson (with co-author Kotlikoff) on our bizarre marginal tax rates"
  },
  {
    "title": "Let's talk about... financial education",
    "date": "2009-11-12",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/lets-talk-about-financial-education/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1286",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1286",
    "excerpt": "This post and then this post passed by in succession in my rss reader this afternoon.  Since its hard work to make real connections between things, I'll let this random pairing do the work for me.\n\nFirst reaction to Mike"
  },
  {
    "title": "The New Expectations Revolution",
    "date": "2009-11-09",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/the-new-expectations-revolution/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1281",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1281",
    "excerpt": "Sumner writes his manifesto .  \n\nIn the 70's they discovered expectations mattered.  Since then \"expectations are important\" has been muttered towards the end of macro lectures but the idea hasn't sunk in.  Sumner wants "
  },
  {
    "title": "It is profound and earth shaking...",
    "date": "2009-11-09",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/it-is-profound-and-earth-shaking/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1283",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1283",
    "excerpt": "... every time I run into a statement like this : \"But all interesting models involve unrealistic simplifications, which is why they must be tested against data.\"\n\nWe can know things a priori, but we can't know how impor"
  },
  {
    "title": "Mike in The Nation",
    "date": "2009-11-06",
    "url": "/writing/2009/11/mike-in-the-nation/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1278",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1278",
    "excerpt": "\"Let's look at several of the problems that happened over the past few years in the financial sector, and see how legislative efforts have attempted to address them. (Spoiler alert: not very well .)\"\n\nMike tells this sto"
  },
  {
    "title": "Why is the unemployment \"rate\" called a rate?",
    "date": "2009-10-30",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/why-is-the-unemployment-rate-called-a-rate/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1275",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1275",
    "excerpt": "Its so much fun to accuse a Nobel Laureate of getting basic economics wrong.  Paul Krugman confuses levels with rates.\n\nThe unemployment \"rate\" is the number of unemployed divided by the labor force.  This is not a rate "
  },
  {
    "title": "How much is a \"big change\" in the climate?",
    "date": "2009-10-26",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/how-much-is-a-big-change-in-the-climate/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1269",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1269",
    "excerpt": "Here's the density of temperature changes over centuries.  I used these data and calculate the average change in temperature per century. Last century's temperature increase of 0.8 degrees C was an outlier (but not an ex"
  },
  {
    "title": "*The* lesson from the Great Depression",
    "date": "2009-10-25",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/the-lesson-from-the-great-depression/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1266",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1266",
    "excerpt": "Sumner : Because the growth that comes from rising AD strikes our intuition as a sort of “something for nothing” process, we are especially likely to fall into the mistake of thinking in zero sum game terms whenever "
  },
  {
    "title": "Read the &%^#$ book already!",
    "date": "2009-10-22",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/read-the-book-already/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1261",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1261",
    "excerpt": "I'm waiting for them to realize where Prof. Delong found the citation for the monkey research."
  },
  {
    "title": "Experimental science isn't \"hard\"",
    "date": "2009-10-22",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/experimental-science-isnt-hard/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1260",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1260",
    "excerpt": "Angus Deaton on the \"project evaluation\" craze: Randomized controlled trials cannot automatically trump other evidence, they do not occupy any special place in some hierarchy of evidence, nor does it make sense to refer "
  },
  {
    "title": "Of safety nets and inequality",
    "date": "2009-10-21",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/of-safety-nets-and-inequality/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1253",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1253",
    "excerpt": "Kenworthy responds to the core of Wilkinson's argument.  Kenworthy says income inequality matters because outcomes are determined by luck.  Its not fair that two people of equal talent, who both worked hard in school, et"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bad economics from McArdle!?",
    "date": "2009-10-21",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/bad-economics-from-mcardle/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1256",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1256",
    "excerpt": "I know.  I know.  I'm thinking I misunderstood her in some way.  She says : When the unemployment rate is up around the 10% line, the problem is not people waiting around for perfection; it's that there aren't any jobs f"
  },
  {
    "title": "Mass outbreak of illiteracy?",
    "date": "2009-10-20",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/mass-outbreak-of-illiteracy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1250",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1250",
    "excerpt": "I just read The Chapter Five (in this book ) and I'll go as far as to say the critics don't even have a point.\n\nThe chapter motivates geo-engineering without saying anything outlandish about the science (as far as this s"
  },
  {
    "title": "Doesn't follow",
    "date": "2009-10-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/doesnt-follow/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1244",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1244",
    "excerpt": "I really, really want someone to tell me why concerns about status seeking are so easily conflated with concerns about inequality.  I've read Robin Hanson enough to believe we're built-in status seekers and we'd be so wh"
  },
  {
    "title": "Status seeking is great!",
    "date": "2009-10-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/status-seeking-is-great/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1246",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1246",
    "excerpt": "Elizabeth Anderson points to this video suggesting its proof about how truly terrible is status seeking (ergo inequality is bad!).\n\nIn it, kids are quoted saying they divide themselves up, not by race, but by wealth.  It"
  },
  {
    "title": "No they don't",
    "date": "2009-10-16",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/no-they-dont/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1241",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1241",
    "excerpt": "Paul Krugman : A perfectly standard New Keynesian model, with intertemporal optimization and all that — the kind of model that is standard in freshwater courses — says that under current conditions fiscal stimulus sh"
  },
  {
    "title": "That was dissappointing",
    "date": "2009-10-14",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/that-was-dissappointing/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1236",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1236",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Kenworthy responds to Wilkinson's essay on inequality and mostly punts.  He goes after the idea that consumption inequality should matter and not income inequality.  His argument basically boils down to the idea th"
  },
  {
    "title": "No sane human being has ever given his assent",
    "date": "2009-10-12",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/no-sane-human-being-has-ever-given-his-assent/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1227",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1227",
    "excerpt": "As dictator of the universe, I would force everyone to read the second part of Will Wilkinson's essay ; the part on why mechanisms generating income inequality, not inequality itself, are what matter.  This is mostly bec"
  },
  {
    "title": "More advice for the universe",
    "date": "2009-10-11",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/more-advice-for-the-universe/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1220",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1220",
    "excerpt": "Keep in mind that there's huge fixed costs to simulations.  I wrote code in May that is still running.  As in, it hasn't converged yet.  This was suppose to be my job market paper.\n\nThis summer was spent trying to find w"
  },
  {
    "title": "EMH and \"The Market\"",
    "date": "2009-10-11",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/emh-and-the-market/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1222",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1222",
    "excerpt": "In comments, Mike linked to one of his posts from a couple months ago where he quotes William Easterly: The most important part of the much-maligned Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH) is that nobody can systematically be"
  },
  {
    "title": "Fama, French and Thaler",
    "date": "2009-10-09",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/fama-french-and-thaler/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1215",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1215",
    "excerpt": "I'm teaching finance this quarter.  Thumbing through the textbook section on \"anomalies\" and behavior finance I see cites to lots of papers by these three guys.\n\nThese three are my guess for the Nobel.  If I didn't misre"
  },
  {
    "title": "Some friendly advice from the breach",
    "date": "2009-10-08",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/some-friendly-advice-from-the-breach/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1213",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1213",
    "excerpt": "The Real Scientist is breathing down my neck because we need to get out of town for something, but I have to get this out in the universe before I forget:\n\nTalk to your advisors.  All of them.  They are, all of them, a h"
  },
  {
    "title": "Why do expectations matter?",
    "date": "2009-10-07",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/why-do-expectations-matter/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1206",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1206",
    "excerpt": "I meant to link this last week... but such is life when trying to convince your advisors you're ready for the job market.\n\nI went after Prof. Delong for having an abnormal view of how normal monetary policy works but I d"
  },
  {
    "title": "For someone considering his career in academics...",
    "date": "2009-10-07",
    "url": "/writing/2009/10/for-someone-considering-his-career-in-academics/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1210",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1210",
    "excerpt": "... this is a very good sentence: \"I mean that the academic and esoteric economic theories that are studied in graduate university courses have a very real world and every day practical application.\""
  },
  {
    "title": "Ugh...",
    "date": "2009-09-30",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/ugh/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1198",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1198",
    "excerpt": "You can call Federal Reserve policies aimed at the sending of signals that alter the expected rate of future inflation \"monetary policy\" if you want, but then you lose analytical clarity--because the way such policies wo"
  },
  {
    "title": "This just in!  The labor market is a dynamic place!",
    "date": "2009-09-30",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/this-just-in-the-labor-market-is-a-dynamic-place/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1201",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1201",
    "excerpt": "The Economist marvels that the percentage of households that have had someone in the house lose their job last year is greater than the unemployment rate.  They say the first number, 24%, shows \"a lot of people directly "
  },
  {
    "title": "I hate the second best world we live in!",
    "date": "2009-09-25",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/i-hate-the-second-best-world-we-live-in/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1196",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1196",
    "excerpt": "Even if the free banking argument is correct, and the Fed should be abolished, I would continue to advocate the ideas expressed in this essay. As I indicated, we are currently stuck with the system we have, and if it per"
  },
  {
    "title": "Yes, Keynes was a smart guy",
    "date": "2009-09-24",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/yes-keynes-was-a-smart-guy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1193",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1193",
    "excerpt": "I've mentioned before that I've attempted The General Theory on several occasions but have never really \"got\" it.  Knowing Keynes was a smart guy and he basically founded the field I research in, I assume the problem is "
  },
  {
    "title": "Walk out?",
    "date": "2009-09-22",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/walk-out/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1190",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1190",
    "excerpt": "I don't think I'll be participating in the planned walk out Thursday at UC campuses.  I'm not clear what the goals of the walk out are to be.  Are they to protest a short-term budget shortfall?  To dispute the priorities"
  },
  {
    "title": "xkcd",
    "date": "2009-09-21",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/xkcd/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1185",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1185",
    "excerpt": "I bought the book .  The comics are still funny the second time around.  Here's my favorite:"
  },
  {
    "title": "John Cochrane got his PhD from Berkeley",
    "date": "2009-09-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/john-cochrane-got-his-phd-from-berkeley/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1180",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1180",
    "excerpt": "Berkeley is right on the SF bay which is filled, of course, with salt water.  That said, Strawberry creek --- fresh water --- runs through the campus."
  },
  {
    "title": "The Recourse Rule",
    "date": "2009-09-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/the-recourse-rule/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2009/09/the-recourse-rule/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1182",
    "excerpt": "I want to know if this is true: Under the Recourse Rule, an AA- or AAA-rated asset-backed security, such as a mortgage-backed bond, received a 20-percent risk weight, compared to a zero risk weight for cash and a 50-perc"
  },
  {
    "title": "Art as an Investment and Conspicuous Consumption Good",
    "date": "2009-09-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/art-as-an-investment-and-conspicuous-consumption-good/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1183",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1183",
    "excerpt": "That's the title of Ben Mandel 's new paper in the AER.  I mentioned the paper before ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Why has trade decreased so much in this recession?",
    "date": "2009-09-18",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/why-has-trade-decreased-so-much-in-this-recession/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1177",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1177",
    "excerpt": "Ask your friendly local UC Davis prof and/or grad student .  They'll have intelligent answers .  (Hint: things they call trade costs have risen.)"
  },
  {
    "title": "Krugman was looking under a lamppost",
    "date": "2009-09-17",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/krugman-was-looking-under-a-lamppost/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1174",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1174",
    "excerpt": "One more on macro from Kocherlakota .  Everything on his list seems right to me.  As I've pointed out before, he notes that macro folks (at least those that got their PhD since 1990) have studied heterogeneity, frictions"
  },
  {
    "title": "Thar be no data here!",
    "date": "2009-09-14",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/thar-be-no-data-here/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1172",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1172",
    "excerpt": "I confess.  I don't get Gordon's critique of modern macro.  \n\nQuestions for Prof. Gordon: If you think other things should be modeled, like volatile investment, why don't you add them to the model? Why should we scrap a "
  },
  {
    "title": "You read this!",
    "date": "2009-09-10",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/you-read-this/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1168",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1168",
    "excerpt": "If you're tired of Sumner (how would that even be possible?) and you suspect Krugman is blowing smoke (totally possible), then read this Altig post about the problems with modern macro (which he calls New Keynesian hence"
  },
  {
    "title": "Wordpress update",
    "date": "2009-09-07",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/wordpress-update/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2009/09/wordpress-update/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1166",
    "excerpt": "A worm took over the blog and was messing with the permalinks.  I had to update wordpress and delete all the old user names.  You shouldn't need a user name to comment on the blog, though."
  },
  {
    "title": "The bathwater",
    "date": "2009-09-04",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/bathwater/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1165",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1165",
    "excerpt": "Because I stopped reading it at about the third paragraph where he starts listing all the things that macroeconomists do but claims they don't do (e.g. financial channels, model robustness, unemployment), can someone exp"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sam, Fred and the deer in the road",
    "date": "2009-09-02",
    "url": "/writing/2009/09/sam-fred-and-the-deer-in-the-road/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1164",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1164",
    "excerpt": "A story:  \n\nFred is driving a car down a deserted highway in the middle of the night.   His friend Sam is in the passenger seat.  Fred reaches down to pick up something he dropped, taking his eyes off the road ((or maybe"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"Self recommending\"",
    "date": "2009-08-26",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/self-recommending/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1161",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1161",
    "excerpt": "I had no idea what that meant.  Until now .  By definition two, the comments on that post are self-recommending."
  },
  {
    "title": "Economics and morality",
    "date": "2009-08-26",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/economics-and-morality/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1163",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1163",
    "excerpt": "Of course, Oxycodone is legal with a prescription, but that's a distinction without a difference, as it was illegal for my brother to buy, possess, and presumably sell from time to time. His addiction existed in a curiou"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"The Fed\" now has two meanings",
    "date": "2009-08-24",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/the-fed-now-has-two-meanings/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1160",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1160",
    "excerpt": "In a comment someone really, really smart (and handsome) said : Believers in fiscal policy should be thinking of ways to fix the administration of it. Maybe an independent fiscal authority with a precisely defined policy"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2009-08-17",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-27/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1159",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1159",
    "excerpt": "Knittel on gas prices... erm...  on the crappiness that is the Cash for Clunkers program Sheffrin's research on budget policy across States shows, surprise, there's much variation in States' policies This guy is saying s"
  },
  {
    "title": "We are unique in exactly the same way!",
    "date": "2009-08-11",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/we-are-unique-in-exactly-the-same-way/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1158",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1158",
    "excerpt": "I liked the internet a lot more when there wasn't 10 other people making the exact same (down to the same citations) original and insightful comments as you."
  },
  {
    "title": "The blogosphere is catching up",
    "date": "2009-08-10",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/the-blogosphere-is-catching-up/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1155",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1155",
    "excerpt": "I see the blogosphere has caught up to the early nineties in the macroeconomics debate.  As Larry Summers argued --- in 1988 ! ---  there are problems, like the Great Depression, with real business cycle theory.  How can"
  },
  {
    "title": "Gauti B. Eggertsson watch",
    "date": "2009-08-10",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/gauti-b-eggertsson-watch/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1156",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1156",
    "excerpt": "I like this guy.  This paper suggests deficit spending is productive at the zero lower bound because by increasing the deficit it increases expectations of inflation.  Its important, however, for the central bank to coor"
  },
  {
    "title": "Unemployed workers derive utility from not working",
    "date": "2009-08-10",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/unemployed-workers-derive-utility-from-not-working/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1157",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1157",
    "excerpt": "Here's a nice graphic showing the time use data from the American Time Use Survey .  In a typical day, unemployed people spend: 29 more minutes than employed people looking for jobs 54 more minutes sleeping 29 more minut"
  },
  {
    "title": "The insoluability of the Libertarian-Social Democrat question: evidence from Google Translate",
    "date": "2009-08-07",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/the-insoluability-of-the-libertarian-social-democrat-question-evidence-from-google-translate/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1154",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1154",
    "excerpt": "Typing the phrase \"no man is an island\" into this doohickey produces no equilibrium and causes an infinite loop between the phrases \"1 of the islands, the only\" and \"one of the island, the only\".\n\nDoes my worth as an ind"
  },
  {
    "title": "Unintended consequences of snark",
    "date": "2009-08-06",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/unintended-consequences-of-snark/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1153",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1153",
    "excerpt": "\"So yes, John, the Atlantic's economics expert didn't realize just how much the kind of regulations Democrats are now pushing had managed to screw up New York's health insurance market.\"  --- Megan McArdle Here's J. Brad"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Economist doesn't understand marginal analysis",
    "date": "2009-08-04",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/the-economist-doesnt-understand-marginal-analysis/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1152",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1152",
    "excerpt": "Strange for a magazine with such a name that they don't know about Alfred Marshall and his marginalist revolution.  See, when someone uses marginal analysis to show, unequivocally, that increases (*ahem* marginal increas"
  },
  {
    "title": "I don't get this (anymore)",
    "date": "2009-08-03",
    "url": "/writing/2009/08/i-dont-get-this-anymore/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1151",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1151",
    "excerpt": "Peak Oil is the idea that the economy is heavily dependent on petroleum and we are getting close to pumping all of the stuff out of the ground.  Thus, catastrophe.\n\nThe typical economist's response is that the dwindling "
  },
  {
    "title": "A sentence that makes you wish the whole post was about it or, perhaps, that the author should start a whole new blog on that subject alone",
    "date": "2009-07-29",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/a-sentence-that-makes-you-wish-the-whole-post-was-about-it-or-perhaps-that-the-author-should-start-a-whole-new-blog-on-that-subject-alone/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1150",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1150",
    "excerpt": "\"since I think one of the big problems with current economics teaching is its deliberately obscuring ahistoricism, I always appreciated this book.\"  --- VCer"
  },
  {
    "title": "Does this mean we'll have an Americavision Song contest?",
    "date": "2009-07-27",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/does-this-mean-well-have-an-americavision-song-contest/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1149",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1149",
    "excerpt": "The presentation I gave last week to the Humphrey scholars gives support to Sumner's call for an American Union .  Didn't \"State\" used to mean something like nation anyway?\n\nHere's the presentation I gave.  Subtext: immi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Why is that bad?",
    "date": "2009-07-24",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/why-is-that-bad/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1148",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1148",
    "excerpt": "Go here to see why the positive/normative distinction matters.  They almost get it in the baby rollerskating post , but even that one ends with the crazy-good argument that our society is racist because, well, its racist"
  },
  {
    "title": "Crap",
    "date": "2009-07-22",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/crap/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1147",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1147",
    "excerpt": "\"If everyone worked on one year annual contracts like mine, there would be no wage stickiness in the economy.\"  --- Scott Sumner Crap, there goes the sticky wages example I use in class."
  },
  {
    "title": "History of all of modern macro (ignoring the last 30 years)",
    "date": "2009-07-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/history-of-all-of-modern-macro-ignoring-the-last-30-years/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1144",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1144",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Delong has a nice summary of the pre-RBC (aka \"purist\") macro literature of the 70's: The underlying argument went something like this: (i) There is no sense talking about anything like \"involuntary unemployment\": "
  },
  {
    "title": "Oh yeah, that too",
    "date": "2009-07-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/oh-yeah-that-too/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1145",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1145",
    "excerpt": "In the last post, I concluded that the macro debate today is about whether or not at the zero lower bound monetary policy can be effective.  Theory says yes; data is inconclusive.\n\nI neglected to mention that the debate "
  },
  {
    "title": "How often do firms change prices in a liquidity trap?",
    "date": "2009-07-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/what-is-pricing-behavior-in-a-liquidity-trap/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1146",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1146",
    "excerpt": "I dunno, but I'm reading Christiano, Eichenbaum, and Rebelo and they seem pretty confident they know.  They say, \"[w]e only consider values of κ for which the zero bound is binding, so we display results for 0.013 ≤ Î"
  },
  {
    "title": "Have poorer States faired worse in the recession?",
    "date": "2009-07-09",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/have-poorer-states-faired-worse-in-the-recession/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1143",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1143",
    "excerpt": "That's not the question Will Wilkinson asked , but until more disaggregate data becomes available we won't know the impact of the recession on inequality.  What's more, we only have data at the State level through 2008 s"
  },
  {
    "title": "Macroeconomic forecasting",
    "date": "2009-07-08",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/macroeconomic-forecasting/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1141",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1141",
    "excerpt": "You have four options: Simple statistics (i.e. use lagged values to predict future values) Complex statistics (e.g. VARs) Model the economy and get forecasts from the model Use the average from lots of models (e.g. ask t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Excess demand watch",
    "date": "2009-07-08",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/excess-demand-watch/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1142",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1142",
    "excerpt": "Being a proper MR drone, I've pre-ordered Cowen's latest book .  He had me so worked up that I'm not only anticipating it, but also his next next book .\n\nApparently, his next next book will be moral philosophy as economi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Today's theme: Social Calculation",
    "date": "2009-07-07",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/todays-theme-social-calculation/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1139",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1139",
    "excerpt": "McArdle esr Tabarrok"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sumner, at least two steps ahead of me",
    "date": "2009-07-07",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/sumner-at-least-two-steps-ahead-of-me/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1140",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1140",
    "excerpt": "He gives a reason why planned stimulus can affect outcomes now (hint: expectations), thus giving an economic argument for Brad Delong's seemingly puzzling call for more extremely laggy fiscal policy.  He then proceeds to"
  },
  {
    "title": "The problem with Economists",
    "date": "2009-07-05",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/the-problem-with-economists/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1138",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1138",
    "excerpt": "We have an incomprehensible, to most, outside-in view of the world.  David Friedman says something correct but incomprehensible: Climate aside, we do not live in a static world—consider the changes that have occurred o"
  },
  {
    "title": "Wishful thinking as economic analysis?",
    "date": "2009-07-02",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/wishful-thinking-as-economic-analysis/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1137",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1137",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Delong : The American economy appears to be nearing the end of contraction. That's good news, particularly when one considers that only about 10% of the funds authorised in this year's stimulus bill has been spent;"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Paternalist links The Behavioralist",
    "date": "2009-07-01",
    "url": "/writing/2009/07/the-paternalist-links-the-behavioralist/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1136",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1136",
    "excerpt": "Krugman likes Prof. Clark's stuff."
  },
  {
    "title": "What's so bad about bubbles?",
    "date": "2009-06-29",
    "url": "/writing/2009/06/what-so-bad-about-bubbles/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1135",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1135",
    "excerpt": "The presumption is that financial bubbles are super-why-didn't-you-stupid-macro-people-predict-it-and-prevent-it bad.  Guillermo Calvo says not so fast.\n\nI like the Rawlsian robustness check."
  },
  {
    "title": "The New Kaldor stylized facts",
    "date": "2009-06-20",
    "url": "/writing/2009/06/the-new-kaldor-stylized-facts/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1134",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1134",
    "excerpt": "Kaldor published some stylized facts about growth in the sixties and growth theorist went about explaining them.  They're done now.  Professors Jones and Romer came up with a new set of growth facts (h/t Kling ).  I will"
  },
  {
    "title": "Are there \"good\" governments?",
    "date": "2009-06-18",
    "url": "/writing/2009/06/are-there-good-governments/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1133",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1133",
    "excerpt": "I'm actually with Will Wilkinson when he talks up \"liberaltarianism\" and I support a reasonable social safety net.  I'm one of those people that thinks rising GDP indicates increasing interdependence, that that is a good"
  },
  {
    "title": "Marijuana",
    "date": "2009-06-14",
    "url": "/writing/2009/06/marijuana/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1131",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1131",
    "excerpt": "The gateway drug : Moving forward, we need to be less ideological and more empirical in figuring out what works in combating America’s drug problem. One approach would be for a state or two to experiment with legalizat"
  },
  {
    "title": "Economics History course at CR",
    "date": "2009-06-12",
    "url": "/writing/2009/06/economics-history-course-at-cr/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1130",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1130",
    "excerpt": "For the two of you in Humboldt reading this blog (three if you count my mom... howdy Ma!), I'll be teaching an economic history course (econ 20) at College of the Redwoods this summer starting next Tuesday.  Lectures are"
  },
  {
    "title": "Discipline",
    "date": "2009-06-10",
    "url": "/writing/2009/06/discipline/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1128",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1128",
    "excerpt": "There's been a couple criticism floating about regarding how macroeconomics do their thing.  Here's Matt Yglesias wondering about Levitt wondering about microfoundations.  And here's Ezra Klein turning , unwittingly I th"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Making of an Economist",
    "date": "2009-06-10",
    "url": "/writing/2009/06/the-making-of-an-economist/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1129",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1129",
    "excerpt": "So if you like catching people in gotcha moments... here's a post of mine where I urge macroeconomists to discover non-rationalizing models.  Ahh, so young and new to the world!\n\nThe difference between the 2007 version o"
  },
  {
    "title": "More evidence that markets are locally irrational",
    "date": "2009-06-04",
    "url": "/writing/2009/06/more-evidence-that-markets-are-locally-irrational/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1127",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1127",
    "excerpt": "Here. Or maybe its evidence that markets win over government intervention in the (too) long run.  Or maybe its evidence that good institutions (and thus governments) matter."
  },
  {
    "title": "Why not reduce Black poverty instead?",
    "date": "2009-05-30",
    "url": "/writing/2009/05/why-not-reduce-black-poverty-instead/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1126",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1126",
    "excerpt": "I'm what you might call a political newb so this might be an obvious question: why is Obama talking about redistributionist policies like credit cards and health care when the real problem in America, on this front at le"
  },
  {
    "title": "Learn economics, be entertained",
    "date": "2009-05-22",
    "url": "/writing/2009/05/learn-economics-be-entertained/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1124",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1124",
    "excerpt": "I think economics turns students off because of its Libertarian bent...  all the invisible hand stuff ((All of which I buy hook, line and sinker.)) makes 'em think economics=\"greed is good\".  This, on the other hand, is "
  },
  {
    "title": "AC: Still ahead of the curve",
    "date": "2009-05-21",
    "url": "/writing/2009/05/ac-still-ahead-of-the-curve/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1123",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1123",
    "excerpt": "That State-by-state HDI map making the rounds is sooo 2007 .\n\nNot sure why I want to take credit for completely bogus statistics, but they're MY completely bogus statistics!"
  },
  {
    "title": "Hanson 9000",
    "date": "2009-05-20",
    "url": "/writing/2009/05/hanson-9000/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1122",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1122",
    "excerpt": "I'm afraid if this post becomes even slightly more self-referential, it would gain sentience and take over the world.  Or maybe the signals sent by this post will push the whole thing over the edge."
  },
  {
    "title": "Which growth theory...",
    "date": "2009-05-14",
    "url": "/writing/2009/05/which-growth-theory/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1120",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1120",
    "excerpt": "... has expenditures causing growth ?  I missed that one.\n\nWhat kind of \"profound\" shocks lower growth rates permanently?  Rogoff argues government's response to this recession will reduce efficiency in the finance secto"
  },
  {
    "title": "Local analysis in macroeconomics",
    "date": "2009-05-13",
    "url": "/writing/2009/05/local-analysis-in-macroeconomics/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1119",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1119",
    "excerpt": "The substantive piece of John Quiggen's criticism of New Keyensian macro is that the analysis is limited to looking at deviations of the economy around some set point.  If the economy gets far away from that point, the a"
  },
  {
    "title": "Research in fiscal policy: A cross section",
    "date": "2009-05-11",
    "url": "/writing/2009/05/research-in-fiscal-policy-a-cross-section/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1117",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1117",
    "excerpt": "In the latest NEP-MAC, there's 12 papers on fiscal policy out of 64. This paper finds significant crowding out effects. This one claims, \"discretionary fiscal policy is more timely than conventional wisdom would suggest."
  },
  {
    "title": "Was Newtonian Physics refuted?",
    "date": "2009-05-11",
    "url": "/writing/2009/05/was-newtonian-physics-refuted/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1118",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1118",
    "excerpt": "John Quiggin is loving the attention he's getting for his series of posts labeled \"refuted economic dogmas\".  These refutations have left me unconvinced.  Often, when I know a little about the \"dogma\" being refuted, I fi"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"If the Fed is God, ...\"",
    "date": "2009-05-10",
    "url": "/writing/2009/05/if-the-fed-is-god/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1116",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1116",
    "excerpt": "Many (most... all...) claims about money policy contain some predicate, explicit or not, that the money authority actually can have real effects (e.g. Hamilton , \"If you think that the Federal Reserve is responsible for "
  },
  {
    "title": "How do you know you're marrying a Japanese woman?",
    "date": "2009-05-05",
    "url": "/writing/2009/05/how-do-you-know-youre-marrying-a-japanese-woman/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1115",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1115",
    "excerpt": "The first spoonful of delicious soup she just made contains octopus tentacle.  \n\nI don't know why I was surprised... at this point she's had me eat rotten beans, gummy ice cream and seaweed flakes on rice.\n\nUPDATE: She t"
  },
  {
    "title": "UCD Econ in the News",
    "date": "2009-04-30",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/ucd-econ-in-the-news/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1113",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1113",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Swenson telling us the U.S. doesn't need a car industry."
  },
  {
    "title": "Psychology : Economics :: Physics : Chemistry",
    "date": "2009-04-30",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/psychologyeconomicsphysicschemistry/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1114",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1114",
    "excerpt": "\"Markets don’t seek efficiency because investors aren’t rational.\" Yeah, well, gas molecules aren’t rational either, but they obey very simple regularities in large numbers. Rational-expectations theory doesn’t a"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"Green Shoots\"",
    "date": "2009-04-28",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/green-shoots/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1112",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1112",
    "excerpt": "I knew it reminded me of something... I've plugged it before as the best economics movie .  You should see Being There if you haven't already."
  },
  {
    "title": "Blog Post of the Year",
    "date": "2009-04-27",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/blog-post-of-the-year/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1111",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1111",
    "excerpt": "There won't be a contest this year. This post wins.\n\nThere's good macro criticism, cultural criticism (with swipes at intellectual elitism), stellar political analysis and fawning over Tyler Cowen."
  },
  {
    "title": "WTF?",
    "date": "2009-04-23",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/wtf/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1110",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1110",
    "excerpt": "From whitehouse.gov: The President brings representatives from the credit card industry in to talk about changing their relationships with their customers, and announces his principles for consumer protections. I don't r"
  },
  {
    "title": "So bad its good?",
    "date": "2009-04-20",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/so-bad-its-good/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1109",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1109",
    "excerpt": "I think it would be neat if this movie became a cult classic for the same reason most cult classics get their status: its sooo bad its good. Tyler Cowen : I can only report that The End of Poverty, narrated throughout by"
  },
  {
    "title": "Justice vs preferences",
    "date": "2009-04-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/justice-vs-preferences/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1108",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1108",
    "excerpt": "Those whose bumper stickers read \"If you want peace, work for justice\" simply take it for granted that there is no question what is just; if you want to find out, just ask them. The problem with the world as they see it "
  },
  {
    "title": "For Mike",
    "date": "2009-04-16",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/for-mike/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1107",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1107",
    "excerpt": "Mike asks for median wage-age profiles.  I don't know how to do quantile regressions for panel data, but I have a second best for him.  Here's wage-age profiles with the top 90th percentile wage earners removed: And here"
  },
  {
    "title": "Optimal policy",
    "date": "2009-04-13",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/optimal-policy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1106",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1106",
    "excerpt": "Is this the best way to determine optimal policy?: But the current magnitude of inequality in America strikes me as unfair. Prof. Kenworthy goes on to say: What’s the proper amount of income inequality? I don’t have "
  },
  {
    "title": "Wage-age profiles now and then",
    "date": "2009-04-12",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/wage-age-profiles-now-and-then/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1104",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1104",
    "excerpt": "The red line is the wage-age profile from 1990 to 2005 and the blue line is the wage-age profile from 1968 to 1980.  I just picked those years randomly.  These profiles were calculated in such a way that what you're seei"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Pope and Michael Kremer",
    "date": "2009-04-12",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/the-pope-and-micheal-kremer/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1105",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1105",
    "excerpt": "They've been talking or it would appear.  El Papa said : I would say that this problem of Aids cannot be overcome merely with money, necessary though it is. If there is no human dimension, if Africans do not help [by res"
  },
  {
    "title": "Yuppie buffer",
    "date": "2009-04-09",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/yuppie-buffer/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1103",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1103",
    "excerpt": "A story in the New Yorker : “They hire someone—this has happened several times—so they don’t have to talk to me,” he went on, growing more animated and reddening with amazement. “It’s like they’re afraid "
  },
  {
    "title": "Mankiw's introduction to DSGE",
    "date": "2009-04-06",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/mankiws-introduction-to-dsge/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1100",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1100",
    "excerpt": "I genuinely want to know if this does anything for anyone.  Does understanding the basics of DSGE help you understand the economy better (vs. the traditional AD/AS model or vs. whatever theory you have floating in your h"
  },
  {
    "title": "Prescott vs. Lucas",
    "date": "2009-04-06",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/prescott-vs-lucas/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1102",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1102",
    "excerpt": "This was a funny exchange between two pretty well known economists: SCHRAMM:  Question here. \n\nLUCAS:  Uh-oh.  (Laughter.)\n\nQUESTIONER:  Ed Prescott, Arizona State University.  There's one area I'm a little bit confused."
  },
  {
    "title": "I don't smoke pot",
    "date": "2009-04-03",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/i-dont-smoke-pot/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1099",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1099",
    "excerpt": "...but I don't give two shits (as they say back home ) if you do.\n\nDo we really think the prisons are filled up with pot smokers/dealers and the Mexican drug cartels traffic Marijuana?  Or is pot is a gateway drug to fur"
  },
  {
    "title": "Ideology in macroeconomic models?",
    "date": "2009-04-01",
    "url": "/writing/2009/04/ideology-in-macroeconomic-models/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1098",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1098",
    "excerpt": "From a good book review of a book I'll never read: The early pioneers made negative arguments. Because of unquantifiable uncertainties (Knight), the fragmentation of knowledge (Hayek), the lack of timely data (Simons and"
  },
  {
    "title": "Behavioral economic analysis you can use",
    "date": "2009-03-31",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/behavioral-economic-analysis-you-can-use/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1097",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1097",
    "excerpt": "There is, of course, no reason why imaginability should have any relationship to underlying likelihood - plausibility has no correlation with probability other than in our minds. and that's why regulation doesn't work . "
  },
  {
    "title": "A story that never gets old",
    "date": "2009-03-30",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/a-story-that-never-gets-old/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1096",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1096",
    "excerpt": "Commenter slocum at CT: The reason tax rates aren’t higher and bankers are getting bailed out on hugely generous terms isn’t because Rawlsians have outvoted Cohenites behind the veil of ignorance, or even because lot"
  },
  {
    "title": "Current History",
    "date": "2009-03-26",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/current-history/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1095",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1095",
    "excerpt": "This long Sumner post is well worth it.  My favorite part is all of it but bloggy customs require an excerpt: The intuition is that if the Fed always targets the forecast, and if Fed forecasts are pretty close to the con"
  },
  {
    "title": "Got what I came for",
    "date": "2009-03-25",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/got-what-i-came-for/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1094",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1094",
    "excerpt": "The first sentence of Vernon Smith's Rationality in Economics : The principal findings of experimental economics are that impersonal exchange in markets converges in repeated interaction to the equilibrium state implied "
  },
  {
    "title": "Wanted: equilibrium mass psychology theory",
    "date": "2009-03-24",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/wanted-equilibrium-mass-psychology-theory/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1093",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1093",
    "excerpt": "Results from psychology or experimental economics don't (as in DO NOT) translate directly into equilibrium behavior.  This is because one person's psychological bias may cancel out another person's bias.  Or even if peop"
  },
  {
    "title": "Individual psychology != mass psychology",
    "date": "2009-03-23",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/individual-psychology-mass-psychology/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1092",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1092",
    "excerpt": "I haven't been following the bail-out debate between Krugman and Delong, there are dissertations to write. Jonah Lehrer claims to summarize the disagreement.  Krugman thinks toxic assets really aren't worth that much and"
  },
  {
    "title": "Interest rates will be low for a long time",
    "date": "2009-03-18",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/interest-rates-will-be-low-for-a-long-time/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1091",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1091",
    "excerpt": "I don't know by what mechanism expectations are set.  Conditioned on this mysterious process connecting Fed policy and the public's expectations, people should know the Fed plans to keep interest rates low for a long tim"
  },
  {
    "title": "For mirror polishing",
    "date": "2009-03-16",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/for-mirror-polishing/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1090",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1090",
    "excerpt": "Eric Rauchway has an interesting post on objective historians or objective history making (or whatever the work of historians is called).  He says you can't do it, so you shouldn't.  To me, he's mixing method and purpose"
  },
  {
    "title": "Raj Chetty ex-post",
    "date": "2009-03-11",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/raj-chetty-ex-post/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1089",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1089",
    "excerpt": "He presented a great paper (I don't see it on his website but here's a volatile link to Davis' seminar page).   Using just graphs and a stunningly beautiful data set from Denmark, he showed that people do, in fact, adjus"
  },
  {
    "title": "Raj Chetty",
    "date": "2009-03-10",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/raj-chetty/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1086",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1086",
    "excerpt": "I'm meeting with him on Wednesday.  Anything I should ask him about?\n\nHis page ; his \"best young economist\" award (link only works in firefox and maybe ie); his views on stimulus ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Who's line is it anyway?",
    "date": "2009-03-10",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/whos-line-is-it-anyway/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1087",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1087",
    "excerpt": "Here's an interesting interview with Barro and Krugman in 2003 regarding Bush's fiscal stimulus plan.  My uncharitable eyes have Barro 2003 being more consistent with the priorities of Barro 2009 than the Krugman version"
  },
  {
    "title": "Adam and Eve in the garden of Friedman",
    "date": "2009-03-10",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/adam-and-eve-in-the-garden-of-friedman/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1088",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1088",
    "excerpt": "You've heard before that Christie \"I heart fiscal policy\" Romer wrote a paper claiming monetary policy ended the Great Depression and that it ends recessions in general.  I thought this criticism of the latter paper was "
  },
  {
    "title": "Of policies and goals",
    "date": "2009-03-09",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/of-policies-and-goals/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1085",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1085",
    "excerpt": "There's what you want to accomplish and there's the best way of accomplishing those goals.  It seems there's often little disagreement on what people want to have happen; help the poor, protect the environment and encour"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sumner on monetary policy",
    "date": "2009-03-07",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/sumner-on-monetary-policy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1084",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1084",
    "excerpt": "My favorite paragraphs : The key insight of rational expectations (which should be called consistent expectations) is that if you model the economy in a way where policy X produces result Y, you should not assume the the"
  },
  {
    "title": "Buiter, good macro critic?",
    "date": "2009-03-03",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/buiter-good-macro-critic/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1081",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1081",
    "excerpt": "Google scholar and a minimal knowledge of the DSGE literature allows one to refute Buiter's claims in less than 10 minutes.  Someone should really give him a quick lesson on Google scholar.\n\nNo complete markets? Nope (fi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Apropos of nothing",
    "date": "2009-03-02",
    "url": "/writing/2009/03/apropos-of-nothing/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1079",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1079",
    "excerpt": "I'd like to take this opportunity to remind economics department chairs, and other administrators holding the purse strings, the demand for economics education has sky-rocketed recently and it continues to do so.\n\n(h/t M"
  },
  {
    "title": "Labor wedge watch",
    "date": "2009-02-27",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/labor-wedge-watch/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1078",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1078",
    "excerpt": "People are having a hard time getting into nursing school . \"So many people want to be a nurse now that there's just not enough room in the classroom and the hospitals to accommodate all those people,\" said Bradford.\n\nHe"
  },
  {
    "title": "Extensive margin watch",
    "date": "2009-02-26",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/extensive-margin-watch/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1076",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1076",
    "excerpt": "Will Wilkinson says (where to find permalinks for \"disqus\" comments?) I should take non-behavioral data more seriously.  Fine. Here's a quote from a business owner facing the prospect of Obama's doubling of income tax on"
  },
  {
    "title": "More Wilkinson comment watch",
    "date": "2009-02-26",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/more-wilkinson-comment-watch/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1077",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1077",
    "excerpt": "[W]hat if the house isn't even on fire? What if there was just a short circuit and all the electronic devices have gone haywire and are lighting up the place like a spastic Christmas tree. In that case, we need may need "
  },
  {
    "title": "Oscars",
    "date": "2009-02-22",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/oscars/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1074",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1074",
    "excerpt": "Went to see all five best picture nominees yesterday.  Its something like torture watching five of those kinds of movies in one day.  \n\nBenjamin Button was a terrible movie and I have no idea why this badly done Forrest "
  },
  {
    "title": "\"Good banks, bad banks... doesn't matter.  What we need is new banks.\"",
    "date": "2009-02-22",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/good-banks-bad-banks-doesnt-matter-what-we-need-is-new-banks/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1075",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1075",
    "excerpt": "Buiter's idea to create new banks with bailout funds, seconded by Paul Romer and discussed by David Warsh is endorsed by uber-entrepreneur Marc Andreessen in this great video:\n \nMy better half, The Real Scientist, tells "
  },
  {
    "title": "BCA all the way",
    "date": "2009-02-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/bca-all-the-way/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1073",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1073",
    "excerpt": "The more I think about it, the more I think business cycle accounting should be the back-bone of the macro curriculum.  Teach the growth models and then use BCA to show how the economy strays from that ideal.  Wedges are"
  },
  {
    "title": "Unemployment and housing bubbles",
    "date": "2009-02-18",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/unemployment-and-housing-bubbles/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1072",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1072",
    "excerpt": "As I mentioned in comments below, Casey Mulligan posted a working paper this weekend that argues this recession is consistent with shifts in labor supply.  He gives evidence that this shift is due to increases in the lab"
  },
  {
    "title": "Technological regress",
    "date": "2009-02-17",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/technological-regress/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1071",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1071",
    "excerpt": "An old joke about Real Business Cycles is that they assume recessions are caused by technological regress.  Without other frictions, the only way for an economy to get lower output given the installed capital and the num"
  },
  {
    "title": "A bubble in academic economics",
    "date": "2009-02-16",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/a-bubble-in-academic-economics/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1070",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1070",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Clark thinks so .  Don't worry, he's his usual well-tempered self.  And there's certainly no name calling.\n\nIf this economic turmoil shakes the cruft off of economics, I'm happy.\n\n(h/t ssendam )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Macro-prudential regulation",
    "date": "2009-02-15",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/macro-prudential-regulation/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1069",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1069",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Philippon summarizes three reports on financial regulation and reviews proposed changes to regulation.  My favorite paragraph: I very much doubt that we can agree on a set of objective measures of ‘excessive’ c"
  },
  {
    "title": "The impact of the stimulus",
    "date": "2009-02-13",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/the-impact-of-the-stimulus/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1068",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1068",
    "excerpt": "The stimulus bill has been passed and it awaits the signature of the President.  So what impact will it have? \n\nThe key question for understanding if the stimulus will work or not ((\"work\" in the improve welfare sense, n"
  },
  {
    "title": "Stimulus is a very large number",
    "date": "2009-02-12",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/stimulus-is-a-very-large-number/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1067",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1067",
    "excerpt": "Iowahawk reporting on the largest integer ever found: \"Unlike previous large numbers like the Googleplex or the Bazillionty, the Stimulus has no static numerical definition,\" said Xiao. \"It keeps growing and growing, com"
  },
  {
    "title": "Talking past each other?",
    "date": "2009-02-11",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/talking-past-each-other/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1066",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1066",
    "excerpt": "This post referencing an article by Prof. Delong makes me think people are talking past each other. Delong and compatriots say that monetary policy has failed and so fiscal policy is necessary.  They then mention things "
  },
  {
    "title": "Have a small identity",
    "date": "2009-02-08",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/have-a-small-identity/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1065",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1065",
    "excerpt": "[Y]ou can have a fruitful discussion about a topic only if it doesn't engage the identities of any of the participants. What makes politics and religion such minefields is that they engage so many people's identities... "
  },
  {
    "title": "Rules vs discretion",
    "date": "2009-02-07",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/rules-vs-discretion/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1064",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1064",
    "excerpt": "Will Wilkinson is \"extremely suspicious of what strike me as intellectually contentious, ad hoc interventions into the economy aimed at expectation management.\"\n\nHe should be suspicious because when policy makers have di"
  },
  {
    "title": "Is this true?",
    "date": "2009-02-06",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/is-this-true/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1063",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1063",
    "excerpt": "Among ordinary Japanese, the spending is widely disparaged for having turned the nation into a public-works-based welfare state and making regional economies dependent on Tokyo for jobs. --- NYT"
  },
  {
    "title": "Starvation or Porkulus: Sentence of enduring value",
    "date": "2009-02-05",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/starvation-or-porkulus-sentence-of-enduring-value/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1060",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1060",
    "excerpt": "I’m sure this feat of psychological needle-threading can be achieved with laser-like accuracy by deploying the virtuoso mood-management skills of Obama’s first-rate team of applied mathematicians --- Will Wilkinson"
  },
  {
    "title": "Modern macro models are falsifiable",
    "date": "2009-02-05",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/modern-macro-models-are-falsifiable/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1061",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1061",
    "excerpt": "To be honest, I'm having a hard time parsing this post by Arnold Kling.  He talks about issues with \"structural models\" in macroeconomics, but I'm not sure to what he's referring.  Of course models reflect how somebody t"
  },
  {
    "title": "History lesson",
    "date": "2009-02-05",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/history-lesson/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1062",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1062",
    "excerpt": "I eagerly await Kling's history lesson.  Meanwhile, a real life working macroeconomist has this to say about the emergence of modern macro (which he calls New Macro... I guess I'll have to defer): Dynamic equilibrium the"
  },
  {
    "title": "I wonder why he didn't look at the 70's?",
    "date": "2009-02-04",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/i-wonder-why-he-didnt-look-at-the-70s/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1059",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1059",
    "excerpt": "Krugman estimates a Phillips curve thus solidifying my belief that he, along with Kling, doesn't know modern macro.\n\nThere is no structural relationship between output gaps and inflation.  The correlation he estimates me"
  },
  {
    "title": "Anyway...",
    "date": "2009-02-03",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/anyway/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1058",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1058",
    "excerpt": "... have you noticed how good the weather has been lately?"
