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Assorted links
1. Australia markets in everything, naval edition.
3. Via Kat, the new Dan Ariely chapters.
4. Short WSJ write-up of (part of) Create Your Own Economy.
6. Which movies impress professional stuntmen?
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 6, 2009 at 12:44 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
Surely you mean "The culture that German is"?
Posted by: dearieme at Jul 6, 2009 2:10:51 PM
More jobs would be much better than more job training.
During periods of many available jobs, companies hire people with related skill sets to fill positions. During times without many jobs, companies only hire people with perfect skill set matches.
We are near 10% unemployment, and near 18% underemployment. We need lots more jobs before retraining will make a significant difference.
Posted by: mickslam at Jul 6, 2009 3:39:57 PM
Did you noted the socialism in everything : nude farm link in the german one?
Posted by: k at Jul 6, 2009 7:29:42 PM
To add to what mick wrote, if employers can't find the skilled labor they need, they will partner with a good community college or union to provide the training, even hiring the best prospects and paying them to work at the low skill jobs while they attend classes to gain skills.
But the best jobs are factory jobs, and that is where the jobs need to be created. A lot of work goes into making at least part of the jobs easy to pick up, with regular training programs to move the reliable employees up the skill ladder, and older workers are generally more reliable, so even if they refuse to learn new tricks, they still earn their pay.
And what could be better than manufacturing wind generators or the components for power lines or solar arrays or railroad components or dozens if not hundreds of parts for productive capital that will produce returns on investments for decades.
Posted by: mulp at Jul 7, 2009 3:11:36 AM
Another reason some Germans are fascinated with
Indian culture may be that the ways of Germanic
tribes in ancient times were not dissimilar.
Plutarch reports that tribesmen leaped about
from crag to crag in icy conditions to
terrify the invading (and "civilized") Romans.
In "Germania" the Roman historian Tacitus gave
an account of them. The desire to return
to the ways of our ancestors surfaces in different
forms. More permanently Rousseau celebrated
"the noble savage," uncorrupted by civilization.
Posted by: Candadai Tirumalai at Jul 7, 2009 10:42:05 AM
"But Thoma is the most nearly perpendicular of them all."
This is quite a hagiography. Thoma leans as far left as an economist can, and still stand up.
Posted by: MHodak at Jul 7, 2009 9:27:43 PM
Thanks for the link to the NYT piece on Job Retraining. Always been skeptical of this -- it ignores the fact that those who need it most may be least able to take best advantage of it.
Posted by: 108Warren Commission at Jul 8, 2009 12:22:15 PM
