Articles by the Undercover Economist

   Some interesting "everyday economics" articles and blog entries by
   the author of "The Undercover Economist", Tim Harford.

   1. "Starbucks Economics"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2133754>
   "Here's a little secret that Starbucks doesn't want you to know: They
    will serve you a better, stronger cappuccino if you want one, and they
    will charge you less for it. Ask for it in any Starbucks and the
    barista will comply without batting an eye. The puzzle is to work out
    why."

   2. "Beauty and the Geek"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2160481/>
   "Economists have found evidence that voters prefer a pretty face in the
    United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, Germany, and the United States."

   3. "Desperate for a Wii"
     <http://blogs.ft.com/undercover/2007/11/desperate-for-a.html>
   "The economists' question, of course, is why on earth Nintendo doesn't
    raise the price until supply equals demand?"

     "The Great Xbox Shortage of 2005"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2132071/>
   "Why you can't buy the one present you really need."

     "Xbox Economics, Part 2"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2132988/>
   "More reasons Microsoft isn't charging enough for the season's hot
    game console."

   4. "The Renter's Manifesto"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2161834/>
   "Wherever people seem particularly keen to own their own homes - as in
    the United Kingdom, Spain, and some U.S. states - employment suffers
    as a result... Renting your home and staying flexible do wonders for
    your chances of always finding an interesting job to do."

   5. "Why the Stock Market Rises in January - and why it shouldn't"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2156844/>
   "The January effect is a challenge to the efficient markets hypothesis.
    A reasonably bold version of that hypothesis is that you can't beat the
    market without inside information. All publicly available information -
    including corporate accounts, price history, and what month of the year
    it is - is already taken into account in the market price. A rule that
    says 'buy on Dec. 31 and sell on Jan. 31' just shouldn't yield
    spectacular returns. Yet it has."

   6. "The Conjurer's Dilemma - how magicians protect their tricks"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2175616/>
   "Intellectual property law does not protect magical tricks very well,
    and it does not help much in high fashion or in haute cuisine, either
    - all areas that Loshin describes as a 'negative space' for intellect-
    ual property ... For the fashion industry, a lack of intellectual
    property protection may not be a problem: The trickle-down of high-end
    fashion helps create obsolescence and the demand for more high-end
    fashion. But chefs and conjurers need a little help protecting their
    ideas. Lacking legal protection, they resort to professional norms."

   7. "Match-fixing"
     <http://blogs.ft.com/undercover/2007/11/match-fixing.html>
   "[G]ambling should only be allowed on results that really matter. That
    might help, and although some players have been accused of match-fixing
    in a more dramatic way, such a rule would certainly reduce the
    temptation."

   8. "Price fighters"
     <http://timharford.com/2007/08/price-fighters/>
   "[W]hy do central bankers aim to keep it above zero, rather than trying
    to eradicate it?"

Some Interesting Lists

   Via Bspcn.Com, "The Best Article Every day"

   (Some urls are quite long, so may be broken up by email programs -
    you may need to cut-and-paste them manually in your browser.)

   * "19 Things I Learned From Movies"
     <http://treebeard31.wordpress.com/2007/08/25/things-i-learned-
        from-movies/>

   * "6 Things STAR WARS Teaches Us About Our Money"
     <http://www.alanhaft.com/blog/2007/10/09/what-star-wars-teaches-us-
        about-money/>

   * "5 Awesome Sci-Fi Inventions (That Would Actually Suck)"
     <http://www.cracked.com/article_15655_5-awesome-sci-fi-inventions-
        that-would-actually-suck.html>

   * "9 creative staircases"
     <http://deputy-dog.com/2007/11/05/9-creative-staircases/>

   * "Eight of the World's Most Unusual Plants"
     <http://divinecaroline.com/article/22167/37205>

   * "14 of the Worlds Strangest Alarm Clocks for Those Early Morning Risers"
     <http://topsecretblogger.com/14-of-the-worlds-strangest-alarm-clocks-
        for-those-early-morning-risers/>