  },
  {
    "title": "The extent of our knowledge",
    "date": "2009-02-02",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/the-extent-of-our-knowledge/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1057",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1057",
    "excerpt": "One of the reasons I think modern macro is successful is that it cleanly separates what we know from what we don't know.  Making assumptions about how people make decisions and assumptions about how those decisions inter"
  },
  {
    "title": "Don't let reason get in the way",
    "date": "2009-02-01",
    "url": "/writing/2009/02/dont-let-reason-get-in-the-way/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1056",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1056",
    "excerpt": "Why is it \" wonkish \" or \" boring \" to consider reasons why spending hundreds of billions of dollars in a fiscal stimulus may or may not work (or how it may work if it does)?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Personal consumption expenditures down 3.5%",
    "date": "2009-01-30",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/personal-consumption-expenditures-down-35/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1054",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1054",
    "excerpt": "New GDP stats here .  That's \" moderate evidence that psychology matters \"."
  },
  {
    "title": "What are people pessimestic about?",
    "date": "2009-01-30",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/what-are-people-pessimestic-about/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1055",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1055",
    "excerpt": "Flipping through this paper on expectational shocks , I was at first surprised at the behavior of consumption to irrational exuberance.  Consumption goes down at first but as the as exuberance wears off consumption goes "
  },
  {
    "title": "Funny of the day",
    "date": "2009-01-29",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/funny-of-the-day/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1050",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1050",
    "excerpt": "Paul Krugman complaining about scholars not reading other people's work.  HA!"
  },
  {
    "title": "What is modern macroeconomics?",
    "date": "2009-01-29",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/what-is-modern-macroeconomics/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1051",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1051",
    "excerpt": "It is models of the economy using methods of new classical economics with Keynesian price rigidities (and the occasional relaxing of the assumption of rational expectations).  That encyclopedia article is great, by the w"
  },
  {
    "title": "Snippets from the this week's NEP-MAC",
    "date": "2009-01-29",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/snippets-from-the-this-weeks-nep-mac/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1052",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1052",
    "excerpt": "That's New Economic Papers - Macroeconomics : \"We provide empirical support for a DSGE model with nominal wage stickiness where growth is driven by learning-by-doing and money shocks and their variance are allowed to imp"
  },
  {
    "title": "Better macro critics please",
    "date": "2009-01-28",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/better-macro-critics-please/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1049",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1049",
    "excerpt": "Frankly, I don't feel like writing about this anymore except to register my general dissatisfaction with the recent criticisms of modern macroeconomics.  The critics don't seem to have noticed the progress made in the fi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Arnold Kling doesn't know modern macro",
    "date": "2009-01-27",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/arnold-kling-doesnt-know-modern-macro/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1048",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1048",
    "excerpt": "He claims modern macro is only mathematical masturbation, that its not empirically relavent, it ignores unemployment and the modern consensus was reached in the discipline by ignoring critics.  He's wrong, very wrong, on"
  },
  {
    "title": "Rodrik clarifies the debate?",
    "date": "2009-01-26",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/rodrik-clarifies-the-debate/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1046",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1046",
    "excerpt": "Rodrik observes, as Wilkinson suspected, the margin on which economists are debating the fiscal stimulus isn't economics.  Instead the Krugman vs. Chicago debate is \"philosophical, political, and practical--revolving aro"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of enduring value",
    "date": "2009-01-26",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/sentences-of-enduring-value-15/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1047",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1047",
    "excerpt": "Others say that we should have a fiscal stimulus to “give people confidence,” even if we have neither theory nor evidence that it will work. This astonishingly paternalistic argument was tried once with the TARP. Nob"
  },
  {
    "title": "Multiple multipliers",
    "date": "2009-01-25",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/multiple-multiples/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1044",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1044",
    "excerpt": "Gali's paper is really good.  Its the best case for fiscal policy I've seen using the modern macro framework.  I think the introduction and conclusion are accessible to a general audience and the empirical and modeling s"
  },
  {
    "title": "Giddy with expectations",
    "date": "2009-01-24",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/giddy-with-expectations/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1042",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1042",
    "excerpt": "Are you an econ geek if you're anticipating a GDP statistics release more than you did a history making presidential inauguration?  Well, guilty as charged.\n\nThis Friday's release has me giddy because we'll have fourth q"
  },
  {
    "title": "Political affiliations of modern macroeconomists",
    "date": "2009-01-24",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/political-affiliations-of-modern-macroeconomists/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1043",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1043",
    "excerpt": "Will Wilkinson has words for macro economists .  He got me thinking about the political affiliations of macroeconomists.  Here's what I've found: Macroeconomist's name IDEAS rank Political affiliation V iews on fiscal st"
  },
  {
    "title": "Knightian uncertainty",
    "date": "2009-01-23",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/knightian-uncertainty/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1041",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1041",
    "excerpt": "Uncertainty, rather than just plain risk, leads to over-insurance: A simple example can reinforce this point. Suppose two investors, A and B, engage in a swap, and there are only two states of nature, X and Y. In state X"
  },
  {
    "title": "Double plus creepy",
    "date": "2009-01-20",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/double-plus-creepy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1040",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1040",
    "excerpt": "Hey, you in the t-shirt, making your pledges to serve the president , knock it the hell off.  \n\nYou're creeping my out."
  },
  {
    "title": "Why was Rome rich...",
    "date": "2009-01-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/why-was-rome-rich/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1038",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1038",
    "excerpt": "...and Clark not wrong? notsneaky explains why even in Malthusian economies, we can see long episodes of above subsistence living standards.\n\nSpeaking of bubbles.  Are we in a centuries long Malthusian bubble now?  If so"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis econ in the news",
    "date": "2009-01-19",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-26/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1039",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1039",
    "excerpt": "Knittel on --- you guessed it --- gas prices."
  },
  {
    "title": "Does not compute",
    "date": "2009-01-18",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/does-not-compute/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1037",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1037",
    "excerpt": "Suppose . Steve Waldman says recent events have shown : Economists talk about consumption smoothing, how it may be optimal for a consumer whose income is volatile to borrow during periods of low income and repay (or save"
  },
  {
    "title": "Keynesian alchemy",
    "date": "2009-01-17",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/keynesian-alchemy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1035",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1035",
    "excerpt": "When chemist discovered alchemist were cranks and one couldn't actually turn lead to gold, what were the policy implications?\n\nWhen the king asked his alchemists-turned-chemists for gold, did the chemists continue the al"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"Republicans should try to be the party of investment, because Democrats are basically the party of consumption.\"",
    "date": "2009-01-16",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/republicans-should-try-to-be-the-party-of-investment-because-democrats-are-basically-the-party-of-consumption/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1032",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1032",
    "excerpt": "That is all.\n\nPS - I'm a democrat, but this sounds like good economics not to mention good politics."
  },
  {
    "title": "The failure of modern macro",
    "date": "2009-01-16",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/the-failure-of-modern-macro/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1033",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1033",
    "excerpt": "Thomas Sargent complains that the arguments for the fiscal stimulus  \"ignore what we have learned in the last 60 years of macroeconomic research.\"  This is his fault.  He and the other big names of modern macro have fail"
  },
  {
    "title": "Homework assignment: modern macro book outine",
    "date": "2009-01-16",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/homework-assignment-modern-macro-book-outine/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1034",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1034",
    "excerpt": "Dear eminent-macro-economist-who-would-have-a-chance-in-hell-to-get-this-to-stick -\n\nPlease write this book. Intro Intertemporal consumption choice Growth Growth policy Labor or leasure choice Worker flows and unemployme"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"nationalist liberal egalitarianism is morally unserious arbitrary nonsense\"",
    "date": "2009-01-15",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/nationalist-liberal-egalitarianism-is-morally-unserious-arbitrary-nonsense/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1030",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1030",
    "excerpt": "That is all."
  },
  {
    "title": "\"We're bored\" argument for stimulus",
    "date": "2009-01-14",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/were-bored-argument-for-stimulus/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1029",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1029",
    "excerpt": "This Lessig comment sounds like he's wanting the fiscal stimulus because he's bored by the old way of doing things: If we're lucky, we get the chance for this kind of transformation once a generation. It would be a scand"
  },
  {
    "title": "Costs of the stimulus",
    "date": "2009-01-13",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/costs-of-the-stimulus/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1027",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1027",
    "excerpt": "Most criticism of the fiscal package have centered on its impotence: consumption smoothing agents will make it moot or it's effects won't be seen in time to make a difference.  So we've all been talking about multipliers"
  },
  {
    "title": "Eye on the ball",
    "date": "2009-01-13",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/eye-on-the-ball/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1028",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1028",
    "excerpt": "Now: Then: ( source. )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Government's marginal propensity to spend",
    "date": "2009-01-12",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/governments-marginal-propensity-to-spend/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1025",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1025",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Caplan makes an excellent point about standard spending multipliers: It takes time and effort to figure out how to spend new money, you often need the approval of multiple levels of supervision to get started, etc."
  },
  {
    "title": "Macro expectations",
    "date": "2009-01-12",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/macro-expectations/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1026",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1026",
    "excerpt": "About Obama's deficit spending plan, Posner says : There is a legitimate concern that many of the projects undertaken by the federal government will yield costs in excess of benefits. But the concern is exaggerated, beca"
  },
  {
    "title": "Scary",
    "date": "2009-01-08",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/scary/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1024",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1024",
    "excerpt": "How many people will have meaningful input in determining the overall allocation of the billion [sic, trillion] stimulus? 10? 20? It won't be more than 1000. These people--let's say that in the end 500 technocrats will p"
  },
  {
    "title": "Multiple equilibria",
    "date": "2009-01-07",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/multiple-equilibria/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1023",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1023",
    "excerpt": "Peter Levine : If we are going to borrow a trillion dollars from our kids to spend now on economic recovery, the money had better be well spent. Avoiding waste and fraud is a political imperative; Obama's reelection may "
  },
  {
    "title": "Where I spent my stimulus check",
    "date": "2009-01-06",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/where-i-spent-my-stimulus-check/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1022",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1022",
    "excerpt": "\"But the stimulus checks haven't been sent yet,\" you say.  \"A stimulus package hasn't even been passed yet,\" you exclaim.\n\nRight you are.  But in expectation, my stimulus will be around $500.  (90% chance a $750B deal wi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentence of enduring value",
    "date": "2009-01-04",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/sentence-of-enduring-value-11/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1021",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1021",
    "excerpt": "[F]iscal stimulus is a solution, rather than a way of buying time, only under some particular assumptions that are at the very least rather speculative. --- Paul Krugman Those particular assumptions are that the economy "
  },
  {
    "title": "Oh, he's good",
    "date": "2009-01-03",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/oh-hes-good/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1020",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1020",
    "excerpt": "Barack Obama can almost coax this cat out of the Keynesian-fiscal-policy hating tree: We need an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that not only creates jobs in the short-term but spurs economic growth and competit"
  },
  {
    "title": "Take out the garbage <rant>",
    "date": "2009-01-02",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/take-out-the-garbage-rant/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1018",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1018",
    "excerpt": "In a comment below, this guy said: Normal economists worry about the fact that deficits lead to inflation or higher taxes. Neither’s good. Normal economists care about the so-called multiplier in which government expen"
  },
  {
    "title": "Brilliant",
    "date": "2009-01-02",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/brilliant/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1019",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1019",
    "excerpt": "Via Kling , In effect, the regulatory reliance on ratings makes the rating agencies the de facto allocators of capital in our system. And every actor in the financial system has every incentive to group and slice assets "
  },
  {
    "title": "Looking for something to read?",
    "date": "2009-01-01",
    "url": "/writing/2009/01/looking-for-something-to-read/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1017",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1017",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Kenworthy publishes a list of links each month.  The links are usually data heavy (yeah!) and occasionally come from sites on my blogroll but more often they come from somewhere \"left\" of it, e.g. Ezra Klein .  \n\nA"
  },
  {
    "title": "Height and income",
    "date": "2008-12-31",
    "url": "/writing/2008/12/height-and-income/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1016",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1016",
    "excerpt": "Some folks at Princeton have found , using panel data from England, that each additional inch in height is associated with 1.5-1.8% more wage income.  Their suggested mechanism is having wealthy parents that feed their k"
  },
  {
    "title": "Liquidity trap? part II",
    "date": "2008-12-30",
    "url": "/writing/2008/12/liquidity-trap-part-ii/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1015",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1015",
    "excerpt": "From Japan 2008 This one needs a caption: There was a sign describing this construction project as building a fish spawning pathway.  As you can see, they're tearing out the old fish spawning pathway to build this new on"
  },
  {
    "title": "Liquidity trap? part I",
    "date": "2008-12-28",
    "url": "/writing/2008/12/liquidity-trap-part-i/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1014",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1014",
    "excerpt": "From Japan 2008"
  },
  {
    "title": "The trade-off between private diversification and efficiency",
    "date": "2008-12-27",
    "url": "/writing/2008/12/the-trade-off-between-private-diversification-and-efficiency/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1013",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1013",
    "excerpt": "After making pretty easy work of Krugman, Waldman argues , \"there's a trade-off between microlevel diversification and macro-efficiency.\"  He then concludes: If we want to maintain a well-diversified aggregate portfolio,"
  },
  {
    "title": "Paul Krugman is really smart",
    "date": "2008-12-01",
    "url": "/writing/2008/12/paul-krugman-is-really-smart/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1012",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1012",
    "excerpt": "Clearly. My salary doesn't depend on not understanding Keynes and the wonders of fiscal policy.  I choose to think this is just a really complex issue and only Nobel Laureates (or some Nobel Laureates ) can understand it"
  },
  {
    "title": "Delong on Krugman",
    "date": "2008-11-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/delong-on-krugman/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1011",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1011",
    "excerpt": "Frankly, I'm confused by this Krugman post so after I'm done writing this, I'm going down to The Avid Reader to pick up Krugman's latest book .  I suspect he lays out this argument more fully there.\n\nDelong reviewed the "
  },
  {
    "title": "A definition of God",
    "date": "2008-11-28",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/a-definition-of-god/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1010",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1010",
    "excerpt": "As implied here : Dear Global Economy, we thank thee for thy economies of scale, thy professional specialization, and thy international networks of trade under Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage, without which we wou"
  },
  {
    "title": "Of mice and maximin",
    "date": "2008-11-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/of-mice-and-maximin/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1009",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1009",
    "excerpt": "Gabriel summarizes the debate on fiscal stimulus and comes down on John Taylor 's side (good choice).  Those checks we got in the mail from the Feds didn't increase aggregate demand; while take home pay went up, consumpt"
  },
  {
    "title": "IS/LM needs a bail-out",
    "date": "2008-11-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/islm-needs-a-bail-out/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1007",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1007",
    "excerpt": "Somebody please defend our cherished models from the likes of this : The economy needs a boost to aggregate demand and since monetary policy isn't working any more, fiscal policy has to step in.  This is usually followed"
  },
  {
    "title": "Time for another flip-flop on Iraq?",
    "date": "2008-11-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/time-for-another-flip-flop-on-iraq/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1008",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1008",
    "excerpt": "Now that many supporters of the war have had their mea culpas , its appropriate  --- given the annealing process that is the transformation of public opinion to written history --- for the pendulum to swing back towards "
  },
  {
    "title": "\"publishing economics harm science's credibility\"",
    "date": "2008-11-20",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/publishing-economics-harm-sciences-credibility/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1005",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1005",
    "excerpt": "My first reaction to the headline to this post --- \"publishing economics harm science's credibility\" --- was \"you elitest 'hard' science bastards!\"\n\nMy second reaction, \"oh\"."
  },
  {
    "title": "Doomed-to-repeat-it Watch 2008",
    "date": "2008-11-20",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/doomed-to-repeat-it-watch-2008/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1006",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1006",
    "excerpt": "These two posts presented themselves one after the other in my Google Reader stream this afternoon.\n\nIn the first link, Prof. Rodrik notes French President Sarkozy's new plan to buy shares in French companies to protect "
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of the day",
    "date": "2008-11-17",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/sentences-of-the-day/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1004",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1004",
    "excerpt": "From both the macro evidence and this body of micro–economic work, a large consensus—right or wrong—has emerged:\nIt holds that modern economies need to constantly reallocate resources, including labor, from old to "
  },
  {
    "title": "This is my experience, it is subjective",
    "date": "2008-11-13",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/this-is-my-experience-it-is-subjective/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1002",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1002",
    "excerpt": "Regarding intolerant religious people, Richard Heck writes : Are we entirely sure that religious people do tend to be kinder and more compassionate than secular people? And are we sure of this, especially, when we do not"
  },
  {
    "title": "Hoover not laissez-faire, redux",
    "date": "2008-11-11",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/hoover-not-laissez-faire-redux/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=1001",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1001",
    "excerpt": "I feel icky because I sense I've wondered into some age-worn ideological battle... but if you need more evidence Hoover was an interventionist, Prof. Caplan has it .\n\nTo be fair, and balanced, I should mention the obviou"
  },
  {
    "title": "Recapitulation",
    "date": "2008-11-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/recapitulation/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=996",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "996",
    "excerpt": "A certain Wall Street Journal opinion piece set of a mini-blog storm about the roll of policy in the cause and length of the Great Depression.  The piece presented five myths.  Here's my take on them: Herbert Hoover, ele"
  },
  {
    "title": "A windmill Tabarrok is",
    "date": "2008-11-09",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/a-windmill-tabarrok-is/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=997",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "997",
    "excerpt": "Delong thinks the WSJ article and Prof. Tabarrok's post are about: What did the New Deal do to relieve economic distress--i.e., was the New Deal a failure? They're not.  The WSJ article is about Hoover being a tool and R"
  },
  {
    "title": "Labor dynamics",
    "date": "2008-11-09",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/labor-dynamics/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=998",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "998",
    "excerpt": "This is the neatest graph I've seen in a while (from Davis et al 2006): The bottom numbers are the hazard rates, e.g. if you're employed, every month you have a 2.6% chance of getting a new employer, a 2.7% chance of lea"
  },
  {
    "title": "Quiet London Surburbia, 1665",
    "date": "2008-11-09",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/quiet-london-surburbia-1665/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=999",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "999",
    "excerpt": "The Bill of Mortality, to all our griefs, is encreased 399 this week, and the encrease generally through the whole City and suburbs , which makes us all sad. --- Pepys Etymology: Middle English suburbe, from Anglo-French"
  },
  {
    "title": "Did Roosevelt prolong the Great Depression?",
    "date": "2008-11-09",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/did-roosevelt-prolong-the-great-depression/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=995",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "995",
    "excerpt": "Yes.  I know this from reading Eric Rauchway 's great book The Great Depression and the New Deal .  He provides a lot of data in support of the idea that Roosevelt implemented inefficient policies.  Granted it takes a li"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-11-08",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/sentences-of-enduring-value-14/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=992",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "992",
    "excerpt": "If you actually want to persuade folks who haven't made up their mind already on ideological grounds — that is, the crowd that is open to persuasion --invective won't cut it. You need real arguments, and you need credi"
  },
  {
    "title": "A windmill I am",
    "date": "2008-11-08",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/a-windmill-i-am/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=993",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "993",
    "excerpt": "Krugman says something consistent with the WSJ opinion and historians take that as proof they were right and said opinion was wrong.  We live on a strange planet.\n\n\"Take care, sir,\" cried Sancho. \"Those over there are no"
  },
  {
    "title": "Was Hoover laissez-faire?",
    "date": "2008-11-08",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/was-hoover-laissez-faire/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=994",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "994",
    "excerpt": "No.  I know this from reading Eric Rauchway 's great book The Great Depression and the New Deal .  Right on page three ((all page numbers and unattributed quotes in this post come from Rauchway's book)) he says, \"Contrar"
  },
  {
    "title": "Cool",
    "date": "2008-11-07",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/cool/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=989",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "989",
    "excerpt": "This is. And this has the potential to be even cooler."
  },
  {
    "title": "Are EULAs inefficient?",
    "date": "2008-11-07",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/are-eulas-inefficient/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=990",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "990",
    "excerpt": "Tim Lee says so : It should be remembered that every contract signed is a prelude to possible state coercion if the contract is broken. Like all other kinds of coercion, the possibility of contract-related litigation cre"
  },
  {
    "title": "He's catching up",
    "date": "2008-11-07",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/hes-catching-up/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=991",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "991",
    "excerpt": "Professor Rauchway now seems to be ok with the idea that Roosevelt's policies prolonged the depression.  There's a trade-off between policy oriented towards increasing economic efficiency and policy oriented towards redu"
  },
  {
    "title": "Inequality and immigration",
    "date": "2008-11-06",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/inequality-and-immigration/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=987",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "987",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Peri spoke at GMU today about immigration.  There's an economic argument against immigration that says because most immigrants are unskilled, they reduce the wages of native unskilled workers.  These are the most e"
  },
  {
    "title": "Lesson from the Great Depression?",
    "date": "2008-11-06",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/lesson-from-the-great-depression/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=988",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "988",
    "excerpt": "This editorial argues the lesson from the depression is not that intervention is good thing and laissez-faire is a bad thing. This guy's love for all things Roosevelt blinds him to this simple point.\n\nBasically, my take "
  },
  {
    "title": "Are you f-ing kidding me?",
    "date": "2008-11-02",
    "url": "/writing/2008/11/are-you-f-ing-kidding-me/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=985",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "985",
    "excerpt": "So you would think the prospect of a black man winning the presidency would leave no opportunity for anything but optimisim about the progress of our nation, right?  Its evidence that someone talented enough can attain t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Epsilon is really small",
    "date": "2008-10-30",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/epsilon-is-really-small/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=984",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "984",
    "excerpt": "Essential reading from NotSneaky.\n\nMy sense is that epsilon (the effect contraction in the financial sector will have on the non-financial sector) is small in the short run and zero in the long run.  There are some trans"
  },
  {
    "title": "Hating on Haidt",
    "date": "2008-10-25",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/hating-on-haidt/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=982",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "982",
    "excerpt": "The science guys at blogginghead.tv talk about Haidt's work:\n\n\n\nthey're reacting to this video:\n\n\n\nI think they're wrong that Haidt's taxonomy is normatively slanted against conservatives."
  },
  {
    "title": "Tyler Cowen gets Fisked",
    "date": "2008-10-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/tyler-cowen-gets-fisked/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=981",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "981",
    "excerpt": "What is a credit crunch?  At first, I thought when people were using this term they meant credit markets weren't in equilibrium.  There was no market for credit.  Then when people started talking about the increasing TED"
  },
  {
    "title": "Hills running metric",
    "date": "2008-10-23",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/hills-running-metric/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=978",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "978",
    "excerpt": "Its time to start stocking up on the spam and bottled water --- to run for the hills --- if politicians start talking like this again: For the first time in the history of depression, dividends, profits, and the cost of "
  },
  {
    "title": "Art as investment",
    "date": "2008-10-23",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/art-as-investment/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=979",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "979",
    "excerpt": "Fellow grad student, Bed Mandel , has a paper coming out in AER ((holy shit!)) called Art as an Investment and Conspicuous Consumption Good (pdf): This paper provides a simple and empirically plausible model of artworks "
  },
  {
    "title": "I'm on TV!",
    "date": "2008-10-23",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/im-on-tv/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=980",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "980",
    "excerpt": "In the first couple of seconds of this video you see a guy holding a coffee cup in the lower left hand corner.  That's me!\n\nOh and these other guys talked about the financial crisis:\n\n\n\nRecommendation: Prof. Taylor's the"
  },
  {
    "title": "Obligatory Post on Krugman's Nobel",
    "date": "2008-10-14",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/obligatory-post-on-krugmans-nobel/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=975",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "975",
    "excerpt": "Apparently , I'm obliged to do this.  I've said good and bad things about Prof. Krugman in the past (see this link for the good and for links to the bad).\n\nI think: he absolutely deserves this prize... some of my researc"
  },
  {
    "title": "More excess demand: over-investment edition",
    "date": "2008-10-14",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/more-excess-demand-over-investment-edition/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=976",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "976",
    "excerpt": "Nobel laureate Paul Krugman meet Nobel laureate Ned Phelps .  Ned, Paul.\n\nSay, you two seem to have different opinions about the possibility that recessions lead to changes in the structural rate of unemployment.  Can yo"
  },
  {
    "title": "Comment rescue",
    "date": "2008-10-14",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/comment-rescue/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=977",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "977",
    "excerpt": "I wanted to make the following comment on this post at gnxp ((Its a good post that I was going to find an excuse to link to anyway.  So, yeah, read the whole thing.)) , but something's broken: Isn't the original author j"
  },
  {
    "title": "Emailing Senior Ambrosini",
    "date": "2008-10-13",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/emailing-senior-ambrosini/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=974",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "974",
    "excerpt": "I got this email from my dad: Ok, you are the trained expert on this. In 100 words or less please explain what the hell is going on with the market and what will be the final outcome. (ps: your inheritance just went down"
  },
  {
    "title": "A bold new health insurance proposal",
    "date": "2008-10-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/a-bold-new-health-insurance-proposal/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=972",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "972",
    "excerpt": "(h/t Prof. Whitman )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Loads of good data",
    "date": "2008-10-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/loads-of-good-data/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=973",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "973",
    "excerpt": "Its interesting to see the IT industry's reaction to the financial mess because technology expenditures are really sensitive to macroeconomic conditions ((This is one of those facts that I just know ...  I'm having a ter"
  },
  {
    "title": "More excess demand for spot analysis",
    "date": "2008-10-08",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/more-excess-demand-for-spot-analysis/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=971",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "971",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Mankiw : The question for the moment is, How can we get capital back into the financial system? Ideally, it would be great if more Warren Buffetts would step up to the plate and recapitalize financial firms with pr"
  },
  {
    "title": "Pro-bailout, anti-geek, greedy, not fearful",
    "date": "2008-10-02",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/pro-bailout-anti-geek-greedy-not-fearful/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=969",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "969",
    "excerpt": "Warren Buffet ( interview with Charlie Rose ).  Please watch the whole thing; Mr. Buffet is a character.\n\nSpeaking of transparent updating, how should I update my views of the likelihood of success of the bailout based o"
  },
  {
    "title": "Billers and Players",
    "date": "2008-10-02",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/billers-and-players/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=970",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "970",
    "excerpt": "This ((Chrome won't load that page.  No problems in Firefox, though.)) is brilliant: A final trend that promotes income inequality is that more Americans may be engaging in a kind of gambling behavior in their choice of "
  },
  {
    "title": "/. Africa facts of the day",
    "date": "2008-10-01",
    "url": "/writing/2008/10/africa-facts-of-the-day/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=968",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "968",
    "excerpt": "HIV was circulating among humans in Africa in 1908 (+/- 15 years or so).  This corresponds to the rise of cities. Adoption of IPv6 is higher in Africa .  I suspect this is due to the low denominator not a faster increase"
  },
  {
    "title": "Transparent updating",
    "date": "2008-09-30",
    "url": "/writing/2008/09/transparent-updating/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=967",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "967",
    "excerpt": "Following Prof. Caplan , but I'm going to be slightly easier on the bailout.  Assuming a bailout happens, which is likely given trading at Intrade , if unemployment stays below 7.8% ((this is about the 20 year high)), I'"
  },
  {
    "title": "Evidence markets are locally irrational",
    "date": "2008-09-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/09/evidence-markets-are-locally-irrational-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=965",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "965",
    "excerpt": "Someone should tell netflix --- a service I otherwise adore to itty bitty pieces --- that people watch movies at night: I would have thought their market research would have picked up on that."
  },
  {
    "title": "The Bailout, A Play",
    "date": "2008-09-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/09/the-bailout-a-play/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=966",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "966",
    "excerpt": "By Johnny Debacle A dark stage, with a single spotlight on Henry Paulson Henry Paulson : Good morning, ladies and gentleman. My name is Henry Paulson and I run the Treasury. And I don’t mean to make you panic, but if y"
  },
  {
    "title": "A better left blogosphere...",
    "date": "2008-09-22",
    "url": "/writing/2008/09/a-better-left-blogosphere/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=963",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "963",
    "excerpt": "... this post has the potential to dramatically change my mind about a number of things.  Its long but worth it.\n\nIn any case, I've never seen a better example of moving the conversation forward: [T]here is now no time f"
  },
  {
    "title": "Why oh why can't we get a better left academic blogosphere?",
    "date": "2008-09-15",
    "url": "/writing/2008/09/why-oh-why-cant-we-get-a-better-left-academic-blogosphere/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=962",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "962",
    "excerpt": "I hope I live to see the day that statements like this : And of course, the poor have done much worse. Household incomes for the bottom quintile have barely moved for decades. are openly mocked as hopelessly economically"
  },
  {
    "title": "Living on The Rock",
    "date": "2008-09-07",
    "url": "/writing/2008/09/living-on-the-rock/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=961",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "961",
    "excerpt": "On this day in 1938, Orwell was in Gibraltar and wrote : Standard of living apparently not very low, no barefooted adults and few children. Fruit and vegetables cheap, wine and tobacco evidently untaxed or taxed very lit"
  },
  {
    "title": "I like my redistribution with a side of toast",
    "date": "2008-09-05",
    "url": "/writing/2008/09/i-like-my-redistribution-with-a-side-of-toast/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=960",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "960",
    "excerpt": "How do you like your redistribution?  Prof. Kenworthy thinks there should be policy that would make more equal growth rates among people at the expense of potentially reducing those growth rates across the board.  \n\n\"Why"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2008-08-31",
    "url": "/writing/2008/08/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-25/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=958",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "958",
    "excerpt": "Faculty had a busy August: Knittel on gas prices : they rise fast but they fall slow.  The reason may not be what you expect. Prof. Carrell shows having bad kids in the classroom creates quite large negative externalitie"
  },
  {
    "title": "Back",
    "date": "2008-08-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/08/back/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=956",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "956",
    "excerpt": "I'm back and did you notice Tyler Cowen's posts in August contained a number of links to blogs named in this thread?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Screaming at the Internet: Presidentialness edition",
    "date": "2008-08-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/08/screaming-at-the-internet-presidentialness-edition/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=957",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "957",
    "excerpt": "Does Palin seem less presidential than Howard Dean, for example, because: she's eight years younger than Howard Dean when he ran for President? she's only been the governor of a small State for little over two years wher"
  },
  {
    "title": "Tax data vs survey data",
    "date": "2008-08-02",
    "url": "/writing/2008/08/tax-data-vs-survey-data/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=953",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "953",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Delong links to Brad Setser who a couple months ago was lamenting over this chart: Notice the negative growth numbers for the bottom 90th percentile.\n\nThe data are from Piketty and Saez .  Curiously, these authors "
  },
  {
    "title": "BRB",
    "date": "2008-08-02",
    "url": "/writing/2008/08/brb/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=955",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "955",
    "excerpt": "Well, I'm off to an undisclosed location: The roof has been finished since that picture was taken a couple summers ago.  Two summers ago I put in a water system; fresh spring water right to the tap ((well, I haven't inst"
  },
  {
    "title": "Staying alive",
    "date": "2008-08-01",
    "url": "/writing/2008/08/staying-alive/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=863",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "863",
    "excerpt": "There's a point in the first year of econ grad school where you switch from \"yeah, I'm in grad school\" to \"OMG!!!11!! How am I going to live through all this formalization!\"\n\nFor me that moment came about 10 minutes into"
  },
  {
    "title": "Women avert your eyes: Fun with math",
    "date": "2008-07-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/women-avert-your-eyes-fun-with-math/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=952",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "952",
    "excerpt": "I just counted the number of men and women grad students in the Berkeley Math department .  Not being able to gender non-European names, I count 120 men and 25 women.  That's a 1 to 5 ratio.\n\nAccording to the graph here "
  },
  {
    "title": "Vindication of a scientist?",
    "date": "2008-07-28",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/vindication-of-a-scientist/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=951",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "951",
    "excerpt": "People are saying Larry Summers is \"vindicated\" by a study showing males have higher variance in math ability than females.  Does it make sense to talk of vindication for a scientist when data is found supporting his or "
  },
  {
    "title": "Nomination for the most wrong sentence of the year",
    "date": "2008-07-25",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/nomination-for-the-most-wrong-sentence-of-the-year/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=950",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "950",
    "excerpt": "In any case the analogy [between money and communion wafers] doesn’t hold because money does not involve magical transformation through ritual, its value is an agreement, not a miracle. --- Righteous Bubba"
  },
  {
    "title": "Be able to answer these questions",
    "date": "2008-07-22",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/be-able-to-answer-these-questions-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=949",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "949",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Caplan thinks you should be able to answer questions like these correctly to be able to vote: Which rights are guaranteed by the First Amendment?\nHow many Supreme Court justices are there?\nWhat are the 13 original "
  },
  {
    "title": "Be able to answer these questions",
    "date": "2008-07-21",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/be-able-to-answer-these-questions/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=946",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "946",
    "excerpt": "Correctly, of course. 1) Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2% per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow?\na) More than $10"
  },
  {
    "title": "Instrumental variables and obesity: micro vs macro, FIGHT!",
    "date": "2008-07-21",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/instrumental-variables-and-obesity-micro-vs-macro-fight/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=947",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "947",
    "excerpt": "The restaurants==more calories assumption of the obesity paper by Gomis-Porqueras and Peralta-Alva I wrote about the other day is suspect given the findings of this paper: But simple correlations between restaurants and "
  },
  {
    "title": "Word cloud",
    "date": "2008-07-21",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/word-cloud/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=948",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "948",
    "excerpt": "This is neat: (h/t ct )"
  },
  {
    "title": "General equilibrium and obesity",
    "date": "2008-07-19",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/general-equilibrium-and-obesity/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=945",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "945",
    "excerpt": "I don't usually do this, but I thought this was a fun paper : In this paper, we use dynamic general equilibrium theory to derive the quantitative implications of a decline in the relative monetary and time costs of food "
  },
  {
    "title": "More evidence markets are locally irrational",
    "date": "2008-07-18",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/more-evidence-markets-are-locally-irrational/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=941",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "941",
    "excerpt": "Check out this comment thread: I have a master's degree in computer science and an MBA on the accounting track, and I'm delivering pizzas. Maybe if I'd moved to India I would have a better chance at getting a job. Also, "
  },
  {
    "title": "Does this argument really work?",
    "date": "2008-07-18",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/does-this-argument-really-work/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=943",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "943",
    "excerpt": "Tim Lambert, responding to this opinion piece ((why in the deuce is science being argued in the opinion pages!)), says : If the hot spot really is missing is does not prove that CO2 is not causing warming, but it would i"
  },
  {
    "title": "Evidence markets are locally irrational",
    "date": "2008-07-17",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/evidence-markets-are-locally-irrational/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=940",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "940",
    "excerpt": "Shamus Young: I’m used to cheap keyboards being cheaply made, but the one I have pictured above goes beyond simple cost-cutting. It’s a device specifically engineered to deliver a miserable and difficult experience. "
  },
  {
    "title": "Devastating disproof of homo economicus",
    "date": "2008-07-17",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/devastating-disproof-of-homo-economicus/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=942",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "942",
    "excerpt": "Line jumping .  This is the reason economics --- objective maximizing, incentive following rational agent-based analysis --- is terrible at explaining human behavior.  Some guy gets pissed off because some ass-clown cut "
  },
  {
    "title": "Drought == price ceiling enduced surplus demand?",
    "date": "2008-07-15",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/drought-price-ceiling-enduced-surplus-demand/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=938",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "938",
    "excerpt": "So says newly minted Davis Ag Econ PhD David Zetland: The real problem is that the price of water in California, as in most of America, has virtually nothing to do with supply and demand. Although water is distributed by"
  },
  {
    "title": "Inequality and mobility",
    "date": "2008-07-14",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/inequality-and-mobility/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=935",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "935",
    "excerpt": "Kenworthy has stopped making sense. Thoma and Talking Heads fans rejoice.\n\nKenworthy's argument is that growing income inequality is bad IF intragenerational income mobility hasn't increased too.  He shows charts showing"
  },
  {
    "title": "In other words...",
    "date": "2008-07-14",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/in-other-words/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=936",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "936",
    "excerpt": "Theorem: With constant, positive income mobility such that any income group can transition to any other income group with positive probability, a non-zero sum increase in income inequality results in an increase in expec"
  },
  {
    "title": "And then Whedon did this thing",
    "date": "2008-07-14",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/and-then-whedon-did-this-thing/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=937",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "937",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Anti-bias bias",
    "date": "2008-07-09",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/anti-bias-bias/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=934",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "934",
    "excerpt": "Yes, at heart I'm a political race-horse junky, but --- like my fig leaf subscription to Entertainment Weekly masking my inner celeb gossip whore --- I read only good political race-horse coverage like FiveThirtyEight . "
  },
  {
    "title": "Over... stim... ulation...",
    "date": "2008-07-06",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/over-stim-ulation/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=933",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "933",
    "excerpt": "Eliezer Yudkowsky is talking about one of my favorite ideas on this blog...  morality as preference!  and in the form of Socratic dialog no less! Subhan:  \"I suggest that when the pie-requester says to you, 'It is right "
  },
  {
    "title": "gapminder of da heezy",
    "date": "2008-07-01",
    "url": "/writing/2008/07/gapminder-of-da-heezy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=931",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "931",
    "excerpt": "Trill ass Hans ben updatn' .  Check it out, yo."
  },
  {
    "title": "Scale: it'll get you everytime",
    "date": "2008-06-28",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/scale-itll-get-you-everytime/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=929",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "929",
    "excerpt": "This picture is astounding: (h/t information aesthetics ) Micheal Mandel at Business Week is off by 3 orders of magnitude . I just noticed a video clip I uploaded a couple years ago has over 8,000 views.  I can't get my "
  },
  {
    "title": "Heritability of Voting",
    "date": "2008-06-27",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/heritability-of-voting/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=928",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "928",
    "excerpt": "IQ is heritable and now gnxp reports whether or not you vote is heritable.\n\nNow, you may be asking yourself \"Wait a minute, how can there be a gene for voting!?\"  Its pretty clear there's no \"voting\" gene.  \n\nIf you aske"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-06-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/sentences-of-enduring-value-13/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=925",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "925",
    "excerpt": "Like many stupid questions, this one was surprisingly deep. --- Tim Harford (If you've noticed the dearth of SofEVs lately and you miss them, check out my Tumblr site .  If you haven't been missing them, well, then screw"
  },
  {
    "title": "Those are your moral preferences, Megan, not mine",
    "date": "2008-06-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/those-are-your-moral-preferences-megan-not-mine/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=926",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "926",
    "excerpt": "Ms. McArdle says: I think that a state which commits cold-blooded murder is a brutalized state, and I have a visceral horror at the idea of putting a man in a cage and declaring to him the day that he will die. The proce"
  },
  {
    "title": "Creative Capitalism",
    "date": "2008-06-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/creative-capitalism/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=927",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "927",
    "excerpt": "Professor Clark is in good company at this new group blog .\n\nHere Clark critiques Bill Gates' idea, Creative Capitalism : Bill Gates has two major points. First the profit motive fails to provide goods such as vaccines n"
  },
  {
    "title": "Econophysics",
    "date": "2008-06-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/econophysics/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=922",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "922",
    "excerpt": "Everyone knows physicists are the smartest of them all .  Thus, prefixing your field's name onto the word \"physics\" provides automatic doubleplusgoodness.  At least it means you can publish economics in physics journals."
  },
  {
    "title": "For he saw no difference between the parts whence the noise issued",
    "date": "2008-06-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/for-he-saw-no-difference-between-the-parts-whence-the-noise-issued/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=923",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "923",
    "excerpt": "Demetrius was wont to say that there was no difference between the\nspeech and words of the foolish and ignorant, and the noises and\nrumblings of the wind in an inflated stomach. Nor did he say so\nwithout reason, for he s"
  },
  {
    "title": "Do elite Universities cause poorly performing K-12?",
    "date": "2008-06-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/do-elite-universities-cause-poorly-performing-k-12/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=924",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "924",
    "excerpt": "Steve Sailer thinks so: America's most storied universities publicly espouse  leftist egalitarianism. But that's just a politically correct smokescreen to distract from their status as the winners in a brutal competition"
  },
  {
    "title": "Wha?",
    "date": "2008-06-21",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/wha/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=913",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "913",
    "excerpt": "Part in our continuing series... Screaming at the INTERNET! One of the main reasons out-of-wedlock births have skyrocketed in recent decades is because it has become so difficult for poor and poorly educated young men to"
  },
  {
    "title": "To be fair",
    "date": "2008-06-21",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/to-be-fair/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=915",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "915",
    "excerpt": "Herbert was talking about young men with poor education (i.e. high school or less).  So here you go: There's a definite decrease in wages of this group.  Here's unemployment of the same group: UPDATE: This group of peopl"
  },
  {
    "title": "INTP",
    "date": "2008-06-21",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/intp/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=918",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "918",
    "excerpt": "... if you were curious about my MBTI . Apparently , I bumble along and have flashes of insight, I should marry a ExTJ and I \"may be extremely caustic and insulting to others\"."
  },
  {
    "title": "Travelogue",
    "date": "2008-06-20",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/travelogue/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=911",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "911",
    "excerpt": "My sister graduated HS last weekend so I've been traveling.  Gas is expensive, if you haven't noticed.  There's a structural break in transportation costs somewhere between Laytonville and Garberville .  Gas is 20¢ more"
  },
  {
    "title": "Heritability of IQ",
    "date": "2008-06-18",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/heritability-of-iq/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=910",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "910",
    "excerpt": "There's two surprising things about this table: Age Adoptees Controls 1-2 .13 .09 3-4 .20 .17 7 .07 .17 12 .00 .30 16 .00 .30 The first is the zero correlation Prof. Caplan points out between IQ of adopted 16 year olds a"
  },
  {
    "title": "Marxist Fallacy",
    "date": "2008-06-17",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/marxist-fallacy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=908",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "908",
    "excerpt": "Thanks to Rodrik's literary style (as quoted in the previous post), we can skip right over the technical issues...  What does Stolper-Samuelson tell us if owners of factors own diversified portfolios of those factors?   "
  },
  {
    "title": "Firefox 3",
    "date": "2008-06-16",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/firefox-3/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=903",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "903",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "That's impossible!",
    "date": "2008-06-16",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/thats-impossible/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=904",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "904",
    "excerpt": "I just had a Luke Skywalker moment .  CNN just told me about this new website .  Browsing there I had a terrible revelation:\n\nI'm pretty sure my interest in economics was sparked by Ross Perot.  The site reminded me that"
  },
  {
    "title": "CNN is great...",
    "date": "2008-06-16",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/cnn-is-great/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=905",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "905",
    "excerpt": "... fodder for blog posts.  Their commentators get so much wrong.\n\nSome dude named Lafferty said a little while ago that 5.5% is the highest unemployment rate in 20 years.  Nope: Oh gawd... now Lou Dobbs is on."
