consumerism uber alles
Feeling down? Money might help, according to Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers. The Wharton
economists released a paper arguing that countries with higher gross domestic products have happier citizens. The study shatters the conventional wisdom known as the Easterlin Paradox, which holds that GDP and happiness are largely unrelated.
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wal-mart
A paper written by Steven Horwitz, an
Austrian-school economist (we're still not quite sure what that means, other than it's considered slightly controversial), recounts
Wal-Mart's relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina (PDF) and points out that private businesses, along with the Coast Guard, did far more than any "official" government agency in providing immediate, on-the-ground assistance to victims. His argument is that something as complex as a relief effort is more efficient when it's decentralized and involves private businesses. Horwitz has also, separately, supported the idea that
Wal-Mart should win the Nobel Peace Price. Hey, we told you his school of economics was controversial.
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arms
Two professors have released a paper branding adjustable rate mortgages, which are responsible for the subprime meltdown, as the
optimal mortgage type for rational borrowers. As we know all too well, few borrowers are antiseptically rational. According to Columbia professor Tomasz Piskorski and NYU professor Alexei Tchistyi, ARMs hold several unrivaled advantages:
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aig
• Economists are always fighting the last price war. [
NYT]
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Consumerist
