Monday, February 20, 2006



The hippies, claimed economist Andrew Oswald recently, are having their quiet revenge on how money doesn't make people happy But marriage, sex, socializing and even middle age do

Daniel Gilbert Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Sausage? and how money can't make you happy, but making the right comparisons can; when it comes money and happiness, economists and psychologists have got it all wrong; why don't men love women with money? Arianna Huffington finds out; does money make you more attractive? Dan Savage investigates an article on the economics of prostitution; neuroscientists are poking holes in old-fashioned economics; and much more.

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Olympics are a sporting bacchanalia
During the Olympics, the mirror neurons of whole nations will be electrically identical

At about the same time that Homer invented the epic hero, the Greeks started a religious festival dedicated to Zeus. The Gods, they decided, might like to see the human form in motion. Naked men competed in a single race, 200 yards long. The winner received a branch of wild olives. The Greeks called this celebration the Olympics


To Tiger Woods [And yes, Soviet Communism is just getting started. Will Wilkinson on solidarity: More than a feeling. Solidarity: More Than a Feeling ; Think again. Communism isn't an ideology but a religion; like Christianity it has its saints, its scriptures, and its iconography Manifesto for the dawn of communism ]
• · The sad fact of political science is that politics trumps economics—and always will, unfortunately Politics Trumps Economics? ; THERE is a growing perception that company directors and executives are self-interested actors, using their positions to pursue their own ends rather than what is best for the company and its shareholders. Positive thinking to beat bad apples
• · · Pricing Corruption ; What will it take to wake us up to the ever-tightening grip of oligopolies over ever more of our global marketplaces? Wake Up To Old-Fashioned Power of New Oligopolies
• · · · THE Reserve Bank has thrown its weight behind the NSW campaign to claw back billions of dollars in GST siphoned each year to other states, because the NSW economy "has fallen behind the pack" NSW is getting ripped off: Iemma ; Anyone who thinks that the federal income tax code is baffling now ought to brace for what lies ahead: big changes and uncertainty Cracking the Tax Code; And you have $1. How should you spend it to do the most good? Bang for Your Buck
• · · · · On the 20th anniversary of Perestroika, a rare book appears: Marx and Russia. Still no history of Marxism written in Russia ; The emerging Cold War on Asia's high seas ; The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion U.S. Has Royalty Plan to Give Windfall to Oil Companies
• · · · · · Australia's top spies were in the dark about the Iraqi wheat bribes scandal, the government said on Sunday, as it continued to deny knowledge of kickbacks by wheat exporter AWB Ltd. Spies in the dark about AWB bribes ; On how the Western democracies, so keen on exporting their political model to the rest of the world, seem to be perfecting the art of shooting themselves in the foot. In the name of democracy ; Seven Questions: Domestic Spying ; Who love to spy on whom in the world community Who Do You Love?