  },
  {
    "title": "Economics as She Is Spoke",
    "date": "2008-06-16",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/economics-as-she-is-spoke/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=906",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "906",
    "excerpt": "Here is the proof. Take the good whose price falls with respect to all other goods' prices in the economy. The percent change in that good's price must be a weighted average of the percent change in the prices of its inp"
  },
  {
    "title": "Funniest thing I've read in a while",
    "date": "2008-06-12",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/funniest-thing-ive-read-in-a-while/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=902",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "902",
    "excerpt": "Clark may be a heck of a theoretical economist but from everything I see he has no real insight into the actualities of [English] peasant economy --- Bruce Webb"
  },
  {
    "title": "More reasons why we should treat morals as ethical preferences",
    "date": "2008-06-09",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/more-reasons-why-we-should-treat-morals-as-ethical-preferences/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=901",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "901",
    "excerpt": "Economists don't know where preferences come from.  They might come from god or culture or genes.  Whatever.  We don't care. ((Or we do but we're just not paid to care.))\n\nIf preferences are more or less constant within "
  },
  {
    "title": "Does College make you smarter?",
    "date": "2008-06-05",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/does-college-make-you-smarter/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=900",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "900",
    "excerpt": "That which shall not be named has been decreasing among college students graduates over time.\n\nThis might be due to decreasing quality of college.  Assuming college is productive, as Prof. Clark says ((i.e. it changes TW"
  },
  {
    "title": "YouNotSneaky!",
    "date": "2008-06-02",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/younotsneaky/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=899",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "899",
    "excerpt": "... awesome, as always, on remittances ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Effect size matters",
    "date": "2008-06-01",
    "url": "/writing/2008/06/effect-size-matters/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=898",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "898",
    "excerpt": "Mark Thoma : People who believe consumption is driven, in part, by the consumption of neighbors and friends will like these results [ open link ]. What does it mean to believe consumption is driven in part by consumption"
  },
  {
    "title": "Crispin Sartwell values negative policy outcomes very low",
    "date": "2008-05-30",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/crispin-sartwell-values-negative-policy-outcomes-very-low/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=897",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "897",
    "excerpt": "Here . Wilkinson says in a multiple dimensional ethical product space that can't be true.  Essentially, Wilkinson is arguing Sartwell can't have those preferences over policies.\n\nRecall these policy choices: Policy 1: on"
  },
  {
    "title": "Do we care about higher moments?",
    "date": "2008-05-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/do-we-care-about-higher-moments/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=895",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "895",
    "excerpt": "Government policies have stochastic effects.  In particular cases, a policy can lead to government action that is extremely bad.  In other cases, that same policy can lead to unmitigated good.  In choosing policy, its se"
  },
  {
    "title": "VSL is BS?",
    "date": "2008-05-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/vsl-is-bs/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=896",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "896",
    "excerpt": "Gabriel wants to talk about SVL or \"statistical value of life\" (aka VSL). Where would we be without acronyms.\n\nFirst, why should we have such a thing?  Isn't putting money value on human life too icky to contemplate?  If"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"Jobs!\"",
    "date": "2008-05-28",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/jobs/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=894",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "894",
    "excerpt": "This is not why people are opposed to free trade: When factories move abroad, however, the shift is perceived to be due to poorer labour conditions, laxer environmental standards, and lower wages in the competing nation."
  },
  {
    "title": "What do egalitarians care about?",
    "date": "2008-05-21",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/what-do-egalitarians-care-about/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=892",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "892",
    "excerpt": "I dunno, but if its \"capabilities\" or equality of opportunity then tracking income inequality between various income percentiles is the wrong measure to concern themselves with.\n\nIncome is a flow.  Its tenuous.  Its dyna"
  },
  {
    "title": "I'd like to see them put a wire up on this",
    "date": "2008-05-20",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/id-like-to-see-them-put-a-wire-up-on-this/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=891",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "891",
    "excerpt": "XKCD 's got your number Lester Freamon."
  },
  {
    "title": "The optimal size of a moral community",
    "date": "2008-05-19",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/the-optimal-size-of-a-moral-community/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=890",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "890",
    "excerpt": "If abortion is universally wrong, then it doesn't matter what one's beliefs about it are, its always wrong everywhere ((This post is slightly adapted from a post I made to a discussion group)).   Some argue for Federalis"
  },
  {
    "title": "Americans are dumb...",
    "date": "2008-05-16",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/americans-are-dumb/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=888",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "888",
    "excerpt": "... until they spend 10 years on the job market ( pdf ).  Improvement in literacy (in the broad sense of the term) is most pronounced between 25-35 year olds and 35-45 year olds.  This is to say the jump (or lack there o"
  },
  {
    "title": "I can feel this on my skin",
    "date": "2008-05-14",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/i-can-feel-this-on-my-skin/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=886",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "886",
    "excerpt": "(h/t Jonah Lehrer who has a great book out)"
  },
  {
    "title": "Jimmy wasn't that bad",
    "date": "2008-05-14",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/jimmy-wasnt-that-bad/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=887",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "887",
    "excerpt": "Perhaps no other task is more vital to his hopes of becoming the first black president, and only the second Democrat elected to the White House in four decades. --- AP"
  },
  {
    "title": "Found it",
    "date": "2008-05-13",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/found-it/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=883",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "883",
    "excerpt": "I mentioned that I couldn't find Prof. Knittel's paper on gas demand on his website.  I should have looked harder. Here it is: Understanding the sensitivity of gasoline demand to changes in prices and income has importan"
  },
  {
    "title": "Ambiguity aversion",
    "date": "2008-05-13",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/ambiguity-aversion/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=884",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "884",
    "excerpt": "Will Wilkinson is back from Turkey and it doesn't look like he had a good time (something to do with goat rodeos ).  Apparently, like most places that aren't here, retail prices in Turkey aren't posted.  Instead there's "
  },
  {
    "title": "One reason unions are bad for growth",
    "date": "2008-05-13",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/one-reason-unions-are-bad-for-growth/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=885",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "885",
    "excerpt": "Unions resist innovations in the production process that make the jobs their members do more routinized and thus more efficient; unions keep jobs fun : Unions also give teachers power to resist changes that make their jo"
  },
  {
    "title": "The funniest sentence I've read all day",
    "date": "2008-05-12",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/the-funniest-sentence-ive-read-all-day/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=879",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "879",
    "excerpt": "The ideological character of much of the economics profession in the United States suggests that there are rewards for producing scholarship that confirms the idea that the minimum wage causes unemployment, and punishmen"
  },
  {
    "title": "Does immigration policy matter?",
    "date": "2008-05-12",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/does-immigration-policy-matter/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=881",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "881",
    "excerpt": "I've read a little bit of the immigration literature (its effects on wages, prices, government spending, etc) and it seems people always assume legal restrictions on immigration are heavy disincentives to illegal immigra"
  },
  {
    "title": "Old fashioned nuturing mothers",
    "date": "2008-05-11",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/old-fashioned-nuturing-mothers/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=877",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "877",
    "excerpt": "Mother's Day was meant to be — and still is — a celebration of a nineteenth-century ideal of motherhood, when mothers were supposed to dedicate themselves completely to nurturing their children and making a cozy, saf"
  },
  {
    "title": "Pepys' Mother's Day",
    "date": "2008-05-11",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/pepys-mothers-day/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=880",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "880",
    "excerpt": "Up betimes, and abroad to the Cocke-Pitt, where the Duke [of Albemarle] did give Sir W. Batten and me an account of the late taking of eight ships, and of his intent to come back to the Gunfleete —[The Gunfleet Sand of"
  },
  {
    "title": "Medium Matters",
    "date": "2008-05-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/medium-matters/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=876",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "876",
    "excerpt": "Doing the economics you run into this guy Paul Krugman every once in a while and you're usually impressed.  His papers are readable, theoretically enlightening and empirically relevant.  One of my favorites is this one a"
  },
  {
    "title": "Explaining behavior",
    "date": "2008-05-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/explaining-behavior/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=878",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "878",
    "excerpt": "After observing that lots and lots of genes can interact to determine a particular phenotype, Razib asks some good questions about Social Science: I've been thinking about this when it comes social phenomena. Much of the"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2008-05-09",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-24/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=874",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "874",
    "excerpt": "A threefer: Egghead points us to this New Scientist article ($$$) about Prof. Knittel's work on --- you guessed it --- gas prices (I can't find a pdf on the professor's website... for shame professor). Our colleagues ups"
  },
  {
    "title": "Our immense puniness",
    "date": "2008-05-09",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/our-immense-puniness/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=875",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "875",
    "excerpt": "National Geographic has more pictures of the Chaitén volcano eruptions.\n\n(h/t BLDGBLOG via SMIEM )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Clark Watch 2008",
    "date": "2008-05-06",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/clark-watch-2008/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=872",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "872",
    "excerpt": "Parker on Clark on Peak Oil ."
  },
  {
    "title": "*ahem* Clark Watch 2008",
    "date": "2008-05-06",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/ahem-clark-watch-2008/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=873",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "873",
    "excerpt": "Here 's the professor filling Julian Simon's shoes at the LA Times.\n\n(h/t egghead )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-05-02",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/sentences-of-enduring-value-12/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=871",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "871",
    "excerpt": "The more time I spend here in Japan; I am surprised to see my ideas on Japan are changing. In a nutshell, it’s easy to label behaviors as Japanese or American. But when it comes down to it, everything has it’s own un"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-05-01",
    "url": "/writing/2008/05/sentences-of-enduring-value-11/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/05/sentences-of-enduring-value-11/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "870",
    "excerpt": "Two for the price of one: A key point that I have not seen made elsewhere: since the whole point of financial regulation is to counteract market failures in financial markets, it makes no sense to base regulation on the "
  },
  {
    "title": "A valuable government service?",
    "date": "2008-04-30",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/a-valuable-government-service/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/a-valuable-government-service/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "869",
    "excerpt": "Senator Barbara Boxer sent this email to me today: Dear Friend:\n\nThe United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) is America’s earthquake science agency, charged with providing reliable information about where and when ear"
  },
  {
    "title": "The power of corporations",
    "date": "2008-04-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/the-power-of-corporations/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/the-power-of-corporations/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "868",
    "excerpt": "Recently I ran regressions of wages and labor force composition on the density of Walmarts in States.  Walmart --- the largest private employer in the U.S. with sales of over $350B or about 3% of GDP  --- has had zero ef"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-04-25",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/sentences-of-enduring-value-10/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/sentences-of-enduring-value-10/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "865",
    "excerpt": "It is better to know than to believe. It is better to understand why rather than just accept the what. Much of the time (though certainly not all the time), the things that we think are obviously and clearly \"reality\" ar"
  },
  {
    "title": "Holy crap!  the \"why didn't I think of that?\" edition",
    "date": "2008-04-25",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/holy-crap-the-why-didnt-i-think-of-that-edition/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/holy-crap-the-why-didnt-i-think-of-that-edition/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "866",
    "excerpt": "Fully 2/3rds of growth in inequality over the last decade can be attributed to different rates of inflation experienced by the rich and poor. MR has the scoop."
  },
  {
    "title": "By popular demand",
    "date": "2008-04-25",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/by-popular-demand/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/by-popular-demand/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "867",
    "excerpt": "A video of my brown bag:\n\n\n(h/t Two folks also stuck somewhere in the Death Star )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Resting",
    "date": "2008-04-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/resting/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/resting/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "864",
    "excerpt": "So, I had a brown bag on Monday.  Still recovering.\n\nMeanwhile, if Tyler Cowen's remark the other day \"Phillips doesn't seem to think that finance is much of a productive economic sector\" confused you, here's a finance g"
  },
  {
    "title": "I find this comment beyond strange",
    "date": "2008-04-19",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/i-find-this-comment-beyond-strange/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/i-find-this-comment-beyond-strange/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "862",
    "excerpt": "By the way, if you are curious, I have never even touched a gun. --- TC at MR How is it possible that I share a language and much of a culture with this guy?"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2008-04-18",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-23/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-23/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "860",
    "excerpt": "Peri's at it again .  Now, he and co-author Ottaviano look at immigration's impact in Germany in the 90's (pdf).  Germany is an interesting case because much of the immigrants were more highly educated than in the U.S. c"
  },
  {
    "title": "Well, I mean...",
    "date": "2008-04-18",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/well-i-mean/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/well-i-mean/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "861",
    "excerpt": "... what the hell?\n\n\n(h/t Roger Bourland )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Opinions on inequality",
    "date": "2008-04-16",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/opinions-on-inequality/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/opinions-on-inequality/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "856",
    "excerpt": "I really enjoy Lane Kenworthy's blog .  He writes mostly on inequality and he tilts a little too towards advocacy for my tastes, but he always brings a lot of data to the discussion.\n\nHe posted on international opinions "
  },
  {
    "title": "Air Supply",
    "date": "2008-04-16",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/air-supply/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/air-supply/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "857",
    "excerpt": "FYI: Lost in Love, All Out of Love and Every Woman In the World are, in fact, different songs.  I discovered this by observing a little pause between the songs when I play \"The best of Air Supply: Ones that you love\" in "
  },
  {
    "title": "People hate paying taxes only because...",
    "date": "2008-04-16",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/people-hate-paying-taxes-only-because/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/people-hate-paying-taxes-only-because/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "858",
    "excerpt": "... they don't like filling out the forms .\n\nJust more evidence that people will take any hypothesis seriously as long as it scores appropriate political points.\n\nHey, did you hear supporting encroaching government power"
  },
  {
    "title": "Yelling at the Internet",
    "date": "2008-04-16",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/yelling-at-the-internet-4/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/yelling-at-the-internet-4/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "859",
    "excerpt": "Some people use the term \"webbed\" to mean \"put something on the web\" as if providing a link doesn't convey that information.  Stop that!\n\nNobody says they \"papered\" a report they just wrote before handing it to their bos"
  },
  {
    "title": "Fideicomiso",
    "date": "2008-04-15",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/fideicomiso/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/fideicomiso/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "854",
    "excerpt": "This hurts my American sensibilities (and don't say there's freedom of speech in Canada ): The law declares that the Mexican nation has original ownership to all land and water in Mexico, as well as minerals, salts, ore "
  },
  {
    "title": "Hamilton not Menzie?",
    "date": "2008-04-15",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/hamilton-not-menzie/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/hamilton-not-menzie/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "855",
    "excerpt": "This was on James Hamilton's blog over the weekend: Not the sort of headlines [bankruptices of a regional airline and a towel store] you'd expect to see if you thought we're not in a recession.  And not what you'd want t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Juggernauts",
    "date": "2008-04-14",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/juggernauts/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/juggernauts/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "853",
    "excerpt": "How juggernauts are born...\n\n\n(BTW, to anyone attending my brownbag next week, this is what I'll mean when I talk about \"large-scale software\".)"
  },
  {
    "title": "",
    "date": "2008-04-11",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/852/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/852/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "852",
    "excerpt": "What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false ho"
  },
  {
    "title": "How to easily reject the rantings of a dumb blogger",
    "date": "2008-04-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/how-to-easily-reject-the-rantings-of-a-dumb-blogger/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/how-to-easily-reject-the-rantings-of-a-dumb-blogger/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "849",
    "excerpt": "Ok, ok.  I admit my last post on the children and happiness issue didn't, in the end, add much to the debate.  Economists that have studied the issue have found negative (and small) effects of children on happiness and t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Dear random student that showed up to my door...",
    "date": "2008-04-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/dear-random-student-that-showed-up-to-my-door/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/dear-random-student-that-showed-up-to-my-door/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "850",
    "excerpt": "...and asked about your PPP homework.  The numbers didn't make sense because the exchange data were wrong.  They should have been pounds per dollar not dollars per pound.\n\nThere.  That's better."
  },
  {
    "title": "Abortion and adoption",
    "date": "2008-04-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/abortion-and-adoption/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/abortion-and-adoption/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "851",
    "excerpt": "(Wow, never noticed how similar those word are...)\n\nThis graph is cool ((In the \"wow, look at the pretty data\" sense not the \"wow, isn't abortion cool\" sense. See this .)) In 1968 abortion was legalized in the U.K.  Adop"
  },
  {
    "title": "even more Economic Geography",
    "date": "2008-04-09",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/even-more-economic-geography/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/even-more-economic-geography/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "846",
    "excerpt": "A foreclosures heatmap : (h/t I can't remember...)"
  },
  {
    "title": "How to easily reject results from Happiness research",
    "date": "2008-04-09",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/how-to-easily-reject-results-from-happiness-research/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/how-to-easily-reject-results-from-happiness-research/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "847",
    "excerpt": "Will Wilkinson is giddy over happiness research these days.  One of the results he cited the other day was controlling for everything, kids make people less happy . Here's why that's complete bullocks, as they say.  Let'"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentence of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-04-08",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/sentence-of-enduring-value-10/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/sentence-of-enduring-value-10/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "844",
    "excerpt": "That point is that the principles of social interaction are the primary subject of moral evaluation, not the patterns [those interactions create] themselves. --- Will the Lesser My thing is talk of those patterns seem to"
  },
  {
    "title": "Education kills creativity",
    "date": "2008-04-05",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/education-kills-creativity/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/education-kills-creativity/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "842",
    "excerpt": "So does working in a large organization ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-04-04",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/sentences-of-enduring-value-9/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/sentences-of-enduring-value-9/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "840",
    "excerpt": "[Name calling] is the lowest form of disagreement, and probably also the most common. We've all seen comments like this: u r a fag!!!!!!!!!! But it's important to realize that more articulate name-calling has just as lit"
  },
  {
    "title": "All else equal...",
    "date": "2008-04-04",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/all-else-equal/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/all-else-equal/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "843",
    "excerpt": "... having kids makes people less happy. I'm an economist, I get ceteris paribus, but this conclusion sounds a bit like \"All else equal, breathing is taxing on the body\" which is equally true."
  },
  {
    "title": "Us vs. Them",
    "date": "2008-04-03",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/us-vs-them/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/us-vs-them/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "838",
    "excerpt": "It is clear from this photograph that those born over there\n<------------ shouldn't be allowed to work over there ------------>\n\n(h/t the preachy, yet good No Caption Needed )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Learn some economics, be entertained... (part IV)",
    "date": "2008-04-03",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/learn-some-economics-be-entertained-part-iv/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/learn-some-economics-be-entertained-part-iv/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "839",
    "excerpt": "Light bulbs.  When I teach growth theory, I just keep talking about the difference between out of steady-state growth and steady-state growth until I see light bulbs.  It seems esoteric at first, this distinction.\n\nCapit"
  },
  {
    "title": "Ack!  There IS an \"asset bubble\" variable in the Taylor rule",
    "date": "2008-04-03",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/ack-there-is-an-asset-bubble-variable-in-the-taylor-rule/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/ack-there-is-an-asset-bubble-variable-in-the-taylor-rule/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "841",
    "excerpt": "And it was right under my nose this whole time.  Fellow Grad student at UCD and job market candidate, Takeshi Yagihashi, estimated a Taylor rule with credit channel variables .  He finds that the Fed seems to care about "
  },
  {
    "title": "Ack!  There's no \"asset bubble\" variable in the Taylor rule",
    "date": "2008-04-02",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/ack-theres-no-asset-bubble-variable-in-the-taylor-rule/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/ack-theres-no-asset-bubble-variable-in-the-taylor-rule/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "837",
    "excerpt": "I agree with Prof. Tabarrok at MR .  I did a year of monetary theory classes and not once did we talk about the Fed's role, one way or the other, in asset bubbles.  There's something wrong with the theory or there's some"
  },
  {
    "title": "I really hate April Fool's Day",
    "date": "2008-04-01",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/i-really-hate-april-fools-day/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/i-really-hate-april-fools-day/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "835",
    "excerpt": "Bastards."
  },
  {
    "title": "I really, really hate... oh wait",
    "date": "2008-04-01",
    "url": "/writing/2008/04/i-really-really-hate-oh-wait/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/04/i-really-really-hate-oh-wait/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "836",
    "excerpt": "My prank detector may be fried by now, but I can't detect an April Fool's joke in this essay.  So, I'll stick my head out of my shell and call this out as a great post : For instance, all to often, when people announce t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Who's my city?",
    "date": "2008-03-31",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/whos-my-city/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/whos-my-city/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "832",
    "excerpt": "Well according to this tool, I should definitely leave Davis and move to San Francisco.  I might consider moving to Boston or London, but not definitely not Atlanta.\n\nHere's Richard Florida talking to Will Wilkinson ."
  },
  {
    "title": "What's so special about zero?",
    "date": "2008-03-31",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/whats-so-special-about-zero/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/whats-so-special-about-zero/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "833",
    "excerpt": "Mark Thoma asks what went wrong with the risk models during the most recent crisis.  He has a good discussion of structural vs. reduced form models.  In practice, people use the later models because the former are pretty"
  },
  {
    "title": "I hate April Fool's Day",
    "date": "2008-03-31",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/i-hate-april-fools-day/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/i-hate-april-fools-day/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "834",
    "excerpt": "Well no actually, I love it.\n\nI just hate that this was announced on April Fool's Day."
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2008-03-30",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-22/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-22/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "830",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Carroll , new to the faculty this year, got a huge Department of Education grant to study why some qualified high school grads don't go to college...  I eagerly await his results as they'll touch on my research Pro"
  },
  {
    "title": "There is no problem...",
    "date": "2008-03-30",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/there-is-no-problem/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/there-is-no-problem/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "831",
    "excerpt": "... unless there's a REALLY BIG problem.  Or so says Brad Delong (see MR for the pertinent excerpt).\n\nGranted I've been a little distracted lately tussling in my little corner of the library, but I don't see a problem wi"
  },
  {
    "title": "more Economic Geography",
    "date": "2008-03-27",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/more-economic-geography/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/more-economic-geography/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "829",
    "excerpt": "Recessions spread geographically .\n\nThis picture of the effects of the 1985 drop in oil prices is interesting.  The light green states in 1985 are oil producing States put into recession by the change in oil price.  The "
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentence of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-03-25",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/sentence-of-enduring-value-9/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/sentence-of-enduring-value-9/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "828",
    "excerpt": "Yes, one sentence of enduring value: Those who view mathematical science, not merely as a vast body of abstract and immutable truths, whose intrinsic beauty, symmetry and logical completeness, when regarded in their conn"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Swiss",
    "date": "2008-03-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/the-swiss/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/the-swiss/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "827",
    "excerpt": "(h/t Roger Bourland )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentence of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-03-22",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/sentence-of-enduring-value-8/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/sentence-of-enduring-value-8/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "826",
    "excerpt": "I'm annoyed with this psychology that, if it were born into a world where spells and potions did work, would pine away for a world where household goods were abundantly produced by assembly lines. --- Eliezer Yudkowsky"
  },
  {
    "title": "Is there a standard capital utilization index?",
    "date": "2008-03-20",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/is-there-a-standard-capital-utilization-index/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/is-there-a-standard-capital-utilization-index/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "823",
    "excerpt": "If so, why isn't as well reported as the unemployment rate?\n\nAn \"out-there\" question: is there a measure of human capital utilization?  These days isn't this what we should really be worried about?"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2008-03-20",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-21/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-21/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "824",
    "excerpt": "Davis Professor Paul Bergin's (with Fed economist Reuven Glick) paper (pdf) on trade costs and oil prices is discussed at econbrowser .\n\nMy favorite line in the abstract: \"This time-variation [in price dispersion, a meas"
  },
  {
    "title": "The superiority of the google/blog juggernaut",
    "date": "2008-03-20",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/the-superiority-of-the-googleblog-juggernaut/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/the-superiority-of-the-googleblog-juggernaut/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "825",
    "excerpt": "Proof that anybody can learn anything from google and blogs."
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value: Appeal to Authority edition",
    "date": "2008-03-19",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/sentences-of-enduring-value-appeal-to-authority-edition/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/sentences-of-enduring-value-appeal-to-authority-edition/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "822",
    "excerpt": "All else equal, we may each prefer to do what is right, but when all else is not equal we often allow other considerations to weigh against morality.  After all, morality is only one of the many ends we pursue.  Yes we w"
  },
  {
    "title": "The many meanings of great",
    "date": "2008-03-18",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/the-many-meanings-of-great/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/the-many-meanings-of-great/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "819",
    "excerpt": "When lecturing, I often let enthusiasm get the best of me.  Interesting theoretical results and strange/noticeable empirical results are declared \"great!\" whether or not those results are normatively great things.\n\nFor e"
  },
  {
    "title": "Don't invest in the company you work for",
    "date": "2008-03-18",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/dont-invest-in-the-company-you-work-for/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/dont-invest-in-the-company-you-work-for/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "820",
    "excerpt": "Nor the major clients of your company.  If you can help it, that is. ((Most of my portfolio is stuck in vested shares in the private company I used to work for.))\n\nEven people that should know better don't follow this ad"
  },
  {
    "title": "The most important sentences I've read in a month",
    "date": "2008-03-16",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/the-most-important-sentences-ive-read-in-a-month/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/the-most-important-sentences-ive-read-in-a-month/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "818",
    "excerpt": "Of course, if there were no legal remedies against fraud, people would be more careful--but they would be too careful; they would incur high costs of self-protection. It is cheaper to punish fraud, just as it is cheaper "
  },
  {
    "title": "Science",
    "date": "2008-03-15",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/science/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/science/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "815",
    "excerpt": "This segment of the latest science bloggingheads contains an interesting definition of science .  In short: theory (a collection of hypotheses) suggests places to look for data and then data, once found, doesn't falsify "
  },
  {
    "title": "This is surprisingly unoffensive",
    "date": "2008-03-15",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/this-is-surprisingly-unoffensive/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/this-is-surprisingly-unoffensive/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "816",
    "excerpt": "This: This provides the core rationale of what I'll call, for short, the 'socialist' idea, going on to explain what I mean by it. This idea is that [wa: individual?] morality is not enough. (In wrong-headed versions of t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Oh, boy",
    "date": "2008-03-15",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/oh-boy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/oh-boy/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "817",
    "excerpt": "The man who offered this indictment of economics, Since the Industrial Revolution, however, we have entered a strange new world where economic theory is of little or no use in understanding differences in income across s"
  },
  {
    "title": "Oh, those silly economists",
    "date": "2008-03-13",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/oh-those-silly-economists/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/oh-those-silly-economists/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "814",
    "excerpt": "Economists dig incentives.  Ask one a question about behavior and the economist will first consider the incentives that are at work.\n\nEconomics is often chided for only caring about incentives.  There are other motives, "
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentence of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-03-12",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/sentence-of-enduring-value-7/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/sentence-of-enduring-value-7/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "810",
    "excerpt": "I see no interesting intrinsic moral distinction between brick- and other forms of laying. --- Will Wilkensen Wilkinsen Wilkinson"
  },
  {
    "title": "Yet Another Sentence of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-03-12",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/yet-another-sentence-of-enduring-value/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/yet-another-sentence-of-enduring-value/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "812",
    "excerpt": "For, in the abstract, we may envision an Olympian perfection of perfect beings in Washington doing the business of their employers, the people, but any of us who has ever been at a zoning meeting with our property at sta"
  },
  {
    "title": "Alms Watch 2007 2008",
    "date": "2008-03-12",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/alms-watch-2007-2008/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/alms-watch-2007-2008/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "813",
    "excerpt": "The book reviews, the \"real\" book reviews, are rolling in: Robert A. Margo says , So, in the end, should you read A Farewell to Alms? If you are into Big Think as a consumer or producer, the answer is a definite \"yes\" â€"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2008-03-11",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-20/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-20/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "809",
    "excerpt": "Borjas strikes back! [T]he finding of immigrant-native complementarity evaporates simply by removing high school students from the data (under the Ottaviano and Peri classification, currently enrolled high school juniors"
  },
  {
    "title": "Beautiful evidence",
    "date": "2008-03-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/beautiful-evidence/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/beautiful-evidence/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "808",
    "excerpt": "One of my favorite authors on the visual display of information is Edward Tufte .  Besides despensing great advice on presenting data, he's produced a series of beautiful books.  They're really picture books for the data"
  },
  {
    "title": "Economic Geography",
    "date": "2008-03-07",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/economic-geography/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/economic-geography/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "805",
    "excerpt": "This is neat .  Contrast the location of libraries (blue) against the location of bookstores (green). Tim Spalding, Librarything head honcho, suggests: Bookstores cluster together in the high-traffic center; public libra"
  },
  {
    "title": "Poverty and abortion",
    "date": "2008-03-07",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/poverty-and-abortion/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/poverty-and-abortion/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "807",
    "excerpt": "Here's a good discussion of the link between abortion and poverty .  The number of abortions (and pregnancies) skyrocketed after Roe v. Wade, but in the last couple of decades both numbers have declined.  Poverty has flu"
  },
  {
    "title": "Learn some economics, be entertained... (part III)",
    "date": "2008-03-06",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/learn-some-economics-be-entertained-part-iii/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/learn-some-economics-be-entertained-part-iii/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "800",
    "excerpt": "YouNotSneaky's at it again .  Why might prices be more stable under monopolies (and why might we care)?\n\nHere's my favorite line: Probably less explicitly but more importantly, when prices keep changing on you it means y"
  },
  {
    "title": "Tag!",
    "date": "2008-03-06",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/tag/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/tag/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "801",
    "excerpt": "Gabriel tagged me.  I have to: Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages). Open the book to page 123. Find the fifth sentence. Post the next three sentences. Tag five people. Let's see.  Right on top of Landes' Wea"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-03-06",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/sentences-of-enduring-value-8/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/sentences-of-enduring-value-8/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "802",
    "excerpt": "First, on general principles it’s not clear what one learns from very short-term movements in relative wages... Second, more specifically, the period since 1995 includes a major boom-bust cycle in high-technology indus"
  },
  {
    "title": "What's fair?",
    "date": "2008-03-05",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/whats-fair/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/whats-fair/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "799",
    "excerpt": "Suppose you and I got in a car accident and both suffered from total amnesia.  We're in a hospital somewhere, neither of us have identification, but luckily all of the deeds of our possessions were in the trunk of the ca"
  },
  {
    "title": "I can't help myself",
    "date": "2008-03-04",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/i-cant-help-myself/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/i-cant-help-myself/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "798",
    "excerpt": "By my calculations , even after tonights wins, Clinton has to get 61% of the vote in the remaining primaries to win the nomination.  Tonight is being narrated as a big win for Clinton and she only got 51-52% of the votes"
  },
  {
    "title": "No really guys, sometimes we really need you to Fisk it out",
    "date": "2008-03-02",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/no-really-guys-sometimes-we-really-need-you-to-fisk-it-out/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/no-really-guys-sometimes-we-really-need-you-to-fisk-it-out/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "797",
    "excerpt": "(This is the first installment in my \"Screaming at the Internet\" series of posts.)\n\nIf someone makes a point using scientific-y claims and you think they're wrong, don't go on and on, in platitudes, about how silly you t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Why didn't you say so?",
    "date": "2008-03-01",
    "url": "/writing/2008/03/why-didnt-you-say-so/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/03/why-didnt-you-say-so/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "796",
    "excerpt": "From a review of Erykah Badu's new album : Think Sly Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On filtered through the lens of left-field hip-hop, played at a Hindu death procession and recycled for a malfunctioning video game about "
  },
  {
    "title": "Dyson Critique Watch: Economic imperialism edition",
    "date": "2008-02-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/dyson-critique-watch-economic-imperialism-edition/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/dyson-critique-watch-economic-imperialism-edition/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "793",
    "excerpt": "Env-econ has a go at the \"sunspots cause warming\" theory."
  },
  {
    "title": "Humboldt County",
    "date": "2008-02-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/humboldt-county/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/humboldt-county/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "795",
    "excerpt": "I was born and grew up there and now its a movie .  The movie looks like it might  be pretty good.\n\nI can tell you that the movie, if the trailer is an indication, gives entirely the wrong impression about the weather in"
  },
  {
    "title": "A pictures worth a thousand words (or just one song)",
    "date": "2008-02-27",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/a-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words-or-just-one-song/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/a-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words-or-just-one-song/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "791",
    "excerpt": "This, I believe, is my brother and his girlfriend's song (you know, \"their song\"): (h/t information aesthetics )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Don’t talk back to Darth Vader",
    "date": "2008-02-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/don-e2-80-99t-talk-back-to-darth-vader/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/don%e2%80%99t-talk-back-to-darth-vader/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "787",
    "excerpt": "(h/t Twenty Sided )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Say what you will about capitalism...",
    "date": "2008-02-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/say-what-you-will-about-capitalism/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/say-what-you-will-about-capitalism/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "788",
    "excerpt": "... but at the very least it makes for an entertaining spectator sport : Starbucks, which last week announced 600 layoffs, plans to temporarily close its 7,100 U.S. stores on Tuesday for three hours of employee training."
  },
  {
    "title": "Liberal Nicene Creed",
    "date": "2008-02-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/liberal-nicene-creed/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/liberal-nicene-creed/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "789",
    "excerpt": "Paternalism is the use of coercion to force people to do or refrain from something against their will for their own good. Liberals of all stripes generally reject paternalism for reasons most lucidly laid out in J.S. Mil"
  },
  {
    "title": "Heh",
    "date": "2008-02-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/heh-4/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/heh-4/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "785",
    "excerpt": "Bayesian estimation is a likelihood-based method, in which the impact of facts and experience is blunted and smoothed by prejudice. --- Schalizi"
  },
  {
    "title": "heh redux",
    "date": "2008-02-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/heh-redux/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/heh-redux/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "786",
    "excerpt": "Will Wilkinson goes all reductio on Henry Farrell.  Henry says that people not donating money to the general fund isn't evidence that people don't like to give money to the government.\n\nApparently, collective action prob"
  },
  {
    "title": "Isabel Allende",
    "date": "2008-02-22",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/isabel-allende/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/isabel-allende/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "783",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Krugman's crusade",
    "date": "2008-02-21",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/krugmans-crusade/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/krugmans-crusade/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "781",
    "excerpt": "Why social democracy?  Its a great injustice in the world that smart people aren't valued by society as much as they think they should be, especially given they know better than anyone else how things should work.\n\nProof"
  },
  {
    "title": "Dyson Critique watch",
    "date": "2008-02-21",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/dyson-critique-watch/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/dyson-critique-watch/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "784",
    "excerpt": "The Dyson Critique (the Lucas Critique for the macro-climate) says that climate models that assume constant feedback effects with the increase of CO2 are unreliable predictors of climate change.  Here's another great dis"
  },
  {
    "title": "If human life is priceless...",
    "date": "2008-02-20",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/if-human-life-is-priceless/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/if-human-life-is-priceless/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "779",
    "excerpt": "... does human life have infinite value ?  Should we spend any amount of money to save someones life?  \n\nClearly the answer is no.  But here's a harder one:  If someone has a disease and we have the means to cure it with"
  },
  {
    "title": "Relative poverty?",
    "date": "2008-02-20",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/relative-poverty/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/relative-poverty/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "780",
    "excerpt": "Lane Kenworthy takes exception to Paul Krugman 's use of relative poverty rates to compare countries.  The idea is that every country has a different level of income below which they classify a family as poor.  Ken says "
  },
  {
    "title": "shheeeeeeeeeeeeeeet",
    "date": "2008-02-19",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/shheeeeeeeeeeeeeeet/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/shheeeeeeeeeeeeeeet/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "778",
    "excerpt": "For being the best TV show ever, I was hating what happened in the latest episode of The Wire.\n\nOh, if you don't have HBO on demand, you should get it.  New episodes of The Wire are available the Monday before they air o"
  },
  {
    "title": "Beyond description",
    "date": "2008-02-17",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/beyond-description/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/beyond-description/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "776",
    "excerpt": "For the first two years of grad school, I TA'd in the Anthropology department for a professor that taught Japanese culture.  While I had always been interested in Japan --- my original plan in grad school was to study Ja"
  },
  {
    "title": "Prepare to be shocked",
    "date": "2008-02-17",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/prepare-to-be-shocked/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/prepare-to-be-shocked/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "777",
    "excerpt": "Shocked I say! Judge Posner advocates higher taxes :"
  },
  {
    "title": "Woot!",
    "date": "2008-02-16",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/woot-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/woot-2/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "775",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "What is poverty?",
    "date": "2008-02-15",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/what-is-poverty/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/what-is-poverty/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "774",
    "excerpt": "Brad DeLong : So were workers in London in 1740 as miserably poor as workers in Milan, Leipzig, and Beijing, spending most if not all on their income on bare caloric maintenance in the form of the grain typical of their "
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-02-14",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/sentences-of-enduring-value-7/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/sentences-of-enduring-value-7/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "773",
    "excerpt": "Fan submission:\n\"Oberg knows an astronaut bent on orbital manslaughter could simply throw any number of switches to do the job, but he said the crews would be safer if the gun was locked up or left on Earth.\" --- Orlando"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-02-13",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/sentences-of-enduring-value-6/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/sentences-of-enduring-value-6/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "772",
    "excerpt": "Just in case you missed it, let me repeat: when it comes to the kind of intra-nation inequality that we should really care about (if we are going to worry about intra-nation inequality at all), we \"do not know.\"  As in \""
  },
  {
    "title": "Thinking on the margin is a binary decision",
    "date": "2008-02-12",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/thinking-on-the-margin-is-a-binary-decision/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/thinking-on-the-margin-is-a-binary-decision/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "771",
    "excerpt": "You either you do it or you don't.  Which is funny if you think about it.\n\nFunny in the same, British humor, sort of way this post about dog poo is funny.  Also, funny in the same way this post and these comments don't g"
  },
  {
    "title": "Its the consumption stupid!",
    "date": "2008-02-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/its-the-consumption-stupid/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/its-the-consumption-stupid/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "770",
    "excerpt": "A couple weeks ago I made the point that it is strange to look at changes in income inequality and make calls for redistribution.  First, its not clear that changes in inequality should matter for someone that cares abou"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentence of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-02-08",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/sentence-of-enduring-value-6/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/sentence-of-enduring-value-6/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "769",
    "excerpt": "\"Families are civilization factories.\"  --- the anti-Liberal fascist"
  },
  {
    "title": "Overnight Obama surge",
    "date": "2008-02-04",
    "url": "/writing/2008/02/overnight-obama-surge/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/02/overnight-obama-surge/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "767",
    "excerpt": "I woke up this morning and found sometime during the night, Obama's contract at intrade increased in price about 6 points.   A couple hours later, about 4am Eastern, Clinton lost almost 5 points.\n\nWhat the deuce?\n\nI didn"
  },
  {
    "title": "I just ran two million regressions elections",
    "date": "2008-01-31",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/i-just-ran-two-million-regressions-elections/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/i-just-ran-two-million-regressions-elections/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "763",
    "excerpt": "Actually, because Excel sucks, I only ran 13026 elections (xls, 4.5 megs).\n\nMy predictions for next Tuesday: Obama will definitely win Illinois He will probably win Colorado and Georgia (> 65% chance to win each) He will"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-01-31",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/sentences-of-enduring-value-5/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/sentences-of-enduring-value-5/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "764",
    "excerpt": "Just as I love democracy, so do I love Chiles in Nogada.  But I do not ask that Chiles in Nogada can solve most of the world's problems or for that matter get me to work in the morning. --- Tyler Cowen"
  },
  {
    "title": "This just in...",
    "date": "2008-01-31",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/this-just-in/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/this-just-in/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "765",
    "excerpt": "\"Consumer spending in the U.S. increased at the slowest pace in six months\" (( Bloomberg ))\n\nIn other news, sales of Christmas trees are at their lowest level since last January."
  },
  {
    "title": "Beethoven’s 5th",
    "date": "2008-01-31",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/beethoven-e2-80-99s-5th/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/beethoven%e2%80%99s-5th/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "766",
    "excerpt": "(h/t Roger Bourland )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Updated prez ordering",
    "date": "2008-01-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/updated-prez-ordering/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/updated-prez-ordering/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "760",
    "excerpt": "I've updated my presidential ordering .  I added a technology column (duh, why didn't I have that before) and I based my rankings in that category on this techcrunch post .  The results: John McCain (67%) Barack Obama (6"
  },
  {
    "title": "Holy crap!",
    "date": "2008-01-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/holy-crap/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/holy-crap/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "761",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentence of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-01-29",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/sentence-of-enduring-value-5/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/sentence-of-enduring-value-5/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "762",
    "excerpt": "It’s up in the air because McCain’s appeal to independents cancels the problems with being a Republican in 2008, while Hillary’s negatives cancel out the advantages of being the Democrat in 2008. --- fabio Well, en"
  },
  {
    "title": "The end of mercantilism in England",
    "date": "2008-01-27",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/the-end-of-mercantilism-in-england/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/the-end-of-mercantilism-in-england/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "758",
    "excerpt": "Over a hundred years before the Wealth of Nations , Sam Pepys : To another question of mine he made me fully understand that the old law of prohibiting bullion to be exported, is, and ever was a folly and an injury, rath"
  },
  {
    "title": "Hair shirt",
    "date": "2008-01-27",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/hair-shirt/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/hair-shirt/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "759",
    "excerpt": "Wikipedia has this article featured on its front page today.  Reading through the article I came across the phrase \"hair shirt\".  I vaguely recalled seeing this object being referred to at crooked timber and not knowing "
  },
  {
    "title": "Income inequality",
    "date": "2008-01-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/income-inequality/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/income-inequality/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "753",
    "excerpt": "Politicians screaming about inequality often provoke analysis like this .  The point being the rich have gotten much richer in the last couple of decades but the poor have had to scrape by with on a few points of real in"
  },
  {
    "title": "My favorite",
    "date": "2008-01-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/my-favorite/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/my-favorite/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "756",
    "excerpt": "(h/t the Internets)"
  },
  {
    "title": "He gives good speech",
    "date": "2008-01-26",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/he-gives-good-speech/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/he-gives-good-speech/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "757",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Disingenuity Watch",
    "date": "2008-01-25",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/disingenuity-watch/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/disingenuity-watch/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "751",
    "excerpt": "This argument is just about as convincing as the one gun control opponents use when they say \"guns do not kill people, people kill people.\" What we are supposed to conclude from this is that the appropriate way to deal w"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentence of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-01-25",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/sentence-of-enduring-value-4/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/sentence-of-enduring-value-4/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "752",
    "excerpt": "I would sacrifice 5 people (myself, my sister, and my cousins) today to save/ensure my grandfather was able to conceive our parents. --- Mason on a post on discount rates at Overcoming Bias."
  },
  {
    "title": "Nominee for MR post of the decade",
    "date": "2008-01-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/nominee-for-mr-post-of-the-decade/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/nominee-for-mr-post-of-the-decade/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "749",
    "excerpt": "Alex is the quiet half of the MR blog, but he usually makes up for his low quantity with high quality.  His most recent post, The Law of Unintended Consequences , is in response to this post at the Freakonomics.  Alex co"
  },
  {
    "title": "Prez rankings",
    "date": "2008-01-24",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/prez-rankings/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/prez-rankings/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "750",
    "excerpt": "Inspired by my earlier post and this guy , I've become more systematic in my rankings of the presidential candidates.  I've weighted the importance to me of 14 topics and then scored each of the candidates in each topic."
