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Joycean blogging
This paper, via Jorge, argues that a credit crunch, and an increase in contract non-enforceability, are major reasons why NAFTA did not benefit Mexico more. Each Beck album takes a longer time to appreciate than the last one; I'm finally coming around on The Information. Here is a further smackdown on the TV-autism study. Panama has voted to expand the Canal; after the Grand Canyon and Iguassu, it is the most impressive sight I have seen. Go. A New York Times article notes that Portuguese has 230 million speakers, far more than German or Japanese; yet it is still considered a minor language. Will Wilkinson, who has been busy lately, has a good post on positive-sum status games. The Wall Street Journal had a front page article today on the trend to pull the elderly out of nursing homes and pay their relatives, or in some cases their ex-wives, to care for them. The Business of Health and The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care are two new market-oriented books on American health care; the latter has a blurb from Milton Friedman. Chutes and Ladders examines the upward mobility of (some of) the working poor; buy it here. Starbucks succeeds by helping customers feel good about themselves.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on October 23, 2006 at 11:33 AM in Philosophy | Permalink
Comments
I like Guero more than The Information, but perhaps I just need to follwo your advice and give it a few more listens.
Isn't Will's post there just a cross-post from D Friedman's excellent blog?
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Joel at Oct 23, 2006 1:43:27 PM
Reading comprehension isn't my strong point. Disregard previous comment ;)
Posted by: Joel at Oct 23, 2006 1:44:37 PM
Of course Portuguese is considered a minor language. Almost all the speakers are concentrated in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique. Three of these countries have never had any international influence, and Portugal hasn't had serious international influence in more than 100 years. There are few, if any, important works of literature, science, or philosophy written in Portuguese.
By contrast, Japan is the world's second largest economy and a powerhouse of industry and innovation. Before that, the Japanese were the regional superpower of East Asia, and had been for centuries. The German civilisation has been the dominant power in Central Europe for 1500 years and was the focus of the world's (negative) attention twice in the past hundred years. Moreover, many great works of science and philosophy were written in German.
- Josh
Posted by: Wild Pegasus at Oct 23, 2006 3:20:40 PM
In the Fall River/New Bedford/Taunton area of MA there are some signs in public buildings--e.g. a hospital--that are written in both English and Portuguese.
Posted by: Pete F at Oct 23, 2006 4:04:49 PM
Who do you think you are, Colby Cosh?
Posted by: Robert Speirs at Oct 23, 2006 4:44:58 PM
The Information has been my driving music for a few weeks. It's taken a while to get a feel for it, but I do like it. Work you way out from the middle tracks--that's what I did.
It is too soon to tell whether I like Guero more.
"O Maria" from Mutations remains my favorite Beck song.
Posted by: Lee Beck at Oct 23, 2006 9:20:51 PM
The 'smackdown' ain't. Sure, the paper's identification strategy is indirect, but the fact that you get similar results using cable subscriptions or precipitation is pretty convincing. And the geneticists seem to be saying "A affects B, so it's impossible that C also affects B."
Posted by: Andrew Leigh at Oct 23, 2006 9:53:00 PM
Some basic data for evaluating the impact (or lack thereof) of NAFTA on Mexico. Mexico growth's rate from 1980 to 1989 was 2.34%. This includes the crash (-4.2%) of 1983. Mexico's growth rate from 1980 to 1993 (the last pre-NAFTA year) was 2.74%. Since 1994, Mexico's growth rate has been 3.0%. Since 2000, Mexico's growth rate has been 2.89%. However, Mexico grew at 6.14% in the pre-neoliberal period (WWII to 1982). This data is from the Penn World Tables and the WEO.
Posted by: Peter Schaeffer at Oct 23, 2006 10:47:44 PM
Will Wilkinson, who has been busy lately, has a good post on positive-sum status games.
Will Wilkinson is an excellent human being and there should be more like him.
As soon as we can find a sturdy, fecund, and suitably disposed lady who satisfies WW's discriminating tastes, the blogosphere should endeavor to collect funds to lavishly subsidize the prodigious reproductive efforts he is certain to undertake.
Posted by: Cackallacky at Oct 24, 2006 9:17:01 AM
Portuguese has 230 million speakers, far more than German or Japanese; yet it is still considered a minor language.
Portugal obviously needs to conquer Spain, France, and northern Italy.
Posted by: Anderson at Oct 24, 2006 2:25:49 PM
It would be interesting to see Gross Linguistic Product statistics. It might be hard to define - how much of India's GDP comes from business conducted in English? (How much of the U.S.'s comes from business conducted in Spanish?)
I'd be willing to bet that other than Greek and Latin, the major/minor language gap would track some position in the GLP rankings.
Posted by: Anthony at Oct 24, 2006 4:48:27 PM
Ok - I did some rough number crunching.
Languages by GLP:
English $17.3 trillion (not including India, but including Philippines, Nigeria, and Quebec)
Japanese $4.6 trillion
German $3.5 trillion
Chinese $2.9 trillion (not including United States)
Spanish $2.7 trillion (not including United States)
French $2.1 trillion (not including Quebec or Wallonia)
Italian $1.8 trillion
Dutch $1.0 trillion (including Wallonia)
Portuguese $1.0 trillion
Arabic $1.0 trillion (assumes all business done in Arabic, not English or French)
Indic languages $1.0 trillion (assumes no business in India and Pakistan done in English)
Korean $0.8 trillion
Russian $0.8 trillion
Each one percent of business in the United States is $0.12 trillion, so if 1% of the US GDP is done in Chinese, and 3% in Spanish, that would raise both languages to about $3 trillion even. Assuming half of Belgium's GDP and 20% of Canada's GDP comes from Wallonia and Quebec, respectively, raises French to $2.4 trillion, and drops Dutch to $0.8 trillion.
Posted by: Anthony at Oct 24, 2006 5:49:21 PM
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