Notable: October 29, 2016

• How Dairy Farmers in Belgium Held Up a Big E.U. Trade Deal By MILAN SCHREUER, The New York Times, OCT. 28, 2016
• Belgian politicians in Wallonia nearly ended EU-Ceta deal BBC, October 28, 2016
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Notable: October 28, 2016

• A universal basic income to step up economic reform By Nimai Mehta, Ideas for India (blog), October 28, 2016
• The US Labor Market: Questions and Challenges for Public Policy By Michael R. Strain (editor) [This book on the US labor market contains plain-language essays, representing  diverse viewpoints and covering most aspects of the topic, by recognized experts.]

Notable: October 27, 2016

• Being honest about ideological influence in economics By Simon Wren-Lewis, Mainly Macro (blog), October 26, 2016
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Notable: October 25, 2016

• As Europe and Asia Hoard Cash, Economists See Echoes of Crisis By LANDON THOMAS Jr., The New York Times, OCT. 24, 2016
• Why the U.S. Still Trails Many Wealthy Nations in Access to Care By Aaron E. Carroll, The New York Times, OCT. 24, 2016
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Notable: October 23, 2016

• I Paid $2,500 for a ‘Hamilton’ Ticket. I’m Happy About It. By N. GREGORY MANKIW, The New York Times, OCT. 21, 2016. [The whole phenomenon of performers charging below-market prices, perhaps to avoid looking greedy, but only to make ticket scalpers rich, drives economists nuts. Here, Greg Mankiw says the obvious: "Mr. Miranda and his investors could find better ways to give back to the community than vastly underpricing most “Hamilton” tickets and enriching ticket resellers. Maybe fund scholarships for theater students." Lin Manuel Miranda had written in favor of legislation against the online ticket-buying bots that scoop up "Hamilton" tickets and resell them at a premium. I had posted that article on Facebook and had argued that the government should step in and _require_ the tickets to be sold at auction to the highest bidders, and promise to take any part of the revenues that "Hamilton's" owners feel morally unwilling to accept.]
• A New Biography Focuses on Karl Instead of Marxism By PETER E. GORDON, The New York Times, OCT. 21, 2016. [Review of  "KARL MARX: Greatness and Illusion" By Gareth Stedman Jones.]

Notable: October 22, 2016

• Doomsayers Keep Getting It Wrong on Higher Minimum Wages By Barry Ritholtz, BloombergView, October 21, 2016
• Liberals Compete for the Soul of Economics By Noah Smith, BloombergView, October 21, 2016
• Smart Contracts Don’t Have to Be Dumb By Elaine Ou, BloombergView, October 21, 2016 [The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was given earlier this month to Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom for work on contract theory, of which -- sad to say -- I know very little. In this article, a "blockchain engineer" in a financial technology company says that Hart's work helps in the design of "smart contracts", which she defines as "software that secures a relationship over a computer network."]
• Universal basic income for India By Vijay Ramchandra Joshi, Ideas for India, October 21, 2016
• Nobel prize in Economics 2016: The economy as a nexus of contracts By Maitreesh Ghatak, Ideas for India, October 19, 2016
• Nobel insights: When it comes to contracts, what’s obvious may not be optimal By Rohini Somanathan, Ideas for India, October 18, 2016
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Notable: October 19, 2016

• Giving Every Child a Monthly Check for an Even Start By Eduardo Porter, The New York Times, October 18, 2016
• Social Security at Stake on Nov. 8 By THE EDITORIAL BOARD, The New York Times, OCT. 19, 2016
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Notable: October 18, 2016

• Germany’s Apprenticeship System Comes Under Attack By TOM FAIRLESS, The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 16, 2016
• Wall Street’s “Do-Nothing” Investing Revolution By Dennis K. Berman and Jamie Heller, The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 17, 2016
• The Dying Business of Picking Stocks By ANNE TERGESEN and JASON ZWEIG, The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 17, 2016 [Passive investing has become investors’ default, driving billions into funds that track indexes. It’s transforming Wall Street, corporate boardrooms and the life of the neighborhood broker. ]
• Why Passive Investing is Overrunning Active, in Five Charts By Sarah Krouse, Spencer Jakab, Jason Zweig and Hanna Sender, The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 17, 2016
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Notable: October 15, 2016

