Wednesday, February 10, 2021

From forgeries to Covid-denial, Tim Harford on how we fool ourselves

 “One of the difficulties with all our institutions is the fact that we’ve emphasized the reward instead of the service.” Harry S. Truman, letter to Harold E. Moore (September 27, 1949) Continue... Read more



Super-Rich and Punctual Switzerland Is Also Behind on Vaccines Bloomberg



SINCE WE’RE BARELY ALLOWED TO GO OUT TO DRINK, THIS SEEMS LIKE A SAFE BET: Uber is betting $1.1 billion on alcohol deliveries.


 

Poet Amanda Gorman to Michelle Obama: "I'm learning that I am not lightning that strikes once. I am the hurricane that comes every single year, and you can expect to see me again soon."

Civil Society Organizations and Taxation: Emerging Trends and Priorities

Posted on 04 February 2021 | by Ruvimbo Chidziva and Fariya Mohiuddin

During the summer of 2020, the International Budget Partnership (IBP) and the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) worked collaboratively to conduct a broad scan of civil society organizations (CSOs) working in the taxation space with a specific interest in domestic taxation. Our objective was to create a comprehensive picture of the emerging field,…

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From forgeries to Covid-denial, Tim Harford on how we fool ourselves

Whether believing implausible statistics or falling for frauds, humans are addicted to wishful thinking

They called Abraham Bredius “The Pope”, a nickname that poked fun at his self-importance while acknowledging his authority. Bredius was the world’s leading scholar of Dutch painters and, particularly, of the mysterious Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. When Bredius was younger, he’d made his name by spotting works wrongly attributed to Vermeer. Now, at the age of 82, he had just published a highly respected book and was enjoying a retirement swan song in Monaco. It was at this moment in Bredius’s life, in 1937, that Gerard Boon paid a visit to his villa. Boon, a former Dutch MP, was an outspoken anti-fascist. He came to Bredius on behalf of dissidents in Mussolini’s Italy. They needed to raise money to fund their escape to the US, said Boon. And they had something which might be of value.