This week's links (3)
Collections of papers and articles that I’ve spotted this week that seem interesting. Comments on some of them.
Economics
- Short-Termism and capital flows
- I argued in this blog a while ago that short-termism is not an issue in capital markets.
- Even when it seems that stock buybacks are a case of short termism
- This paper provides further evidence of my view.
- Low interest rates: depression economics, not secular trends
- Okay, but this "The Great Depression was only ended by rearmament and war" not so okay
- See also this chart on historical long-term rates. Argueably, there was a decrease but then stabilisation around 3-4%
- Secondhand smoke isn't as bad as we thought
- Apparently the now common policy of banning smoking in certain places was based on shaky evidence
- I wouldn't have banned it in the first place, as much of a hater of smoking as I am
- Why public goods are a public bad
Psychology
- Religion, Morality, Evolution
- "There is surprisingly little evidence for a moral effect of specifically religious beliefs."
- Pre-K interventions, overrated
- See alsothis thread for more
- Jim Heckman will be sad. I also remembered when this was The Big Thing that Was Backed by Science(tm) some years ago and there were calls for an expansion of those things. It didn't happen, and we have counterfactually avoided a malinvestment.
- The psychology of not wanting to know
- People don't take truth even if it's free
Biology
- A giant neuron has been found wrapped around the entire circumference of the Brain (of a rat)
- Number of neurons as biological correlates of cognitive capability
- Neurons are not all that matters tho (1, 2)
- A review of how intelligence works in different species
- H/t to @SilverVVulpes for the papers
Philosophy
- What is so bad about Scientism
- Thrasyllus' Syndrome
- That thing that happens when you spend time thinking and talking about what others do, not doing things yourself.
- Friends don't let Friends Thrasylling
- David Chalmers did an AMA
- To understand Trump, learn from his voters
- Trumpians are often classed in the populist quadrant of the two-axis political compass.
- They are also called communitarians, so it shouldn't surprise you that Sandel could be read as an intellectual of Trumpism.
- Make no mistake: I think Sandel is a nice - but deeply mistaken -and I learned a lot with his course on Justice.
History
- The reclamation of Mumbai
- Mumbai did massive reclamation works two centuries ago(!!)
Mathematics