Economic Activity During the Government Shutdown

CEA has this interesting report.

China's Coming Economic Slowdown

From WSJ.

Under Hitler, the Flying Hamburger train covered the distance between Berlin and Hamburg in 138 minutes; in postwar democratic Germany, it took the railroad 66 years to match that record. The reasons are simple. The Nazis didn't have to worry about local resistance and environmental-impact statements. A German-designed maglev train now whizzes back and forth between Shanghai and the city's Pudong International Airport; at home, it was derailed by a cantankerous democracy rallying against the noise and the subsidies.

...

History does not bode well for authoritarian modernization, whether in the form of "controlled," "guided" or plain state capitalism. Either the system freezes up and then turns upon itself, devouring the seeds of spectacular growth and finally producing stagnation. (This is the Japanese "model" that began to falter 20 years before the de facto monopoly of the LDP was broken.) Or the country follows the Western route, whereby growth first spawned wealth, then a middle class, then democratization cum welfare state and slowing growth. This is the road traveled by Taiwan and South Korea—the oriental version of Westernization.

The irony is that both despotism and democracy, though for very different reasons, are incompatible with dazzling growth over the long haul. So far, China has been able to steer past either shoal. It has had rising riches without slowdown or revolt—a political miracle without precedent. The strategy is to unleash markets and to fetter politics: "make money, not trouble."

Can China continue on this path? History's verdict is not encouraging.

Starbucks Charges Higher Prices in China

From WSJ.

China Seeks Clearer View of Government Debt Mountain

From WSJ.

The Nobels for Asset Pricing

From WSJ.

Nobels and National Greatness

From WSJ.

Mankiw Explains Why He Is A Republican

From NYT.

"...the tendency of people to interpret evidence in a way that is consistent with their previous beliefs. No one can escape his or her own history."

The Road to a New Medical Order

From John Mauldin.

The Budget Reform Pivot

From WSJ.

You Have a Great Idea. Now What Do You Do?

From WSJ.

How to Tell if You Would Be a Bad Entrepreneur

From WSJ.

• Why Entrepreneurs Can't Shut Up
• If You Can't Collaborate, Forget Entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurs Can't Sit Still
• Entrepreneurship Isn't a Profession. It's an Obsession.
• Hate Changing Plans? Don't Be an Entrepreneur.
• What It's Really Like to Be Your Own Boss
• An Entrepreneur Who Hates Risk Isn't an Entrepreneur
• The Kiss of Death for Entrepreneurs: Passivity

Wall Street Is Losing the Best and Brightest

From WSJ.

Not long ago, Wall Street attracted many of the smartest people in America—brilliant economists and mathematicians, but also the nation's most promising college graduates. Not anymore. Five years after the financial crisis, evidence suggests that students have lost their enthusiasm for beginning careers in finance.

I think this is a natural development toward a right direction.