• The Mathematics of Cake Cutting By Erica Klarreich, Quanta Magazine, October 13, 2016
• All Is Not Fair in Cake-Cutting and Math By Erica Klarreich, Quanta Magazine, October 7, 2016
• Donald Trump Tax Plan Would Add to Debt and Hillary Clinton’s Wouldn’t, Study Finds By JACKIE CALMES, The New York Times, OCT. 11, 2016
• Five Books to Change Liberals' Minds By Cass R. Sunstein, BloombergView, October 11, 2016
• Stat By Maria Bustillos, Longreads, September 2016 [Is there a dietary treatment for multiple sclerosis? And if so, why is the medical establishment ignoring published academic research that started in the 1950s proving it?]
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Notable: October 13, 2016

• ‘True Scale’ of India’s Tuberculosis Problem: 2.8 Million New Cases By GEETA ANAND, The New York Times, OCT. 13, 2016 [This is a horrifying reminder of the tuberculosis crisis in India. It seems the government is introducing a new plan of attack, based on India's successful anti-polio program. The focus of the new plan seems to be on treatment, and I wish there was more on prevention, with sustained attempts to (a) provide clean drinking water and (b) end open defecation. On treatment, the article suggests that the main failure has been the private sector's. For some unexplained reason, the private sector has been particularly bad at treating tuberculosis in India, which is why the government will be leading the charge in the new strategy.]
• Nobel prize winners’ research worked out a theory on worker productivity – then Amazon and Deliveroo proved it wrong By Ben Chu, The Independent, 11 October 2016
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Notable: October 12, 2016

• Why this Nobel prize for economics is so well deserved By MARK THOMA, MONEYWATCH October 12, 2016
• The Affordable Care Act is covering people, holding down costs and not killing jobs By Jared Bernstein, The Washington Post, October 11, 2016
• Central Banks Consider Bitcoin’s Technology, if Not Bitcoin By NATHANIEL POPPER, The New York Times, OCT. 11, 2016
• What Donald Trump’s Big Tax Break Might Buy By Eduardo Porter, The New York Times, OCT. 11, 2016

Notable: October 10, 2016

• Press Release: The Prize in Economic Sciences 2016, October 10, 2016 [The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2016 to Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström.]
• Popular Science Background, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2016
• Scientific Background, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2016
• Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom Win Nobel in Economics for Work on Contracts, By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM, The New York Times, OCT. 10, 2016
• An Economics Nobel for Examining Reality, By Noah Smith, BloombergView, October 10, 2016
• Economics Nobel Rewards Theories Worth Building On, By Tyler Cowen, BloombergView, October 10, 2016
• Where the Economics Nobel Came From, By Justin Fox, BloombergView, October 6, 2016
• Oliver Hart, Nobel Laureate, By Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution (blog), October 10, 2016
• Bengt Holmström, Nobel Laureate, By Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution (blog), October 10, 2016
• The Performance Pay Nobel, By Alex Tabarrok, Marginal Revolution (blog), October 10, 2016
• Economics Nobel 2016: Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom, Cheap Talk (blog), October 10, 2016
• NOBEL PRIZE 2016 PART I: BENGT HOLMSTROM

Notable: October 8, 2016

• How Donald Trump Uses the Tax Code in Ways You Can’t, By JEREMY ASHKENAS, GABRIEL J.X. DANCE and GUILBERT GATES, The New York Times, OCT. 7, 2016 [Good primer on real estate taxation.]
• Hillary Clinton Targets Tax Hikes at the Very Top, By RICHARD RUBIN, The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 7, 2016 ["The top-earning 1% of U.S. households—and especially the top 0.1%—have a lot to lose from Hillary Clinton’s tax proposals."]
• Tidyr | R Tutorial, By Francis Lara, YouTube, April 14, 2016
• Sending Potatoes to Idaho? How the Free Market Can Fight Poverty, By SENDHIL MULLAINATHAN, The Upshot (blog), The New York Times, OCT. 7, 2016