  },
  {
    "title": "A question",
    "date": "2008-01-22",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/a-question/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/a-question/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "748",
    "excerpt": "Ok, two.  Where the hell do social democrats get their marching orders?  ((A hint, I think, is provided by this take-down of Paul Krugman [ pdf ]))  And what the hell does a shorter work week have to do with the environm"
  },
  {
    "title": "Atone",
    "date": "2008-01-21",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/atone/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/atone/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "747",
    "excerpt": "I saw Atonement this afternoon.  It was way too long, but I liked it.  A romance got in the way of an author's coming of age story in which she discovers the power, both good and evil, of story telling.  Its set during W"
  },
  {
    "title": "Humboldt State in the News",
    "date": "2008-01-17",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/humboldt-state-in-the-news/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/humboldt-state-in-the-news/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "746",
    "excerpt": "Woot! Too bad it was in the context of bitching about Schools of Education where most of our k-12 teachers are trained: Instead of competition and diversity in the education schools, we confront what Hirsch calls the “"
  },
  {
    "title": "Ideas not Institutions, part 2",
    "date": "2008-01-15",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/ideas-not-institutions-part-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/ideas-not-institutions-part-2/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "744",
    "excerpt": "[T]he Malthusian epoch is governed by economic forces that will inevitably generate industrialisation and a transition to sustained economic growth. The rapidity of this process may be influenced by different factors inc"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bill Clinton is in town",
    "date": "2008-01-15",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/bill-clinton-is-in-town/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/bill-clinton-is-in-town/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "745",
    "excerpt": "Yes, President Clinton is in town .  I can hardly contain myself... rather, tear myself from my desk.\n\nThis only makes me want to list all the people I'd rather see President than Hillary (subject to change as the facts "
  },
  {
    "title": "Poverty and young adults",
    "date": "2008-01-14",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/poverty-and-young-adults/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/poverty-and-young-adults/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "743",
    "excerpt": "In response to this post over at Volokh Conspiracy , commenter Paul says, \"One of th[e] adults making \"$7/day\" last year was my 18 year old daughter who filed a tax return in order to get her withheld income taxes refund"
  },
  {
    "title": "What's with that?",
    "date": "2008-01-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/whats-with-that/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/whats-with-that/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "733",
    "excerpt": "Often times I'll be listening to a trade seminar and the presenter makes the following argument: Here's an economy with some friction (e.g. trade restrictions) Here's an economy without said friction, see how its best Th"
  },
  {
    "title": "6000 words (I hope)",
    "date": "2008-01-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/6000-words-i-hope/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/6000-words-i-hope/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "737",
    "excerpt": "(mouse over the images)"
  },
  {
    "title": "Nonzero sum",
    "date": "2008-01-10",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/nonzero-sum/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/nonzero-sum/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "742",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2008-01-06",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/sentences-of-enduring-value-4/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/sentences-of-enduring-value-4/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "732",
    "excerpt": "I hate politics.  Its the only sport in which you have to pick your favorite team by comparing the coaches. --- Kevin Ambrosini after inadvertently switching on the Republican debates while flipping through the channels\n"
  },
  {
    "title": "What I do all day",
    "date": "2008-01-04",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/what-i-do-all-day/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/what-i-do-all-day/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "730",
    "excerpt": "Step 1: Go to Google Scholar and type in a keyword query or a citation (e.g. \"Krueger and Lindahl 2001\") Step 2: Browse results and click on \"all x versions >>\" to get a free version of the paper (usually the ones hosted"
  },
  {
    "title": "Things about school that I learned in school today",
    "date": "2008-01-03",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/things-about-school-that-i-learned-in-school-today/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/things-about-school-that-i-learned-in-school-today/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "728",
    "excerpt": "Things about school that I learned in school today ((BTW, class was held at my desk at home in my PJ's today due to inclement weather and the insistence of the UCD facilities bureaucrats that classes of one don't deserve"
  },
  {
    "title": "First nominee for essay of the year",
    "date": "2008-01-02",
    "url": "/writing/2008/01/first-nominee-for-essay-of-the-year/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2008/01/first-nominee-for-essay-of-the-year/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "727",
    "excerpt": "Daniel Kahneman on the hedonic treadmill. Actually, check out all of the essays at that site.  Edge asked about a billion of the world's smartest people what issue they changed their minds about.  Here's an essay by Free"
  },
  {
    "title": "Christmas fire",
    "date": "2007-12-27",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/christmas-fire/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/christmas-fire/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "725",
    "excerpt": "This is a neat picture: Its of a fire that burned down an old feed store in my home town on Christmas.  My step-dad is in the volunteer fire department and helped to put it out.  Nobody, as far as I know, was hurt and no"
  },
  {
    "title": "Best economics movie EVAR!",
    "date": "2007-12-27",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/best-economics-movie-evar/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/best-economics-movie-evar/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "726",
    "excerpt": "Because I can't think of any others (Wall Street?  Other People's Money?  Coal Miner's Daughter?), I'll second the nomination of Being There as the best economics movie of all time.\n\nNow don't let that scare you away fro"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-12-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-19/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-19/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "723",
    "excerpt": "Clark on peak oil .  That's right.  Peak oil.  At least he's sticking to his sweet-spot academic subject... The economy would withstand enormous increases in energy costs with modest damage because energy is even now so "
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2007-12-24",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/sentences-of-enduring-value-3/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/sentences-of-enduring-value-3/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "722",
    "excerpt": "Someone should do behavioral economics studies on groups of autistic individual. Would surely validate the mid-20th century microeconomic consensus. --- razib"
  },
  {
    "title": "Kinda Dorky Nerd God",
    "date": "2007-12-19",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/kinda-dorky-nerd-god/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/kinda-dorky-nerd-god/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "718",
    "excerpt": "That's me. (h/t uber Env-Econ Nerds )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Links",
    "date": "2007-12-19",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/links/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/links/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "719",
    "excerpt": "To establish my Nerd God street cred, here's some links: Atheist chat : Hitchens is on fire, Dawkins comes off assholish (surprise!) and dogmatic (ironic!), Dennett more pragmatic but a bit senile and I don't know who th"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2007-12-19",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/sentences-of-enduring-value-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/sentences-of-enduring-value-2/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "720",
    "excerpt": "We enjoy good food, music, the company of family, gossip, socialization and the broader succor of our community.  These are not social constructions, they are are the core of our humanity, and any belief system or model "
  },
  {
    "title": "Taking the debate to the next level",
    "date": "2007-12-19",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/taking-the-debate-to-the-next-level/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/taking-the-debate-to-the-next-level/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "721",
    "excerpt": "e.g.:\n\n\n\n(h/t gristmill )"
  },
  {
    "title": "To which Nordhaus replies:",
    "date": "2007-12-18",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/to-which-nordhaus-replies/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/to-which-nordhaus-replies/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "716",
    "excerpt": "\"Gawd-damn-it-quit-comparing-North Dakota(pop. 600k)-to-California (pop. 30m)\""
  },
  {
    "title": "A sparkly!",
    "date": "2007-12-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/a-sparkly/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/a-sparkly/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "711",
    "excerpt": "Google has a new chart api that's pretty full featured.  Here's a chart of some prices in Philadelphia from a project I'm working on with Prof. Lindert: Pretty neat. Go build some of your own."
  },
  {
    "title": "Dexter",
    "date": "2007-12-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/dexter/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/dexter/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "712",
    "excerpt": "Yes, Dexter is awesome and the second season was an order of magnitude better than the first, the first season being already awesome.\n\nI do have to say The Wire comes closer to being the best TV show of all time, though."
  },
  {
    "title": "Grammar",
    "date": "2007-12-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/grammar/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/grammar/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "713",
    "excerpt": "\"A well educated Electorate, being necessary to self-governance in a free State, the right of the people to keep and read Books, shall not be infringed.\"\n\nWhat does this sentence mean?  It seems obvious that it doesn't m"
  },
  {
    "title": "Finally!",
    "date": "2007-12-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/finally/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/finally/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "715",
    "excerpt": ">7k on dtd...  I think I'm done now."
  },
  {
    "title": "HDI",
    "date": "2007-12-16",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/hdi/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/hdi/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "708",
    "excerpt": "Apparently, we're talking about the UN Human Development Index this week... the god's demand it.\n\nSo, on the theme of \"gawd-damn-it-quit-comparing-Iceland (pop. 300k)-to-the-U.S. (pop. 300m)\", here's the HDI by states: C"
  },
  {
    "title": "My (ex-)favorite Christmas song",
    "date": "2007-12-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/my-ex-favorite-christmas-song/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/my-ex-favorite-christmas-song/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "705",
    "excerpt": "Is \"Oh Holy Night\"...  until I finish this play list .  The \"fall on your knees\" part really hits me in my proto-religious solarplexes...\n\n... you can take the boy out of the Church, but you can't take the Church out of "
  },
  {
    "title": "Its much easier to go along with the crowd",
    "date": "2007-12-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/its-much-easier-to-go-along-with-the-crowd/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/its-much-easier-to-go-along-with-the-crowd/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "706",
    "excerpt": "Sometimes social facts are social facts because its easier for everyone to just agree with everyone else. Example : There is nothing wrong with being gay. But having a minority sexual preference by definition has costs: "
  },
  {
    "title": "Reducing CO2 emissions by 75% will be painful, right?",
    "date": "2007-12-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/reducing-co2-emissions-by-75-will-be-painful-right/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/reducing-co2-emissions-by-75-will-be-painful-right/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "707",
    "excerpt": "Wrong. BTW, I don't think Quiggin is clear on this point: he's not saying that \"we\" ((You like those quotes Gabriel?)) have to pressure airlines to upgrade their fleets or \"we\" have to start planning fewer but longer vac"
  },
  {
    "title": "Stylized facts",
    "date": "2007-12-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/stylized-facts/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/stylized-facts/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "704",
    "excerpt": "From McElreath and Boyd (2007), two evolutionary biologists somethings ((They're both in Antropology departments)): This result ((The result he's talking about is the fact that even with very low amounts of migration (ju"
  },
  {
    "title": "Alms Watch 2007",
    "date": "2007-12-11",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/alms-watch-2007-8/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/alms-watch-2007-8/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "703",
    "excerpt": "The Author speaks .  Excerpt: The book has provoked strong reactions: praised as ambitious and innovative, denounced as tendentious, derivative, or even “irritating.”\n\nWhile being vilified on one side as a “social "
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2007-12-10",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/sentence-of-enduring-values/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/sentence-of-enduring-values/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "702",
    "excerpt": "(Extremely depressing edition) One of the most disturbing, I think perhaps the most disturbing fact in our whole book is that black students coming from families earning over 70,000 are doing worse on their SATS, on aver"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentence of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2007-12-08",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/sentence-of-enduring-value-3/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/sentence-of-enduring-value-3/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "701",
    "excerpt": "For those interested in gaining insight into our own problems and how to solve them, the discussion is valuable, but without synthetic explanationswe are reduced to possibly over-fitting historical circumstances to our o"
  },
  {
    "title": "I just did something funny",
    "date": "2007-12-07",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/i-just-did-something-funny/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/i-just-did-something-funny/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "700",
    "excerpt": "I usually ride my bike to school and when I come home, I park the bike unlocked in the street accessible car port.  The key thing: I don't lock my bike.\n\nThis morning I had a meeting with a professor and I left kind of e"
  },
  {
    "title": "The second amendment as social fact",
    "date": "2007-12-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/the-second-amendment-as-social-fact/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/the-second-amendment-as-social-fact/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "698",
    "excerpt": "This post by Cass Sunstein (I think) reminded me of that thing I was talking about last week .  Paraphrasing myself: \"social facts are different than physical facts... blah blah blah... one of the things that makes them "
  },
  {
    "title": "Yelling at the Internet",
    "date": "2007-12-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/yelling-at-the-internet-3/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/yelling-at-the-internet-3/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "699",
    "excerpt": "OMG, Eliezer!!1!"
  },
  {
    "title": "A jest",
    "date": "2007-12-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/a-jest/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/a-jest/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "697",
    "excerpt": "A JEST.\n\nIt was asked of a painter why, since he made such beautiful figures,\nwhich were but dead things, his children were so ugly; to which the\npainter replied that he made his pictures by day, and his children\nby nigh"
  },
  {
    "title": "American exceptionalism",
    "date": "2007-12-03",
    "url": "/writing/2007/12/american-exceptionalism/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/12/american-exceptionalism/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "696",
    "excerpt": "Growing up a red-blooded American, I believed America was a special place, a proud beacon shining the light of freedom upon humanity... or something.  Anyway, I listened to Rush Limbaugh.\n\nThen I went to Berkeley and the"
  },
  {
    "title": "Geography Bee",
    "date": "2007-11-28",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/geography-bee/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/geography-bee/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "694",
    "excerpt": "Try your mad geography skilz with this game .  I got to level 10.  Speaking of games, I got 6470 on Desktop Tower Defense last night (UPDATE: 6644 this afternoon... and I thought I was addicted to coffee)."
  },
  {
    "title": "Subsidize Dilbert!",
    "date": "2007-11-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/subsidize-dilbert/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/subsidize-dilbert/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "693",
    "excerpt": "This makes me think the sweet spot for fame --- the peak of the popularity Kuznet's curve, if you will, trading off exposure for income --- is at a lower income level  on the internet than in offline media.  Legacy media"
  },
  {
    "title": "Ethical truth",
    "date": "2007-11-24",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/ethical-truth/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/ethical-truth/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "692",
    "excerpt": "I just think the idea that ethical truths are universal and timeless is just silly.  Take this question from \"Ask Philosophers\" :  \"Once capital punishment was right and fornication was wrong. Now the reverse seems gener"
  },
  {
    "title": "Selling ideas",
    "date": "2007-11-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/selling-ideas/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/selling-ideas/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "690",
    "excerpt": "All we sell in SantaLand are photos.  People sit upon Santa's lap and pose for a picture.  The Photo Elf hands them a slip of paper with a number printed along the top.  The form is filled out by another elf and the pict"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-11-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-18/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-18/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "691",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Lindert's work on pre-modern inequality is discussed by Tim Harford in the Financial Times . The US, as the richest society in history, is therefore potentially the most unequal in history. The US population could "
  },
  {
    "title": "Meter = Yard",
    "date": "2007-11-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/meter-yard/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/meter-yard/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "689",
    "excerpt": "(Funniest Comment I've Read Today) First, you keep saying that \"there are no human races. If you compare genetic variation within each of the so-called races with other populations, there is more vriation within group th"
  },
  {
    "title": "Phew?",
    "date": "2007-11-16",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/phew/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/phew/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "688",
    "excerpt": "Sidr."
  },
  {
    "title": "Why Clinton won't win the primary",
    "date": "2007-11-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/why-clinton-wont-win-the-primary/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/why-clinton-wont-win-the-primary/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "686",
    "excerpt": "Tiny speak. I dunno, but here's Lessig on Clinton: But the part that gets me the most about Senator Clinton is the eager embrace of spinelessness. I don't get this in Democrats generally. I never have, but I especially d"
  },
  {
    "title": "Funniest sentence I’ve read today",
    "date": "2007-11-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/funniest-sentence-i-e2-80-99ve-read-today-5/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/funniest-sentence-i%e2%80%99ve-read-today-5/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "683",
    "excerpt": "\"I want to make it crystal clear that the \"centrism\" here is entirely about gesture, tone, and affect. It's got nothing to do with substance.\" --- David Roberts at Gristmill As if the whole \"left\"/\"right\" dichotomy isn't"
  },
  {
    "title": "Alms Watch 2007",
    "date": "2007-11-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/alms-watch-2007-7/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/alms-watch-2007-7/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "684",
    "excerpt": "The heavies are weighing in on Farewell to Alms.  Not unexpectedly, they like the data but hate the underling thesis.  \n\nFirst, Prof. Clark goes head to head with Prof. Robinson (of MIT Harvard... like there's a differen"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bangladesh",
    "date": "2007-11-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/bangladesh/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/bangladesh/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "685",
    "excerpt": "ah-oh."
  },
  {
    "title": "Fertility and economic status",
    "date": "2007-11-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/fertility-and-economic-status/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/fertility-and-economic-status/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "687",
    "excerpt": "Kings and Emperors were rich, but not all the Rich were Kings and Emperors.  So, it follows that historical evidence showing Kings and Emperors had lots of kids doesn't tell us much about whether or not the Rich had lots"
  },
  {
    "title": "Honestly, I have no idea why they can't win football games...",
    "date": "2007-11-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/honestly-i-have-no-idea-why-they-cant-win-football-games/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/honestly-i-have-no-idea-why-they-cant-win-football-games/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "681",
    "excerpt": "... with support like this:"
  },
  {
    "title": "We’re the ones who’ve made them crawl on their stomachs...",
    "date": "2007-11-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/we-e2-80-99re-the-ones-who-e2-80-99ve-made-them-crawl-on-their-stomachs/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/we%e2%80%99re-the-ones-who%e2%80%99ve-made-them-crawl-on-their-stomachs/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "682",
    "excerpt": "...and now we’re the ones to pick them up. Now that is some of the most encouraging venom to be spit my direction I've ever heard."
  },
  {
    "title": "woohoo",
    "date": "2007-11-09",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/woohoo/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/woohoo/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "679",
    "excerpt": "Google Reader implemented blogrolls .  This means its much less tedious to coordinate the list of the sites I'm actually reading and my blogroll.\n\nI like the little \"read more...\" link.\n\nUPDATE: I've also added an \"inter"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"common sense revolts at the idea\"",
    "date": "2007-11-09",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/common-sense-revolts-at-the-idea/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/common-sense-revolts-at-the-idea/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "680",
    "excerpt": "What a great line from a 1946 Supreme Court opinion deciding property owners don't own the airspace above their land. Larry Lessig has a good talk about property rights and copy rights in general.  He makes two great poi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Entrepreneurship?",
    "date": "2007-11-08",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/entrepreneurship/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/entrepreneurship/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "678",
    "excerpt": "Is this a good model of entrepreneurship? Every so often, a dwarf in this game will fall into a strange mood. They will seek out a specific workshop and begin gathering items from all over your fortress. When they gather"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-11-07",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-17/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-17/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "677",
    "excerpt": "Peri on complimentary immigrants (again). ((I get the sense that the immigration debate is heating up in the UK... they're worried about Poles not Mexicans... it would be interesting to see the debate outside the context"
  },
  {
    "title": "wow",
    "date": "2007-11-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/wow-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/wow-2/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "676",
    "excerpt": "Click here and take a look at the video."
  },
  {
    "title": "California",
    "date": "2007-11-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/california/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/california/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "672",
    "excerpt": "(h/t Roger Bourland )"
  },
  {
    "title": "I want this guy to be making lots of money off his comic...",
    "date": "2007-11-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/i-want-this-guy-to-be-making-lots-of-money-off-his-comic/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/i-want-this-guy-to-be-making-lots-of-money-off-his-comic/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "673",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "heh",
    "date": "2007-11-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/heh-3/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/heh-3/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "674",
    "excerpt": "\"If all pharmaceutical companies were forced to serve the public at zero profit, that would lower US health care expenditures from 1.3 trillion to 1.3 trillion.\" -- Russ Roberts"
  },
  {
    "title": "Cock fighting",
    "date": "2007-11-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/cock-fighting/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/cock-fighting/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "675",
    "excerpt": "[B]eing directed by sight of bills upon the walls, I did go to Shoe Lane to see a cocke-fighting at a new pit there, a sport I was never at in my life; but, Lord! to see the strange variety of people, from Parliament-man"
  },
  {
    "title": "They have words",
    "date": "2007-11-04",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/they-have-words/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/they-have-words/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "670",
    "excerpt": "Gavin uses words to describe music after warning us words shouldn't be used to describe music: She plays for herself. She slips away somewhere and even the rain feels shy about interrupting. The shocking sound from my ca"
  },
  {
    "title": "Yelling at the Internet",
    "date": "2007-11-04",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/yelling-at-the-internet-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/yelling-at-the-internet-2/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "671",
    "excerpt": "Eliezer , your damn posts are really, really good!"
  },
  {
    "title": "Measuring discrimination",
    "date": "2007-11-03",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/measuring-discrimination/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/measuring-discrimination/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "669",
    "excerpt": "Ok.  So the Marxists/Pluralists/Heterodoxies say that mainstream economics doesn't say anything about the role of Power in society.  Fine.  I'll say it.  Power has a role in society.  ((Phew, that felt good.))\n\nEvery fir"
  },
  {
    "title": "Yelling at the Internet",
    "date": "2007-11-02",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/yelling-at-the-internet/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/yelling-at-the-internet/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "668",
    "excerpt": "Eliezer , you're damn posts are too long for this lazy blog reader!"
  },
  {
    "title": "View from the other side?",
    "date": "2007-11-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/11/view-from-the-other-side/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/11/view-from-the-other-side/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "667",
    "excerpt": "I can't tell if I'm missing the substance in this article about Milton Friedman or if there just isn't any there.  What is one to do with non-sequiturs like this one, for example: A rigorous edifice was of course never e"
  },
  {
    "title": "Would you have expected this if countries had the same dgp?",
    "date": "2007-10-31",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/would-you-have-expected-this-if-countries-had-the-same-dgp/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/would-you-have-expected-this-if-countries-had-the-same-dgp/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "659",
    "excerpt": "While YNS! and EI generate fake inequality data, here's the real deal: The gini data (xls) are from the world bank and the income data (xls) are from the penn world tables (oh, that's log income per capita).\n\nHere's the "
  },
  {
    "title": "China has good institutions?",
    "date": "2007-10-31",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/china-has-good-institutions/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/china-has-good-institutions/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "665",
    "excerpt": "So says Robert Samuelson in his Washington Post review of Farewell to Alms.  \n\n\"More important, China's recent, astonishing expansion (a fact that he barely mentions) demonstrates that economic policies and institutions "
  },
  {
    "title": "Models in which RE is a parsimonious assumption",
    "date": "2007-10-31",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/models-in-which-re-is-a-parsimonious-assumption/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/models-in-which-re-is-a-parsimonious-assumption/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "666",
    "excerpt": "Kids on Halloween."
  },
  {
    "title": "Spuriousness",
    "date": "2007-10-30",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/spuriousness/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/spuriousness/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "657",
    "excerpt": "YouNotSneaky! and Gabriel tag team on a cool exercise.  Their point, I think, is that we shouldn't be surprised when measures of skewness are correlated with averages.\n\nBut I'm too busy writing my dissertation on the dee"
  },
  {
    "title": "Brilliant Things Megan Said",
    "date": "2007-10-29",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/brilliant-things-megan-said/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/brilliant-things-megan-said/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "656",
    "excerpt": "\"Memo to suburban voucher opponents who \"support public education\": you're already sending your kid to private school. You're just confused because your tuition fees came bundled with granite countertops and hardwood flo"
  },
  {
    "title": "Two observations about science and scientists",
    "date": "2007-10-27",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/two-observations-about-science-and-scientists/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/two-observations-about-science-and-scientists/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "655",
    "excerpt": "First observation: I often hear someone defend their field of research by saying something like \"hey, its not useful today, but someday someone will figure out a use for it.\"  Most recently I heard a budding choice theor"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-10-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-16/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-16/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "654",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Knittel on gas prices .\n\n(h/t egghead )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Cowan Cowen at UCD",
    "date": "2007-10-25",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/cowan-at-ucd/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/cowan-at-ucd/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "652",
    "excerpt": "I forgot to mention that Tyler Cowen came and talked at UCD last Thursday.  Earlier in the afternoon he had the stage all to himself to talk about why people blog ((its a loss leader)) and why people read blogs ((to get "
  },
  {
    "title": "Funniest sentence I’ve read today",
    "date": "2007-10-25",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/funniest-sentence-i-e2-80-99ve-read-today-4/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/funniest-sentence-i%e2%80%99ve-read-today-4/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "653",
    "excerpt": "\"Which seems highly relevant, since Inglimo would have no defense if he got his client off.\"\n--- \"arthur\" commenting at VC"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentence of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2007-10-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/sentence-of-enduring-value-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/sentence-of-enduring-value-2/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "651",
    "excerpt": "\"Baby Boomers... by the way, destroyed the effectiveness of protest by creating a protest culture which emphasized alienation from, rather than solidarity with, the larger culture.\"\n--- Megan McArdle (I'm thinking about "
  },
  {
    "title": "Clark take-down",
    "date": "2007-10-21",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/clark-take-down/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/clark-take-down/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "650",
    "excerpt": "Standard rationalizing models, those that have agents optimizing their own material outcomes, don't explain all economic facts, especially those dealing with the very, very long run.  This has obliged many economist to a"
  },
  {
    "title": "Funniest sentence I’ve read today",
    "date": "2007-10-18",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/funniest-sentence-i-e2-80-99ve-read-today-3/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/funniest-sentence-i%e2%80%99ve-read-today-3/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "649",
    "excerpt": "\"This sort of thing drives me crazy because it's just so thoughtlessly arbitrary -- intellectual empty calories.\"\n--- Economist blogger Actually, the whole post is worth it.  He (she? it?) riffs on the idea that negative"
  },
  {
    "title": "GDP growth! Huh!",
    "date": "2007-10-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/gdp-growth-huh/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/gdp-growth-huh/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "648",
    "excerpt": "Good god y'all. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again.\n\n...\n\nOr wait. Its good for something .  \n\nMaybe we economists should learn from those environmentalists and reframe the debate.  GDP isn't a measure"
  },
  {
    "title": "Comments",
    "date": "2007-10-16",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/comments/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/comments/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "647",
    "excerpt": "Of the 151 blogs I read, I only visit the comment section in 4 of them (plus my friends' blogs): MR , Crooked Timber , slashdot and Volokh Conspiracy .  Its so often the case that comments degenerate into name calling or"
  },
  {
    "title": "(X => Y) does not imply (!X => !Y)",
    "date": "2007-10-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/x-y-does-not-imply-x-y/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/x-y-does-not-imply-x-y/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "643",
    "excerpt": "God damn it! BTW, I'm really liking Rodrik's book ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Remember ARPANET?",
    "date": "2007-10-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/remember-arpanet/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/remember-arpanet/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "644",
    "excerpt": "The military might be overcoming some high fixed costs for us again.\n\nShould I not worry about changing all my light bulbs then?\n\n(h/t /. )"
  },
  {
    "title": "A coward and a cheat",
    "date": "2007-10-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/a-coward-and-a-cheat/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/a-coward-and-a-cheat/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "645",
    "excerpt": "A couple weeks ago, Delong called Mankiw a coward .  That was fun.\n\nNow Delong thinks Mankiw is being disingenuous because he reports imperfect statistics that ignore dynamic issues. Nobody's perfect."
  },
  {
    "title": "Conspicuous consumption != \"Bad for the environment\"",
    "date": "2007-10-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/conspicuous-consumption-bad-for-the-environment/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/conspicuous-consumption-bad-for-the-environment/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "646",
    "excerpt": "I'm cranky today, but what's with lumping in all bourgeois consumption patterns with consumption that's \"bad for the environment\"?  That an SVU driver drinks bottled water doesn't automatically mean it kills baby Polar B"
  },
  {
    "title": "Speaking of not being a fascist",
    "date": "2007-10-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/speaking-of-not-being-a-fascist/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/speaking-of-not-being-a-fascist/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "642",
    "excerpt": "Something's very wrong with the world when Dani Rodrik is accused of being a conservative : I was at a conference yesterday on “Global Commerce and the National Interest” convened by Robert Kuttner and the Sloan Foun"
  },
  {
    "title": "Tom Tancredo not Barack Obama",
    "date": "2007-10-11",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/tom-tancredo-not-barack-obama/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/tom-tancredo-not-barack-obama/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "640",
    "excerpt": "Who's Tom Tancredo?  Heck if I know, but apparently I should vote for him and not Barack Obama (who was my choice before the quiz).  These sorts of quizzes always make me out to be some sort of fascist...  I swear I'm no"
  },
  {
    "title": "Funniest sentence(s) I’ve read today",
    "date": "2007-10-09",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/funniest-sentences-i-e2-80-99ve-read-today/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/funniest-sentences-i%e2%80%99ve-read-today/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "639",
    "excerpt": "Humanity does not care for freedom. The mass of the people realize they are not up to it: what they want is being fed, led, amused, and above everything, drilled. But they do care for the phrase. --- Schumpeter"
  },
  {
    "title": "Alms Watch 2007",
    "date": "2007-10-08",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/alms-watch-2007-6/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/alms-watch-2007-6/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "638",
    "excerpt": "Bryan Caplan continues to misunderstand Clark's take on Malthusian Logic.  Increasing populations lead to greater number of innovations, but populations before 1800 grew very, very slowly ((Also, Kremer's observation tha"
  },
  {
    "title": "Funniest sentence I’ve read today",
    "date": "2007-10-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/funniest-sentence-i-e2-80-99ve-read-today-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/funniest-sentence-i%e2%80%99ve-read-today-2/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "636",
    "excerpt": "It's early, but this is a good one: It takes some chutzpah to argue that intelligence is not heritable, and variant--frankly, I don't know why these people are arguing with me when they could be teaching their dog nuclea"
  },
  {
    "title": "Ideas not Institutions, part 1",
    "date": "2007-10-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/ideas-not-institutions-part-1/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/ideas-not-institutions-part-1/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "633",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Clark gave an interview the other day at the Intrepid Liberal Journal blog.  Here's Clark discussing what national and international governments should (and shouldn't) do to help those places stuck in Malthusian Tr"
  },
  {
    "title": "Your cause of sorrow/ Must not be measured by his worth, for then/ It hath no end.",
    "date": "2007-10-04",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/your-cause-of-sorrow-must-not-be-measured-by-his-worth-for-then-it-hath-no-end/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/your-cause-of-sorrow-must-not-be-measured-by-his-worth-for-then-it-hath-no-end/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "635",
    "excerpt": "Christopher Hitchens : As one who used to advocate strongly for the liberation of Iraq (perhaps more strongly than I knew), I have grown coarsened and sickened by the degeneration of the struggle: by the sordid news of c"
  },
  {
    "title": "Markets in everything: spectacularly beautiful girl addition",
    "date": "2007-10-03",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/markets-in-everything-spectacularly-beautiful-girl-addition/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/markets-in-everything-spectacularly-beautiful-girl-addition/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "634",
    "excerpt": "Craigslist posting ((BTW, I searched but couldn't find this posting at the NY craigslist...  a google search only brings up other blogs that have posted this text.  Conclusion, this is a funny, but fake, cragslist post.)"
  },
  {
    "title": "This company contained the cowardly",
    "date": "2007-10-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/10/this-company-contained-the-cowardly/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/10/this-company-contained-the-cowardly/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "632",
    "excerpt": "Brad Delong (who has been really good lately, at least in his economics-only feed) points to this excerpt from The Inferno : Ed elli a me: «Questo misero modo\ntegnon l'anime triste di coloro\nche visser sanza 'nfamia e s"
  },
  {
    "title": "Hey strippers...",
    "date": "2007-09-30",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/hey-strippers/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/hey-strippers/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "631",
    "excerpt": "... to maximize your profits, strip when you're ovulating .\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNow... I go back to writing."
  },
  {
    "title": "Why nations?",
    "date": "2007-09-27",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/why-nations/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/why-nations/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "623",
    "excerpt": "I agree with The Economist and Arnold Kling that the nation seems to be an arbitrary unit of measurement when considering economic outcomes.\n\nTo the extent economics is about efficiency, then we should talk about increas"
  },
  {
    "title": "Cognitive dissonence and economists",
    "date": "2007-09-27",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/cognitive-dissonence-and-economists/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/cognitive-dissonence-and-economists/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "630",
    "excerpt": "I have the flu.  That sucks.  But this discussion of an interview between Bjorn Lomborg and Bill Maher doesn't."
  },
  {
    "title": "Less productive at what?",
    "date": "2007-09-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/less-productive-at-what/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/less-productive-at-what/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "626",
    "excerpt": "Back before the good 'ol days, even before there was an Old West, everyone was stuck in what's called a Malthusian trap.  The idea is that because technological innovations happened so rarely, people's reproductive procl"
  },
  {
    "title": "Job listings OR Checking if my other brother reads my blog",
    "date": "2007-09-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/job-listings-or-checking-if-my-other-brother-reads-my-blog/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/job-listings-or-checking-if-my-other-brother-reads-my-blog/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "627",
    "excerpt": "Interesting job posting here ."
  },
  {
    "title": "This can't be right",
    "date": "2007-09-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/this-cant-be-right/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/this-cant-be-right/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "628",
    "excerpt": "Comparing the two archives , I've been blogging longer than the folks at MR .\n\nUp until about 5 minutes ago I would have sworn on all the holy books that I was inspired to start blogging because of MR. Here's my early ex"
  },
  {
    "title": "Funniest sentence I’ve read today",
    "date": "2007-09-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/funniest-sentence-i-e2-80-99ve-read-today/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/funniest-sentence-i%e2%80%99ve-read-today/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "629",
    "excerpt": "This first sentence is just here for all the bloggers who want to read the first sentence of the post and then go write an angry rebuttal of my claim that poor Americans should have to torture puppies in order to be elig"
  },
  {
    "title": "Prizes or Grants?",
    "date": "2007-09-25",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/prizes-or-grants/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/prizes-or-grants/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "625",
    "excerpt": "Tyler Cowan talks at Google about the Google X Lunar Prize and about when donors should create prizes or give grants.\n\n\n\nThis, and Cowan's book , is a great example of economics thinking at work.  He uses history and the"
  },
  {
    "title": "Might there be some value in the conservative virtues?",
    "date": "2007-09-24",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/might-there-be-some-value-in-the-conservative-virtues/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/might-there-be-some-value-in-the-conservative-virtues/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "624",
    "excerpt": "Answer , \"balance\". Response, \"re-balance\".\n\nNeither Douthat's answer or Wilkinson's response address Haidt's original point about conservative virtues: \"surveys have long shown that religious believers in the United Sta"
  },
  {
    "title": "Where did I go wrong?",
    "date": "2007-09-22",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/where-did-i-go-wrong/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/where-did-i-go-wrong/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "622",
    "excerpt": "Or did I go wrong? Is it *still* too early to tell?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Education as signaling",
    "date": "2007-09-21",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/education-as-signaling/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/education-as-signaling/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "619",
    "excerpt": "If you needed evidence that higher education is just about signaling quality rather than actually, you know, improving it, here it is .  The Ivy League schools have the smartest incoming freshman but they are the worst i"
  },
  {
    "title": "Liberals are from Vulcan; Conservatives are from Uranus",
    "date": "2007-09-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/liberals-are-from-vulcan-conservatives-are-from-uranus/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/liberals-are-from-vulcan-conservatives-are-from-uranus/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "620",
    "excerpt": "Will Wilkinson says Jonathan Haidt \"posit[s] five psychological foundations of human moral sentiment, each with a distinct evolutionary history and function, which he labels harm, reciprocity, ingroup, hierarchy, and pur"
  },
  {
    "title": "United Federation of Planets, a protection racket?",
    "date": "2007-09-19",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/united-federation-of-planets-a-protection-racket/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/united-federation-of-planets-a-protection-racket/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "618",
    "excerpt": "Another utopia bites the dust : How does the Prime Directive fit into this? On the surface, it seems incompatible with an imperialistic Federation. But remember that the Prime Directive only applies to planets which are "
  },
  {
    "title": "Huh?",
    "date": "2007-09-19",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/huh/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/huh/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "621",
    "excerpt": "Woot. Paul Krugman started a blog.  This gives one the opportunity to ask \"Huh?\" to various silly comments by the future Nobel prize winner on a regular basis...\n\nFor previous installments in this series, see (x and y =>"
  },
  {
    "title": "Working at being a good consumer",
    "date": "2007-09-18",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/working-at-being-a-good-consumer/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/working-at-being-a-good-consumer/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "616",
    "excerpt": "Its hard work : I checked out this place last week, after I randomly stumbled across a bunch of glowing reviews and saw that it’s just a few miles from where I work. It’s tucked into a little strip mall, a few doors "
  },
  {
    "title": "ACLU",
    "date": "2007-09-18",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/aclu/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/aclu/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "617",
    "excerpt": "Looks like I'll have to start donating to them again."
  },
  {
    "title": "Gotchas aren't biases",
    "date": "2007-09-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/gotchas-arent-biases/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/gotchas-arent-biases/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "612",
    "excerpt": "I'm sitting in on Matthew Rabin's Psychology and Economics course this semester.  The class is a theory course in which the standard models are tweaked to incorporate standard psychological facts about human decision mak"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis in the News (Any news is good news edition)",
    "date": "2007-09-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/uc-davis-in-the-news-any-news-is-good-news-edition/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/uc-davis-in-the-news-any-news-is-good-news-edition/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "615",
    "excerpt": "Crap."
  },
  {
    "title": "Commitments",
    "date": "2007-09-16",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/commitments/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/commitments/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "611",
    "excerpt": "People that have large commitments of expenditures (like mortgage payments) are more risk averse on small gambles than big ones (gated pdf).  According to Chety and Szeidl, this might explain why people play the lottery:"
  },
  {
    "title": "Dick Marty",
    "date": "2007-09-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/dick-marty/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/dick-marty/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "610",
    "excerpt": "(I'm in Vegas... baby... but through the magic of Wordpress, I'm still posting to my blog.)\n\nBesides having two first names and being from my ancestral birth place ( Canton Ticino ), Dick Marty is known for creating a we"
  },
  {
    "title": "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the EU",
    "date": "2007-09-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-eu/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-eu/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "609",
    "excerpt": "My democratic instinct made me hate an institution that so often ignores the will of the people.  Of course, reading Bryan Caplan's Myth of the Rational Voter has mostly cured me of that instinct.  But still, I didn't li"
  },
  {
    "title": "I really like Grant McCraken",
    "date": "2007-09-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/i-really-like-grant-mccraken/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/i-really-like-grant-mccraken/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "614",
    "excerpt": "Except I suppose he'd think heaping praise is as bad as heaping scorn on somebody.  \n\nI do think you can get as much from this essay , substituting \"praise\" for \"scorn\" and tweaking an anecdote or two, as you would get o"
  },
  {
    "title": "Everyone reads /., but...",
    "date": "2007-09-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/everyone-reads-but/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/everyone-reads-but/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "608",
    "excerpt": "... I have to link to this interview with the lead economist at the game EVE Online : Basically I'm just trying to understand all aspects of the game, but of course I find the trade and marketing aspects of the game most"
  },
  {
    "title": "Allah Akbar",
    "date": "2007-09-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/allah-akbar/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/allah-akbar/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "613",
    "excerpt": "God is great!\n\nIts becoming clear to me that this is one of the central precepts of Islam.  Nothing is above God; he is perfect and there is no equal.  I had a psuedo-conversation about Slavery and Islam with a Muslim th"
  },
  {
    "title": "Honest Abe",
    "date": "2007-09-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/honest-abe/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/honest-abe/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "606",
    "excerpt": "This , I think, is a surprise."
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentences of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2007-09-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/sentences-of-enduring-value/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/sentences-of-enduring-value/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "607",
    "excerpt": "[C]ompanies quite often do stupid things. The difference between companies and the government is that thanks to market discipline, companies that do stupid things eventually have to stop, because they run out of money. G"
  },
  {
    "title": "Less than infinity",
    "date": "2007-09-10",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/less-than-infinity/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/less-than-infinity/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "605",
    "excerpt": "I was at my new book club this weekend talking about Aristotle's Metaphysics.  He makes the argument that if we are to truly understand something, then it must only have a finite number of causes.\n\nThese sorts of argumen"
  },
  {
    "title": "Megan's model",
    "date": "2007-09-09",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/megans-model/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/megans-model/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "604",
    "excerpt": "Megan from up the street in Sacto (that's Sacramento for you out of town folks) thinks people don't think enough about risk, they know too little about the various options available in the market and they don't like to c"
  },
  {
    "title": "\"Do Something\" isn't the same as \"Do Everything\"",
    "date": "2007-09-08",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/do-something-isnt-the-same-as-do-everything/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/do-something-isnt-the-same-as-do-everything/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "603",
    "excerpt": "I enjoy Gristmill very much in a they're-almost-always-saying-stuff-that-makes-me-mad sort of way.  My favorite writer is David Roberts and instead of subscribing to the torrent of posts found at the site, I subscribe ju"
  },
  {
    "title": "Behavioral evidence for sticky price theory",
    "date": "2007-09-07",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/behavioral-evidence-for-sticky-price-theory/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/behavioral-evidence-for-sticky-price-theory/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "600",
    "excerpt": "If we lived in paradise, firms could update their prices instantaneously with the blowing, turbulent winds of demand.  In paradise, fundamentals --- the skills of workers and availability of inputs to production --- woul"
  },
  {
    "title": "Something tells me I should catch up on my blog reading...",
    "date": "2007-09-07",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/something-tells-me-i-should-catch-up-on-my-blog-reading/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/something-tells-me-i-should-catch-up-on-my-blog-reading/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "602",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Sentence of Enduring Value",
    "date": "2007-09-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/sentence-of-enduring-value/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/sentence-of-enduring-value/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "599",
    "excerpt": "\"[A]ll this opinion-mongering continues ceaselessly because there are real, substantive empirical and moral disagreements, none of which may be settled simply by humbly claiming all virtue and forcefully declaring the ot"
  },
  {
    "title": "Economics education",
    "date": "2007-09-04",
    "url": "/writing/2007/09/economics-education/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/09/economics-education/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "598",
    "excerpt": "Bryan Caplan : [I]f schools are just making students jump through hoops to prove themselves, what's the harm in switching to hoops with positive externalities [like economics]? Asking students to signal their ability by "
  },
  {
    "title": "Moving sucks...",
    "date": "2007-08-31",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/moving-sucks/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/moving-sucks/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "597",
    "excerpt": "... that is all.\n\nOh, and: The second installment of the AFtoA symposium at MR An interview with Prof. Clark at gnxp Kling on institutions"
  },
  {
    "title": "Lecture: The Industrial Revolution",
    "date": "2007-08-29",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/lecture-the-industrial-revolution/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/lecture-the-industrial-revolution/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "595",
    "excerpt": "This and the rest of Clark's lectures on world economic history are hosted at CESifo .\n\n(h/t comment on Rodrik's site )"
  },
  {
    "title": "The best test of the WHO healthcare rankings",
    "date": "2007-08-28",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/the-best-test-of-the-who-healthcare-rankings/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/the-best-test-of-the-who-healthcare-rankings/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "596",
    "excerpt": "Micheal Moore, in his entertaining and heart wrenching dramedy Sicko, mentions the fact that the U.S.A. ranks 37th in the World Health Organization's health care rankings . Megan McArdle (fka Jane Galt and fka Economist "
  },
  {
    "title": "\"The best and most accurate review\"",
    "date": "2007-08-27",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/the-best-and-most-accurate-review/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/the-best-and-most-accurate-review/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "594",
    "excerpt": "The Social Darwinism pseudo-thesis of Farewell to Alms has generated the most heat , but the book's discussion of the causes and timing of the Industrial Revolution generates the most light.  To that point, NotSneaky nom"
  },
  {
    "title": "Lecture: The Malthusian World",
    "date": "2007-08-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/lecture-the-malthusian-world/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/lecture-the-malthusian-world/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "593",
    "excerpt": "This and the rest of Clark's lectures on world economic history are hosted at CESifo .\n\n(h/t comment on Rodrik's site )"
  },
  {
    "title": "adding structure to social networks OR open-sourcing Web 2.0 OR checking to see if my brother reads my blog",
    "date": "2007-08-25",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/adding-structure-to-social-networks-or-open-sourcing-web-20-or-checking-to-see-if-my-brother-reads-my-blog/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/adding-structure-to-social-networks-or-open-sourcing-web-20-or-checking-to-see-if-my-brother-reads-my-blog/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "591",
    "excerpt": "Brad Fitzpatrick has thoughts on the social graph : What I mean by \"social graph\" is a the global mapping of everybody and how they're related... Currently if you're a new site that needs the social graph (e.g. dopplr.co"
  },
  {
    "title": "Alms Watch 2007",
    "date": "2007-08-24",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/alms-watch-2007-5/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/alms-watch-2007-5/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "590",
    "excerpt": "Of course there was the MR book symposium ... read the comments For a more critical discussion read this thread on Rodrik's site Kling primes the institutions debate More on the obesity study ... yes, I think its related"
  },
  {
    "title": "It took me a disturbing amount of time to figure out this comic...",
    "date": "2007-08-24",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/it-took-me-a-disturbing-amount-of-time-to-figure-out-this-comic/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/it-took-me-a-disturbing-amount-of-time-to-figure-out-this-comic/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "592",
    "excerpt": "... geek post incoming."
  },
  {
    "title": "Creepy/cool",
    "date": "2007-08-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/creapcool/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/creapcool/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "589",
    "excerpt": "(h/t MilkandCookies via swong)"
  },
  {
    "title": "Leonardo da Bitchy",
    "date": "2007-08-22",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/leonardo-da-bitchy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/leonardo-da-bitchy/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "587",
    "excerpt": "(that title was fun)\n\nHere's Leonardo lamenting stupid people : It seems to me that men of coarse and clumsy habits and of small\nknowledge do not deserve such fine instruments nor so great a\nvariety of natural mechanism "
  },
  {
    "title": "Funniest sentence I've read today",
    "date": "2007-08-22",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/funniest-sentence-ive-read-today/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/funniest-sentence-ive-read-today/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "588",
    "excerpt": "Actually, a sentence from the Dilbert blog is almost always the funniest I've read in any given day: \"On the other hand, when you have a Hoover doing a Clinton on your Johnson five nights a week, it sets the bar high.\""
  },
  {
    "title": "Jesus H",
    "date": "2007-08-21",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/jesus-h/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/jesus-h/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "586",
    "excerpt": "(h/t Fey Accompli )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Alms Watch 2007",
    "date": "2007-08-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/alms-watch-2007-4/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/alms-watch-2007-4/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "585",
    "excerpt": "The author speaks: Greg Clark on public radio .  He does a great job summarizing the main ideas in his book. Farewell to Alms: evidence for IQ as the most important economic driver? Arnold Kling makes the connection, but"
  },
  {
    "title": "Ayaan Hirsi Ali",
    "date": "2007-08-19",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/ayaan-hirsi-ali/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/ayaan-hirsi-ali/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "583",
    "excerpt": "(h/t Chicago Boyz )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Verdict's in",
    "date": "2007-08-18",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/verdicts-in/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/verdicts-in/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "584",
    "excerpt": "Sabernomics thinks both Jason and I are right: The most interesting aspect of this study is that the discrimination that exists shrinks in QuesTec ballparks, when umpires are being monitored.\n\nThe good news is that the e"
  },
  {
    "title": "Of Bonobos and Men",
    "date": "2007-08-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/of-bonobos-and-men/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/of-bonobos-and-men/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "581",
    "excerpt": "Great article about Bonobos over at Skeptic Magazine : I understand the frustration of field workers with the image of bonobos as angels of peace, which is not only one-dimensional, but incorrect. On the other hand, anyo"
  },
  {
    "title": "Idgit voters",
    "date": "2007-08-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/idgit-voters/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/idgit-voters/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "582",
    "excerpt": "MR has the scoop."