   * "13 Billboards (I laughed, I cried, I posted.)"
     <http://onemansblog.com/2007/09/13/13-billboards-i-laughed-i-cried-
        i-posted/>

   * "Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future"
     <http://www.2spare.com/item_50221.aspx>

Odds and Ends, Sun 11 November 2007

   1. "How to Win at Monopoly® - a Surefire Strategy"
     <http://www.amnesta.net/other/monopoly/>
   "Monopoly is a game of luck, strategy, and people skills. No strategy
    will guarantee you a win; that's one of the reasons Monopoly is so
    interesting. In any given game, a newcomer can beat a lifetime
    champion. Still, there are a few strategic tips that came out of the
    computer simulations that will help you best play the odds."

     "St Albans is new Mayfair in Monopoly"
     <http://www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,,2176446,00.html>
   "Two historic market towns and a village have ambushed Britain's
    biggest cities by pushing them into lowly positions on a new version
    of the Monopoly board."

     "Monopoly swaps cash for cards"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1695966.htm>
   "Property board game Monopoly is swapping its iconic bank notes for
    debit cards and replacing the dog and iron playing counters with a
    burger and a mobile phone in a bid to catch up with the times"

   2. "Supermodel 'rejects dollar pay'"
     <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7078612.stm>
   "The world's richest model has reportedly reacted in her own way to
    the sliding value of the US dollar - by refusing to be paid in the
    currency."

   3. "The Subjectivity of Wine"
     <http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/11/the_subjectivity_of_wine.php>
   "What these experiments neatly demonstrate is that the taste of a wine,
    like the taste of everything, is not merely the sum of our inputs...
    In other words, we shouldn't be surprised that different people like
    different bottles of cheap wine."

   4. "The Handbag: Finding the right one can be as complicated as keeping
       track of what's inside"
     <http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article10170701.aspx>
   "The very idea of my needing a handbag is puzzling. How is it that men,
    of whom I am the equal in all other respects, seem to be well served
    by their back pockets or (if they're European) sleek little manpurses?
    Why can't I manage as well? All I have to carry is lipstick, eyeliner,
    pressed powder, reading glasses, sunglasses, small perfume spray,
    sunscreen, Kleenex, small brush, tic tacs, ..."

   5. "German steeple takes Pisa's leaning tower title"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/08/2085698.htm>
   "Although its tilt angle is greater than Pisa's tower, it is less than
    half its height and has none of its ornate beauty."

     "Photo in the News: Leaning Church Topples Pisa's Record"
     <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071107-leaning-picture.html>
   Which would you pay money to see up close?

   6. "Eiffel Tower staircase up for sale"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/02/2079518.htm>
   "Part of the Eiffel Tower's stairway is to be sold at auction later this
    month."

   7. "Jedi Academy in New York"
     <http://www.neatorama.com/2007/11/03/jedi-academy-in-new-york/>
     <http://www.nyjedi.com/>

Il Disprezzo + Sostiene Pereira

   A couple of book reviews ...

   1. "Il Disprezzo" ("Contempt") by Alberto Moravia
     <http://www.amazon.com/Contempt/dp/1590171225>

   This is the story from the point of view of a man, Riccardo Molteni.  He
   is shocked when his wife (Emilia), after two years of marriage, declares
   that she doesn't love him anymore.  In fact, she says she despises him.
   And she won't tell him why.  Riccardo is obsessed with trying to work
   out why Emilia despises him.

   The book is set in the 1950s, a time when Italy was experiencing an
   economic boom.  Riccardo wanted to write plays, but he sacrificed this
   to work as a script-writer for a big movie producer, Battista.  He wants
   to buy a nice, fully-furnished house for himself and his wife.  It's
   clear how much of a creative sacrifice this is for Riccardo, when he
   describes how the role of the script-writer is always subordinate to the
   role of the director.

