- Noah Smith is absolutely correct. The academic mill is partially to blame for declining trust in science. Why? Lots of people who aren't really up to producing great, or even just good work, face strong incentives to publish anything. For similar reasons, I worry about accounting being subject to the same research and publication requirements as other disciplines in New Zealand.
- Danyl Mclauchlan's take on Key is excellent. I disagree with him a bit at the end though. New Zealand's system on emissions trading lets New Zealand automatically get serious about carbon emissions when the rest of the world does too: prices here will lift when international acceptance of dodgy credits ends, which is when everybody else is getting serious, which is when we should be too.
- Kiwis with American friends have always had friends ship stuff over that's not here available. Great to see some entrepreneurs making this available to everybody.
- Thomas Schelling died last week. Here is Schelling's explanation of organised crime. See also Ortmann and Cowen.
- The new process for settling Kaikoura EQNZ insurance claims is far better than the one that applied in Christchurch. EQC had told the government before the Christchurch quakes that its job should only be to cut cheques, not to run assessments. EQC had to take on a bigger job than that in Christchurch; it didn't go well. Those with insurance claims in Christchurch will be able to deal instead with their private insurer. Hooray! Meanwhile, Lew Stoddart provides a bit of commentary on Brownlee's push-back against criticism from folks dissatisfied with other parts of the government's response.
- Arthur Grimes and Richard Fabling find that Ultra-Fast Broadband on its own did nothing to improve firm productivity, but that firms that jointly invested in UFB and organisational ICT-based changes did do well. The average effect on productivity's being insignificantly different from zero will not be encouraging for those expecting more than that.
- Market indicators to watch to tell how Trump's doing: foreign policy edition.
- Diet soda also increases obesity: consumers of diet sodas eat more afterwards. View these results, as all results in this area, with due scepticism.
- The evidence strongly suggests that the world entered a bizarro-timestream somewhere around June of this year.
- Brendan O'Neill's celebration of Christmas excesses.
- This headline makes no sense. "Euthanasia debate: 'Those in pain shouldn't have to die like a dog because of ego and conceit of others'. But vets euthanise dogs that are in pain. People don't get that option. I blame Trump for the "like a dog" thing.
- New Zealand's drug laws disproportionately affect Māori
So endeth the lunchtime closing of the browser tabs. My but they accumulate.
