Give Directly

Via Alex Tabarrok:

GiveDirectly takes donations over the web, locates poor households in Kenya using people on the ground, and then transfers money directly to the recipient’s cell phone (even very poor households typically have cell phones but GiveDirectly provides SIM cards for those who do not.) Transactions costs are low, just 10%.

I don't think this is necessarily the best kind of generosity; I'm not sure how high I'd rank it on my list of top ways to be charitable. But my initial thought is that there's something empowering about bypassing all the political corruption which makes third world poverty so tricky in the first place. Thank God for cell phones, right?

Tyler Cowen's principles of charitable giving, which Tabarrok summarizes in the link above, are worth mentioning:

1. Cash is often the best form of aid.

2. Give to those who are not expecting it, and,

3. Don’t require the recipients to do anything costly to get the money.

The first point is surely the insight of an economist. Points two and three, however, are surely the principles of grace, are they not?

Media takes Ron Paul seriously: world ends, etc.

When The New Republic has an article viewing Ron Paul in a positive light, you know politics as we know it is forever changed. Well, maybe not forever. But at least we get an interesting conversation out of it. Here's the scoop:

Representative Ron Paul has hit upon a remarkably creative way to deal with the impasse over the debt ceiling: have the Federal Reserve Board destroy the $1.6 trillion in government bonds it now holds. While at first blush this idea may seem crazy, on more careful thought it is actually a very reasonable way to deal with the crisis. Furthermore, it provides a way to have lasting savings to the budget.

Tyler Cowen has an analysis here. Unfortunately, I'm not an expert in economics, and I can't readily make a sophisticated assessment. I just find the politics pretty fascinating.

OK, so I just have to post another one...

This guy is great.

This would be a great video for discussion among Christian intellectuals. Can stories be dangerous? Should we be suspicious of stories? Are we comfortable with being "agnostic"? Are we OK with messes? All these questions seems to get right at the heart of the relationship between faith and reason.

It's good to pay attention to economists.

Tyler Cowen's TEDx talk

I found this really fascinating. Also, I confess I enjoyed the end. "We need a greater reverence for science." I just wish I knew a way to actually make that happen.

Hypocrisy? No... Us?

Tyler Cowen comments on the hypocrisy of academics engaging in discussions about unemployment:

I am struck by the difference between how some economists talk about “the job market,” and how they talk about the job market in academia, which of course is the job market they know the most about.

When it comes to the job market in academia, most economists have few hesitations about blaming many of the jobless for their fate and applying extreme meritocratic views. “He spent seven years finishing.” “Her specification was not robust.” “He self-destructed in the interview.” Or, believe it or not, “We don’t even look at people from that school.”

(And as Robin Hanson noted, there is little talk of redistributing grades, Ph.d.s, enforcing mandatory co-authorship for job market papers, or redistributing other measures of academic accomplishment.)

(Read the rest here.)

I also found this video interesting (which Cowen alluded to in the above):


I think something helpful to point out is that, contrary to popular belief, socialist sentiment in the academy really is far from egalitarian. Of course not all people are equal; of course not everyone is cut out to be an academic. The kind of society envisioned by many an academic is not one in which the playing field is made equal, but rather one in which the playing field is umpired by us, the smart people, who understand all the social factors that determine inequality and contribute to injustice.

The right cure for this kind of attitude is summed up in a quote (perhaps my favorite quote) from F. A. Hayek: "All political theories assume, of course, that most individuals are very ignorant. Those who plead for liberty differ from the rest in that they include among the ignorant themselves as well as the wistest." (Constitution of Liberty, Chapter 2)