  },
  {
    "title": "RACISM!!!1! in baseball",
    "date": "2007-08-16",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/racism1-in-baseball/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/racism1-in-baseball/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "580",
    "excerpt": "On the heals of the racism in basketball study a couple of months ago, a new study shows strike zones have different dimensions depending on the mix of races between umpire and pitcher.  This is yet more proof that we li"
  },
  {
    "title": "Net neutrality (remember that?)",
    "date": "2007-08-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/net-neutrality-remember-that/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/net-neutrality-remember-that/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "578",
    "excerpt": "I didn't hear about this story when it happened: AT&T delivered less than [Pearl Jam]'s full performance during its Lollapalooza webcast. The powerhouse telco turned off the audio during the song \"Daughter\" while singer "
  },
  {
    "title": "Announcement!!!",
    "date": "2007-08-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/announcement/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/announcement/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "579",
    "excerpt": "Save your work more than once a week.  Windows likes to download updates and restart your computer in the middle of the night without asking.  Also, OpenOffice doesn't have its auto-save and restore features turned on by"
  },
  {
    "title": "Clark smack down",
    "date": "2007-08-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/clark-smack-down/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/clark-smack-down/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "575",
    "excerpt": "Ouch. David Warsh doesn't like Clark's Farewell to Alms, \"There were a lot of things I would have rather done last week than read A Farewell to Alms.\" There are two things about A Farewell to Alms that are within my comp"
  },
  {
    "title": "Прощание с милостыню",
    "date": "2007-08-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/d0-9f-d1-80-d0-be-d1-89-d0-b0-d0-bd-d0-b8-d0-b5--d1-81--d0-bc-d0-b8-d0-bb-d0-be-d1-81-d1-82-d1-8b-d0-bd-d1-8e/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/%d0%9f%d1%80%d0%be%d1%89%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b5-%d1%81-%d0%bc%d0%b8%d0%bb%d0%be%d1%81%d1%82%d1%8b%d0%bd%d1%8e/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "576",
    "excerpt": "No, I don't speak Russian.  Good thing I don't need to to think this video is funny ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Alms Watch 2007",
    "date": "2007-08-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/alms-watch-2007-3/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/alms-watch-2007-3/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "577",
    "excerpt": "So, maybe I should just rename by blog to \"Greg Clark: Please be my adviser.\"  I mean seriously, what am I doing here, he already gave me a pass on my prelim exam. MR is starting up its book symposium on Farewell to Alms"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bombs away",
    "date": "2007-08-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/bombs-away/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/bombs-away/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "574",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "More mentions of Farewell to Alms",
    "date": "2007-08-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/more-mentions-of-farewell-to-alms/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/more-mentions-of-farewell-to-alms/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "573",
    "excerpt": "Egghead , a UC Davis blog, has a good round up of coverage Some skepticism from scienceblogs about capitalism being spread genetically Whether or not the transmission mechanism is cultural or genetic, The Economist specu"
  },
  {
    "title": "Alms Watch 2007",
    "date": "2007-08-09",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/alms-watch-2007-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/alms-watch-2007-2/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "571",
    "excerpt": "Slashdot , as usual, has a pretty good (not necessarily correct) discussion on Prof. Clark's thesis Also at Slashdot, they discuss a study that finds genetic diversity has decreased in England over the last 1700 years.  "
  },
  {
    "title": "Free drugs.  Must be in Cuba, right?",
    "date": "2007-08-08",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/free-drugs-must-be-in-cuba-right/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/free-drugs-must-be-in-cuba-right/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "570",
    "excerpt": "Nope, right here in US."
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-08-08",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-15/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-15/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "572",
    "excerpt": "I didn't see this before...  Professor Clark had an op-ed about immigration in the LA Times : Can the U.S. forestall the relative decline of the economies on its southern fringe? No. The evidence from history again is th"
  },
  {
    "title": "Alms Watch 2007",
    "date": "2007-08-07",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/alms-watch-2007/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/alms-watch-2007/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "568",
    "excerpt": "Farwell to Alms is reviewed at the NYT .  Blog commentary here , here and here . Borjas discusses a report that rich people are starting to have more kids...  So let's see, before 1800 they had more kids, there was a dem"
  },
  {
    "title": "More on a theme",
    "date": "2007-08-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/more-on-a-theme/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/more-on-a-theme/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "567",
    "excerpt": "I noted before that Prof. Clark's non-explanations (as The Economist put it) are a theme around here.  Resident superstar blogger notsneaky comments on a previous post and I reply: Clark has a chapter in his book called "
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-08-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-14/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-14/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "565",
    "excerpt": "This is cool.  Famous blogger YouNotSneaky , recently profiled in The Economist regarding his cool \" How much of a jerk do you have to be to oppose immigration? \" post, put The Ambrosini Critique on his blogroll.  Thanks"
  },
  {
    "title": "Woot!  Passed my field exams...",
    "date": "2007-08-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/woot-passed-my-field-exams/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/woot-passed-my-field-exams/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "566",
    "excerpt": "Dissertation topics anyone, anyone?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Grandmothers are important",
    "date": "2007-08-04",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/grandmothers-are-important/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/grandmothers-are-important/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "564",
    "excerpt": "Grandfathers, not so much : In biological anthropology there is a Grandmother Hypothesis as an explanation for why adult human females live so long after their reproduction ceases, and, why menopause occurs in the first "
  },
  {
    "title": "Religion isn't falsifiable.  So?",
    "date": "2007-08-03",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/religion-isnt-falsifiable-so/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/religion-isnt-falsifiable-so/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "559",
    "excerpt": "I hate when people try to force their religion on others.  Usually, my reaction isn't to get angry, but to press the would-be evangelists further...  They're usually really bad at it, when pushed.\n\nOne time, when I was l"
  },
  {
    "title": "Caffiene (and exercise) prevent cancer",
    "date": "2007-08-02",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/caffiene-and-exercise-prevent-cancer/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/caffiene-and-exercise-prevent-cancer/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "563",
    "excerpt": "Woot! I guess I don't feel guilty about taking up my coffee habit again.\n\nI won't feel guilty up until the study is released showing coffee causes cancer."
  },
  {
    "title": "Erm...  this is a bit sneaky",
    "date": "2007-08-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/erm-this-is-a-bit-sneaky/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/erm-this-is-a-bit-sneaky/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "558",
    "excerpt": "I was going to link to this article as a counter to the post I linked to the other day .  The headline is \"Stronger Link Found between Hurricanes and Global Warming: A century's worth of records suggests that hurricanes "
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-08-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-12/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-12/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "560",
    "excerpt": "Arnold Kling gives Prof. Peri a backhanded compliment , \"We get more nannies, lawn-care workers, waiters, and hotel maids, the immigrants get more money, and our kids learn skills that keep them out of competition with t"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-08-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-13/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-13/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "561",
    "excerpt": "Its a two-fer today... The Economist talks about Prof. Clark : Mr Clark argues that differences in modern economic development are rooted in differences of labor quality. That is, rich countries are rich because their wo"
  },
  {
    "title": "Something's going on here",
    "date": "2007-08-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/08/somethings-going-on-here/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/08/somethings-going-on-here/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "562",
    "excerpt": "Something really important is being discussed in this post at MR .  I just wish I was smart enough to figure it out.\n\nBe sure to catch Tyler and Robin's back and forth in the comments."
  },
  {
    "title": "They go in threes",
    "date": "2007-07-31",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/they-go-in-threes/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/they-go-in-threes/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "557",
    "excerpt": "Three entertainers... Bill Walsh (the greatest football coach), Ingmar Bergman (they tell me he was a good director and I tried to sit through The Seventh Seal at least twice) \n\nand Tom Snyder (I remember him vaguely fro"
  },
  {
    "title": "Papas fritas",
    "date": "2007-07-29",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/papas-fritas/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/papas-fritas/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "556",
    "excerpt": "Something I wrote a long time ago --- Doesn’t this current state of ignorance about the origins of life give room for creationist? ---  sticks with me because its one of those things that are terribly-obvious-but-seemi"
  },
  {
    "title": "I'm really not getting it",
    "date": "2007-07-28",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/im-really-not-getting-it/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/im-really-not-getting-it/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "555",
    "excerpt": "Like I mentioned before, I'm confused by economists being confused about carbon offset markets .  Now Arnold Kling comes out against them : But it's not a free market. It's an artificial market, created by the \"carbon of"
  },
  {
    "title": "Data 1, Theory 0",
    "date": "2007-07-27",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/data-1-theory-0/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/data-1-theory-0/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "554",
    "excerpt": "The number and severity of hurricanes has hasn't increased over the last 100 years: The warming theorists -- most of whom, no doubt, earnestly believe that human activity has triggered nature's wrath -- have the ears of "
  },
  {
    "title": "Americans work more than Europeans...",
    "date": "2007-07-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/americans-work-more-than-europeans/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/americans-work-more-than-europeans/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "553",
    "excerpt": "... or do they ? The conventional view is that Americans work longer hours than Germans and other Europeans but when time in household production is included, overall working time is very similar on both sides of the Atl"
  },
  {
    "title": "Learn some economics, be entertained... (part II)",
    "date": "2007-07-25",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/learn-some-economics-be-entertained-part-ii/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/learn-some-economics-be-entertained-part-ii/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "551",
    "excerpt": "Matthew Yglesias tries to make an economic argument against mandated paid time off.   The comments are pretty fun in a \"they expose the economic ignorance of a seemingly bright population of readers\" sort of way.\n\nEmploy"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the news",
    "date": "2007-07-24",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-11/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-11/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "550",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Peri (ick, fix your website dude) writes a review of his immigration research and The Economist comments : To an economist, one of the most aggravating aspects of debates on immigration and trade is the lack of per"
  },
  {
    "title": "In which Magic is made boring by Economics",
    "date": "2007-07-21",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/in-which-magic-is-made-boring-by-economics/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/in-which-magic-is-made-boring-by-economics/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "549",
    "excerpt": "Megan McArdle (aka Jane Galt , aka Asymmetrical Information blogress, aka The Economist blogress [we think]) writes about the annoying economics in Harry Potter : But this actually presents a problem for authors. If magi"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Economist needs to have more faith in markets",
    "date": "2007-07-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/the-economist-needs-to-have-more-faith-in-markets/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/the-economist-needs-to-have-more-faith-in-markets/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "547",
    "excerpt": "Because the comments section at the Economist has an excruciating registration process --- I've attempted and failed to sign up at least three times now --- I'll ask this question here.  Maybe the internet gods will get "
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the news",
    "date": "2007-07-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-10/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-10/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "548",
    "excerpt": "Holy Crap! MR is doing their first book symposium and the book Tyler Cowen chose was... Greg Clark's A Farewell to Alms .  Woot!\n\nPre-order the book and participate.  The MR gods demand it."
  },
  {
    "title": "Law of Demand",
    "date": "2007-07-19",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/law-of-demand/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/law-of-demand/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "546",
    "excerpt": "This is funny.  In my news reader , this item, titled \" Demand Curves are Downward Sloping \", showed up just before this item, titled \" As price goes up, so does demand \".\n\nSee, in economics there's always two hands..."
  },
  {
    "title": "Harry Potter on Bittorrent",
    "date": "2007-07-18",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/harry-potter-on-bittorrent/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/harry-potter-on-bittorrent/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "545",
    "excerpt": "I in no way endorse copyright infringement, but I heard Scholastic (the publishers) are sending take down notices to every web site that mentions the fact the book can be downloaded on bittorrent.  Apparently, someone vi"
  },
  {
    "title": "In which two smart economists talk past each other",
    "date": "2007-07-16",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/in-which-two-smart-economists-talk-past-each-other/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/in-which-two-smart-economists-talk-past-each-other/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "544",
    "excerpt": "This back and forth between Brad Delong and Dani Rodrik makes me think economists are ill equipped to talk about the second best world in which we live.\n\nDani says that bad constitutions prevent the necessary flows of fa"
  },
  {
    "title": "Save Africa!",
    "date": "2007-07-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/save-africa/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/save-africa/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "543",
    "excerpt": "There's a good editorial in the Washington Post written by a real live African : Why do the media frequently refer to African countries as having been \"granted independence from their colonial masters,\" as opposed to hav"
  },
  {
    "title": "Learn some economics, be entertained...",
    "date": "2007-07-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/learn-some-economics-be-entertained/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/learn-some-economics-be-entertained/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "542",
    "excerpt": "... here .  YouNotSneaky is taking Max Sawicky to task.  The insults are fun and they make the economics go down easier: Okay, lemme explain slowly the concept of Pareto Efficiency here because folks is confused.\n\nSuppos"
  },
  {
    "title": "Too much theory, not enough data?",
    "date": "2007-07-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/too-much-theory-not-enough-data/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/too-much-theory-not-enough-data/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "541",
    "excerpt": "Maybe .  I'm not convinced .\n\nUPDATE: While fighting another battle with Borjas, Rodrik defends theory: \"However, empirical work in trade does remain much more strongly grounded in theory compared to labor, which on bala"
  },
  {
    "title": "Clark shoots another one down",
    "date": "2007-07-10",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/clark-shoots-another-one-down/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/clark-shoots-another-one-down/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "540",
    "excerpt": "If you think \"the switch from a self-sustaining organic economy to a mineral resource depleting inorganic economy was central to the British Industrial Revolution\" then you're wrong.  The Industrial Revolution resulted i"
  },
  {
    "title": "Health Care, again, but this time real people talking...",
    "date": "2007-07-09",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/health-care-again-but-this-time-real-people-talking/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/health-care-again-but-this-time-real-people-talking/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "539",
    "excerpt": "... in a real comment thread.  Only authenticity from this blog...\n\nCheck out this Crooked Timber thread .  The post itself is so-so, but the comments starting here are pretty good.\n\nSlocum writes: The idea that only fli"
  },
  {
    "title": "Race",
    "date": "2007-07-08",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/race/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/race/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "538",
    "excerpt": "In this edition of Quote Mining! TM we have two quotes from Supreme Court opinions on Race: Distinctions by race are so evil, so arbitrary and invidious that a state bound to defend the equal protection of the laws must "
  },
  {
    "title": "Peri for dummies",
    "date": "2007-07-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/peri-for-dummies/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/peri-for-dummies/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "537",
    "excerpt": "Here's a great discussion of the immigrants/natives substitutes/compliments issue ."
  },
  {
    "title": "More socialized medicine \"data\"",
    "date": "2007-07-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/more-socialized-medicine-data/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/more-socialized-medicine-data/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "534",
    "excerpt": "American health care is much worse than France's because theirs is socialized.  Therefore, we should socialize our medicine.\n\nFlawless logic if you ask me.  \n\nIn fact, we should just copy France's system whole cloth.  It"
  },
  {
    "title": "Color me skeptical",
    "date": "2007-07-04",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/color-me-skeptical/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/color-me-skeptical/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "535",
    "excerpt": "Could all of these \"Inconvenient Truths\" be false ? Glaciers aren't shrinking (at least, if they are, not because of global warming) Tornadoes and Hurricanes aren't more severe Deserts aren't growing Both Greenland and t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Field exams, part II",
    "date": "2007-07-03",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/field-exams-part-ii/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/field-exams-part-ii/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "536",
    "excerpt": "Good lucks to me.  If all goes right, this will be the last written exam I'll be taking, EVAR."
  },
  {
    "title": "swong",
    "date": "2007-07-02",
    "url": "/writing/2007/07/swong/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/07/swong/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "533",
    "excerpt": "Get a blog dude...  They're already making tributes to you ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Are people \"rational\"?",
    "date": "2007-06-30",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/are-people-rational/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/are-people-rational/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "531",
    "excerpt": "Sometimes I wonder if statements like these --- \"many people pour years of their lives and love into projects which are absurd on the face of it and could be revealed as such within seconds\" --- describe most human behav"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-06-29",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-9/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-9/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "530",
    "excerpt": "(... of the blog coverage variety ...) Will Wilkinson writes about Prof. Clark 's good book: This a profoundly insightful work sure to raise ire and inspire further progress. Key claim: labor quality is the difference be"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Summer of Good Books",
    "date": "2007-06-27",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/the-summer-of-good-books/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/the-summer-of-good-books/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "527",
    "excerpt": "Oh man, there's so many good books coming out (and I've pre-ordered them all): Prof. Clark's on long run economic growth Tyler Cowan's on everyday economics Dani Rodrik's on globalization And Harry Potter !"
  },
  {
    "title": "Field exams",
    "date": "2007-06-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/field-exams/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/field-exams/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "526",
    "excerpt": "Wish me luck on my Monetary Theory field exam this morning!"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sadr dumps Iran",
    "date": "2007-06-25",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/sadr-dumps-iran/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/sadr-dumps-iran/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "525",
    "excerpt": "Apparently Mr. Sadr (of Sadr City fame) has issued a statement accusing Iran of supporting al-Qaeda in Iraq .  From what I can tell, this is big news (from the link at the bottom of the page): Then what made Moqtada go i"
  },
  {
    "title": "Drug wars",
    "date": "2007-06-24",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/drug-wars/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/drug-wars/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "524",
    "excerpt": "(h/t Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Blog )"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-06-24",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-8/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-8/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "529",
    "excerpt": "(The link from prominent blog type...) Brad DeLong puts these words in Prof. Peri's mouth : If I had Giovanni Peri here at hand, I think that he would say that increased immigration is very good for new migrants, good fo"
  },
  {
    "title": "Maximize the present value of income",
    "date": "2007-06-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/maximize-the-present-value-of-income/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/maximize-the-present-value-of-income/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "523",
    "excerpt": "... not GDP growth .  So says Robert Hall (via Business Week's excellent Michael Mandel).\n\nThis seems like a no-brainer to me.  Dynamic effects aren't all represented by the growth numbers.  Maximizing this years growth "
  },
  {
    "title": "Hoopa",
    "date": "2007-06-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/hoopa/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/hoopa/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "528",
    "excerpt": "The Hoopa Indians are profiled on Wikipedia today as the picture of the day (look at the bottom of the page before 5pm Pacific). I grew up playing football against these guys.  We usually beat them, but they were our har"
  },
  {
    "title": "Fair and balanced",
    "date": "2007-06-22",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/fair-and-balanced/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/fair-and-balanced/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "522",
    "excerpt": "As swong (get a blog!) points out , Republican politicians are also duplicitous, opportunistic, lying assholes."
  },
  {
    "title": "Best MR comment this year",
    "date": "2007-06-21",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/best-mr-comment-this-year/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/best-mr-comment-this-year/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "521",
    "excerpt": "... is this comment by John Thacker on this post : Neoclassical economists argue that however people behave, they are expressing their true preferences. However people behave, they are right, according to the neoclassica"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-06-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-7/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-7/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "520",
    "excerpt": "(We need a new phrase that means the same thing as \"in the news\" but refers to links from high-profile blogs...) Prof. Peri's work is critiqued by his evil arch-nemesis George Borjas .  (Hey, we have to make this fun som"
  },
  {
    "title": "CHARITY VOUTETH NOT ITSELF, IS NOT PUFFED UP",
    "date": "2007-06-19",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/charity-vouteth-not-itself-is-not-puffed-up/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/charity-vouteth-not-itself-is-not-puffed-up/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "519",
    "excerpt": "The above man sent emails to thousands of people attempting to scam them out of their money.  \n\nBut Ron Rosenbaum in the Atlantic Monthly thinks this man and the other people caught in their scam by the \" scam-baiting \" "
  },
  {
    "title": "Gore on Iraq",
    "date": "2007-06-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/gore-on-iraq/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/gore-on-iraq/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "518",
    "excerpt": "Then: We had better pay attention to that detailed record [of President Bush Sr.] which provides a deeply disturbing look at a blatant disregard to brutal terrorism, a dangerous blindness of the ambitions of a murderous "
  },
  {
    "title": "Silly antecedents ",
    "date": "2007-06-10",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/silly-antecedents/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/silly-antecedents/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "517",
    "excerpt": "Dani Rodrik is a comedian : Suppose you are a government that has some second-best policy instrument at your disposal (say tariffs) to correct a market failure which an industry is subject to. You recognize that the poli"
  },
  {
    "title": "I had to watch this twice...",
    "date": "2007-06-09",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/i-had-to-watch-this-twice/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/i-had-to-watch-this-twice/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "516",
    "excerpt": "... the first time through I was distracted by the people .  I like these comparative photo thingys (there should be more words! ).\n\nA couple years ago, someone did a thingy where people from around the world all took pi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Entourage",
    "date": "2007-06-08",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/entourage/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/entourage/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "509",
    "excerpt": "Why do Artists do things like this?  How is it that I've watched this show for almost 2 years and never noticed this?"
  },
  {
    "title": "From the archives: Strict Constitutionalism",
    "date": "2007-06-07",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/from-the-archives-strict-constitutionalism/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/from-the-archives-strict-constitutionalism/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "507",
    "excerpt": "From 3 years ago :\n\n‘Why’ is much more interesting than the ‘how’.  The ‘why’ is the meaning behind why something is done or why a technology was created or why the clause in the constitution was added.  Only understandi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Ideas",
    "date": "2007-06-07",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/ideas/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/ideas/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "515",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Cargo Cults",
    "date": "2007-06-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/cargo-cults/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/cargo-cults/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "506",
    "excerpt": "The easiest way to explain this idea is to contrast it, for example, with advertising. Last night I heard that Wesson oil doesn't soak through food. Well, that's true. It's not dishonest;\nbut the thing I'm talking about "
  },
  {
    "title": "When buffalo attack",
    "date": "2007-06-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/when-buffalo-attack/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/when-buffalo-attack/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "513",
    "excerpt": "(h/t Jane Galt )"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis in the News",
    "date": "2007-06-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/uc-davis-in-the-news/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/uc-davis-in-the-news/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "514",
    "excerpt": "I've never been more proud to be a UCD student... oh, wait ."
  },
  {
    "title": "China is 4999.3750793651 times cooler than the U.S.",
    "date": "2007-06-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/china-is-49993750793651-times-cooler-than-the-us/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/china-is-49993750793651-times-cooler-than-the-us/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "508",
    "excerpt": "Evidence. (Try the Golden Gate vs. the Great Wall)\n\n(h/t BoingBoing )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Woot!",
    "date": "2007-06-05",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/woot/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/woot/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "512",
    "excerpt": "I qualify to immigrate to Canada as a skilled worker with my score of 72 on this test ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Data mining: tonal languages and genes edition",
    "date": "2007-06-04",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/data-mining-tonal-languages-and-genes-edition/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/data-mining-tonal-languages-and-genes-edition/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "505",
    "excerpt": "Bob Ladd and Dan Dediu found a correlation between geographical dispersion of certain genes and geographical dispersion of tonal languages .\n\nThere's a great discussion of their method at Language Log and Mr. Ladd respon"
  },
  {
    "title": "Political Compass",
    "date": "2007-06-03",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/political-compass-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/political-compass-2/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "504",
    "excerpt": "I took this test a couple years ago , but because Dani Rodrik and Greg Mankiw both linked to the test, I'm anticipating a resurgence of the meme.  Just doing my part on the internets. BTW, this is probably why I like Cho"
  },
  {
    "title": "Quote of the day",
    "date": "2007-06-02",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/quote-of-the-day/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/quote-of-the-day/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "502",
    "excerpt": "The disagreement between George Borjas and me on the desirability of guest workers is an interesting one to expand upon, not because this will change either one of our minds, but because it may help others evaluate their"
  },
  {
    "title": "",
    "date": "2007-06-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/06/501/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/06/501/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "501",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Lou Dobbs is an idiot, part II (as if you needed more evidence edition)",
    "date": "2007-05-31",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/lou-dobbs-is-an-idiot-part-ii-as-if-you-needed-more-evidence-edition/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/lou-dobbs-is-an-idiot-part-ii-as-if-you-needed-more-evidence-edition/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "500",
    "excerpt": "He's clueless about political economy .  Also, he lies .  He claimed immigrants make up 1/3 of the prison population when in fact they have a lower incarceration rate than the rest of the population (they're 6% of inmate"
  },
  {
    "title": "What's a natural experiment?  No Child Left Behind edition",
    "date": "2007-05-30",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/whats-a-natural-experiment-no-child-left-behind-edition/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/whats-a-natural-experiment-no-child-left-behind-edition/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "498",
    "excerpt": "Here. In a particular school district where NCLB dictated better information about schools for parents and allowed them to choose schools, some kids got randomly assigned to better schools.  Lo, they performed better."
  },
  {
    "title": "More on the immigration bill",
    "date": "2007-05-29",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/more-on-the-immigration-bill/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/more-on-the-immigration-bill/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "499",
    "excerpt": "How big of a jerk do you have to be to not support immigration? YouNotSneaky! gives a precise definition of jerkiness and a formula for determining jerkiness Becker and Posner give their take on the Bill"
  },
  {
    "title": "Of albedo, emissivity and Calvo pricing",
    "date": "2007-05-28",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/of-albedo-emissivity-and-calvo-pricing/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/of-albedo-emissivity-and-calvo-pricing/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "497",
    "excerpt": "I've said before that the climate change discussion reminds me a lot of macroeconomics .  This similarity has driven my skepticism that the science is locked.  I know we don't have macroeconomics figured out; it seems un"
  },
  {
    "title": "Neoclassical economics?",
    "date": "2007-05-27",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/neoclassical-economics/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/neoclassical-economics/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "496",
    "excerpt": "Neoclassical economics is the idea that humans are rational, utility-maximizing agents with fixed preferences, that they make decisions 'at the margins' and that the mechanisms of supply and demand (operating free of gov"
  },
  {
    "title": "Oh, man...",
    "date": "2007-05-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/oh-man/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/oh-man/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "494",
    "excerpt": "\"Let are kids walk!\" Why do people feel they're entitled to high school degrees?  To good grades in college classes?  To high paying jobs?  \n\nWhy are people who ask these questions assholes?\n\nI don't get it."
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-05-25",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-6/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-6/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "493",
    "excerpt": "Holy Crap! $55k for Edwards to talk to UCD students last year.  \n\nAll I can say is, I want a raise (ed. w != MPL?)."
  },
  {
    "title": "Great commercial",
    "date": "2007-05-24",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/great-commercial/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/great-commercial/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "491",
    "excerpt": "I don't remember seeing it when it was on TV so thanks youtube."
  },
  {
    "title": "Dissertations",
    "date": "2007-05-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/dissertations/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/dissertations/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "492",
    "excerpt": "Some people I know are starting to think about their dissertation topics... maybe this will help them .\n\nMe, I already know what I'm going to write.  But I won't tell you.  Instead I invite you to make detailed guesses i"
  },
  {
    "title": "Immigration Bill",
    "date": "2007-05-22",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/immigration-bill/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/immigration-bill/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "489",
    "excerpt": "I've been chastised because I haven't said anything about the Bill .  Mostly I haven't commented because it doesn't seem very likely anything will come of it.  The Republican Base is against it, Democrats are leaning pro"
  },
  {
    "title": "Blog survey",
    "date": "2007-05-21",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/blog-survey/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/blog-survey/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "490",
    "excerpt": "here ."
  },
  {
    "title": "anti-anti-anti-anthropogenic global warming",
    "date": "2007-05-18",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/anti-anti-anti-anthropogenic-global-warming/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/anti-anti-anti-anthropogenic-global-warming/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "488",
    "excerpt": "At some point we'll stop taking sides and start calling this sort of skepticism , on both sides, science."
  },
  {
    "title": "Sushi boat",
    "date": "2007-05-18",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/sushi-boat/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/sushi-boat/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "487",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Put your money were your mouth is",
    "date": "2007-05-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/put-your-money-were-your-mouth-is/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/put-your-money-were-your-mouth-is/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "486",
    "excerpt": "Do you believe the science of anthropogenic global warming is locked? Wanna bet?"
  },
  {
    "title": "We are all Chinese (They are all Americans)",
    "date": "2007-05-16",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/we-are-all-chinese-they-are-all-americans/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/we-are-all-chinese-they-are-all-americans/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "485",
    "excerpt": "For a while now, I've had the impression that Chinese immigrants are more 'American' than other immigrant groups.  No, I have no idea what I really mean by that.\n\nAnyway, I wonder if we looked at the summary statitics fo"
  },
  {
    "title": "Irrationality as Pollution",
    "date": "2007-05-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/irrationality-as-pollution/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/irrationality-as-pollution/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "483",
    "excerpt": "There's too much pollution because the cost of producing it isn't born by the producer.  Bryan Caplan thinks there's too much voter irrationality for the same reason: In a sense, then, there is a method to the average vo"
  },
  {
    "title": "Too much data, not enough theory",
    "date": "2007-05-14",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/too-much-data-not-enough-theory/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/too-much-data-not-enough-theory/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "482",
    "excerpt": "A professor forwarded this New Yorker article about the Large Hadron Collider in Europe.\n\nOne section of the article talks about tension between theorists and empiricists.  The empiricists feel like they've been slaving "
  },
  {
    "title": "The Cisco A's?",
    "date": "2007-05-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/the-cisco-as/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/the-cisco-as/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "481",
    "excerpt": "The A's are close to breaking ground on a new stadium in Fremont , West of 880 and South of Auto Mall Parkway.\n\nThe nice thing about the Coliseum is that you can basically BART right into the stadium.  Even when/if BART "
  },
  {
    "title": "Yell at the Grand Canyon",
    "date": "2007-05-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/yell-at-the-grand-canyon/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/yell-at-the-grand-canyon/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "484",
    "excerpt": "This is a weird coincidence.  Both of my favorite shows ended tonight with a main character yelling into the Grand Canyon. Tony Soprano : \"I get it!\" Drama : \"Victory!\"\n\nWeird.\n\n(Both links are to the future episode perm"
  },
  {
    "title": "Pepys' Uncle",
    "date": "2007-05-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/pepys-uncle/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/pepys-uncle/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "480",
    "excerpt": "My uncle Wight came to me to my office this afternoon to speak with me about Mr. Maes’s business again, and from me went to my house to see my wife, and strange to think that my wife should by and by send for me after "
  },
  {
    "title": "...but can we trust anything from a people that loves David Hasselhoff?",
    "date": "2007-05-11",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/but-can-we-trust-anything-from-a-people-that-loves-david-hasselhof/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/but-can-we-trust-anything-from-a-people-that-loves-david-hasselhof/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "479",
    "excerpt": "Global warming, again.  Now that we've completely wrapped up the science (its definitely happening, duh!), we turn the question of whether or not it will do harm .\n\nThere is an optimal global temperature.  Is it the one "
  },
  {
    "title": "What does this mean?",
    "date": "2007-05-09",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/what-does-this-mean/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/what-does-this-mean/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "478",
    "excerpt": "What does this mean?  I think it means people don't notice insignificant details and it doesn't mean much more than that.\n\n(h/t sciblogs )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Shift happens",
    "date": "2007-05-07",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/shift-happens/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/shift-happens/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "477",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "The Truth Shall Set You Free!",
    "date": "2007-05-03",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/the-truth-shall-set-you-free/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/the-truth-shall-set-you-free/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "475",
    "excerpt": "Boing Boing has the scoop."
  },
  {
    "title": "09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0",
    "date": "2007-05-03",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "476",
    "excerpt": "That is all..."
  },
  {
    "title": "Texting the Fed",
    "date": "2007-05-02",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/texting-the-fed/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/texting-the-fed/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "473",
    "excerpt": "I think this is cool. Prof. Cogley warned us against textual analysis a la Romer and Romer today in lecture.  Figuring this is a plot to steer us away from interesting research topics (he wants to keep them for himself, "
  },
  {
    "title": "How I watch TV",
    "date": "2007-05-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/how-i-watch-tv/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/how-i-watch-tv/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "471",
    "excerpt": "I download my favorite shows (Battlestar Galactica, Sopranos, The Wire, Heroes, Weeds, 24, The Office, and a few others I'm ashamed to mention) with utorrent from a torrent website (search google ).  BTW, I have cable an"
  },
  {
    "title": "The next FED chairman... me",
    "date": "2007-05-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/05/the-next-fed-chairman-me/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/05/the-next-fed-chairman-me/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "472",
    "excerpt": "Ben Bernanke agrees with me when I said , \"Let’s make trade free, but figure out ways to ease the transition to the new, better world.\" The better approach to mitigating the disruptive effects of trade is to adopt poli"
  },
  {
    "title": "why words when there's data?",
    "date": "2007-04-30",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/why-words-when-theres-data/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/why-words-when-theres-data/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "470",
    "excerpt": "(h/t volokh )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Global warming will be good for U.S. agriculture",
    "date": "2007-04-28",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/global-warming-will-be-good-for-us-agriculture/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/global-warming-will-be-good-for-us-agriculture/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "466",
    "excerpt": "Researchers at MIT and UCSB (which by the way has a lovely campus ) found small positive effects (an increase in profits of 4%) of global warming for U.S. agriculture.  \n\nFirst, they looked at historical trends in the  r"
  },
  {
    "title": "Gains of trade",
    "date": "2007-04-28",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/gains-of-trade/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/gains-of-trade/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "468",
    "excerpt": "Sometime, long ago, I got the religion that free trade is good.  It seems so obvious that freeing people to trade at will must make them better off.  If it didn't, they wouldn't trade.  Right?\n\nI don't know if I should b"
  },
  {
    "title": "I hope their philosophy is better than their economics",
    "date": "2007-04-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/i-hope-their-philosophy-is-better-than-their-economics/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/i-hope-their-philosophy-is-better-than-their-economics/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "465",
    "excerpt": "At the Ask Philosophers website, there's this question : Put simply: does demand justify supply? If I sell an item - for instance, a computer-games machine - for a price that is much higher than either the RRP or the sho"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News",
    "date": "2007-04-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-5/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-5/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "461",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Knittel talks about gas prices .  Consumers aren't responding to the increases in gas prices as much as they did in the 70's.\n\nWhat's different about the now versus the 70's that consumers are so much less responsi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Flat tax",
    "date": "2007-04-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/flat-tax/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/flat-tax/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "462",
    "excerpt": "The long run consequences of freeing a half million of the smartest Americans, to changing their activities from reducing tax burdens to doing something productive like providing goods and services is enormous. -- Alvin "
  },
  {
    "title": "\\cry",
    "date": "2007-04-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/cry/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/cry/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "464",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "The technical term for this is...",
    "date": "2007-04-22",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/the-technical-term-for-this-is/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/the-technical-term-for-this-is/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "459",
    "excerpt": "... stupid fast."
  },
  {
    "title": "Rule of Law",
    "date": "2007-04-22",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/rule-of-law/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/rule-of-law/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "460",
    "excerpt": "Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country and never tolerate their violation by o"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sun singing songs",
    "date": "2007-04-21",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/sun-singing-songs/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/sun-singing-songs/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "457",
    "excerpt": "(h/t /. )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Global warming science?",
    "date": "2007-04-21",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/global-warming-science/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/global-warming-science/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "458",
    "excerpt": "See here :\nFacts: 1: Global mean temperatures have increased 0.5C-0.7C since 1900.\n2: CO2 has increased from about 280ppm to 383ppm since pre-industrial times\n3: Human CO2 emissions were about 24 billion metric tons in 2"
  },
  {
    "title": "doubleplusungood",
    "date": "2007-04-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/doubleplusungood/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/doubleplusungood/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "456",
    "excerpt": "This is just creepy : \"Talking\" CCTV cameras that tell off people dropping litter or committing anti-social behaviour are to be extended to 20 areas across England.\n...\nHome Secretary John Reid told BBC News there would "
  },
  {
    "title": "What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years",
    "date": "2007-04-19",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/what-may-happen-in-the-next-hundred-years/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/what-may-happen-in-the-next-hundred-years/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "455",
    "excerpt": "Behold! Prediction #1: There will probably be from 350,000,000 to 500,000,000 people in America and its possessions by the lapse of another century. Nicaragua will ask for admission to our Union after the completion of t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Gun nuts of the world, UNITE!",
    "date": "2007-04-18",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/gun-nuts-of-the-world-unite/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/gun-nuts-of-the-world-unite/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "454",
    "excerpt": "There's something eminently cool about being able to lecture to a Secretary of Labor .  I love the internets!\n\nBTW, I realize my first reaction to the VT massacre is unusual.  My first thought when I hear of such tragedi"
  },
  {
    "title": "I heart economists",
    "date": "2007-04-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/i-heart-economists-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/i-heart-economists-2/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "453",
    "excerpt": "We have a short economist arguing against a tax on height and a tall economist arguing for it .  \"Economic agents\" maximize their own utility but economists don't.\n\nIn any case, Mankiw's paper is pretty interesting.  The"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the News (ish)",
    "date": "2007-04-16",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-ish/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-ish/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "452",
    "excerpt": "I sat next to Skyler in Econ Theory last year.  Also, Skyler's adviser does some cool work (too bad he moved to UCSD)."
  },
  {
    "title": "Global warming documentaries",
    "date": "2007-04-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/global-warming-documentaries/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/global-warming-documentaries/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "451",
    "excerpt": "I think you will find more science in this documentary than in The Inconvenient Truth .  Much of the the science you do see is questioned (wikipedia has a good write-up ), but I came away from the film, at least the firs"
  },
  {
    "title": "I often need something like this...",
    "date": "2007-04-11",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/i-often-need-something-like-this/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/i-often-need-something-like-this/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "450",
    "excerpt": "... but sometimes I don't.  What to do the other 3.55% of the time , I don't know."
  },
  {
    "title": "FYI: Japan is a foreign country",
    "date": "2007-04-09",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/fyi-japan-is-a-foreign-country/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/fyi-japan-is-a-foreign-country/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "449",
    "excerpt": "Top 100 historical figures .  I mean... Napoleon at number two?  and where the heck is Soseki ?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Gapminder",
    "date": "2007-04-03",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/gapminder/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/gapminder/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "448",
    "excerpt": "I was playing around with wordpress' search feature and I don't think I've ever linked to gapminder which is just silly because its so damn cool and I use it when I'm teaching economics all the time.\n\nSo here's a link an"
  },
  {
    "title": "Humps of a Smooth Criminal",
    "date": "2007-04-02",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/humps-of-a-smooth-criminal/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/humps-of-a-smooth-criminal/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "447",
    "excerpt": "My brother sent this...\n\n\n... and remember this?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Testing",
    "date": "2007-04-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/04/testing/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/2007/04/testing/",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "446",
    "excerpt": "1... 2... 3..."
  },
  {
    "title": "OMG!!! Inequality is rising, big time! I’m outraged!!!",
    "date": "2007-03-31",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/omg-inequality-is-rising-big-time-im-outraged/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=445",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "445",
    "excerpt": "Round up the rich and rally the firing squad; inequality is on the rise!* The income share of the top 1% went up by 20% over the last 20 years! The average wage is almost 3 times the median!! The income share of the bott"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Economist is soliciting ideas…",
    "date": "2007-03-30",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/the-economist-is-soliciting-ideas/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=443",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "443",
    "excerpt": "...for a new online venture to be launched in the summer. Don't bother submitting any ideas, though.  The best one has already been submitted; see this post ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Money is just a commodity…",
    "date": "2007-03-30",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/money-is-just-a-commodity/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=444",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "444",
    "excerpt": "Slashdot reports on the gaining popularity of a virtual money in China : It's the QQ coin — online play money created by marketers to sell such things as virtual flowers for instant-message buddies, cellphone ringtones"
  },
  {
    "title": "Oh, google… you guys are too funny…",
    "date": "2007-03-29",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/oh-google-you-guys-are-too-funny/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=442",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "442",
    "excerpt": "#33..."
  },
  {
    "title": "Bring the troops home?",
    "date": "2007-03-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/bring-the-troops-home/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=441",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "441",
    "excerpt": "It's true that what's happening in Iraq doesn't meet the ambitions of Iraqis or Americans and everyone admits that many mistakes were made.  I agree that the Iraqi government should be pressed to speed up the effort to e"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Lucas Critique and Climate Change",
    "date": "2007-03-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/the-lucas-critique-and-climate-change/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=440",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "440",
    "excerpt": "In Economics we have something called the Lucas Critique .  Lucas' observation was that people change their behavior depending on the policy environment.  Its dangerous to assume because we see a correlation between high"
  },
  {
    "title": "Civil war?",
    "date": "2007-03-18",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/civil-war/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=439",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "439",
    "excerpt": "A UK based opinion poll company ran a survey in Iraq (PDF).  They found: most Iraqi's think the situation in Iraq would get better if American troops left most (Shias and Sunnis but not Kurds) don't want to divide up Ira"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis economics in the news",
    "date": "2007-03-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/uc-davis-economics-in-the-news/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=438",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "438",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Peri talking up immigration (even the unskilled kind). As of 2004, two thirds of workers without a high school degree in California were immigrants as well as almost half of the workers with a doctoral degree. More"
  },
  {
    "title": "The State knows…",
    "date": "2007-03-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/the-state-knows/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=437",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "437",
    "excerpt": "... better than you.  It would never do harm ."
  },
  {
    "title": "(x and y => z) does not contradict (!x => z)",
    "date": "2007-03-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/x-and-y-z-does-not-contradict-x-z/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=436",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "436",
    "excerpt": "Instead (x and y => z) implies (!z => !x OR !y).  If you theorize that (!x => z) then (!z => !y).  In this case, the Fed existence and increasing the money supply would lead, in theory, to a less severe Great Depression."
  },
  {
    "title": "Why countries are a crappy way to divide people up: Maquiladoras edition",
    "date": "2007-03-10",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/why-countries-are-a-crappy-way-to-divide-people-up-maquiladoras-edition/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=432",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "432",
    "excerpt": "A former student writes: Hi Will, I had a question for you since I remember you were very knowledgeable last quarter and we had some interesting conversations.  I am writing a paper for a class now on the economy of Mexi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sweet Jesus! I’m a member of a militia!",
    "date": "2007-03-10",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/sweet-jesus-im-a-member-of-a-militia/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=433",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "433",
    "excerpt": "Holy Crap! Don't tread on me , man. UPDATE: I'm suppose to gear up: \"That every citizen so enrolled and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet "
  },
  {
    "title": "moritheism",
    "date": "2007-03-10",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/moritheism/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=434",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "434",
    "excerpt": "Apropos a conversation I was having with Gavin the other day about ID, Robin Hanson comments on Richard Dawkins and The God Delusion: To my mind most discussion misses the key distinction between these two claims: 1. A g"
  },
  {
    "title": "Dangerous Ruling",
    "date": "2007-03-10",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/dangerous-ruling/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=435",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "435",
    "excerpt": "An appeals court ruling would put cars back in D.C. garages - A Washington Post editorial IN OVERTURNING the District of Columbia's long-standing ban on cars yesterday, a federal appeals court turned its back on nearly 7"
  },
  {
    "title": "Picasa experiment",
    "date": "2007-03-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/picasa-experiment/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=430",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "430",
    "excerpt": "bear river cabin"
  },
  {
    "title": "Is American health care more expensive because its better…",
    "date": "2007-03-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/is-american-health-care-more-expensive-because-its-better/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=431",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "431",
    "excerpt": "... or because its less efficient? Here's one piece of evidence that American health care is better , but The Economist warns : This is a good illustration of why it is so very, very difficult to do cross-country compari"
  },
  {
    "title": "What is X?",
    "date": "2007-03-02",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/what-is-x/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=429",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "429",
    "excerpt": "Kantian ethics as it applies to humans: (1) All humans have intrinsic value. (2) All those who have intrinsic value have it equally. (3) All and only those which have some relevant property, X, have intrinsic value. (4) "
  },
  {
    "title": "…since sliced bread?",
    "date": "2007-03-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/since-sliced-bread/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=427",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "427",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis economics in the news (ish)",
    "date": "2007-03-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/03/uc-davis-economics-in-the-news-ish/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=428",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "428",
    "excerpt": "Well, I guess an email that gets published on Greg Mankiw's weblog is sorta like a letter to the editor getting published in a newspaper, which is sorta like news."
