A few weeks ago I took a trip from my temporary home of São Paulo to Buenos Aires.  This trip is a study in contrasts and a fascinating study for an economic naturalist.

The Oregon labor situation conti

It is Friday, I haven't posted in a while and there is lots of serious economic realted stuff to discuss.  So, naturally I am going to talk about soccer!!  As a matter of fact I stayed up way too late watching a grainy pirated-feed of the Timbers (did you know they showed the match in the UAE?) so now it is Friday

Wow.

Molly Young has an

I find this little article from Joe Rose on left turns on red very funny.  I remember when I returned to Oregon after a long absence (they still had me in the system and

So

Watching Football in Brasil The New York Times over the weekend published an article by their travel writer Seth Kugel about watching football in Brazil.  Though I wou

There are many motivations for writing a blog.  Part of it is that it is just plain fun and a bit thrilling to expose a bit of yourself to the outside world and yet still retain some anonymity.I started this blog for three reasons: One, just for a fun hobby and to give my joy of writing some kind of outlet

Jack Bog's Blog is something of a Portland institution.  Jack Bogdanski was an early adopter of the blog format and over time, by taking a skeptical view of government, his blog quickly became an unofficial conduit of inside information, shady deals and general malfeasance.  To tha

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with "Planet Money," the This American Life way that NPR has chosen to cover economics issues.  Taking the mannered, long-form story-telling approach to economics issues can be wildly successful: I think the '

Here is a video from an interesting report on ProPublica the not-for-profit investigative journalism outfit that is funded mostly by donations.  This quote by the Editor in Chief is essentially correct, but I would use the

From The Economist:

Funny however that they sp

A couple of notes on prisons:First there is Kitzhaber's suggestion that we cap the growth of prisons, something the Willamette Week sugg

Okay, I have answered a lot of questions about my post on the Portland Economy because I was insufficiently clear.  My apologies.  I wasn't trying to denigrate the work nor do I think the conclusions about education spending are incorrect (though I think you can't really logically connect the dots exce

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of these United States (I enjoy writing that while in Brazil) declared that companies that make and sell products overseas cannot prevent them from being re-sold in the US.  

Molly Young has a nice article in Th

The Oregonian today con

Sad but interesting to see the

Pretty good news on th

I dont really want to get into the debate about gun laws but the causal link has been something of a holy grail for economists.  Look at earlier posts and reactions to get an ides of the complexity of trying to pin down causation.So I'll leave

Ok, here are some images to provoke thought and wonder.First, I bring you my current adopted hometown in 2025 according to McKinsey:

So, let me be the millionth economist to say it - slashing spending arbitrarily in the midst of a struggling recovery when borrowing rates are already incredibly low and on stuff that does nothing, nothing, to address long-term debt issues is just about the stupidest thing the government has done in my lifetime.