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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The Browser daily newsletter [23 Oct 2012]

23 October 2012
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 Best of the Moment

President Obama's Executive Power Grab

Andrew Romano & Daniel Klaidman | Newsweek | 22 October 2012

After his initial bipartisan approach failed, President Obama has been expanding his own executive power. "The result is an extraconstitutional arms race of sorts: A new normal that habitually circumvents the legislative process" Comments

Ask A Banker: What's A Derivative?

Anonymous | NPR | 17 October 2012

Imagine a million-dimensional graph where each input is some fact about the world whose future value is uncertain. Everything in the financial world is an attempt to catch a glimpse of that graph (h/t Jacob Goldstein) Comments

Healthcare And Cars Are Not Isomorphic

Yichuan Wang | Synthenomics | 22 October 2012

Why competitive markets don't work in health care. It's almost impossible for consumers to know whether they're getting the optimal quantity and quality of treatment. When they most need it, they're least able to shop around Comments

The Voter-Fraud Myth

Jane Mayer | New Yorker | 22 October 2012

Republican lawyer Hans von Spakovsky promotes strict voter-ID laws. It's like he "gets up in the morning wondering, What can I do today to make it more difficult for people to vote? Even though there is no voter fraud to speak of" Comments

A Snowball Flung On The Uppermost Slopes

David Warsh | Economic Principals | 22 October 2012

This year's economics Nobel has made Al Roth famous, for his matching markets. What of co-laureate Lloyd Shapley? He's an 89-year-old recluse, a peer of John von Neumann, and maybe the greatest mathematical game theorist of all time Comments

Once This Landscape Was A Pristine Wilderness

Mark Duell & Ashley Cooper | Daily Mail | 17 October 2012

Striking photo gallery of Canadian tar sands mining project. "The sheer scale of devastation is almost beyond comprehension. Oily, stained ground stretches for hundreds of miles where there used to be forest." (h/t Peter Timmerman) Comments

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