  },
  {
    "title": "The NeoAth delusion",
    "date": "2007-02-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/the-neoath-delusion/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=425",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "425",
    "excerpt": "Once again I find someone more articulate on this issue...  albeit, it wasn't hard. I suppose it's possible that a few ambivalent souls may pick up Dawkins' book The God Delusion and see \"the empirical light.\" But just a"
  },
  {
    "title": "Definition of a Nash Equilibrium",
    "date": "2007-02-26",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/definition-of-a-nash-equilibrium/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=426",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "426",
    "excerpt": "If we start shooting around there [the other gang's territory], nobody, and I mean you dig it, nobody gonna step on their turf.  But we gotta be careful, 'cause they can shoot around here too and then we all fucked. --- "
  },
  {
    "title": "Best discussion of the bordered Hessian ever!",
    "date": "2007-02-25",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/best-discussion-of-the-bordered-hessian-ever/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=422",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "422",
    "excerpt": "Ever wanted to know why the positive semi-definiteness condition on the bordered Hessian characterizes the maximum in a constrained optimization problem ? Yeah, me too. I guess I never made the connection that when I put"
  },
  {
    "title": "Discounting asteroids, again",
    "date": "2007-02-25",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/discounting-asteroids-again/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=423",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "423",
    "excerpt": "A while back, I wrote : It seems to me that history has a direction. For some good things to happen other good things needed to happen first. The transistor had to be invented before the computer could be (well pretty mu"
  },
  {
    "title": "Governors…",
    "date": "2007-02-25",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/governors/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=424",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "424",
    "excerpt": "... we tend to elect governors ."
  },
  {
    "title": "I hate Algebra too",
    "date": "2007-02-24",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/i-hate-algebra-too/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=420",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "420",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Why are Price Controls bad?",
    "date": "2007-02-24",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/why-are-price-controls-bad/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=421",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "421",
    "excerpt": "The price of a good reflects its relative scarcity and the relative preferences for that good.  Why is water relatively cheaper than diamonds?  Because its less scarce.  Why are Hondas more expensive than Hyundais?  Beca"
  },
  {
    "title": "How you’re going to die…",
    "date": "2007-02-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/how-youre-going-to-die/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=418",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "418",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "I don’t care who you are…",
    "date": "2007-02-23",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/i-dont-care-who-you-are/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=419",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "419",
    "excerpt": "...abortion is gross.  And if you want this point driven home, listen to these Supreme Court oral arguments . About minute 35 Chief Justice Roberts asks, \"So we just say your hypothetical about extraction of the [fetus']"
  },
  {
    "title": "If we were to elect a Senator as President, it would be…",
    "date": "2007-02-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/if-we-were-to-elect-a-senator-as-president-it-would-be/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=417",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "417",
    "excerpt": "... John McCain . We're not going to elect a Senator as President, though. Before 1960, it was impossible for Americans to elect a Catholic .  Before 2008, it was impossible for us to elect a Mormon . Or maybe we should "
  },
  {
    "title": "Your Brain is Yellow Of all the brain types, yours…",
    "date": "2007-02-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/your-brain-is-yellow-of-all-the-brain-types-yours/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=415",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "415",
    "excerpt": "Your Brain is Yellow Of all the brain types, yours is the most intellectual. You crave mental stimulation, and your thoughts tend to very complex. Your thoughts tend to be innovative and cutting edge, though many people "
  },
  {
    "title": "The great Northern California tour of universities!",
    "date": "2007-02-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/the-great-northern-california-tour-of-universities/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=416",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "416",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Research: the definitive guide",
    "date": "2007-02-16",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/research-the-definitive-guide/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=413",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "413",
    "excerpt": "Next, concoct plausible explanations for your new, statistically significant anomaly. ... Under no circumstances should you test these explanations... In other words, your explanations, though plausible, are false. The r"
  },
  {
    "title": "Scheme and Perl - Theory and Practice",
    "date": "2007-02-16",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/scheme-and-perl-theory-and-practice/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=414",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "414",
    "excerpt": "I learned Scheme in school and my favorite text books, in any subject, is Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs , but every day of my working life I used PERL to hack something or other together..."
  },
  {
    "title": "History reading group",
    "date": "2007-02-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/history-reading-group/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=410",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "410",
    "excerpt": "Here's some citations I'd like to add to the history reading group's list: The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and... - Google Book Search Proto-Industrialization: The First Phase of the Industrialization Process"
  },
  {
    "title": "Best thing I’ve read (so far) today",
    "date": "2007-02-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/best-thing-ive-read-so-far-today-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=411",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "411",
    "excerpt": "... the night is still young.  In any case, its appropriate, today being Lincoln's birthday and all, that the best thing I've read today would be something Lincoln said: I have said and I repeat it here, that if there be"
  },
  {
    "title": "Best thing I’ve read (so far) today",
    "date": "2007-02-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/best-thing-ive-read-so-far-today-3/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=412",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "412",
    "excerpt": "(erm, is it tomorrow yet?) In my opinion, public policy on greenhouse warming needs desperately to steer a middle course, which is not yet there, for dealing with possible climate-change disasters. This middle course emp"
  },
  {
    "title": "Best thing I’ve read (so far) today",
    "date": "2007-02-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/best-thing-ive-read-so-far-today/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=409",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "409",
    "excerpt": "Before I go on, I must be explicit that I have long been skeptical of \"green.\"  Unlike \"green\" folks, I am not especially inspired by nature.  Yes, often nature is pretty and soothing to visit.  But to get my blood pumpi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Price Controls = Bad",
    "date": "2007-02-09",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/price-controls-bad/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=407",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "407",
    "excerpt": "Ok budding third world despots, I see you there Scott, let's say it together.... Price... Controls... are... BAD!!!!"
  },
  {
    "title": "Insurance Companies aren’t profit mazimizing",
    "date": "2007-02-09",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/insurance-companies-arent-profit-mazimizing/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=408",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "408",
    "excerpt": "Or so says Paul Krugman : Right now, many people are uninsured because ... insurance companies \"game  the system to cover only healthy people.\" So the Edwards plan, like  Schwarzenegger’s, imposes \"community rating\" on"
  },
  {
    "title": "New Atheist",
    "date": "2007-02-08",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/new-atheist/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=405",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "405",
    "excerpt": "Crap.  You know you're in trouble when the person you think of as being more articulate than you has to then pass the argument on further to someone they think is more articulate.  This means I'm double inarticulate or S"
  },
  {
    "title": "My mental model of Instapundit says…",
    "date": "2007-02-08",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/my-mental-model-of-instapundit-says/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=406",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "406",
    "excerpt": "... heh ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Don’t ask questions that shouldn’t be asked",
    "date": "2007-02-07",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/dont-ask-questions-that-shouldnt-be-asked/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=404",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "404",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Full",
    "date": "2007-02-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/full/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=402",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "402",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "“What in the name of Christopher Sholes would I want with ten Kensington 64362 Keyboards?”",
    "date": "2007-02-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/e2-80-9cwhat-in-the-name-of-christopher-sholes-would-i-want-with-ten-kensington-64362-keyboards-e2-80-9d/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=403",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "403",
    "excerpt": "Woot!"
  },
  {
    "title": "If your pissed off about Exxon’s hugemongous profits…",
    "date": "2007-02-04",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/if-your-pissed-off-about-exxons-hugemongous-profits/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=401",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "401",
    "excerpt": "... buy shares in the company, take the dividends and invest them in alternative fuels or peace research or whatever.  Sheesh. While I'm at it...  Exxon doesn't cause global warming, people that buy Exxon gas do.  These "
  },
  {
    "title": "Fun numbers",
    "date": "2007-02-02",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/fun-numbers/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=400",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "400",
    "excerpt": "U.S. government revenues are at their historical average despite the President's tax cuts and the deficit is about at the average, too.  I bet if you control for the business cycle, the deficit would be much worse than a"
  },
  {
    "title": "Heh.",
    "date": "2007-02-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/heh-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=398",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "398",
    "excerpt": "I love that I'm Catholic.  I can post funny pictures of the pope and write \"heh\" as the caption.  It's like the N-word for black people, but this is H-word (in the context of a funny picture of the Pope) for Catholics.  "
  },
  {
    "title": "John Searle",
    "date": "2007-02-01",
    "url": "/writing/2007/02/john-searle/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=399",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "399",
    "excerpt": "\"If you can't say it clearly, you don't understand it yourself.\""
  },
  {
    "title": "Hillary?",
    "date": "2007-01-27",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/hillary/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=396",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "396",
    "excerpt": "Should I?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Of highways and lung capacities",
    "date": "2007-01-27",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/of-highways-and-lung-capacities/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=397",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "397",
    "excerpt": "Rich people live further away from highways.  Children of rich people have better health care.  Children with better health care have higher lung capacity. This does not imply \" this study shows there are health effects "
  },
  {
    "title": "Truth",
    "date": "2007-01-21",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/truth/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=395",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "395",
    "excerpt": "Implicit in the Global Warming Advocates' (give yourselves a name people!) stance is humans are somehow, inappropriately, above nature.  For example, their dogma, their \"truths\" , includes \"Over consumption is a serious "
  },
  {
    "title": "Empty",
    "date": "2007-01-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/empty/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=391",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "391",
    "excerpt": "Lyrics"
  },
  {
    "title": "Dialogue concerning the Exchequer",
    "date": "2007-01-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/dialogue-concerning-the-exchequer/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=392",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "392",
    "excerpt": "Very neat: Just as those who walk in darkness and grope with their hands frequently stumble, so many sit there who seeing do not perceive, and hearing do not understand. and I know there's a few economics writers that sh"
  },
  {
    "title": "When weathermen attack!",
    "date": "2007-01-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/when-weathermen-attack/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=393",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "393",
    "excerpt": "Weathermen should get their licenses revoked if they don't believe in man-made global warming. If a meteorologist can't speak to the fundamental science of climate change, then maybe the AMS shouldn't give them a Seal of"
  },
  {
    "title": "Facts on global warming",
    "date": "2007-01-20",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/facts-on-global-warming/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=394",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "394",
    "excerpt": "The national geographic society has some interesting facts on global warming .  IMHO, they shouldn't mix forecasts in with facts, though.  A forecast isn't a fact (although I suppose that there is such a forecast is a fa"
  },
  {
    "title": "Neat.",
    "date": "2007-01-17",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/neat-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=390",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "390",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "The problem with behavioral economics",
    "date": "2007-01-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/the-problem-with-behavioral-economics/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=388",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "388",
    "excerpt": "One more small point. It's an obvious point, but too often forgotten. The way that someone speaks in a given context -- including the context of the phonetics lab -- is not a fixed and invariant property of their individ"
  },
  {
    "title": "Open source governement?",
    "date": "2007-01-15",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/open-source-governement/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=389",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "389",
    "excerpt": "John Bellinger, State Department Legal Adviser (\"the top lawyer at the Department of State\"), is blogging about Guantanamo at Opinio Juris ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Un-fucking-believable",
    "date": "2007-01-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/un-fucking-believable/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=386",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "386",
    "excerpt": "Can you believe this guy ?  Someone please tell me that steroids rots your brain...  at least then, he'd have an excuse.  Jezus H. Chriminy."
  },
  {
    "title": "Nomination for Best Post of the Month",
    "date": "2007-01-13",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/nomination-for-best-post-of-the-month/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=387",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "387",
    "excerpt": "Best Post of the Month in the Economics Category ? Popperian falsification is just a special case of the Bayesian view: if the likelihood P(data|model) is zero (indicating that the data is impossible given the model), P("
  },
  {
    "title": "News from Iraq",
    "date": "2007-01-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/news-from-iraq/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=384",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "384",
    "excerpt": "The reaction in parliament to Bush's speech : Despite being concerned about security developments, the people were very interested in learning about the new strategy of president Bush but since the speech was aired at 5 "
  },
  {
    "title": "Erotic fantasies of an economist, part 1",
    "date": "2007-01-12",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/erotic-fantasies-of-an-economist-part-1/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=385",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "385",
    "excerpt": "President Bush vetoes this bill , gets on TV and announces an initiative to increase the earned income tax credit . ( Why? )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Brad Delong",
    "date": "2007-01-11",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/brad-delong/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=382",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "382",
    "excerpt": "Most of the time I wonder why I read Prof. Delong's weblog.  His political commentary is just bad and I suspect he writes heated rhetoric just to encourage the passions of a generally unthinking and sycophantic commentar"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bush said this?",
    "date": "2007-01-11",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/bush-said-this/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=383",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "383",
    "excerpt": "To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country’s economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis. -- Bush Best.  Idea.  Evar!"
  },
  {
    "title": "Patella Femoral Syndrome",
    "date": "2007-01-10",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/patella-femoral-syndrome/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=380",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "380",
    "excerpt": "Other causes for patella femoral syndrome include weak quadriceps muscles, injury to the knee, obesity and overuse. Initial treatment involves reducing inflammation and re-establishing the proper alignment between the kn"
  },
  {
    "title": "Discounting asteroids",
    "date": "2007-01-10",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/discounting-asteroids/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=381",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "381",
    "excerpt": "A footnote in this good discussion of discounting : Similarly, discounting for opportunity costs is also inappropriate if one is comparing outcomes that cannot be invested. For example, although money can be invested and"
  },
  {
    "title": "Why democracy?",
    "date": "2007-01-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/why-democracy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=378",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "378",
    "excerpt": "I believe in democracy because I distrust the elites. I distrust the elites because I believe that self-deception is widespread, and the elites are particularly skilled at it. Accordingly, I believe that it is important "
  },
  {
    "title": "Why democracy (again)?",
    "date": "2007-01-06",
    "url": "/writing/2007/01/why-democracy-again/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=379",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "379",
    "excerpt": "Government power is not necessarily abused more often than personal power, but when the abuse does come, it's a lulu. At work, power over the whole supply cabinet is concentrated in the person of the office manager. In g"
  },
  {
    "title": "History has a destination with layovers",
    "date": "2006-12-21",
    "url": "/writing/2006/12/history-has-a-destination-with-layovers/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=377",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "377",
    "excerpt": "There's lots of talk about discounting .  Not the kind of discounting we'll see the day after Christmas.  No, the kind we do to future happiness.  We'd rather eat a candy bar today, and be happy today, than eat a candy b"
  },
  {
    "title": "I want to be a Neuroscientist when I grow up",
    "date": "2006-12-20",
    "url": "/writing/2006/12/i-want-to-be-a-neuroscientist-when-i-grow-up/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=375",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "375",
    "excerpt": "Not because I want to do all the science... you know lab work and stuff... but because I want to read articles like this all day."
  },
  {
    "title": "Carl Sagan",
    "date": "2006-12-20",
    "url": "/writing/2006/12/carl-sagan/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=376",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "376",
    "excerpt": "I watched this video the other day ... a \"debate\" between an IDer and a skeptic.  \"Talking past each other\" is too loose a metaphor.  Science does something.  Religion does something else. I wrote a while back about how "
  },
  {
    "title": "The forming of new markets",
    "date": "2006-12-15",
    "url": "/writing/2006/12/the-forming-of-new-markets/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=374",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "374",
    "excerpt": "I just opened a new tab in firefox and stared at a blank screen for five seconds, waiting.  \"Why isn't gMail loading?\" I demanded of my computer before I realized you have to actually type the URL into the little box and"
  },
  {
    "title": "Haha! Women aren’t funny",
    "date": "2006-12-14",
    "url": "/writing/2006/12/haha-women-arent-funny/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=372",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "372",
    "excerpt": "Hitchens is a great writer : The plain fact is that the physical structure of the human being is a joke in itself: a flat, crude, unanswerable disproof of any nonsense about \"intelligent design.\" The reproductive and eli"
  },
  {
    "title": "Good question",
    "date": "2006-12-14",
    "url": "/writing/2006/12/good-question/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=373",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "373",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "erm…",
    "date": "2006-12-12",
    "url": "/writing/2006/12/erm/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=371",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "371",
    "excerpt": "The Army is not having recruiting problems and \"strong\" is not a adjective modifying the word \"Army\" in the phrase \"Army strong\". I believe \"Army\" is acting as an adverb modifying the adjective \"strong\" (so I guess the w"
  },
  {
    "title": "No really…",
    "date": "2006-12-11",
    "url": "/writing/2006/12/no-really/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=370",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "370",
    "excerpt": "... what is it good for ?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Does culture matter?",
    "date": "2006-12-10",
    "url": "/writing/2006/12/does-culture-matter/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=368",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "368",
    "excerpt": "We're all the same.  I'm convinced.  Each one of the 6 billion or so of us were endowed, more or less, with the same brain that blesses each of us with the ability to 'get' one another. But then, what is culture for?  Is"
  },
  {
    "title": "Government! Huh!",
    "date": "2006-12-10",
    "url": "/writing/2006/12/government-huh/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=369",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "369",
    "excerpt": "Good god y'all. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again."
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the news",
    "date": "2006-12-07",
    "url": "/writing/2006/12/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-4/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=367",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "367",
    "excerpt": "Professor Woo, my growth prof this quarter, sat on a panel discussing the sustainability of growth in the Chinese economy .   There's a video on that page.  The professor's comments . Professor Woo took the position that"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the news",
    "date": "2006-11-30",
    "url": "/writing/2006/11/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-3/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=366",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "366",
    "excerpt": "Professor Stevens' research spotted in paragraph 3 of this Wall Street Journal column .  This is same research Prof. Mankiw wrote about a couple months ago ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Wishlist",
    "date": "2006-11-29",
    "url": "/writing/2006/11/wishlist/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=365",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "365",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Milton Friedman RIP",
    "date": "2006-11-16",
    "url": "/writing/2006/11/milton-friedman-rip/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=363",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "363",
    "excerpt": "\"One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programmes by their intentions rather than their results.\"  -- Milton Friedman"
  },
  {
    "title": "Lou Dobbs is an idiot, deal with it",
    "date": "2006-11-16",
    "url": "/writing/2006/11/lou-dobbs-is-an-idiot-deal-with-it/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=364",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "364",
    "excerpt": "I have never blamed the poor of Mexico, China or India for corporate America's avarice and our political elites' cowardice. All that is wrong with Lou Dobbs is captured in this quote.  He would like to believe what he sa"
  },
  {
    "title": "Smackdown!",
    "date": "2006-11-12",
    "url": "/writing/2006/11/smackdown/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=361",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "361",
    "excerpt": "The Jesuits said 'give me a child until the age of seven and I will give you the man'. From my 25 years of teaching children aged 5 -7 years, I would argue that there is little that teachers can do to change the impact o"
  },
  {
    "title": "Interesting Abu Ghraib timeline I wasn’t aware of…",
    "date": "2006-11-12",
    "url": "/writing/2006/11/interesting-abu-ghraib-timeline-i-wasnt-aware-of/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=362",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "362",
    "excerpt": "The General in charge of prisons in Iraq when prisoner abuse occured in Abu Ghraib was admonished, and stripped of rank, for the abuse found there *four* months before the abuses were first exposed by the media. General "
  },
  {
    "title": "More exact than news coverage, I should think",
    "date": "2006-11-07",
    "url": "/writing/2006/11/more-exact-than-news-coverage-i-should-think/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=360",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "360",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Truffles from Alba",
    "date": "2006-11-04",
    "url": "/writing/2006/11/truffles-from-alba/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=359",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "359",
    "excerpt": "I agree with Guy Kawasaki , this is a pretty good blog post ."
  },
  {
    "title": "I heart economists, part 5",
    "date": "2006-11-02",
    "url": "/writing/2006/11/i-heart-economists-part-5/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=357",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "357",
    "excerpt": "Similarly, psychologists have found that male subjects, immediately after watching pornography, are more likely to express misogynistic attitudes. But as professor Kendall points out, we need to be clear on what those ex"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the news",
    "date": "2006-11-02",
    "url": "/writing/2006/11/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=358",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "358",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Clark's book is getting more attention from Marginal Revolution .  Links and more commentary from EconLog and Cafe Hayek ."
  },
  {
    "title": "OMG…",
    "date": "2006-10-31",
    "url": "/writing/2006/10/omg/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=356",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "356",
    "excerpt": "...something horrible has happened to me.  I read these comments from the inside looking out."
  },
  {
    "title": "Gun control",
    "date": "2006-10-27",
    "url": "/writing/2006/10/gun-control/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=353",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "353",
    "excerpt": "127 kids died of a firearm accident in 2003.  910 died in drowning accidents. Preventing accidental gun deaths is NOT a reason for gun control.  (h/t Darwin Catholic )"
  },
  {
    "title": "Rhetoric of tyranny",
    "date": "2006-10-27",
    "url": "/writing/2006/10/rhetoric-of-tyranny/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=354",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "354",
    "excerpt": "As per usual, I put my students in small groups of 4 or 5 today in class.  I find this method helps the more shy students participate, while allowing the know-it-alls to be big fish in smaller ponds.  In any case, I have"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bounded rationality",
    "date": "2006-10-27",
    "url": "/writing/2006/10/bounded-rationality/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=355",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "355",
    "excerpt": "I'm discovering I'm a bad mathematician.  That's a lie.  I knew I was a bad mathematician.  Nonetheless, I love theory.  This is a problem. Choices that decision makers make are boundedly rational if a) he would make the"
  },
  {
    "title": "Data mining",
    "date": "2006-10-22",
    "url": "/writing/2006/10/data-mining/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=352",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "352",
    "excerpt": "I can't remember who I was talking to recently, but we were discussing data mining.  Data mining is bad.  Real bad.  Everyone knows this, but why is it so bad? Researchers in any discipline are suppose to check their bia"
  },
  {
    "title": "It’s all been said before",
    "date": "2006-10-06",
    "url": "/writing/2006/10/its-all-been-said-before/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=350",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "350",
    "excerpt": "Some funny economics related quotes.  My favorites: \"Stiglitz's outlook is that markets are imperfect, but he is not.        Where Marx offered dictatorship of the proletariat, Stiglitz would give        us dictatorship "
  },
  {
    "title": "Somebody’s trying to tell me something",
    "date": "2006-10-06",
    "url": "/writing/2006/10/somebodys-trying-to-tell-me-something/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=351",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "351",
    "excerpt": "While my department listserv is a debating the merits of the graduate student union (loss of liberty vs. well the other side hasn't really articulated their POV yet except to say that unions must be good), the following "
  },
  {
    "title": "Paper: Bar-Hillel, \"Cycles of Intransitive Choice\"",
    "date": "2006-10-04",
    "url": "/writing/2006/10/paper-bar-hillel-cycles-of-intransitive-choice/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=349",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "349",
    "excerpt": "Transitivity is a property of preferences where if A is preferred to B (denoted A > B) and B preferred to C (B > C) then A must be preferred to C (A > C).  The paper discussions various examples where this property doesn"
  },
  {
    "title": "Chapter: Kreps, \"Notes on the theory of choice,\" chapter 2",
    "date": "2006-10-03",
    "url": "/writing/2006/10/chapter-kreps-notes-on-the-theory-of-choice-chapter-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=348",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "348",
    "excerpt": "Quick review of binary relations generally and preference relations specifically.  The minimum requirement of binary relations to make them preference relations is asymmetry and negative transitivity.  These two things i"
  },
  {
    "title": "Paper: Samuelson, \"Exact Consumption-Loan Model of Interest\"",
    "date": "2006-10-02",
    "url": "/writing/2006/10/paper-samuelson-exact-consumption-loan-model-of-interest/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=347",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "347",
    "excerpt": "The model is a one of multiple, identical generations (OLG), with each generation living 3 periods, working in the first 2 and being retired in the last.  Total lifetime savings has to equal zero (i.e. grandparents don't"
  },
  {
    "title": "Best footnote I’ve read today",
    "date": "2006-09-30",
    "url": "/writing/2006/09/best-footnote-ive-read-today/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=346",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "346",
    "excerpt": "At the bottom of page 52 in Searle's Construction of Social Reality , where he's discussing  the seemingly self-referentiality of the definition of things like money i.e. money is money because people believe it is money"
  },
  {
    "title": "Failure",
    "date": "2006-09-24",
    "url": "/writing/2006/09/failure/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=343",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "343",
    "excerpt": "Success discloses faults and infirmities which failure might have concealed from observation. -- J. S. Mill, On Liberty"
  },
  {
    "title": "Left vs. Right",
    "date": "2006-09-24",
    "url": "/writing/2006/09/left-vs-right/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=344",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "344",
    "excerpt": "Some, whenever they see any good to be done, or evil to be remedied, would willingly instigate the government to undertake the business; while others prefer to bear almost any amount of social evil, rather than add one t"
  },
  {
    "title": "EQSQ",
    "date": "2006-09-24",
    "url": "/writing/2006/09/eqsq/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=345",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "345",
    "excerpt": "Language Log pointed me to this test ... Apparently, I'm a barely functioning autistic. Here are your EQ SQ results: EQ : 23 SQ : 94 The important factor to consider is not your absolute score, but the difference between"
  },
  {
    "title": "They like me! They really like me!",
    "date": "2006-09-11",
    "url": "/writing/2006/09/they-like-me-they-really-like-me/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=342",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "342",
    "excerpt": "So after a hiccup with macro, I've passed the prelim exams and I'm offically a second year grad. Now, what fields will I take?"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis Econ in the news",
    "date": "2006-09-01",
    "url": "/writing/2006/09/uc-davis-econ-in-the-news/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=341",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "341",
    "excerpt": "Our own Prof. Stevens ' work on long term employment was linked to by Mankiw . In an update, Prof. Mankiw points out that Darren Acemoglu scooped Prof. Stevens .  I'm pretty sure that if you dug around Prof. Acemoglu's l"
  },
  {
    "title": "What orentated me to obsess over this sort of stuff?",
    "date": "2006-08-18",
    "url": "/writing/2006/08/what-orentated-me-to-obsess-over-this-sort-of-stuff/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=340",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "340",
    "excerpt": "More examples of back-formations here ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Want to see a grown man cry?",
    "date": "2006-08-15",
    "url": "/writing/2006/08/want-to-see-a-grown-man-cry/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=339",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "339",
    "excerpt": "Yeah.  Well, then you should have been at my place tonight where I watched the final episode of Band of Brothers . The best 12 hour movie I've ever seen."
  },
  {
    "title": "I heart economists social psychologists",
    "date": "2006-08-09",
    "url": "/writing/2006/08/i-heart-economists-social-psychologists/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=338",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "338",
    "excerpt": "Conservatives generally believe, as did Durkheim (1951/1897), that human beings need structure and constraint to flourish, and that social institutions provide these benefits. In a recent edited volume on conservatism, M"
  },
  {
    "title": "Hello world!",
    "date": "2006-08-08",
    "url": "/writing/2006/08/hello-world-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=335",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "335",
    "excerpt": "Welcome to Wordpress.com . This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!"
  },
  {
    "title": "About",
    "date": "2006-08-08",
    "url": "/writing/2006/08/about/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?page_id=336",
    "type": "page",
    "id": "336",
    "excerpt": "I write this blog because I like it."
  },
  {
    "title": "Moral Consequences",
    "date": "2006-08-08",
    "url": "/writing/2006/08/moral-consequences/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=337",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "337",
    "excerpt": "I second Megan McArdle's endorsement of Thomas Friedman's Moral Consequence of Economic Growth .  I also agree that the third part of the book isn't so hot.  Megan says that Friedman's policy prescriptions are timid and "
  },
  {
    "title": "I heart economists, part 4",
    "date": "2006-08-02",
    "url": "/writing/2006/08/i-heart-economists-part-4/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=334",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "334",
    "excerpt": "All wars are full of incompetence, mendacity, fear, and lies.  War is big government, authoritarianism, central planning, command and control, and bureaucracy in its most naked form and on the largest scale.  The Pentago"
  },
  {
    "title": "Best movie I’ve \"seen\" in 6 months",
    "date": "2006-07-29",
    "url": "/writing/2006/07/best-movie-ive-seen-in-6-months/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=333",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "333",
    "excerpt": "Half Life 2 (easy mode)"
  },
  {
    "title": "Minimum wage and the magic number",
    "date": "2006-07-26",
    "url": "/writing/2006/07/minimum-wage-and-the-magic-number/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=332",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "332",
    "excerpt": "If I work 20 hour weeks at minimum wage , I'd make just above the magic number . (1000 hrs per year * 6.75 dollars per hour = $6,750)"
  },
  {
    "title": "5000 is a magic number",
    "date": "2006-07-25",
    "url": "/writing/2006/07/5000-is-a-magic-number/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=331",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "331",
    "excerpt": "$5000 per person per year, that is. I was playing with Gapminder and noticed that a lot of the interesting relationships between levels of income and other development variables have noticeable kinks at about $5000 per c"
  },
  {
    "title": "I heart economists, part 3",
    "date": "2006-07-23",
    "url": "/writing/2006/07/i-heart-economists-part-3/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=330",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "330",
    "excerpt": "モノやサービスを売買する場合、買い手は売り手に対価を支払わなければならない。この対価は両者が互いに合意すれば、何でもよいが、通常は貨幣が利用されるã"
  },
  {
    "title": "Tools stumbled upon (update)",
    "date": "2006-07-15",
    "url": "/writing/2006/07/tools-stumbled-upon-update/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=328",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "328",
    "excerpt": "About a year ago I posted on some cool tools I had recently run in to.  On that list I still use TortoiseSVN as a subversion front-end.  It's been great for storing class projects/homework and securing grades for the cla"
  },
  {
    "title": "Lightning",
    "date": "2006-07-15",
    "url": "/writing/2006/07/lightning/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=329",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "329",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Winamp",
    "date": "2006-07-14",
    "url": "/writing/2006/07/winamp/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=327",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "327",
    "excerpt": "Stuff like this is why I can't stop using winamp .  I really, really want to use something else.  The instability and, to be honest, the crustiness of winamp drive me up the wall. But no matter what you want to do with y"
  },
  {
    "title": "It’s easy to be snide — it’s hard to understand…",
    "date": "2006-07-04",
    "url": "/writing/2006/07/its-easy-to-be-snide--c2-96-its-hard-to-understand/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=325",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "325",
    "excerpt": "It's easy to be snide ---– it's hard to understand how to act in the world. Commenter rilkefan over at Crooked Timber"
  },
  {
    "title": "Foundations of neo-classical economics OR why I’ve just been baptized into a new religion",
    "date": "2006-07-04",
    "url": "/writing/2006/07/foundations-of-neo-classical-economics-or-why-ive-just-been-baptized-into-a-new-religion/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=326",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "326",
    "excerpt": "Early in my first quarter of macro, the professor stated divergent equilibrium paths of the economy can be dismissed because they wouldn't result in movement toward steady-state.  At the time, it struck me as odd that we"
  },
  {
    "title": "What have I been doing for the last nine months?",
    "date": "2006-06-26",
    "url": "/writing/2006/06/what-have-i-been-doing-for-the-last-nine-months/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=324",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "324",
    "excerpt": "This. In a sentence, microeconomic theory first creates an ideal world where interaction between individually optimizing agents creates socially efficient outcomes and then it systematically dismantles this ideal world t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Amtrak vs. Driving",
    "date": "2006-06-10",
    "url": "/writing/2006/06/amtrak-vs-driving/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=323",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "323",
    "excerpt": "\"I hate driving,\" I'm fond of saying, but what does that mean?  What does it mean to \"hate\" something?  Are there a list of things you hate and then a list of things that you love and within each list there is no disting"
  },
  {
    "title": "Thought experiment",
    "date": "2006-06-06",
    "url": "/writing/2006/06/thought-experiment/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=322",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "322",
    "excerpt": "Below are options you can decide to take.  You can take one and only option. Work an extra 10 minutes every day for the rest of your life in exchange for, upon your death, a guaranteed payment of $300,000 to your family "
  },
  {
    "title": "Ho, Hum…",
    "date": "2006-06-01",
    "url": "/writing/2006/06/ho-hum/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=321",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "321",
    "excerpt": "Tom's Hardware has a very extensive overview of the new Windows Vista . Wow, 10GB!  There is absolutely no reason why I'd want to upgrade to this monstrosity.  On second thought, they did spruce up minesweeper ."
  },
  {
    "title": "I heart economists, part 2",
    "date": "2006-05-31",
    "url": "/writing/2006/05/i-heart-economists-part-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=320",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "320",
    "excerpt": "I have always felt that, as a first approximation in handling questions relating to the lives and actions of larges masses of people, the approach which counts one man as one, and, on that assumption, asks which way lies"
  },
  {
    "title": "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it",
    "date": "2006-05-29",
    "url": "/writing/2006/05/the-brave-men-living-and-dead-who-struggled-here-have-consecrated-it/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=319",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "319",
    "excerpt": "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, te"
  },
  {
    "title": "I heart economists",
    "date": "2006-05-27",
    "url": "/writing/2006/05/i-heart-economists/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=318",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "318",
    "excerpt": "James Sensenbrenner (U.S. Representative): \"It is offensive to me to think we have legislators who are considering selling US citizenship for $2,000.\" Greg Mankiw (Harvard Economist): \"Many economists would agree: $2,000"
  },
  {
    "title": "Whaaa?",
    "date": "2006-05-19",
    "url": "/writing/2006/05/whaaa/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=317",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "317",
    "excerpt": "The chances of me ever taking former secretary of Labor Robert Reich seriously has been severely diminished by his Coastal Theory : Talking about coastal versus inland, there's an age-old political pattern that also bear"
  },
  {
    "title": "Amen",
    "date": "2006-05-17",
    "url": "/writing/2006/05/amen/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=316",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "316",
    "excerpt": "Using force to stop people from migrating is morally repugnant."
  },
  {
    "title": "Mankiw, 1 - DeLong, 0",
    "date": "2006-05-09",
    "url": "/writing/2006/05/mankiw-1-delong-0/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=315",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "315",
    "excerpt": "In response to a post at Professor Mankiw's blog , Professor DeLong makes an analogy for the federal budget deficit : I, full professor Brad DeLong, am having lunch with lecturer Dariush Zahedi today. After lunch, I pres"
  },
  {
    "title": "Amae",
    "date": "2006-05-07",
    "url": "/writing/2006/05/amae/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=314",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "314",
    "excerpt": "In response to Language Log's attempt at Whorf busting , Gavin throws down .  (See American culture is obsessed with competition.  I bet there's not a word in Japanese for competition.  I know, I know, you'll find a list"
  },
  {
    "title": "Spring boxes",
    "date": "2006-05-05",
    "url": "/writing/2006/05/spring-boxes/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=313",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "313",
    "excerpt": "Everything you ever wanted to know about building a spring box .  Don't ask."
  },
  {
    "title": "Voting with their feet",
    "date": "2006-05-02",
    "url": "/writing/2006/05/voting-with-their-feet/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=310",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "310",
    "excerpt": "If the picture of American society drawn everyday by the European press is accurate, then we must believe that those tens of millions of immigrants from all parts of the world, and especially those who came from Europe b"
  },
  {
    "title": "Anti-Americanism",
    "date": "2006-05-02",
    "url": "/writing/2006/05/anti-americanism/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=311",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "311",
    "excerpt": "A friend of mine wrote on anti-Americanism .  My reply: People will be violently anti-American no matter what policy America has. There is no such thing as a universally loved super-power. For example, there were riots i"
  },
  {
    "title": "Rietz and \"nearly infinite\"",
    "date": "2006-05-02",
    "url": "/writing/2006/05/rietz-and-nearly-infinite/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=312",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "312",
    "excerpt": "Professor Volokh objects to the use of the term \"nearly infinite\" .  A commenter says \"It means that if you were given an infinite amount of x, rather than the finite but large amount of x that you already posses, there "
  },
  {
    "title": "Bay to Breakers",
    "date": "2006-04-15",
    "url": "/writing/2006/04/bay-to-breakers/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=309",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "309",
    "excerpt": "So, its getting serious.  Yesterday the weather cleared up, so I braved my run outside.  Usually I run on an indoor track at UC Davis' ARC .  On that track, I have my miles down to 8.5 minutes for a 3 mile jog and about "
  },
  {
    "title": "The best paragraph I’ve read today",
    "date": "2006-04-02",
    "url": "/writing/2006/04/the-best-paragraph-ive-read-today/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=308",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "308",
    "excerpt": "Equilibrium macroeconomic models are described by systems of difference equations.  These equations involve a number of dynamic relationships between a set of [...] variables [...].  Although the equations that describe "
  },
  {
    "title": "Can you tell the difference?",
    "date": "2006-03-28",
    "url": "/writing/2006/03/can-you-tell-the-difference/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=307",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "307",
    "excerpt": "One is a simulated random walk and the other is actual stock prices:"
  },
  {
    "title": "That’s some good shit. You gotta try some…",
    "date": "2006-03-22",
    "url": "/writing/2006/03/thats-some-good-shit-you-gotta-try-some/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=306",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "306",
    "excerpt": "... Anthropology that is. Good anthropology .  Nevermind.  Read the article, it is good (and has nothing to do with the sticky icky, ganj, reefer, leaf, dope, etc, etc). Couldn't help myself, just visited Humboldt County"
  },
  {
    "title": "I’m a movie guy…",
    "date": "2006-03-11",
    "url": "/writing/2006/03/im-a-movie-guy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=305",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "305",
    "excerpt": "... but the last time I went to the theater was over two months ago. \"[I]f Hollywood now thinks its job is to improve my character it can just fuck off.\""
  },
  {
    "title": "States in which I’ve been",
    "date": "2006-03-06",
    "url": "/writing/2006/03/states-in-which-ive-been/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=304",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "304",
    "excerpt": "create your own visited states map"
  },
  {
    "title": "All right then, a manifesto",
    "date": "2006-03-01",
    "url": "/writing/2006/03/all-right-then-a-manifesto/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=303",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "303",
    "excerpt": "Together facing the new totalitarianism After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism. We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Kentucky Law",
    "date": "2006-02-28",
    "url": "/writing/2006/02/kentucky-law/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=302",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "302",
    "excerpt": "All men are, by nature, free and equal, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights, among which may be reckoned: ... Seventh: The right to bear arms in defense of themselves and of the State, subject to the power o"
  },
  {
    "title": "Firefly season two?",
    "date": "2006-01-27",
    "url": "/writing/2006/01/firefly-season-two/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=301",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "301",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "New Year’s Resolutions",
    "date": "2006-01-02",
    "url": "/writing/2006/01/new-years-resolutions/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=299",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "299",
    "excerpt": "Be able to reproduce the econometrics in this study and test Smith's ideas on pre-modern growth in Japan (i.e. Does plugging zero population growth and zero international trade into the model postdict growth as seen in J"
  },
  {
    "title": "The largest rock in the solar system",
    "date": "2006-01-02",
    "url": "/writing/2006/01/the-largest-rock-in-the-solar-system/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=300",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "300",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Worker’s share of GDP",
    "date": "2005-12-29",
    "url": "/writing/2005/12/workers-share-of-gdp/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=298",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "298",
    "excerpt": "58%"
  },
  {
    "title": "Conspiracy!",
    "date": "2005-12-24",
    "url": "/writing/2005/12/conspiracy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=297",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "297",
    "excerpt": "Joshua Micah Marshall infers that the White House manipulated the voting public by issuing terror alerts last year before the election. \"I'll stop calling the Bush Administration Orwellian when they stope using 1984 as a"
  },
  {
    "title": "Executions",
    "date": "2005-12-13",
    "url": "/writing/2005/12/executions/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=295",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "295",
    "excerpt": "By my count, a very bad man will be executed in 23 minutes .  He will be put to death about 70 miles south, south west from the bed I'm sitting in, writing my economic history paper. For some reason, I'm nervous; I have "
  },
  {
    "title": "Best. Year in Review. Ever.",
    "date": "2005-12-13",
    "url": "/writing/2005/12/best-year-in-review-ever/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=296",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "296",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Ute",
    "date": "2005-12-09",
    "url": "/writing/2005/12/ute/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=294",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "294",
    "excerpt": "Last summer, I heard about the Genographic Project that National Geographic is supporting.  Its a neat project.  They collect DNA samples and are collecting data about human migratory patterns of \"deep ancestors.\"  You h"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bushisms",
    "date": "2005-12-07",
    "url": "/writing/2005/12/bushisms/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=293",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "293",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Volokh points me to this \"Bushism\": \"Those who enter the country illegally violate the law.\" -- Tucson, Ariz., Nov. 28, 2005 Apparently, this same line was 'reported' on the Daily Show.  Ridiculous ain't it.  That "
  },
  {
    "title": "Hey you… You religious?",
    "date": "2005-12-02",
    "url": "/writing/2005/12/hey-you-you-religious/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=290",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "290",
    "excerpt": "Eugene Volokh has a great post over at the Volokh Conspiracy about religious belief .  In this particular thread, Eugene asks religious folks why they believe what they believe: Why then do you believe the factual assert"
  },
  {
    "title": "Why do we kill?",
    "date": "2005-12-02",
    "url": "/writing/2005/12/why-do-we-kill/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=291",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "291",
    "excerpt": "Williams says he's prepared for death but hoping for life Great guy, Williams.  He's written children's books and he's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Incedentally, he's the founder of the Crips... Yeah, those"
  },
  {
    "title": "Perspective",
    "date": "2005-12-02",
    "url": "/writing/2005/12/perspective/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=292",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "292",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Delong takes Don Luskin to task for mis-calculating death rates among solders in Iraq.  Fair enough. There have been 1511 combat fatalities in Iraq from May 2003 to November 2005 .  If there's 150,000 U.S. solders "
  },
  {
    "title": "Thanksgiving in Disneyland",
    "date": "2005-11-29",
    "url": "/writing/2005/11/thanksgiving-in-disneyland/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=289",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "289",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Genocide",
    "date": "2005-11-23",
    "url": "/writing/2005/11/genocide/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=287",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "287",
    "excerpt": "This just in. .. 1/16th of my gene's were killed by the other 15/16th, hundreds of years before I was born! One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-"
  },
  {
    "title": "Haven’t they heard of the Precautionary Principle in Europe?",
    "date": "2005-11-23",
    "url": "/writing/2005/11/havent-they-heard-of-the-precautionary-principle-in-europe/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=288",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "288",
    "excerpt": "Increased demand for Biodiesel is increasing the demand for its inputs.  What are its inputs?  Rainforests. Its not biodiversity that makes rainforests useful in the production of biodiesel.  Its the land under all that "
  },
  {
    "title": "Dilbert has a blog…",
    "date": "2005-11-22",
    "url": "/writing/2005/11/dilbert-has-a-blog/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=286",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "286",
    "excerpt": "... its a good blog .  How do I know its a good blog?  Because he says the same things that I do .  Allow me to quote myself: ...a note to the defenders of evolution: there's a fine line between legit criticism of evolut"
  },
  {
    "title": "Xmas wish list",
    "date": "2005-11-21",
    "url": "/writing/2005/11/xmas-wish-list/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=285",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "285",
    "excerpt": "My froogle wishlist is here and my here are the books I want to read/own ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Testing, testing, testing",
    "date": "2005-11-20",
    "url": "/writing/2005/11/testing-testing-testing/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=284",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "284",
    "excerpt": "Testing the blog reading speed of Google Reader ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Grrr… why won’t some guys just let me hate them?",
    "date": "2005-11-18",
    "url": "/writing/2005/11/grrr-why-wont-some-guys-just-let-me-hate-them/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=283",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "283",
    "excerpt": "If he wasn't so good, I'd hate strongly dislike (my mother taught me better) Prof. DeLong. Apparently, they pay professors pretty well down Interstate 80 at Cal Berkeley. Writing from his huge villa on the hillside (thre"
  },
  {
    "title": "The President on Japanese Democracy",
    "date": "2005-11-16",
    "url": "/writing/2005/11/the-president-on-japanese-democracy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=282",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "282",
    "excerpt": "As you embraced democracy, you adapted it to your own needs and circumstances. So Japanese democracy is different from American democracy. You have a prime minister, not a president. Your constitution allows for a monarc"
  },
  {
    "title": "Ok, these guys aren’t fans of Diamond",
    "date": "2005-11-15",
    "url": "/writing/2005/11/ok-these-guys-arent-fans-of-diamond/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=281",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "281",
    "excerpt": "These guys accuse Jared Diamond of not being scientific in his latest book Collapse.  Did anyone suppose he was being scientific?"
  },
  {
    "title": "What she said",
    "date": "2005-11-09",
    "url": "/writing/2005/11/what-she-said/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=280",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "280",
    "excerpt": "\"Jane Galt\" on abortion : There's a belief among more radical pro-choicers which I truly do not emotionally understand: that anything that makes women feel bad about having an abortion, from telling an unwilling spouse t"
  },
  {
    "title": "War… what is this one good for?",
    "date": "2005-11-04",
    "url": "/writing/2005/11/war-what-is-this-one-good-for/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=279",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "279",
    "excerpt": "Oh, sorry. Mentioned 9/11. That's not permitted. Iraq has nothing to do with 9/11. Iraq is about Halliburton and oil, just as the invasion of Sicily in World War II was about cannoli and Chianti."