Notable: October 7, 2016

• Clinton and Kaine, Struggling on Taxes, By David Leonhardt, The New York Times, OCT. 7, 2016 [Clinton and Kaine are flubbing the tax issue. "Many listeners will emerge from these exchanges believing that Trump wants to cut taxes more for most people than Clinton does. In fact, nearly all of Trump’s tax cut would go to the affluent, while Clinton has proposed a series of (still mostly vague) tax credits for the non-rich. ... The first step for Clinton and Kaine is to go beyond the platitudes of their tax proposals so far and offer details — enough to allow independent analysts to score them. The second step is speaking about their plan in the direct language of politics, rather than mixing the more technical language of white papers with jokes about Trump."]
• Canada’s Trudeau Steps Up on Climate Change, By THE EDITORIAL BOARD, The New York Times, OCT. 7, 2016 [Trudeau has done the sensible thing, the textbook thing: "The plan will allow each of Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories to choose its own method of carbon pricing, whether a direct tax on emissions or a cap-and-trade system under which governments put a ceiling on emissions and allow utilities, manufacturing plants, fuel distributors and others to buy and sell permits to emit greenhouse gases. Whatever system the provinces and territories choose, they must establish a price by 2018, starting at a minimum of 10 Canadian dollars per ton of carbon (about $7.60 in American dollars) and rising to at least 50 Canadian dollars in 2022. They can use the revenue generated to lower other taxes or invest in renewable energy and other climate projects. The federal government will impose fines on provinces that fail to act." The politically savvy strategy against any opponents who point to rising energy costs is to return all revenues from the taxes -- and all government revenue from pollution permit auctions -- back to the people. That will silence all complaints, as has happened in British Columbia.]
• What About the Planet?, By Paul Krugman, The New York Times, OCT. 7, 2016 ["Our two major political parties are at odds on many issues, but nowhere is the gap bigger or more consequential than on climate. ... There is, quite simply, no other issue this important, and letting it slide would be almost criminally irresponsible."]

Notable: October 6, 2016

• Global Trade War, Trump Edition, By Thomas B. Edsall, The New York Times, OCT. 6, 2016
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Notable: October 2, 2016

• Why Unconventional Monetary Policy Works in Theory By Roger Farmer and Pawel Zabczyk, Bank Underground (blog), September 30, 2016
• Debate Night Message: The Markets Are Afraid of Donald Trump, By JUSTIN WOLFERS, The Upshot (blog), The New York Times, SEPT. 30, 2016
• Donald Trump Tax Records Show He Could Have Avoided Taxes for Nearly Two Decades, The Times Found, By DAVID BARSTOW, SUSANNE CRAIG, RUSS BUETTNER and MEGAN TWOHEY, The New York Times, OCT. 1, 2016
• The Making of Donald Trump, By David Cay Johnston, C-SPAN, August 25, 2016.
• How Donald Trump Turned the Tax Code Into a Giant Tax Shelter, By JAMES B. STEWART, The New York Times, OCT. 2, 2016
• In 1990, more than 60% of people in East Asia were in extreme poverty. Now only 3.5% are., by Dylan Matthews, Vox, Oct 2, 2016

Notable: October 1, 2016

• Is India ready for a universal basic income scheme? By Maitreesh Ghatak, Ideas for India, September 28, 2016
• The universal basic share By Debraj Ray, Ideas for India, September 29, 2016
• The universal basic share and social incentives By Debraj Ray and Karl Ove Moene, Ideas for India, September 30, 2016
• Minimum standard of living for all Indians By T. N. Srinivasan, Ideas for India, September 30, 2016
• Bharat Ek Khoj 01: Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Episode 1 of a TV series directed by Shyam Benegal.
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