   Riccardo is offered the opportunity to write the screenplay for a film
   version of Homer's "Odyssey".  The producer is convinced that Italians
   have had enough of neorealism, and wants the film to be in the style of
   Hollywood Biblical epics.  Rheingold, the old German director, wants to
   take a completely different approach.  He believes that Ulysses (the
   main character in the Odyssey) was in no hurry to get back to his wife,
   Penelope, after the Trojan War.  In fact, all the obstacles that Ulysses
   encountered in his ten year journey had their origins in his sub-
   conscious desire to avoid returning to his wife.  Riccardo feels trapped
   (like Ulysses caught between Scylla, a sea monster, and Charybdis,
   a whirlpool?).  He wants the film to be more faithful to the classical
   interpretation of Homer's poem.  But he does see some interesting
   parallels between Rheingold's view of the marriage between Ulysses and
   Penelope, and his own marriage.

   Riccardo, Emilia and Rheingold are invited to the producer's house on
   Capri to work on the script.  Riccardo hopes that the stay on Capri will
   help him and his wife resolve their problems.

   When I started reading the book, I initially felt some sympathy for
   Riccardo.  But he is the narrator after all, and may not be the most
   reliable witness to events.  His egotism seems to prevent him from
   seeing the consequences of his actions.  At times I almost felt to
   urge to say "wake up" to Riccardo.

   While the subject matter may appear a bit depressing on the surface, the
   book is a very interesting read.  The author, Alberto Moravia, has a
   knack for writing in great detail about the inner workings of the human
   mind.  Recently I reviewed "The Conformist" by the same author, which
   was another forensic psychological investigation of a member of the
   middle (or, dare I say, the aspirational?) class.


   2. "Sostiene Pereira: una testimonianza" ("Pereira Declares: a
       testimony") by Antonio Tabucchi
     <http://www.amazon.com/Pereira-Declares/dp/0811213587>

   This novel is set in Portugal in 1938.  Like some of its more notorious
   European neighbours, the country has been ruled by a right-wing dictator-
   ship for a while.

   Pereira lives in Lisbon and is editor of the culture page for a weekly
   paper called the "Lisboa".  He's middle-aged, is overweight and suffers
   from a heart condition.  His wife has died recently, and he is still
   grieving.

   The paper's director is away on holidays, and Pereira decides to hire an
   assistant, Monteiro Rossi, to help prepare obituaries for the paper.  But
   Pereira deems that Monteiro Rossi's pieces are not publishable in the
   current political climate, and so he files them away in a folder, though
   he knows he should bin them.  He persists with Monteiro Rossi, paying him
   out of his own pocket in the hope that eventually he will write something
   useful.  Perhaps he admires the young man's idealism, or sees him as the
   son he never had.

   It becomes clear that Monteiro Rossi is living dangerously.  He and his
   girlfriend seem to be actively recruiting volunteers to fight against
   Franco's regime in Spain.

   Meanwhile Pereira is concerned that his fondness for fried food and
   sugary lemon drinks is affecting his health.  He spends some time at a
   clinic by the sea.  The clinic's doctor suggests there is a link between
   the state of a person's mind and body.  He also has a radical view of a
   person's soul: according to some French philosophers, within a person
   there is not one soul but in fact a confederation of souls, each vying
   for supremacy.  At any time their may be a ruling ego which dominates.
   Pereira seems to have accepted a less controversial variation of this
   idea (the existence of multiple personalities within a single soul) even
   though it is at odds with his traditional Catholic upbringing.

   When Pereira returns to Lisbon, events proceed to their inevitable
   conclusion.  Monteiro Rossi is caught by the Secret Police, and is
   beaten up and murdered.  But this is not Monteiro Rossi's story, so
   it is Pereira's response that matters.

   It was interesting to find out a bit about Portugal's political history.
   I wasn't aware that Portugal had been ruled by a right-wing regime for
   almost fifty years from the 1920s.  It's also interesting to compare
   Pereira's actions in this novel with those of the main protagonist in
   Moravia's "The Conformist".  Both novels are set around the same time,
   and both of the central characters are living under right-wing dictator-
   ships.

   Like some reviewers on Amazon, I found the often-repeated phrase
   "Pereira declares" a bit tiresome.  But it's a short book, and well
   worth the read.