  },
  {
    "title": "Gender inequality",
    "date": "2005-10-20",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/gender-inequality/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=278",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "278",
    "excerpt": "This is a HUGE problem."
  },
  {
    "title": "Ok, I don’t want to be a Diamond fan, but…",
    "date": "2005-10-17",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/ok-i-dont-want-to-be-a-diamond-fan-but/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=277",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "277",
    "excerpt": "Jared Diamond seems to irk everybody. I've had problems with him because, as a natural scientist, he assumes economics follows ecological rules. He's a Malthusian (boo, hiss). Apparently, historians and anthropologist do"
  },
  {
    "title": "More mention of Prof. Clark’s book",
    "date": "2005-10-16",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/more-mention-of-prof-clarks-book/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=276",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "276",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Clark's new book is mentioned at my favorite econ blog, Marginal Revolution , and Brad DeLong links to it a couple times ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Professor Clark’s book mentioned at the New Economist",
    "date": "2005-10-12",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/professor-clarks-book-mentioned-at-the-new-economist/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=274",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "274",
    "excerpt": "A positive review of Professor Clark's forthcoming book over at New Economist (a regular read of mine)."
  },
  {
    "title": "There’s that dang TFP, again…",
    "date": "2005-10-12",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/theres-that-dang-tfp-again/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=275",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "275",
    "excerpt": "I'm going to have to get my head around this thing... total factor productivity ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Puzzeling to me, one theory or three?",
    "date": "2005-10-11",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/puzzeling-to-me-one-theory-or-three/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=273",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "273",
    "excerpt": "Ok, now I'm confused. Professor Clark has completely and utterly convinced me that human economic life is properly explained, through most of history, via Malthusian theory. This may come as a surprise to some who've see"
  },
  {
    "title": "Why don’t the UC Davis Econ Labs have ghostview!!!??!!",
    "date": "2005-10-10",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/why-dont-the-uc-davis-econ-labs-have-ghostview/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=271",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "271",
    "excerpt": "Arg.  Luckily, I found this neat app to convert .ps files to .pdf files ."
  },
  {
    "title": "New laptop",
    "date": "2005-10-10",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/new-laptop/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=272",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "272",
    "excerpt": "Well, I've broke down and ordered a laptop...  I'll no longer be a slave to the whims of the UC Davis Economics Department Information Technology Group's Software Committee.  No, I will just steal their wireless bandwidt"
  },
  {
    "title": "Estimating GDP per worker via acres per worker data",
    "date": "2005-10-06",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/estimating-gdp-per-worker-via-acres-per-worker-data/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=270",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "270",
    "excerpt": "In History class today we discussed the problem of getting GDP data for countries BEFORE those data where collected. Since GDP wasn't collected during most of the period that economic historians are interested in, histor"
  },
  {
    "title": "Teaching blog",
    "date": "2005-10-03",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/teaching-blog/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=268",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "268",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "RSS/Atom Feed to JS",
    "date": "2005-10-03",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/rssatom-feed-to-js/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=269",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "269",
    "excerpt": "Neato script."
  },
  {
    "title": "Thin veneer",
    "date": "2005-10-02",
    "url": "/writing/2005/10/thin-veneer/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=267",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "267",
    "excerpt": "After a month in Math Camp listening to Professor Silvestre lecture on Envelope Theorems , homothetic functions , convex sets and what not, it was awkward listening to him lecture on the philosophy of economics for the f"
  },
  {
    "title": "Brad DeLong, I just don’t get him",
    "date": "2005-09-30",
    "url": "/writing/2005/09/brad-delong-i-just-dont-get-him/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=264",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "264",
    "excerpt": "For some reason, his rss feed has been broken so I haven't been able to keep track of his weblog. Brad's a Berkeley professor , he served in the Clinton White House and he often gets on my nerves.  As a matter of fact, I"
  },
  {
    "title": "Heh",
    "date": "2005-09-30",
    "url": "/writing/2005/09/heh/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=265",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "265",
    "excerpt": "Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: 'Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed.' 'OH NO!' the President exclaims. 'That's terrible!' His staff sits stunned at this displa"
  },
  {
    "title": "Über lame Mr. Wolfram",
    "date": "2005-09-30",
    "url": "/writing/2005/09/uber-lame-mr-wolfram/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=266",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "266",
    "excerpt": "Apparently, the only way to get Mathematica to output graphics as EPS is to \"save as special->tex\" and then hunt down the converted image files.  Lame.  Über lame."
  },
  {
    "title": "Daniel W. Drezner :: Serenity review",
    "date": "2005-09-27",
    "url": "/writing/2005/09/daniel-w-drezner-serenity-review/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=263",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "263",
    "excerpt": "Daniel W. Drezner: \"So go see the goram movie\""
  },
  {
    "title": "Firefly",
    "date": "2005-09-24",
    "url": "/writing/2005/09/firefly/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=262",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "262",
    "excerpt": "I didn't quite make it through the whole series of the show firefly , yet.  But I'm definitely going to have to before the movie, named Serenity , comes out... This show is pretty damned good and I hope the same for the "
  },
  {
    "title": "Data",
    "date": "2005-09-14",
    "url": "/writing/2005/09/data/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=260",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "260",
    "excerpt": "Here's some data to back up my claim \"linear growth of supply has never materialized in the over 200 years since Malthus\" Update:  Look at that...  Even more data. One way to measure sustainability would be to see how mu"
  },
  {
    "title": "Are you sure?",
    "date": "2005-09-14",
    "url": "/writing/2005/09/are-you-sure/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=261",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "261",
    "excerpt": "Are you sure President Bush is \"a man of small motives, a man incapable of personal sacrifice, a man who seeks and uses his office to augment, never to diminish, himself\" ?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Housing the Katrina victims",
    "date": "2005-09-08",
    "url": "/writing/2005/09/housing-the-katrina-victims/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=259",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "259",
    "excerpt": "Alex at MR passes on the following.  This is a good idea... Ed Olsen at the University of Virginia, one of the country's leading researchers on housing, sent me the following proposal to immediately expand HUD's Section "
  },
  {
    "title": "Friday catblogging… in Japanese!",
    "date": "2005-08-25",
    "url": "/writing/2005/08/friday-catblogging-in-japanese/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=258",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "258",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "I should have left it to the professionals (part 2)…",
    "date": "2005-08-23",
    "url": "/writing/2005/08/i-should-have-left-it-to-the-professionals-part-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=256",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "256",
    "excerpt": "A much more reasonable (hah!) review of Diamond's Collapse over at Reason . My review of Collapse is just below."
  },
  {
    "title": "Late night IQ tests",
    "date": "2005-08-23",
    "url": "/writing/2005/08/late-night-iq-tests/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=257",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "257",
    "excerpt": "For some reason, I keep finding myself HAVING to test my intellegence at 2 in the morning . Not sure if this means that become skeptical of my intellegence at this hour or if I think I'm really bright just before I pass "
  },
  {
    "title": "Book review: Diamond’s Collapse",
    "date": "2005-08-17",
    "url": "/writing/2005/08/book-review-diamonds-collapse/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=254",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "254",
    "excerpt": "I suppose I’m forcing myself to write a review of Jarad Diamond’s Collapse.  Frankly, I was underwhelmed by this book.  I read , make that listened , to the book on my commute to and from work so it could be that the"
  },
  {
    "title": "Firefox and Yahoo! music",
    "date": "2005-08-17",
    "url": "/writing/2005/08/firefox-and-yahoo-music/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=255",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "255",
    "excerpt": "Just signed this petition to ask Yahoo! to support Firefox ."
  },
  {
    "title": "I should have left it to the professionals…",
    "date": "2005-08-03",
    "url": "/writing/2005/08/i-should-have-left-it-to-the-professionals/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=253",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "253",
    "excerpt": "Tyler Cowen, from my favorite site Marginal Revolution , explains the marginalist's analysis of the current debate on the War in Iraq ... ...the post below, the one below the picture of my dad, is my attempt to frame the"
  },
  {
    "title": "My Dad! ",
    "date": "2005-07-19",
    "url": "/writing/2005/07/my-dad-c2-a0/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=252",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "252",
    "excerpt": "My Dad!"
  },
  {
    "title": "Iraq War",
    "date": "2005-07-11",
    "url": "/writing/2005/07/iraq-war/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=251",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "251",
    "excerpt": "Friends know that I supported going into Iraq and I continue to support our presence there. They also know that I think war sucks. In any case, I believe debating whether or not we should have \"gone in\" is a complete was"
  },
  {
    "title": "London",
    "date": "2005-07-07",
    "url": "/writing/2005/07/london/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=250",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "250",
    "excerpt": "UPDATE: (I meant to add this email to this post a couple weeks ago...) My former workmates in London are ok... Will, Thanks for checking in. All at Satmetrix UK and family and friends are fine. I just returned from a 2 w"
  },
  {
    "title": "This is why you find…",
    "date": "2005-07-01",
    "url": "/writing/2005/07/this-is-why-you-find/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=249",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "249",
    "excerpt": "...Confederate flags on pickups driven in Ferndale, CA. A town approximately 2400 miles from Jackson, MS . In my high school senior picture, a Mexican-American member of my class, a class of 33 people, is holding up a la"
  },
  {
    "title": "Fun with Unix",
    "date": "2005-06-30",
    "url": "/writing/2005/06/fun-with-unix/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=248",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "248",
    "excerpt": "So.  I learned a little bit about a lot of things last night.  I wanted to share because I found some cool resources.  Warning: technical discussion follows. Some facts:  I play WoW .  I'm in a WoW guild blog .  We also "
  },
  {
    "title": "This is laughable… I just don’t know why.",
    "date": "2005-06-29",
    "url": "/writing/2005/06/this-is-laughable-i-just-dont-know-why/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=246",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "246",
    "excerpt": "Isn't it obvious that greater economic interdependence would yield friendlier international relations?  Apparently not: to my knowledge there isn'’t any evidence of a substantial effect of economic interdependence on li"
  },
  {
    "title": "Instapundit moment",
    "date": "2005-06-29",
    "url": "/writing/2005/06/instapundit-moment/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=247",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "247",
    "excerpt": "50 CENT bests Paul Krugman on International Trade : So much is made of the difference between book smarts and common sense, and this could be Exhibit A. Somehow the hyper intelligent and educated Krugman got it wrong, wh"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Conspiracy was a conspiracy was a conspiracy was a conspiracy…",
    "date": "2005-06-07",
    "url": "/writing/2005/06/the-conspiracy-was-a-conspiracy-was-a-conspiracy-was-a-conspiracy/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=245",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "245",
    "excerpt": "Ok, so 9/11 conspiracy theories abound in the U.S. ( not just France ), too... If you don't have a subscription to Scientific American , run, don't walk, to their website and subscribe ."
  },
  {
    "title": "America is the greatest nation on the earth",
    "date": "2005-06-03",
    "url": "/writing/2005/06/america-is-the-greatest-nation-on-the-earth/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=243",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "243",
    "excerpt": "Is this a silly proposition? America is the greatest nation on earth. Do I have to be blind to the nation's failings to believe this statement?  To belive this, is it a sign of my unthinking, national chauvinism?  Must p"
  },
  {
    "title": "Tools stumbled upon…",
    "date": "2005-06-03",
    "url": "/writing/2005/06/tools-stumbled-upon/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=244",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "244",
    "excerpt": "S5 Web-based powerpoint replacement I've been replacing Microsoft tools one by one lately...  IE was replaced by firebird ages ago.  Second went Outlook, replaced by thunderbird (and sunbird ...  sorta, I don't do much c"
  },
  {
    "title": "Science vs. \"Intelligent\" Design",
    "date": "2005-05-27",
    "url": "/writing/2005/05/science-vs-intelligent-design/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=242",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "242",
    "excerpt": "Granted ID is bullshit, but I do have one question for the debaters on each side...  Isn't evolution a theory on how life changes not on its origins. The origin of life remains very much a mystery, but biochemists have l"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Great Pyramid vs. the 7-11",
    "date": "2005-05-20",
    "url": "/writing/2005/05/the-great-pyramid-vs-the-7-11/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=240",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "240",
    "excerpt": "Does prosperity undercut the foundations of civilization? Heavy question. Bill Whittle writes a heavy essay that's light enough to read.  Below is his \"exercise in perspective\" that echo's the sentements in The Company o"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bay to Breakers Results",
    "date": "2005-05-20",
    "url": "/writing/2005/05/bay-to-breakers-results/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=241",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "241",
    "excerpt": "3,445th baby!"
  },
  {
    "title": "Yes, more red please",
    "date": "2005-05-07",
    "url": "/writing/2005/05/yes-more-red-please/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=239",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "239",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Neat.",
    "date": "2005-04-28",
    "url": "/writing/2005/04/neat/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=238",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "238",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "International lender of last resort: Kindleberger’s take",
    "date": "2005-04-18",
    "url": "/writing/2005/04/international-lender-of-last-resort-kindlebergers-take/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=237",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "237",
    "excerpt": "Hey, I've learned how to use Latex.  So, here's my first Latex generated paper .  I wrote it as an 'article' summary for my Int'l Economics course. Admittedly, I was a little sloppy with the facts (e.g. I didn't bother t"
  },
  {
    "title": "As ordered…",
    "date": "2005-04-13",
    "url": "/writing/2005/04/as-ordered/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=236",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "236",
    "excerpt": "... Tyler Cowen's Avian Flu blog ."
  },
  {
    "title": "",
    "date": "2005-04-12",
    "url": "/writing/2005/04/235/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=235",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "235",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Back to basics: How does the Fed \"set\" short and long term interest rates?",
    "date": "2005-04-10",
    "url": "/writing/2005/04/back-to-basics-how-does-the-fed-set-short-and-long-term-interest-rates/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=234",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "234",
    "excerpt": "Prof. DeLong continues his public service and posts a discussion of how the Fed does its work . I think people tend to believe the Fed sets interest rates directly, as if by fiat. However, the Fed doesn't just declare wh"
  },
  {
    "title": "A joke, right?",
    "date": "2005-04-09",
    "url": "/writing/2005/04/a-joke-right/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=233",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "233",
    "excerpt": "\"Grandmama is old and I think it is time she went home to Jesus,\" Gaddy told Magouirk's brother and nephew, McLeod and Ken Mullinax. \" She has glaucoma and now this heart problem, and who would want to live with disabili"
  },
  {
    "title": "Starbucks delocator",
    "date": "2005-04-07",
    "url": "/writing/2005/04/starbucks-delocator/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=232",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "232",
    "excerpt": "Find good indy coffee shops with the Starbucks delocator .  BTW, for fear of legal trouble, the Starbucks delocator is just called the delocator at the website.  But if everyone that links to it refers to it as Starbucks"
  },
  {
    "title": "Back to basics: Why the value of a good is NOT the sum of the labor used to create it",
    "date": "2005-04-06",
    "url": "/writing/2005/04/back-to-basics-why-the-value-of-a-good-is-not-the-sum-of-the-labor-used-to-create-it/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=231",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "231",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Delong rings the school bell. Nervous pre-first year econ grad students, anxious to make a good first empression impression (heh, learning to spell would be a start)  at their new school and not to appear to misund"
  },
  {
    "title": "Neat example of moral hazard",
    "date": "2005-04-05",
    "url": "/writing/2005/04/neat-example-of-moral-hazard/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=230",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "230",
    "excerpt": "Via Engadget the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reports: When many had given Albert Lowe up for dead, he answered his cell phone. Two years ago the 58-year-old hiker fell more than 200 feet down a steep slope in Waianae. He was "
  },
  {
    "title": "Graduate school. Can I survive the experience bei…",
    "date": "2005-04-03",
    "url": "/writing/2005/04/graduate-school-can-i-survive-the-experience-bei/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=229",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "229",
    "excerpt": "Graduate school.  Can I survive the experience being able to see what is important?"
  },
  {
    "title": "If only they could hear themselves speak such nonsense…",
    "date": "2005-04-02",
    "url": "/writing/2005/04/if-only-they-could-hear-themselves-speak-such-nonsense/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=228",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "228",
    "excerpt": "I wonder which quality of French culture makes the democratic PageRank algorithm unFrench.  Liberte? Egalite? Fraternite? Oh, I bet its the quality of French culture that makes it necessary for the Ministry of Culture to"
  },
  {
    "title": "Don’t ever forget… they’re always watching",
    "date": "2005-03-28",
    "url": "/writing/2005/03/dont-ever-forget-theyre-always-watching/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=227",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "227",
    "excerpt": "Can you be for democracy and for Jordan's King Abdullah ?  Or Pakistan ?  Or China ? I hope the President is really feeling the cognitive dissonance burn..."
  },
  {
    "title": "Implicit Association Test",
    "date": "2005-03-05",
    "url": "/writing/2005/03/implicit-association-test/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=226",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "226",
    "excerpt": "Old >> Young Science=male >>> Science=female Black = White Straight > Gay Others > Arabs"
  },
  {
    "title": "What good is slashdot?",
    "date": "2005-02-09",
    "url": "/writing/2005/02/what-good-is-slashdot/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=225",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "225",
    "excerpt": "My friend comments on a recent post on slashdot regarding charing family/friends for tech support . In general, I find the conversation on slashdot to be similar to what he describes. I read the headline, decide my own p"
  },
  {
    "title": "Does this happen to anyone else?",
    "date": "2005-01-26",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/does-this-happen-to-anyone-else/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=224",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "224",
    "excerpt": "Sometimes I'm walking along and find myself a few paces behind a lone woman .  More often than not, I get the distinct impression that she thinks I'm a creep just for being a man..."
  },
  {
    "title": "",
    "date": "2005-01-24",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/223/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=223",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "223",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Abortion",
    "date": "2005-01-22",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/abortion/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=221",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "221",
    "excerpt": "Mr. Myers is talking about reproductive rights .  I'm struck by this line from the quote he uses: \"This was the norm until we got Roe v. Wade and the New York law that preceded it.\" New York didn't need Roe v. Wade to se"
  },
  {
    "title": "Abortion (part 2)",
    "date": "2005-01-22",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/abortion-part-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=222",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "222",
    "excerpt": "A commenter at Pharyngula responds to my comment : (The italics are me.) The federal government secures the right of free movement so if California didn't allow you to have an abortion, you can cross the border to Oregon"
  },
  {
    "title": "Finally, we get Sis’ nine movies",
    "date": "2005-01-20",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/finally-we-get-sis-nine-movies/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=220",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "220",
    "excerpt": "Following on Kevin and my lists of our top 9 DVD's that we love to pop in on a lazy Monday evening, my sister posted her collection... 9.Signs 8.The Goonies 7.Titanic 6.The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal series 5.Mean"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sis wins the game",
    "date": "2005-01-17",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/sis-wins-the-game/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=218",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "218",
    "excerpt": "Congratulations to my sister's basketball team for winning on Saturday !"
  },
  {
    "title": "Alternatives to the Bush Doctrine",
    "date": "2005-01-17",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/alternatives-to-the-bush-doctrine/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=219",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "219",
    "excerpt": "Randall Parker and I are going back and forth on Iraq policy over at his Parapundit site: I should say, that I was VERY reluctant to vote Bush. When voting for President, I take the pov that that office has limited scope"
  },
  {
    "title": "Top 9 movies",
    "date": "2005-01-15",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/top-9-movies/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=217",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "217",
    "excerpt": "Kevin has a post on the top nine movies in his DVD collection .  He has interesting criteria: If I could only have a home movie library of 9 movies, what movies would be in it? This is very different from the best 9 movi"
  },
  {
    "title": "WA",
    "date": "2005-01-14",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/wa/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=213",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "213",
    "excerpt": "WoW Anonymous. Hi, my name is Will and I've been playing World of Warcraft for 2.5 months. Step one... well, step one of any 12 step program requires me to admit that I have a problem. I don't damn it! (Gawd, I wish that"
  },
  {
    "title": "and I worried about posting on gaming and exposing my predilection…",
    "date": "2005-01-14",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/and-i-worried-about-posting-on-gaming-and-exposing-my-predilection/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=214",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "214",
    "excerpt": "John Robb just posted on gaming, too .  How does he know gaming terminology ?  :-)"
  },
  {
    "title": "Realists vs. liberal internationalist vs. the Bush Doctrine",
    "date": "2005-01-14",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/realists-vs-liberal-internationalist-vs-the-bush-doctrine/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=215",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "215",
    "excerpt": "Norman Podhoretz has a nice narrative in Commentary magazine that explains the situation in Iraq and the President's words and actions in relation to various schools of thought. He draws a nice parallel between the disco"
  },
  {
    "title": "Booya! Who’s the Berkeley Alum? Oh, that’s right, me!",
    "date": "2005-01-14",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/booya-whos-the-berkeley-alum-oh-thats-right-me/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=216",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "216",
    "excerpt": "Cal #4 in the world!"
  },
  {
    "title": "Concentration Camps? Suspension of Habeas Corpus?",
    "date": "2005-01-13",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/concentration-camps-suspension-of-habeas-corpus/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=211",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "211",
    "excerpt": "Thom Hartmann and ilk would be advised to follow the Congressional Democrats and \"keep their powder dry\" on the issue of Alberto Gonzalez' confirmation as Attorney General. Mr. Hartmann compares Gonzalez' memo and advice"
  },
  {
    "title": "A friend and ally",
    "date": "2005-01-13",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/a-friend-and-ally/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=212",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "212",
    "excerpt": "Gavin, my bestest friend in the world, has started (or is that restarted ) his very own weblog . I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, r"
  },
  {
    "title": "Meaningless words from Paul Krugman",
    "date": "2005-01-09",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/meaningless-words-from-paul-krugman/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=210",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "210",
    "excerpt": "Steve Antler spots a straw man : But those who insist that we face a Social Security crisis want to have it both ways. Having invoked the concept of a unified budget to reject the existence of a trust fund, they refuse t"
  },
  {
    "title": "What is judicial activism?",
    "date": "2005-01-07",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/what-is-judicial-activism/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=208",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "208",
    "excerpt": "Answer: What ever the people say it is. Stephen B. Presser and Samuel Marcosson's debate on Clarence Thomas' potential as Chef Justice has transformed into a more interesting exchange on constitutional originalism and st"
  },
  {
    "title": "Personal Statement",
    "date": "2005-01-07",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/personal-statement/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=209",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "209",
    "excerpt": "I was a typical, average kid.  For the first year of my life, my family lived in a 15 foot by 15 foot cabin, without indoor plumbing, teetering on the bank of a creek that wound through pasture land.  My grandfather, a s"
  },
  {
    "title": "Sis runs the whole mile",
    "date": "2005-01-04",
    "url": "/writing/2005/01/sis-runs-the-whole-mile/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=207",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "207",
    "excerpt": "I suppose my sister deserves congratulations for running her first mile : omg! member how i said me and sarah were gonna go runnin?! well we did and i ran a whole mile without stopping fer the first time... and i even sp"
  },
  {
    "title": "Recent Stanford econ working paper’s of note",
    "date": "2004-12-29",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/recent-stanford-econ-working-papers-of-note/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=205",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "205",
    "excerpt": "A Theory of Endogenous Institutional Change ABSTRACT: This paper asks (a) why and how institutions change; (b) how does an institution persist in a changing environment and (c) how do processes that it unleashes lead to "
  },
  {
    "title": "More on dynamic scoring…",
    "date": "2004-12-29",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/more-on-dynamic-scoring/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=206",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "206",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Scarcity and value",
    "date": "2004-12-20",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/scarcity-and-value/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=203",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "203",
    "excerpt": "I've been thinking about the exchange with my brother . I said, \"natural resources are NOT constrained... basically, we humans are only constrained by our creative use of resources.\" This seems right, but it does ignore "
  },
  {
    "title": "Blogospere: market for ideas",
    "date": "2004-12-20",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/blogospere-market-for-ideas/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=204",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "204",
    "excerpt": "Jon Udell, impersonating the webs unwashed, asks \" Is that all? So what?\" with regards to weblogs. Most of our reactions to the simplicity (crudeness?) of markets is summed up in the asking of the same questions. How can"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Inner Child is for Children",
    "date": "2004-12-16",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/the-inner-child-is-for-children/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=202",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "202",
    "excerpt": "Freud introduced to the world the dichotomy of conscious and unconscious. He surmised that the unconscious was responsible for most behavior. To understand a person's overt, conscious behavior, he developed tools (psycho"
  },
  {
    "title": "Is nature a ‘force’ ?",
    "date": "2004-12-15",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/is-nature-a-force/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=201",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "201",
    "excerpt": "My brother read my statement of purpose and asks: \"Economic life is dominated by two forces...\" It seems to me there are at least three forces. You describe two social forces, but I feel that nature (the environment) is "
  },
  {
    "title": "Statement of Purpose - final",
    "date": "2004-12-14",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/statement-of-purpose-final/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=200",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "200",
    "excerpt": "My search for truth had always been synonymous with the study of science.  The method, models and rigor of science attracted me from an early age.  At five my grandmother was taking me to the planetarium, at 10 I began a"
  },
  {
    "title": "Binary representation",
    "date": "2004-12-12",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/binary-representation/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=199",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "199",
    "excerpt": "Computers have limited memory that is divided into words. Each number (integer) that is going to be represented in the computer needs to fit into a word. This means that the size of the number to be represented is restri"
  },
  {
    "title": "K9’s RSS",
    "date": "2004-12-10",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/k9s-rss/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=197",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "197",
    "excerpt": "So, my brother finally turned on his RSS feeds.  No more slogging my way to his website everyday; now I can read his nonensense from the comforts of Outlook (I use Newsgator as my RSS feed reader). Anyway, here's his tho"
  },
  {
    "title": "K9’s problem with ‘permanent’ links",
    "date": "2004-12-10",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/k9s-problem-with-permanent-links/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=198",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "198",
    "excerpt": "Somebody tell the newbie about permanent links (see item 2).  The links to my brother's BCS related posts are broken in the post below ... Here are the updated and unbroken (for now) links."
  },
  {
    "title": "Preemptive war and decision under uncertainty",
    "date": "2004-12-09",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/preemptive-war-and-decision-under-uncertainty/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=196",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "196",
    "excerpt": "I've enjoyed John Quiggin's discussion of decision making under uncertainty in the context of preemptive war. The whole discussion was triggered by Judge Posner's first post on his weblog. In response to Prof. Quiggin's "
  },
  {
    "title": "Technology in math education",
    "date": "2004-12-04",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/technology-in-math-education/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=194",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "194",
    "excerpt": "David Arnold ’s discussion of technology in the teaching of Multivariable Calculus was a quick introduction to Matlab, Geometer’s sketch pad and Symbolic toolbox (in Matlab). Much of the talk was also a ‘geewiz’ "
  },
  {
    "title": "What are numbers?",
    "date": "2004-12-04",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/what-are-numbers/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=195",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "195",
    "excerpt": "Prof. Derden gave a talk on math philosophy at the HSU math colloquium. He was addressing the issue of what numbers really are and his talk was a response to a commonly held belief (in philosophy) that numbers can’t be"
  },
  {
    "title": "Exactly.",
    "date": "2004-12-01",
    "url": "/writing/2004/12/exactly/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=193",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "193",
    "excerpt": "Exactly ."
  },
  {
    "title": "Fun facts about Will",
    "date": "2004-11-30",
    "url": "/writing/2004/11/fun-facts-about-will/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=192",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "192",
    "excerpt": "Classes in progress: Real Analysis (95%, 110% on midterms) Linear Algebra (100%, 93%) Math Stat (92%, 98.5%) German Lit (A on mid-term paper and class particapation) Classes next semester: Stochastic process Abstract Alg"
  },
  {
    "title": "My brother’s weblog",
    "date": "2004-11-25",
    "url": "/writing/2004/11/my-brothers-weblog/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=191",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "191",
    "excerpt": "The smartest man I've ever met, the one and only übermensch of NYC, has started his very own weblog . Since I missed those genes, I can only hope his genius, henceforth to flow from his \"doggy style\" weblog, can reach t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Nietzsche and last week’s election",
    "date": "2004-11-10",
    "url": "/writing/2004/11/nietzsche-and-last-weeks-election/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=190",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "190",
    "excerpt": "Jonah Goldberg, writing in the conservative National Review Online , attacks the left's post-election lament that those that voted for Bush are religious idiots. He invokes Nietzsche's Will to Power and dismisses Marx' i"
  },
  {
    "title": "The number e (2.7182818284…….)",
    "date": "2004-10-23",
    "url": "/writing/2004/10/the-number-e-27182818284/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=189",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "189",
    "excerpt": "In analysis today, we found the limits of several sequences.  All of which relied on the fact that lim (1+1/n)^n=e. (that's the number e ).   Are you surprised by this result?  I am! The way my brain works, I see this li"
  },
  {
    "title": "I’m voting for Bush…",
    "date": "2004-10-22",
    "url": "/writing/2004/10/im-voting-for-bush/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=188",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "188",
    "excerpt": "I preferred Kerry's statements 44% of the time I preferred Bush's statements 56% of the time Voting purely on the issues I should vote Bush Who would you vote for if you voted on the issues? Find out now ! There.  Now I "
  },
  {
    "title": "Who’s Steven Landsburg?",
    "date": "2004-10-21",
    "url": "/writing/2004/10/whos-steven-landsburg/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=186",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "186",
    "excerpt": "Steven Landsburg will be guest blogging at Marginal Revolution (one of my favorite sites).  I used Google Desktop Search to search my computer (including RSS feeds in Outlook retreived by Newsgator ) for mentions of this"
  },
  {
    "title": "Diffusion and Stability",
    "date": "2004-10-21",
    "url": "/writing/2004/10/diffusion-and-stability/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=187",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "187",
    "excerpt": "I just mentioned my Google Desktop Search regarding Steven Lansburg.... Well, among the search results was this article by Fabio Rojas , frequent guest blogger at Marginal Revolution.  He points to an article in which Mr"
  },
  {
    "title": "Duality in LP",
    "date": "2004-09-22",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/duality-in-lp/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=184",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "184",
    "excerpt": "I'm trying to get my head around duality.  Essentially, every linear program has a dual program.  If in the original problem, you're maximizing, in the second you're minimizing.  Also, you swap the 'costs' and the constr"
  },
  {
    "title": "When does Simplex get out of hand?",
    "date": "2004-09-22",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/when-does-simplex-get-out-of-hand/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=185",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "185",
    "excerpt": "In 1972, Klee and Minty gave an example of a linear programming problem in which the polytope P is a distortion of an n -dimensional cube. They showed that the simplex method as formulated by Danzig visits all 2 n vertic"
  },
  {
    "title": "Estimations",
    "date": "2004-09-10",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/estimations/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=182",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "182",
    "excerpt": "I think I did pretty well .  I really screwed the pooch on the number of 'petrol' stations in the UK.  I was guessing 1 per 1000 folks, having estimated that there is 100M Britons (hence my guess of 100k).  It turns out "
  },
  {
    "title": "Ken Jennings news",
    "date": "2004-09-10",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/ken-jennings-news/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=183",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "183",
    "excerpt": "Confirmation of the rumor reported at kottke.org . I just recieved this email from a friend: My sister was on Jeopardy! so we went down to L.A. Wednesday to see the taping. Her episodes will air the first week of Decembe"
  },
  {
    "title": "Application requirements - Berkeley",
    "date": "2004-09-09",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/application-requirements-berkeley/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=175",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "175",
    "excerpt": "App deadline: 12/15 Materials deadline: 1/10 Materials: - 3 letters of rec - transcripts - gre - sop - optional: resume and writing sample"
  },
  {
    "title": "Application requirements - Chicago",
    "date": "2004-09-09",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/application-requirements-chicago/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=176",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "176",
    "excerpt": "App deadline: 12/28 Materials: - 3 letters of rec - transcripts - gre - sop"
  },
  {
    "title": "Application requirements - UCLA",
    "date": "2004-09-09",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/application-requirements-ucla/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=177",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "177",
    "excerpt": "?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Application requirements - UCSD",
    "date": "2004-09-09",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/application-requirements-ucsd/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=178",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "178",
    "excerpt": "App deadline: 1/14 Materials: - 3 letters of rec - transcripts - gre - sop"
  },
  {
    "title": "Application requirements - Stanford",
    "date": "2004-09-09",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/application-requirements-stanford/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=179",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "179",
    "excerpt": "App deadline: 1/5 Materials: - 3 letters of rec - transcripts - gre - sop"
  },
  {
    "title": "Application requirements - George Mason",
    "date": "2004-09-09",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/application-requirements-george-mason/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=180",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "180",
    "excerpt": "App deadline: 2/1 Materials: - 2 letters of rec - transcripts - gre"
  },
  {
    "title": "Application requirements - UC Davis",
    "date": "2004-09-09",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/application-requirements-uc-davis/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=181",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "181",
    "excerpt": "App deadline: 12/15 Materials: - 3 letters of rec - transcripts - gre - sop"
  },
  {
    "title": "stats on OR postions",
    "date": "2004-09-08",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/stats-on-or-postions/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=173",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "173",
    "excerpt": "Highlights of OR related jobs from the BLS : there were about 62,000 OR jobs in 2002 4 out of 5 government OR jobs are in the military many private sector OR jobs are defense related demand growth for these jobs is expec"
  },
  {
    "title": "OR jobs - more stats",
    "date": "2004-09-08",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/or-jobs-more-stats/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=174",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "174",
    "excerpt": "mean salary - $60,890 top paying industry - pharmaceuticals mean salary in that industry - $103,460 (wow!) Cities with highest concentration of these jobs - Huntsville, AL and D.C. Cities with highest pay - Bakersfield, "
  },
  {
    "title": "Linear programming in forest management",
    "date": "2004-09-07",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/linear-programming-in-forest-management/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=172",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "172",
    "excerpt": "Foresters use linear programming to optimize the production of lumber in timber 'estates'.  They generally have one of the following objectives when chosing which stands to harvest: Maximize discounted cash flow (i.e. pr"
  },
  {
    "title": "OR and container ships",
    "date": "2004-09-06",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/or-and-container-ships/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=168",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "168",
    "excerpt": "OR techniques are used to run ports and container ship routes.  The most popular mechanism for moving stuff between continents, container shipping is growing in the double digits every year.  OR helps to increase efficie"
  },
  {
    "title": "History of Linear Programming",
    "date": "2004-09-06",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/history-of-linear-programming/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=169",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "169",
    "excerpt": "OR started in WWII to solve a variety of logistical questions (e.g. are big convoys better than small ones?). Linear programming was formalized in 1947 and grew out of new interest in optimization . Computer technology w"
  },
  {
    "title": "Simplex method of solving linear programs",
    "date": "2004-09-06",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/simplex-method-of-solving-linear-programs/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=170",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "170",
    "excerpt": "George Dantzig , the author of the paper mentioned in the previous post, developed the simplex method for solving linear programs.  The algorithm exploits the fact the optimum point in a system of linear inequalities is "
  },
  {
    "title": "Stochastic programming links",
    "date": "2004-09-06",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/stochastic-programming-links/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=171",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "171",
    "excerpt": "A quicky 'cause I wanna go to bed... Current trends . Stochastic Programming Community ."
  },
  {
    "title": "I’m back!",
    "date": "2004-09-05",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/im-back/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=166",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "166",
    "excerpt": "So I took the summer off and now I'm back.  I'm at HSU to take a Math degree...  still working towards getting into a grad program. My schedule is packed.  I'm taking real analysis, math stat, linear algebra and German l"
  },
  {
    "title": "OR Overview",
    "date": "2004-09-05",
    "url": "/writing/2004/09/or-overview/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=167",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "167",
    "excerpt": "What is OR?  \"the effective use of scarce resources under dynamic and uncertain conditions,\" \"used to analyze complex real-world systems, typically with the goal of improving or optimizing performance,\" and \"the professi"
  },
  {
    "title": "Testing Meme Propagation In Blogspace: Add Your Blog!",
    "date": "2004-08-02",
    "url": "/writing/2004/08/testing-meme-propagation-in-blogspace-add-your-blog/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=165",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "165",
    "excerpt": "This posting is a community experiment that tests how a meme, represented by this blog posting, spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and "
  },
  {
    "title": "Justice Stevens",
    "date": "2004-06-29",
    "url": "/writing/2004/06/justice-stevens/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=164",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "164",
    "excerpt": "\"Whether respondent is entitled to immediate release is a question that reasonable jurists may answer in different ways. There is, however, only one possible answer to the question whether he is entitled to a hearing on "
  },
  {
    "title": "Strict Constitutionalism",
    "date": "2004-06-20",
    "url": "/writing/2004/06/strict-constitutionalism/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=162",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "162",
    "excerpt": "'Why' is much more interesting than the 'how'.  The 'why' is the meaning behind why something is done or why a technology was created or why the clause in the constitution was added.  Only understanding the process or th"
  },
  {
    "title": "Strict Constitutionalism, part 2: are we that close to the edge of totalitarianism?",
    "date": "2004-06-20",
    "url": "/writing/2004/06/strict-constitutionalism-part-2-are-we-that-close-to-the-edge-of-totalitarianism/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=163",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "163",
    "excerpt": "Actually, more to the point...  I agree with Hunt when he says that it is insane to suggest that the  the Establisment Clause of the first amendment only pertains to the Federal government. I suppose you can literly inte"
  },
  {
    "title": "Anyone who has no spiritual aspirations is an idiot",
    "date": "2004-05-27",
    "url": "/writing/2004/05/anyone-who-has-no-spiritual-aspirations-is-an-idiot/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=161",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "161",
    "excerpt": "\"Of course, it mattered little to me whether he really followed 'the true way' or not; or whether he would ever reach heaven.  What I feared was the harm he might cause me if he decided to change his ways.  It was simply"
  },
  {
    "title": "Boring!",
    "date": "2004-05-22",
    "url": "/writing/2004/05/boring/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=160",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "160",
    "excerpt": "I'm not sure what this whole discussion of the definition of liberalism (and thus conservativism) is suppose to accomplish...  Your team wears red and my team wears blue.  Who cares! What really matters is who is right. "
  },
  {
    "title": "tolerance of action or thought?",
    "date": "2004-05-18",
    "url": "/writing/2004/05/tolerance-of-action-or-thought/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=159",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "159",
    "excerpt": "Hunt Stilwell says that \"the first principle of contemporary liberalism is, or at least should be, that a liberal abhors, and fights against, all forms of cruelty.\"  He explains that \"this view of liberalism, and liberal"
  },
  {
    "title": "the weak noise of her eyes easily files my impatience to an edge",
    "date": "2004-05-16",
    "url": "/writing/2004/05/the-weak-noise-of-her-eyes-easily-files-my-impatience-to-an-edge/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=156",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "156",
    "excerpt": "my girl's tall with hard long eyes as she stands, with her long hard hands keeping silence on her dress, good for sleeping is her long hard body filled with surprise like a white shocking wire, when she smiles a hard lon"
  },
  {
    "title": "Political theory",
    "date": "2004-05-16",
    "url": "/writing/2004/05/political-theory/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=157",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "157",
    "excerpt": "Thomas Pogge, “An Egalitarian Law of Peoples”, Philosophy and Public Affairs (1994). G.A. Cohen, “Where the Action Is” , Philosophy and Public Affairs (1997). Michael Ridge, “Hobbesian Public Reason”, Ethics "
  },
  {
    "title": "Brad is sane?",
    "date": "2004-05-16",
    "url": "/writing/2004/05/brad-is-sane/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=158",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "158",
    "excerpt": "Wow, just when you thought you could pigeon-hole someone they go and prove not to be pigeons...  BTW, here's a history of the expression 'pigeon hole' . We all hold a sense of The OTHER.  The cultural (and physical) dist"
  },
  {
    "title": " Tyler adds his thoughts… Here are Brad DeLong’…",
    "date": "2004-05-06",
    "url": "/writing/2004/05/c2-a0tyler-adds-his-thoughts-e2-80-a6-here-are-brad-delong/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=155",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "155",
    "excerpt": "Tyler adds his thoughts… Here are Brad DeLong's picks for such a class. I'll add Derek Parfit to the list, and maybe Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau, in his Second Discourse , questioned the identification of wealth with"
  },
  {
    "title": "This seems useful…  A plea from an undergrad: w…",
    "date": "2004-05-05",
    "url": "/writing/2004/05/this-seems-useful-e2-80-a6-c2-a0-a-plea-from-an-undergrad-w/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=154",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "154",
    "excerpt": "This seems useful… A plea from an undergrad: will Berkeley ever teach an undergraduate \"Economics and Philosophy\" class? I can see which way this is going: I'm going to wind up running a reading course. What should be on"
  },
  {
    "title": "Liberal = Dogmatist?",
    "date": "2004-04-29",
    "url": "/writing/2004/04/liberal-dogmatist/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=153",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "153",
    "excerpt": "sed 's/liberal/dogmatist/g' http://www.techcentralstation.com/042704I.html There, that's better..."
  },
  {
    "title": "Nice.",
    "date": "2004-04-17",
    "url": "/writing/2004/04/nice/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=152",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "152",
    "excerpt": "Victor Davis Hanson at NRO : \" The United States was wrong to go to war to take out a monster who deserved to be taken out but nevertheless should stay to ensure stability in a country that it has no right to be in. Is t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Dynamic scoring",
    "date": "2004-04-10",
    "url": "/writing/2004/04/dynamic-scoring/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=151",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "151",
    "excerpt": "Via Craig Newmark on MR , I discovered a wonderful blog (with no RSS/atom feed... for shame).  As I was browsing, I ran into the term \"dynamic scoring.\"  I've seen it a couple times before, but always mentioned in passin"
  },
  {
    "title": "On to sophomore calculus…",
    "date": "2004-04-08",
    "url": "/writing/2004/04/on-to-sophomore-calculus/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=149",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "149",
    "excerpt": "I got an A in the third, and last, quarter of freshman calculus.  Great, I've proven that my Math skills haven't been lost in the 7 years since I last took freshman calculus.  Maybe I should go ride a bike to see if I ca"
  },
  {
    "title": "A cure for cancer?",
    "date": "2004-04-08",
    "url": "/writing/2004/04/a-cure-for-cancer/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=150",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "150",
    "excerpt": "I might go blind or grow hair on the palms of my hands, but given my \"activity level\" I have a better chance of not getting prostate cancer..."
  },
  {
    "title": "You are a GRAMMAR GOD! If your mission in life is…",
    "date": "2004-04-04",
    "url": "/writing/2004/04/you-are-a-grammar-god-if-your-mission-in-life-is/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=148",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "148",
    "excerpt": "You are a GRAMMAR GOD ! If your mission in life is not already to preserve the English tongue, it should be. Congratulations and thank you! How grammatically sound are you? brought to you by Quizilla"
  },
  {
    "title": "Wow!",
    "date": "2004-04-03",
    "url": "/writing/2004/04/wow/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=147",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "147",
    "excerpt": "My copy of Introduction to Analysis came in the mail this morning.  That was quick.  Go Amazon.  A quick scan of the TOC and contents has given me the distinct impression that I've been wasting my time in freshman calcul"
  },
  {
    "title": "What!",
    "date": "2004-04-01",
    "url": "/writing/2004/04/what/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=146",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "146",
    "excerpt": "I love math because of things like this...  You can be walking along, minding your own business, learning about Taylor series and their error bounds and someone will hit you with something like this: \"Taylor's theorem is"
  },
  {
    "title": "Tax relief for the rich means less job growth?",
    "date": "2004-03-11",
    "url": "/writing/2004/03/tax-relief-for-the-rich-means-less-job-growth/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=145",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "145",
    "excerpt": "The Klingster claims that the Bush tax cuts were effective fiscal stimulus and that claims of their inefficiency are wrong.  The real problem isn't that consumers aren't spending enough its that jobs aren't being created"
  },
  {
    "title": "GDP numbers, the long view",
    "date": "2004-03-08",
    "url": "/writing/2004/03/gdp-numbers-the-long-view/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=144",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "144",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "Existence, what is it good for",
    "date": "2004-03-07",
    "url": "/writing/2004/03/existence-what-is-it-good-for/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=142",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "142",
    "excerpt": "The most important issue facing America that will/can be addressed by the next president is America's response to extreme Islamist terrorism.  This issue constitutes a short-term threat to our existence. (There are some "
  },
  {
    "title": "Priorities",
    "date": "2004-03-07",
    "url": "/writing/2004/03/priorities/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=143",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "143",
    "excerpt": "For those politicians that want to speak for me and for the rest of the American People , I offer my priorities for this next presidential election*: - Existence (This includes my own life but also my culture and its ins"
  },
  {
    "title": "Ralph for President!",
    "date": "2004-02-22",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/ralph-for-president/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=141",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "141",
    "excerpt": "Vote Nader for President ! Stop this nonesense talk of \"electability\" .  Ralph did NOT lose the election for Gore in 2000!  Give me a real candidate .  Give me Ralph! There.  That's as political as I get.  I guess since "
  },
  {
    "title": "Ralph don’t run?",
    "date": "2004-02-21",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/ralph-dont-run/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=140",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "140",
    "excerpt": "I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000.  It was a protest vote.  If Ralph wasn't in the race, I would NOT have voted for Gore or Bush. Neither is an inspiring leader.  Neither deserves to be president. To say that Nader lost th"
  },
  {
    "title": "Log diving",
    "date": "2004-02-19",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/log-diving/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=139",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "139",
    "excerpt": "I'm looking through my site's access log.  Somebody searched for american power \"ascent or decline\" and my site came up third! Ack...  blogging is ruining the google index."
