http://www.sacarny.com/blog Pushing bits for utility maximization Tue, 30 Jan 2007 05:03:37 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Max Sawicky on Milton Friedman: Friedman's impact of economic thinking is large in two connected, malignant ways. One is the idea that the economy is a self-regulating, self-correcting mechanism that works for the best when left alone. The second is that this state of affairs has an ethical foundation. I shy away ... http://www.sacarny.com/blog/2007/01/29/milton-friedman-day/ There is a fever going around the open source community lately over the One Laptop Per Child project. For those who are not familiar, OLPC is a project to create and sell a $100 laptop to poor communities, for use by children. The story goes that by giving these kids ... http://www.sacarny.com/blog/2007/01/05/one-laptop-per-child-olpc/ Here's a quick line of reasoning for why a very competitive private healthcare system might be less efficient than, say, good ol' single payer: Managed care assumes that having health insurance served by various competing entities will reduce health care costs by providing incentives for efficiency. Preventive care is a major and ... http://www.sacarny.com/blog/2006/04/20/managed-care-and-incentives-for-preventive-medicine/ Tonight I had the wonderful opportunity to see three of the greatest living economists speak. The event was practically a showcase for the MIT economics department, as speakers Robert Solow, Jagdish Bhagwati, and Paul Krugman all spent much of their careers teaching there. The topic of the evening was "Coping ... http://www.sacarny.com/blog/2006/04/11/talking-trade-with-some-dudes/ I write editorials because I believe, perhaps incorrectly, that in doing so I can influence policy. Before this semester, having written three of them, there was just about no evidence that my writing had effected much change anywhere. But today I picked up a copy of the Spectator to find ... http://www.sacarny.com/blog/2006/02/13/victory/ The Spectator has published my second editoral on the movie screening fiasco. Again, I didn't choose the title, and again, they gave me a nifty picture! Copyright Wars: Looking for a Solution In yesterday’s submission, I explained how Columbia’s decision to require performance licenses for public screenings of movies was ... http://www.sacarny.com/blog/2006/02/01/copyright-wars-looking-for-a-solution/ I didn't choose the title, but my new op-ed is in today's Columbia Spectator. They even made a little picture for it in the print edition! Copyright Wars: Breaking the System Although few students have yet to feel the difference, social life on campus is headed for some major disruptions. ... http://www.sacarny.com/blog/2006/01/30/copyright-wars-breaking-the-system/ I was watching Hardball the other day when I heard a woman named Kate O'Beirne of the National Review make this outrageous claim: [Feminists] get a lot of mileage out of the fact, the claim, that women work for 76 cents on the dollar. Think about that for a minute. ... http://www.sacarny.com/blog/2006/01/11/the-gender-pay-gap-is-real/ I'm currently testing out a little perl script that will turn your "Recently Updated Profiles" page on The Facebook into an RSS feed. If this sounds interesting to you, drop me a comment. Currently it works by using the "recently updated profiles" page to build a list of profile URLs. ... http://www.sacarny.com/blog/2006/01/08/facebook-friends-as-rss/ I read a pretty awful column in the Columbia Spectator the other day, so I decided to write a response. Lo' and behold, they printed it without any cuts! To the Editor: While I am open to arguments against Jeffrey Sachs’ plans to save the world, I would not trust Chris Kulawik ... http://www.sacarny.com/blog/2005/10/24/my-letter-to-the-editor/