Tag Archive

The Underlying Tragedy

By innovation2

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On Oct. 17, 1989, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Bay Area in Northern California. Sixty-three people were killed. This week, a major earthquake, also measuring a magnitude of 7.0, struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Red Cross estimates that between 45,000 and 50,000 people have died.
This is not a [...]

All the news that’s free to print

By innovation2

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Is charity the newspaper industry’s last, best hope?
“WHAT’S black and white and red all over?” the television interviewer asks Bill Keller, editor-in-chief of the New York Times. Having heard this one before, Mr Keller, without a second thought, replies “A newspaper”—and walks into the sucker punch. “No,” says the interviewer, from “The Daily [...]

The Economics Of Nice Folks

By innovation2

photo credit: shoehorn99
A basic tenet of economics is that people always behave selfishly, or as the 18th century philosopher economist David Hume put it, “every man ought to be supposed to be a knave.”

But what if some people aren’t always knaves?
Sam Bowles argues in Science June 20 that economics will get it wrong then, [...]

Running Out of Planet to Exploit

By innovation2

photo credit: ekai
Nine years ago The Economist ran a big story on oil, which was then selling for $10 a barrel. The magazine warned that this might not last. Instead, it suggested, oil might well fall to $5 a barrel.
Last week, oil hit $117.
It’s not just oil that has defied the complacency of a [...]