  },
  {
    "title": "Rough draft: sop take 2",
    "date": "2004-02-17",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/rough-draft-sop-take-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=137",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "137",
    "excerpt": "As a child, I had great contempt for subjects of human nature, English and social sciences.  They seemed to me to be deeply narcissistic.  Besides, I felt they had nothing to do with a greater pursuit of the truth.  I re"
  },
  {
    "title": "Rough draft: statement of purpose take 3 (updated, again)",
    "date": "2004-02-17",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/rough-draft-statement-of-purpose-take-3-updated-again/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=138",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "138",
    "excerpt": "It was on the third iteration of the Excel model that I was creating for my boss when I realized what it was all about.  My boss asked me to give him a recommendation regarding the staffing levels in the new department I"
  },
  {
    "title": "Intro, redux",
    "date": "2004-02-14",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/intro-redux/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=136",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "136",
    "excerpt": "My motivation to enter  UC Davis' Economics PhD program is centered on my desire to make a lasting impact on the world.  The methods of economists are very attractive to the scientist in me while the subject of economics"
  },
  {
    "title": "Statistics and anecdotes",
    "date": "2004-02-09",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/statistics-and-anecdotes/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=134",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "134",
    "excerpt": "I have no confidence in an argument when the person making the point quotes statistics without explaining how they were derived or at least cite the source.  On the surface, statistics have an air of credibility.  People"
  },
  {
    "title": "Rough draft: statement of purpose",
    "date": "2004-02-09",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/rough-draft-statement-of-purpose/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=135",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "135",
    "excerpt": "The primary motivation for me to enter UC Davis' Economics PhD program is my desire to make a lasting impact on the world.  In Economics, I've found a subject that, I believe, I will love to practice and has the ability "
  },
  {
    "title": "‘There are no atheists in foxholes’ isn’t an argum…",
    "date": "2004-02-08",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/there-are-no-atheists-in-foxholes-isnt-an-argum/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=132",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "132",
    "excerpt": "'There are no atheists in foxholes' isn't an argument against atheism, it's an argument against foxholes. - James Morrow"
  },
  {
    "title": "Applying to Davis?",
    "date": "2004-02-08",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/applying-to-davis/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=133",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "133",
    "excerpt": "I'm struggling with whether I should apply to UC Davis' Economics PhD program or not. Of the programs I'm interested in (UCs Berkeley, Davis, LA, San Diego and Stanford), Davis is the only one that is still accepting app"
  },
  {
    "title": "UC Davis placement",
    "date": "2004-02-02",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/uc-davis-placement/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=131",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "131",
    "excerpt": "Rankings of UC Davis' economics faculty's alma maters...  10,11,6,4,20,1,4,4,3,4,51,6,21,12,4,17,7,1,16,4,4,80,3,3,1 and 1. These rankings come from this page (methodology here ) and for the faculty members who had their"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bit head",
    "date": "2004-02-01",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/bit-head/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=128",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "128",
    "excerpt": "Bin-head is someone that has a bin (as in rubbish) for a head.  'Bit' is at least in the right category."
  },
  {
    "title": "Why grad school?",
    "date": "2004-02-01",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/why-grad-school/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=129",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "129",
    "excerpt": "to teach to learn to make a contribution to be innovative to understand to work with ideas I need to show capability, motivation and focus.  It's important that I'm a good fit with the program, that people can work with "
  },
  {
    "title": "David Kay Biography",
    "date": "2004-02-01",
    "url": "/writing/2004/02/david-kay-biography/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=130",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "130",
    "excerpt": "I'm watching Kay's testimony at CSPAN.org ."
  },
  {
    "title": "hey, my ex-writing teacher can write!",
    "date": "2004-01-19",
    "url": "/writing/2004/01/hey-my-ex-writing-teacher-can-write/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=127",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "127",
    "excerpt": "...and they say that those that can't, teach. Us students called her Jane , but I don't think her name was Hammons when she taught me."
  },
  {
    "title": "Irony, I think",
    "date": "2004-01-15",
    "url": "/writing/2004/01/irony-i-think/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=126",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "126",
    "excerpt": "Wouldn't it be funny if the critical Suskind book actually helped the administration articulate it's long-held claim that Iraq war was necessary post-9/11, that sanctions were too risky.  By putting into focus the pre-9/"
  },
  {
    "title": "World Peace",
    "date": "2004-01-11",
    "url": "/writing/2004/01/world-peace/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=125",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "125",
    "excerpt": "Europeans see the direction of world history to be parallel to the history of Europe itself.  The world is destined for reconciliation and a transnational rule of law, a la the EU.  I'm not sure why this outcome seems in"
  },
  {
    "title": "An ‘A’ in Math 1B",
    "date": "2003-12-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/an-a-in-math-1b/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=124",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "124",
    "excerpt": "I told you so..."
  },
  {
    "title": "Political quiz",
    "date": "2003-12-29",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/political-quiz/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=122",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "122",
    "excerpt": "The results from this political quiz don't match earlier results .  Perhaps the season is making me more liberal... Apparently , this is a better quiz.  My results are hard to compare to the above given the different sca"
  },
  {
    "title": "Japan",
    "date": "2003-12-29",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/japan/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=123",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "123",
    "excerpt": "BTW, I've been in Japan for the last two weeks...  Lots of stuff to talk about but I have to go to work.  Two major themes: 1. I was searching for that culture shock you get when you're in a country for the first time..."
  },
  {
    "title": "He was my North, my South, my East and West, / My …",
    "date": "2003-12-16",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/he-was-my-north-my-south-my-east-and-west-my/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=121",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "121",
    "excerpt": "He was my North, my South, my East and West, / My working week and my Sunday rest, / My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; / I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. - W H Auden"
  },
  {
    "title": "Have some…",
    "date": "2003-12-15",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/have-some/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=117",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "117",
    "excerpt": "Congratulations,  Will! Your IQ score is 144 This number is the result of a formula based on how many questions you answered correctly on Emode's Ultimate IQ test. Your IQ score is scientifically accurate; to read more a"
  },
  {
    "title": "I got dumber in the last 30 minutes…",
    "date": "2003-12-15",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/i-got-dumber-in-the-last-30-minutes/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=118",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "118",
    "excerpt": "RESULTS: Your IQ score is 120 . A person whose IQ score falls in the range of 111-128 is considered to be \"above average intelligence\". Your IQ score is based on your scores across 12 distinct aspects of intelligence.  L"
  },
  {
    "title": "I liked the first test better… (see below)",
    "date": "2003-12-15",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/i-liked-the-first-test-better-see-below/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=119",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "119",
    "excerpt": "Congratulations Will ! Your age adjusted IQ score is 119 and the average score of all test takers is 100. Your IQ score is the result of a formula based on the number of questions answered correctly on the test. This sco"
  },
  {
    "title": "WMD strike in Iraq?",
    "date": "2003-12-15",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/wmd-strike-in-iraq/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=120",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "120",
    "excerpt": "The capture of Suddam has given me a clear view of the true war in Iraq.  As Steven Den Beste writes , \"The primary reason we invaded Iraq was to rebuild the nation and to establish a liberal democracy there, but that pr"
  },
  {
    "title": "Feasibility",
    "date": "2003-12-13",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/feasibility/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=116",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "116",
    "excerpt": "In the most strict logical terms feasible means \"possible\".  It is possible for the US military to reduce innocent deaths.  In this sense, Human Rights Watch is spot on in its analysis .  The more colloquial definition w"
  },
  {
    "title": "Theresa on the fone",
    "date": "2003-12-10",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/theresa-on-the-fone/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=115",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "115",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "LA demands niggardly speach for master and slave hard drives",
    "date": "2003-12-09",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/la-demands-niggardly-speach-for-master-and-slave-hard-drives/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=114",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "114",
    "excerpt": "I couldn't help myself...  :-) Stories like this make me want to use words like niggardly were I might more comforatably say miserly or cheap bastard.  The bigger point of the article isn't an observation of political co"
  },
  {
    "title": "Dichotomies",
    "date": "2003-12-05",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/dichotomies/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=112",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "112",
    "excerpt": "I've been thinking a lot lately about two orthogonal dichotomies and I don't know why. Craftmanship vs. Architecture (sometimes simplified as the details vs the big picture) and Storytelling vs Science (usually referred "
  },
  {
    "title": "my first grey hair",
    "date": "2003-12-05",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/my-first-grey-hair/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=113",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "113",
    "excerpt": ""
  },
  {
    "title": "GRE test scores are in",
    "date": "2003-12-01",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/gre-test-scores-are-in/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=110",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "110",
    "excerpt": "610 Verbal - 86th %tile 780 Quantitative - 87th %tile 5.0 Analytical Writing - 67th %tile"
  },
  {
    "title": "What are my chances of getting in?",
    "date": "2003-12-01",
    "url": "/writing/2003/12/what-are-my-chances-of-getting-in/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=111",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "111",
    "excerpt": "Here's what Stanford , Berkeley , Davis and UCLA have to say about GRE scores (some of the pages may require you to search for the word \"gre\"). I need to seriously consider getting an undergrad degree in economics...  pr"
  },
  {
    "title": "I’d laugh if I wasn’t crying… Hitchens at it ag…",
    "date": "2003-11-26",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/id-laugh-if-i-wasnt-crying-hitchens-at-it-ag/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=109",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "109",
    "excerpt": "I'd laugh if I wasn't crying...  Hitchens at it again , \"I can't remember what the excuse of the Jew-killers was on that previous occasion, but it most certainly wasn't their hatred for regime change. Maybe they didn't c"
  },
  {
    "title": "Term limits",
    "date": "2003-11-24",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/term-limits/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=108",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "108",
    "excerpt": "Delong has a non-answer to Andrew Sullivan...  The problem is a little thing called term limits.  He can't run and I can't vote for Clinton.  Give me someone I can vote for in 2004! Andrew Sullivan despairs when he conte"
  },
  {
    "title": "Hey, I’m 188 centimeters tall. And I’m 80 Kilogra…",
    "date": "2003-11-22",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/hey-im-188-centimeters-tall-and-im-80-kilogra/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=107",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "107",
    "excerpt": "Hey, I'm 188 centimeters tall.  And I'm 80 Kilograms.  (Wait, are you x kilograms or do you have x kilograms...)"
  },
  {
    "title": "Anti-war, pre/post-war",
    "date": "2003-11-20",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/anti-war-prepost-war/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=104",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "104",
    "excerpt": "I have to copy/paste this whole paragraph from this story...  I literally lol'd: \"Given that they've now revised their [estimates of Iraqi civilian death] figures downwards by 98 per cent, it would be nice to think the p"
  },
  {
    "title": "If they can hump, why can’t they marry?",
    "date": "2003-11-20",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/if-they-can-hump-why-cant-they-marry/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=105",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "105",
    "excerpt": "South Knox Bubba asks : \"How would allowing two people who love each other to have the same rights and obligations as any other two people who love each other somehow diminish the rights and responsibilities of any two p"
  },
  {
    "title": "It’s too bad that I don’t trust Economists",
    "date": "2003-11-20",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/its-too-bad-that-i-dont-trust-economists/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=106",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "106",
    "excerpt": "When an Economist says something like \"stock markets do better under Democratic presidents\" can you assume that that difference between the performance of the stock market when there's a Democratic versus a Republican pr"
  },
  {
    "title": "Question of utmost importance #2",
    "date": "2003-11-17",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/question-of-utmost-importance-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=103",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "103",
    "excerpt": "What if the counter-culture is really a post-modern discovery of culture itself?"
  },
  {
    "title": "second gre practice test",
    "date": "2003-11-11",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/second-gre-practice-test/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=99",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "99",
    "excerpt": "I cheated and only did the math section, so I'm sure my practice score is inflated, but...  I scored 790!  Yeah baby, that's 94th %tile (72nd %tile among econ phd's). I pulled it off with a time management strategy.  Kid"
  },
  {
    "title": "The Observer on fallen soldiers: \"I am staggered t…",
    "date": "2003-11-11",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/the-observer-on-fallen-soldiers-i-am-staggered-t/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=100",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "100",
    "excerpt": "The Observer on fallen soldiers : \"I am staggered that in 2003 we continue to require their sacrifice. We, who no longer believe that the dead live on, and that those who die have, therefore, lost everything.\""
  },
  {
    "title": "Veterans Day",
    "date": "2003-11-11",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/veterans-day/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=101",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "101",
    "excerpt": "This day is called the feast of Crispian:\nHe that outlives this day, and comes safe home,\nWill stand a tip-toe when the day is named, . . .\nHe that shall live this day, and see old age,\nWill yearly on the vigil feast his"
  },
  {
    "title": "GRE",
    "date": "2003-11-11",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/gre/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=102",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "102",
    "excerpt": "It's done! I scored 780 on the math section and... well, actually I was so excited I forgot my verbal score.  Dumb ass.  I think it was in the low 600's, 620, 640 or something.  Anyway, I'll know for sure in a couple wee"
  },
  {
    "title": "Lessig unsure on symmetry",
    "date": "2003-11-10",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/lessig-unsure-on-symmetry/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=98",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "98",
    "excerpt": "Lessig says that you can bend the truth, but \"only in one way\".  The two ways implied: Republican/Democrat or conservative/liberal and that the \"one way\" is pro-Republican/conservative.  He's implying that these issues a"
  },
  {
    "title": "Google Deskbar",
    "date": "2003-11-08",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/google-deskbar/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=95",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "95",
    "excerpt": "I installed the Google Deskbar .  And I've taken Evan 's advice and created \"BlogThis!\" custom search."
  },
  {
    "title": "Political compass",
    "date": "2003-11-08",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/political-compass/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=96",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "96",
    "excerpt": "This analysis is interesting.  I can't add much to the 2d vs 1d debate, but I find the table of bloggers interesting for a different reason.  It's a great resource for finding new and interesting blogs to read! There are"
  },
  {
    "title": "Economy and precision in partisan language",
    "date": "2003-11-08",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/economy-and-precision-in-partisan-language/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=97",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "97",
    "excerpt": "People are to be trusted.  They are innately capable and each has the potential for intelligence and wisdom.  Of course, not everybody chooses to fulfill this potential, but I have a strong bias that says that that poten"
  },
  {
    "title": "Back on the fence",
    "date": "2003-11-06",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/back-on-the-fence/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=93",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "93",
    "excerpt": "I'll stop hating Dean now .  I like his \"I meant to start a conversation about race, but went about it the wrong way\" approach, but he'll have to convince me that he's not bigoted before I'll go back to my plan to switch"
  },
  {
    "title": "All the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all …",
    "date": "2003-11-06",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/all-the-labors-of-the-ages-all-the-devotion-all/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=94",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "94",
    "excerpt": "All the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and the whole temple of Mans achievement mu"
  },
  {
    "title": "Dean screwed up",
    "date": "2003-11-04",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/dean-screwed-up/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=91",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "91",
    "excerpt": "I was going to switch parties (I'm registered Green) and become a Democrat so I could vote for Dean in the 2004 primary...  Not now 'cause Dean screwed up"
  },
  {
    "title": "I’m not sure what is \"OUT-FREAKING-RAGEOUS\"",
    "date": "2003-11-04",
    "url": "/writing/2003/11/im-not-sure-what-is-out-freaking-rageous/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=92",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "92",
    "excerpt": "Ok, the argument that the questioner was making was essentially \"I don't like your policy.\"  If that is the point she was making, what is Wolfowitz to infer from the out-in-left-field comment about the policies of admini"
  },
  {
    "title": "Question of utmost importance #1",
    "date": "2003-10-31",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/question-of-utmost-importance-1/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=90",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "90",
    "excerpt": "Can a society be funded?  I mean, can it have enough in the bank that no one has to work for a salary and everyone's income is generated via investment returns? If it is possible, wouldn't and shouldn't it be a goal to h"
  },
  {
    "title": "Random MLC thought #2",
    "date": "2003-10-26",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/random-mlc-thought-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=89",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "89",
    "excerpt": "Sherry from Alabama, \"she was a crossing-guard, you know\""
  },
  {
    "title": "If they lack legitimacy, yeah, they are terrorists!",
    "date": "2003-10-23",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/if-they-lack-legitimacy-yeah-they-are-terrorists/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=84",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "84",
    "excerpt": "In response to a comment about a post on the common wealth club web site , I wrote: Jason was defining a soldier not a terrorist. Jason proposes two reasonable qualifications for being a soldier: a) A member of an Army t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Random MLC thought #1",
    "date": "2003-10-23",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/random-mlc-thought-1/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=85",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "85",
    "excerpt": "She had an uncanny sense of the 70's and 80's music scene."
  },
  {
    "title": "Does anyone else think the eyeball icon on the itu…",
    "date": "2003-10-23",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/does-anyone-else-think-the-eyeball-icon-on-the-itu/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=86",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "86",
    "excerpt": "Does anyone else think the eyeball icon on the itunes store screen is creepy..."
  },
  {
    "title": "Heh. I added a ‘favicon’ to the blog: It’s…",
    "date": "2003-10-23",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/heh-i-added-a-favicon-to-the-blog-its/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=87",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "87",
    "excerpt": "Heh.  I added a 'favicon' to the blog: It's a rocking A...  my family brand.  There's a bunch of cattle running around the hills of humboldt county with this brand."
  },
  {
    "title": "Leadership",
    "date": "2003-10-23",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/leadership/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=88",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "88",
    "excerpt": "October 16, 2003 TO: \tGen. Dick Myers Paul Wolfowitz Gen. Pete Pace Doug Feith FROM: Donald Rumsfeld SUBJECT: Global War on Terrorism The questions I posed to combatant commanders this week were: Are we winning or losing"
  },
  {
    "title": "redemption",
    "date": "2003-10-22",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/redemption/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=81",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "81",
    "excerpt": "I scored 97% on my first Calculus test.  It was on plain old integration of single variable functions...  itegration by substitution and by parts, etc.  I scored the highest in the class and the second highest was 76%."
  },
  {
    "title": "fun with statistics",
    "date": "2003-10-22",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/fun-with-statistics/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=82",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "82",
    "excerpt": "I'm sure I'm going to get this wrong, but here's what I want to do: I want to see what my percentile would be if I was comparing myself to the GRE taking folks (so I can compare my math test with my score in the GRE prac"
  },
  {
    "title": "Republican’s lie… yep, and so do Democrats and Independents",
    "date": "2003-10-22",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/republicans-lie-yep-and-so-do-democrats-and-independents/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=83",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "83",
    "excerpt": "Would it be unkind of me to mention that the three \"virtuous\" conservatives mentioned in the article (Limbaugh, Schlessinger, and Bennett) were not, in fact, appointed to any post by now president Bush.  These are conser"
  },
  {
    "title": "I’ve seen that face before, that face that I see in the mirror",
    "date": "2003-10-21",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/ive-seen-that-face-before-that-face-that-i-see-in-the-mirror/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=80",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "80",
    "excerpt": "Man in the looking glass, have no regrets The man who's wise never forgets That life is worth living if once in a while You can look in that looking glass and smile - Frank Sinatra"
  },
  {
    "title": "But why is it important?",
    "date": "2003-10-19",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/but-why-is-it-important/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=79",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "79",
    "excerpt": "We now know that there is no such thing as race, that humans are biologically one species; we know that an African is likely to have more in common genetically with a European thousands of miles away than with a neighbor"
  },
  {
    "title": "Starwars sends the wrong message, I’m afraid",
    "date": "2003-10-13",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/starwars-sends-the-wrong-message-im-afraid/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=77",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "77",
    "excerpt": "I hate relativism.  Can't we just hate the terrorist in peace with having to consider their POV?  Geez. That reminds me.  Professor DeLong wrote a post the other day, a \"non-socratic dialog\", that got me wondering about:"
  },
  {
    "title": "Theists aren’t as rational as they think",
    "date": "2003-10-13",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/theists-arent-as-rational-as-they-think/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=78",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "78",
    "excerpt": "Dinesh D'Souza makes the argument that atheists ignore Kant's observation that there are limits to our ability to understand reality.  Essentially, we're limited by our five senses, but there is no reason to believe that"
  },
  {
    "title": "gre practice test I",
    "date": "2003-10-12",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/gre-practice-test-i/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=74",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "74",
    "excerpt": "Present your perspective on the issue below, using relevant reasons and/or examples to support your views. \"The media (books, film, music, television, for example) tend to create rather than reflect the values of a socie"
  },
  {
    "title": "gre practice test I part 2",
    "date": "2003-10-12",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/gre-practice-test-i-part-2/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=75",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "75",
    "excerpt": "Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. The following appeared as a letter to the editor of a local newspaper. \"Five years ago, we residents of Morganton voted to keep the publicly owned piece of land known as "
  },
  {
    "title": "gre practice test I - results",
    "date": "2003-10-12",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/gre-practice-test-i-results/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=76",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "76",
    "excerpt": "I just plain ran out of time in the math section and my scores show: Verbal - 620 (88 %tile) Quantitative - 640 (62 %tile) My GRE scores from 6 years ago were: Verbal - 570 (78 %tile) Quantitative - 760 (84 %tile) These "
  },
  {
    "title": "Con te partirò",
    "date": "2003-10-07",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/con-te-partiro/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=73",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "73",
    "excerpt": "Con te partirò. Paesi che non ho mai veduto e vissuto con te, adesso si li vivrò. Con te partirò su navi per mari che, io lo so, no, no, non esistono più, con te io li rivivrò. Con te partirò su navi per mari che, "
  },
  {
    "title": "Oddly Unclear on the Concept",
    "date": "2003-10-02",
    "url": "/writing/2003/10/oddly-unclear-on-the-concept/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=72",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "72",
    "excerpt": "I'll keep that title from Brad De Long's blog .  He is oddly unclear of concept of the process of discovery.  How does he expect Bush to have taken action on an issue of which the seriousness of it wasn't clear until rec"
  },
  {
    "title": "And don’t think that Brad De Long has a chance at …",
    "date": "2003-09-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/and-dont-think-that-brad-de-long-has-a-chance-at/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=71",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "71",
    "excerpt": "And don't think that Brad De Long has a chance at being objective.  Excuse me while I go bang my head against the wall in despair: And don't think Colin Powell is going to become White House Chief of Staff and save us: W"
  },
  {
    "title": "Russian Ark - Update",
    "date": "2003-09-27",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/russian-ark-update/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=68",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "68",
    "excerpt": "Right.  So the other day I fell asleep watching this movie .  I missed the last 1/2 hour and I'm not really interested in going back and watching it. There were too many reference to Russian history that I have no idea a"
  },
  {
    "title": "I love the French - part 1",
    "date": "2003-09-27",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/i-love-the-french-part-1/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=69",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "69",
    "excerpt": "I just ordered my \"le jeu de cartes du régime Bush\" styled after the card deck the military handed out to troops in Iraq to list the most wanted Saddam lackies. God, the French piss me off and that's why I love 'em."
  },
  {
    "title": "Yahoo! News - World Photos - Reuters",
    "date": "2003-09-27",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/yahoo-news-world-photos-reuters/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=70",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "70",
    "excerpt": "Cool!"
  },
  {
    "title": "Metaphors",
    "date": "2003-09-25",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/metaphors/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=67",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "67",
    "excerpt": "Mr. Wheeler explained, last night in class, that an integral is just the limit of a Riemann sum .  He said that we'll learn clever ways to integrate (e.g. by parts , the substitution rule , completing the squares , etc),"
  },
  {
    "title": "Today was my first day of class at DeAnza. I’m ta…",
    "date": "2003-09-24",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/today-was-my-first-day-of-class-at-deanza-im-ta/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=65",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "65",
    "excerpt": "Today was my first day of class at DeAnza .  I'm taking the Math 1b class which is basically intro to integral calculus.  It's been a while since I've been in school (at least in a 'real' class...  I took Italian a coupl"
  },
  {
    "title": "Russian Ark - going in",
    "date": "2003-09-24",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/russian-ark-going-in/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=66",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "66",
    "excerpt": "I saw a review of this movie on Ebert and Roeper a couple weeks ago that perked my interest.  The movie is a single take, continuous 90 minute scene. There's a good chance this won't be a good movie in the sense that Bra"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bowling for Columbine - Going in There’s much c…",
    "date": "2003-09-07",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/bowling-for-columbine-going-in-theres-much-c/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=61",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "61",
    "excerpt": "Bowling for Columbine - Going in There's much controversy about this movie.  Is it a documentary or Micheal Moore's political soap box?  Does Mr. Moore lie?  Are his arguments persuasive? I'm from a small town and theref"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bowling for Columbine - Coming out Trust. Fear…",
    "date": "2003-09-07",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/bowling-for-columbine-coming-out-trust-fear/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=62",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "62",
    "excerpt": "Bowling for Columbine - Coming out Trust.  Fear.  This movie wasn't about guns.  It was about a culture of fear .  (And the unexplained bashing of Charlton Heston...  What was that all about?) What is the difference betw"
  },
  {
    "title": "This war on terrorism is bogus",
    "date": "2003-09-07",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/this-war-on-terrorism-is-bogus/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=63",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "63",
    "excerpt": "Bogus? The conspiracies outlined in this article do not prove that the war is bogus, they simply point to the fact that the US sees a need for an International Stabilization Regime.  The US's interests are at risk in a w"
  },
  {
    "title": "‘People loved us’ - Back in Humboldt after the Ira…",
    "date": "2003-09-07",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/people-loved-us-back-in-humboldt-after-the-ira/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=64",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "64",
    "excerpt": "'People loved us' - Back in Humboldt after the Iraq War... A Marine's story back from Iraq...  He's from my home, Humboldt County, California."
  },
  {
    "title": "A new book wrestles with monogamy and its modern d…",
    "date": "2003-09-06",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/a-new-book-wrestles-with-monogamy-and-its-modern-d/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=57",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "57",
    "excerpt": "A new book wrestles with monogamy and its modern discontents \"Love might indeed get a better name if we were as attentive to the intellectual dishonesties of the public debate over its failings as we are to the emotional"
  },
  {
    "title": "Confirmation bias The greatest lesson learned i…",
    "date": "2003-09-06",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/confirmation-bias-the-greatest-lesson-learned-i/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=58",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "58",
    "excerpt": "Confirmation bias The greatest lesson learned is that people are locked in their own heads.  This seems obvious.  Everyone has their own perspective.  What is less obvious is that perspective is not chosen, its innate.  "
  },
  {
    "title": "Jobless recovery aka Productivity-cushioned recess…",
    "date": "2003-09-06",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/jobless-recovery-aka-productivity-cushioned-recess/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=59",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "59",
    "excerpt": "Jobless recovery aka Productivity-cushioned recession There's much being said of the unprecedented nature of this recovery.  GDP is rising at healthy levels, but unemployment is riding high.  Usually, recoveries are caus"
  },
  {
    "title": "Glenn Loury",
    "date": "2003-09-06",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/glenn-loury-berkeley-is-one-of-the-most-dogmati/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=60",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "60",
    "excerpt": "(Note added 7/8/07: I've cleaned up the formatting on the post... the conversion from blogger to wordpress wasn't particularly clean.  This post was a response to this Paul Krugman essay about Glenn Loury .)\n\nBerkeley is"
  },
  {
    "title": "Failing at Living / It’s a blackboard jungle out t…",
    "date": "2003-09-04",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/failing-at-living-its-a-blackboard-jungle-out-t/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=56",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "56",
    "excerpt": "Failing at Living / It's a blackboard jungle out there: It's bad enough when the students don't want to learn, but when they can't even spell dirty words correctly, can a teacher really expect them to grasp Stephen Sondh"
  },
  {
    "title": "Star Telegram | 09/01/2003 | Watering the driest t…",
    "date": "2003-09-02",
    "url": "/writing/2003/09/star-telegram-09012003-watering-the-driest-t/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=55",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "55",
    "excerpt": "Star Telegram | 09/01/2003 | Watering the driest thing I know Economics, dry? No! Someday, I'm going to read Manias, Panics, and Crashes by Charles Kindleberger.  It has been said that he is a great economics writer and "
  },
  {
    "title": "HMC Calculus Tutorial A nice review of Calculus…",
    "date": "2003-08-25",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/hmc-calculus-tutorial-a-nice-review-of-calculus/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=54",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "54",
    "excerpt": "HMC Calculus Tutorial A nice review of Calculus...  I took a year at Berkeley, but I'm a little rusty.  I'm going to finish the series at the local community college and I'm trying not to make a fool out of myself."
  },
  {
    "title": "Wired 11.09: PowerPoint Is Evil I’m of two mind…",
    "date": "2003-08-22",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/wired-1109-powerpoint-is-evil-im-of-two-mind/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=53",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "53",
    "excerpt": "Wired 11.09: PowerPoint Is Evil I'm of two minds regarding PowerPoint. On the one hand: I love outlines Organize thoughts Easy for others to understand (I think) PowerPoint is a easy to use graphics editor I'm not aware "
  },
  {
    "title": "I’ve updated my home page and I’ve added my resume…",
    "date": "2003-08-17",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/ive-updated-my-home-page-and-ive-added-my-resume/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=52",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "52",
    "excerpt": "I've updated my home page and I've added my resume to the site.  Let me know what you think."
  },
  {
    "title": "DRAFT Book Review: A Heartbreaking Work of Stagger…",
    "date": "2003-08-15",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/draft-book-review-a-heartbreaking-work-of-stagger/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=51",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "51",
    "excerpt": "DRAFT Book Review: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers What is postmoderism - culture of self-reference and reference not to reality but to references (which may be to reality) - an awareness of that"
  },
  {
    "title": "I’m at work now and I can’t comment on this post f…",
    "date": "2003-08-12",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/im-at-work-now-and-i-cant-comment-on-this-post-f/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=50",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "50",
    "excerpt": "I'm at work now and I can't comment on this post from Brad De Long ...  I very much want to. Henry Farrell expresses skepticism about \"transhumanism\"--which he defines as \"the idea of the self as a sort of infinitely ext"
  },
  {
    "title": "John Robb’s Weblog \"NEVER (under any circumstan…",
    "date": "2003-08-11",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/john-robbs-weblog-never-under-any-circumstan/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=49",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "49",
    "excerpt": "John Robb's Weblog \"NEVER (under any circumstances) publish a weblog to a domain that you don't control\" I've read jrobb's blog for over a year and I was concerned about his sudden absence.  I was happy to see him resurf"
  },
  {
    "title": "Forever gone",
    "date": "2003-08-10",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/forever-gone/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=44",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "44",
    "excerpt": "Ocean breeze cools the blowing sand Across the beach, onto the road. The skys, clear, show promise, A vision of tomorrow. I saw her tonight strutting In the Castro, alone, strong. The wind whispers that it is forever gon"
  },
  {
    "title": "Digital makeover Frankly, I think her belly but…",
    "date": "2003-08-10",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/digital-makeover-frankly-i-think-her-belly-but/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=45",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "45",
    "excerpt": "Digital makeover Frankly, I think her belly button is cuter before the touch-up... Anyway, I was at the make-up counter(s) at Macy's yesterday ...Don't ask me why...  and I was noticing all the hideous women buying makeu"
  },
  {
    "title": "Californians against opportunistic celebrity fuckw…",
    "date": "2003-08-10",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/californians-against-opportunistic-celebrity-fuckw/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=46",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "46",
    "excerpt": "Californians against opportunistic celebrity fuckwads and Where do people get the idea Howard Dean's a liberal? OR Who I am and not going to vote for I will start a recall petition to moment Arnold is elected governor.  "
  },
  {
    "title": "Documented life I suppose I’d just be finishing…",
    "date": "2003-08-10",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/documented-life-i-suppose-id-just-be-finishing/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=47",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "47",
    "excerpt": "Documented life I suppose I'd just be finishing chapter four of my documented life and beginning chapter 5.  His chapter 5 may be similar to mine.  We'll see."
  },
  {
    "title": "I’ll come back to this article about product devel…",
    "date": "2003-08-10",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/ill-come-back-to-this-article-about-product-devel/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=48",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "48",
    "excerpt": "I'll come back to this article about product development ."
  },
  {
    "title": "The American government’s accounts look about as r…",
    "date": "2003-08-08",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/the-american-governments-accounts-look-about-as-r/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=43",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "43",
    "excerpt": "The American government's accounts look about as reliable as Enron's I had a post a couple days again that had this 'completely different note': \"why are there no aggregate wealth statistics that are widely reported? I m"
  },
  {
    "title": "Bloggers Select The 15 Greatest Movies Of All-Time…",
    "date": "2003-08-02",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/bloggers-select-the-15-greatest-movies-of-all-time/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=41",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "41",
    "excerpt": "Bloggers Select The 15 Greatest Movies Of All-Time I haven't seen North by Northwest or Citizen Kane.  I guess I better... I would put Casablanca and Gone with the Wind higher on the list and I would choose episode V ove"
  },
  {
    "title": "Just Because I’m A Woman How can you not love D…",
    "date": "2003-08-02",
    "url": "/writing/2003/08/just-because-im-a-woman-how-can-you-not-love-d/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=42",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "42",
    "excerpt": "Just Because I'm A Woman How can you not love Dolly Parton?"
  },
  {
    "title": "FRBSF: Economic Letter - Unemployment and Producti…",
    "date": "2003-07-31",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/frbsf-economic-letter-unemployment-and-producti/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=39",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "39",
    "excerpt": "FRBSF: Economic Letter - Unemployment and Productivity (10/12/2001) Sounds like there are no grand theories on connections between unemployment and productivity (at least in the long run). The article states 2 ways in wh"
  },
  {
    "title": "What Do Graduate Schools Want?",
    "date": "2003-07-31",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/what-do-graduate-schools-want/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=40",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "40",
    "excerpt": "What Do Graduate Schools Want?"
  },
  {
    "title": "EconLog, High income and Wealth: Library of Econom…",
    "date": "2003-07-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/econlog-high-income-and-wealth-library-of-econom/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=31",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "31",
    "excerpt": "EconLog, High income and Wealth: Library of Economics and Liberty I like this one...  I'll come back to it.  Basically, what would be a just distribution of wealth?  What would a virtuous distribution look like?  Assume "
  },
  {
    "title": "Questions To Ask When Thinking About Pursuing a Ph…",
    "date": "2003-07-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/questions-to-ask-when-thinking-about-pursuing-a-ph/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=32",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "32",
    "excerpt": "Questions To Ask When Thinking About Pursuing a PhD \"Research shows that up to half of the students who begin doctoral study never receive the Ph.D. One culprit in attrition is a poor match. Doctoral study may be a poor "
  },
  {
    "title": "Three Pillars of Learning - Depth; What ideas are…",
    "date": "2003-07-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/three-pillars-of-learning-depth-what-ideas-are/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=33",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "33",
    "excerpt": "Three Pillars of Learning - Depth; What ideas are important? - Breadth;  What connections are there between ideas? - Process;  How do people think about things?  Models. These pillars work with each other in a virtuous c"
  },
  {
    "title": "Letters of Rec for old farts like me (I’m 5 years …",
    "date": "2003-07-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/letters-of-rec-for-old-farts-like-me-im-5-years/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=34",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "34",
    "excerpt": "Letters of Rec for old farts like me (I'm 5 years out of school) Yeah, I've been looking for an answer to this question! I wonder if its possible for me to get research experience?"
  },
  {
    "title": "Books to Study Before Going to Graduate School in …",
    "date": "2003-07-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/books-to-study-before-going-to-graduate-school-in/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=35",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "35",
    "excerpt": "Books to Study Before Going to Graduate School in Economics Ok, I'm not real sure why I didn't look at about.com before..."
  },
  {
    "title": "Thomas Sowell: Who’s Rich Sowell points out tha…",
    "date": "2003-07-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/thomas-sowell-whos-rich-sowell-points-out-tha/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=36",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "36",
    "excerpt": "Thomas Sowell: Who's Rich Sowell points out that there is often confusion between wealth and income.  He claims that rich people may have insignificant income as its their wealth that makes them rich.  He would have you "
  },
  {
    "title": "The Wedge Between Output and Employment Growth: Ar…",
    "date": "2003-07-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/the-wedge-between-output-and-employment-growth-ar/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=37",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "37",
    "excerpt": "The Wedge Between Output and Employment Growth: Archive Entry From Brad DeLong's Webjournal Seem's pretty straight forward.  The economy grows because of productivity improvements.  Each worker can produce more stuff.  A"
  },
  {
    "title": "Web Allows People Like You And Me to Spot Trends….",
    "date": "2003-07-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/web-allows-people-like-you-and-me-to-spot-trends/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=38",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "38",
    "excerpt": "Web Allows People Like You And Me to Spot Trends. Uh-Oh. \"But I have grander ambitions for the software. I foresee a day when everyone online will be linked into one big collaboratively filtered network, instantly knowin"
  },
  {
    "title": "War Overview",
    "date": "2003-07-28",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/war-overview-good-one-mr-clueless-review/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=29",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "29",
    "excerpt": "War Overview Good one!\n\nMr. Clueless reviews the arguments for war.  His presentation seems a bit like post-rationalization, but its also probable that such a case would not have enjoyed so much political success...  Sid"
  },
  {
    "title": "Len Burman et al. on the Alternative Minimum Tax …",
    "date": "2003-07-28",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/len-burman-et-al-on-the-alternative-minimum-tax/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=30",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "30",
    "excerpt": "Len Burman et al. on the Alternative Minimum Tax Interesting the politics of tax policy.  You hear raise taxes , lower taxes , but in reality revenue needs to be had and services need to be paid for (especially new, expe"
  },
  {
    "title": "Tony Blair for President Funny.",
    "date": "2003-07-23",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/tony-blair-for-president-funny/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=28",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "28",
    "excerpt": "Tony Blair for President Funny."
  },
  {
    "title": "Tony Blair’s speech to Congress Blair for Presi…",
    "date": "2003-07-20",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/tony-blairs-speech-to-congress-blair-for-presi/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=27",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "27",
    "excerpt": "Tony Blair's speech to Congress Blair for President!  Seriously though, are there any cogent counterarguments to the points Blair articulated so well in his speech to Congress last week? A quick review: - terrorism is br"
  },
  {
    "title": "Mankiw vs. Greenspan?",
    "date": "2003-07-18",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/mankiw-vs-greenspan/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=26",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "26",
    "excerpt": "Mankiw is saying that  growth, spurred by the administration's tax policy, will increase the  government's top line and reduce the deficit.  Greenspan is saying that  deficit's are bad when the economy is at full employm"
  },
  {
    "title": "Neo-conned A seemingly objective and well thoug…",
    "date": "2003-07-13",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/neo-conned-a-seemingly-objective-and-well-thoug/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=24",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "24",
    "excerpt": "Neo-conned A seemingly objective and well thought out article by a member of congress(!).  Neo-conservatives have taken over the government (congress and the executive).  They believe in Machiavellian philosophy of autho"
  },
  {
    "title": "Movie review: Flash Dance Dreams Alex is a wel…",
    "date": "2003-07-13",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/movie-review-flash-dance-dreams-alex-is-a-wel/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=25",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "25",
    "excerpt": "Movie review: Flash Dance Dreams Alex is a welder by day and she is a exotic dancer at night.  As the movie opens, we come to understand that her dream is to become a classical dancer.  As a kid, her Nana took her to bal"
  },
  {
    "title": "Coldplay Lyrics: The Scientist The Scientist …",
    "date": "2003-07-12",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/coldplay-lyrics-the-scientist-the-scientist/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=22",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "22",
    "excerpt": "Coldplay Lyrics : The Scientist The Scientist Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry You don't know how lovely you are I had to find you Tell you I need you Tell you I set you apart Tell me your secrets And ask me your "
  },
  {
    "title": "Coldplay Lyrics: A Warning Sign A warning sign…",
    "date": "2003-07-12",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/coldplay-lyrics-a-warning-sign-a-warning-sign/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=23",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "23",
    "excerpt": "Coldplay Lyrics : A Warning Sign A warning sign I missed the good part then I realised I started looking and the bubble burst I started looking for excuses Come on in I've got to tell you what a state I'm in I've got to "
  },
  {
    "title": "Marriage ‘tames’ geniuses, criminals Hah! I kn…",
    "date": "2003-07-10",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/marriage-tames-geniuses-criminals-hah-i-kn/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=19",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "19",
    "excerpt": "Marriage 'tames' geniuses, criminals Hah!  I knew it... Previously, I've heard that criminal 'instincts' are dulled by marriage.  This is why marriage a stabilizing force in society and why societies that have strong ins"
  },
  {
    "title": "Americans must preserve institution of marriage …",
    "date": "2003-07-10",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/americans-must-preserve-institution-of-marriage/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=20",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "20",
    "excerpt": "Americans must preserve institution of marriage Is it just me or does this editorial have no substance at all?  To summarize: gay marriage is coming, marriage is important for society because you raise children through t"
  },
  {
    "title": "Randy E. Barnett on Supreme Court & Sodomy on Nati…",
    "date": "2003-07-10",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/randy-e-barnett-on-supreme-court-sodomy-on-nati/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=21",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "21",
    "excerpt": "Randy E. Barnett on Supreme Court & Sodomy on National Review Online Randy's right on.  He says we're all missing the boat on the Supreme Court sodomy case.  The real story is that the burden of proof regarding whether o"
  },
  {
    "title": "Put up or shut up It’s time that I put my words…",
    "date": "2003-07-09",
    "url": "/writing/2003/07/put-up-or-shut-up-its-time-that-i-put-my-words/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=18",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "18",
    "excerpt": "Put up or shut up It's time that I put my words into actions.  Repeatedly, I've said to myself and others that its more important to pursue your own ends, to be an individual first.  I've said that the groups you belong "
  },
  {
    "title": "The final irony If postmodernism is irony, what…",
    "date": "2003-06-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/06/the-final-irony-if-postmodernism-is-irony-what/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=15",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "15",
    "excerpt": "The final irony If postmodernism is irony, what is it that it really means?"
  },
  {
    "title": "AlterNet: Strom Won’t Be Missed I think Christo…",
    "date": "2003-06-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/06/alternet-strom-wont-be-missed-i-think-christo/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=16",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "16",
    "excerpt": "AlterNet: Strom Won't Be Missed I think Christopher misses the point.  Strom Thurmond is a great American as he embodies our history.  He was a living reminder of our collective past and of the progress made and not made"
  },
  {
    "title": "The new gloomsayers America is an empire. Call…",
    "date": "2003-06-30",
    "url": "/writing/2003/06/the-new-gloomsayers-america-is-an-empire-call/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=17",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "17",
    "excerpt": "The new gloomsayers America is an empire.  Call it what you will, but it is an empire and we should learn to manage it.  This is the point made in the cover articles in this months Atlantic Monthly .  If Rome's empire en"
  },
  {
    "title": "Tomorrow Needless to say, the two days since Th…",
    "date": "2003-06-26",
    "url": "/writing/2003/06/tomorrow-needless-to-say-the-two-days-since-th/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=13",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "13",
    "excerpt": "Tomorrow Needless to say, the two days since Thursday have been torture.  The funny thing is that they were not much different then the two days before Thursday.  I wasn't in your physical presence any of the four days. "
  },
  {
    "title": "Getting into the act You know. I have things t…",
    "date": "2003-06-26",
    "url": "/writing/2003/06/getting-into-the-act-you-know-i-have-things-t/",
    "original_url": "http://www.ambrosini.us/wordpress/?p=14",
    "type": "post",
    "id": "14",
    "excerpt": "Getting into the act You know.  I have things to explore and to wonder about.  I have plenty of discovering to do about meaning and purpose.  I have questions of my own. What requirements of solitude are there for curios"
  }
]