Several recent tweets(xeets) about tech talent re-ignited the conversation about native-born STEM workers and American policy. For the Very Online, Christmas 2024 was about the H-1B Elon tweets. Elon Musk implies that “elite” engineering talent cannot be found among Americans. Do Americans need to import talent? What would it take to home grow elite engineering […]
Here is Daron Acemoglu’s Project Syndicate piece, mostly critical on high-skilled immigration. Here is the first argument from Acemoglu: …one would expect corporate America’s growing need for skilled STEM workers to translate into advocacy for, and investments in, STEM education. But an overreliance on the H-1B program may have broken this link and made American […]
Weanalyze trends in labor-market returns to psychological traits using data from half a million Finnish men from 2001 to 2015. Cognitive skills’ value declined, while noncognitive skills’ value increased. Our novel findings show that extraversion drives this rise, while conscientiousness remains stable. Extraversion’s rising returns are most pronounced for lower earners and those on the […]
Tweet… is from page 496 of the 2011 revised and enlarged edition of Thomas Sowell’s 2009 book Intellectuals and Society (original emphasis): Another common tactic and flaw in the arguments of the intelligentsia is eternalizing the transient. Thus statistical trends in the share of the nation’s income going to “the rich” (however defined) and “the…
The number one post this year was Tyler’s The changes in vibes — why did they happen? A prescient post and worth a re-read. Lots of quotable content that has become conventional wisdom after the election: The ongoing feminization of society has driven more and more men, including black and Latino men, into the Republican […]
What does the existing research evidence say about how to reduce crime? Jennifer Doleac offers and over overview in “Why Crime Matters, and What to Do About It.” It appear as an essay in a book published by the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, Strengthening America’s Economic Dynamism, edited by Melissa Kearney and Luke Pardue. You…
See $500,000 Pay, Predictable Hours: How Dermatology Became the ‘It’ Job in Medicine: Americans’ newfound obsession with skin care has medical students flocking to this specialty by Te-Ping Chen of The WSJ. Excerpts:”Four-day workweeks, double the salary of some colleagues and no emails at night. If those perks sound like they belong to a few vaunted…
There is a widespread belief that the US labor market has been undergoing a period of unprecedented chance in the last decade or two. On one hand, David Deming, Christopher Ong, and Lawrence H. Summers case doubt on this historical claim in their essay, ” Technological Disruption in the US Labor Market”–that is, they argue…
Deming, Ong and Summers have a good overview of long-run and very recent changes in the US labor market. Using a measure of occupational titles the authors find: The years spanning 1990-2017 were the most stable period in the history of the US labor market, going back nearly 150 years. It’s a bit too early […]
Criminals turn college campuses into recruitment hubs, recruiting chemistry students in Mexico with big paydays.By Natalie Kitroeff and Paulina Villegas of The NY Times. Excerpts:”In their quest to build fentanyl empires, Mexican criminal groups are turning to an unusual talent pool: not hit men or corrupt police officers, but chemistry students studying at Mexican universities.People…
What follows are Scope of Practice requirements for Enrolled and Registered Nurses from 25 January 2025. There are some small differences in requirements but the points I am highlighting are the same and what follows is for Enrolled Nurses. Scope of Practice Enrolled Nurses Enrolled nurses in Aotearoa New Zealand reflect knowledge, concepts and worldviews of both tangata whenua and tangata […]
That is the theme of a new Substack by Pieter Garicano, here is one excerpt: These answers, according to a recent paper by Olivier Coste and Yann Coatanlem, two French investors, miss the point: the reason more capital doesn’t flow towards high-leverage ideas in Europe is because the price of failure is too high. Coste estimates that, […]
Michael Huemer’s Progressive Myths is the best book on wokeness. One of its many strengths is its focus on basic facts. As the author explains:I have selected beliefs that can be debunked fairly quickly and forcefully. Many other progressive beliefs require long argumentation and subjective judgment calls to assess. About these more difficult issues, I…
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
In Hume’s spirit, I will attempt to serve as an ambassador from my world of economics, and help in “finding topics of conversation fit for the entertainment of rational creatures.”
“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
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