By Christopher Brennan 10/15/12 1:24pm

it's a match!

Alvin Roth

Nobel Committee Wants Everyone to Get Along

A pair of American scholars who dedicated their careers to bringing people together were rewarded with a Nobel prize for economics, the Nobel committee said this morning. Alvin Roth, who teaches at Harvard and Stanford, and Lloyd Shapley, a professor emeritus at UCLA, were notified this morning that they had won the prize.

Mr. Roth and Mr. Shapley worked independently on cooperative game theory, tackling such subjects as why a price mechanism that helps match buyers and sellers for scarce resources such as diamonds doesn’t serve areas such as organ transplants, school admissions or dating services. In the 1960s Mr. Shapley, now 89, pioneered a process for creating “stable matches” by creating a speed-dating system in which the two sexes took turns selecting potential partners. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 9/20/12 1:24pm

Cash Money

Harper's Magazine October

Harper’s Hires an ‘Anti-Economist’

Harper’s basically hasn’t changed since 1984. But next month’s issue of the highbrow magazine will feature a shake up that Harper’s readers may notice. For the first time in the magazine’s 165 years, there will be a business commentary column.

Jeff Madrick, who has written about business and economics for a variety of publications including a five-year stint as a columnist at The New York Times, will debut “The Anti-Economist” column in the October issue of the magazine.

“These days, reporting on and demystifying economic news is one of the most important responsibilities journalists have to their readers,” said Harper’s editor Ellen Rosenbush, in a statement. “Jeff’s sharp eye and informed voice will make his column the perfect companion to Thomas Frank’s Easy Chair at the front of the magazine.” Read More

By Foster Kamer 4/10/12 1:30pm

RADVERTISING

133555005

The Buffett Rule: A Slice of Advertising and Marketing Genius

President Barack Obama is set to roll out his backing of The Buffett Rule, which will be at the center of his campaign, reports the Financial Times. The Buffett Rule is being pitched as a “simple principle” of American tax codes inspired by Warren Buffet’s now-famous claim that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than himself because of the voodoo implicit in capital gains tax rates and the like that benefit the country’s top earners. It is brilliant, if only for already being one of the most well-branded pieces of politics in the history of legislation. Think about this less as a political play, or a piece of propaganda, and more one of brilliant advertising work.

Consider: Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/17/12 7:17pm

Cloudbusters

Twin peaks. (Jason Barr)

Uncanny Valley: The Real Reason There Are No Skyscrapers in the Middle of Manhattan

Among the reasons New York has the finest skyline in the world—consider that a statement of fact, not opinion—is not simply the skyscrapers bounding up the island of Manhattan but also their unusual arrangement. Like a great mountain range, the city is arrayed around the twin peaks of Downtown and Midtown.

Perhaps the appeal is Freudian.

It has long been believed that New Yorkers could thank God for their unusual agglomeration of buildings (or, for those on the Upper West Side not believing in His good work, eons of geological development). It turns out that Manhattan has a bedrock unusually suited to the construction of very tall buildings, in many cases just a few meters below the surface. But that solid land drops away in the gooey middle of the island, long limiting the heights of buildings in the city.

Or so the aphocraphists have been passing down for decades, at least since noted geologist Christopher J. Schuberth released his seminal The Geology of New York City and Environs in 1968. Therein, he posited his belief in a correlation between bedrock and big buildings, and like the Empire State Building, it has stood the test of time. But like a bad retaining wall, it all came tumbling down last month. Read More

By Foster Kamer 8/29/11 3:57pm

JOB CREATION?

Alan B. Kreuger

Who is Alan Krueger, Obama’s Newest Economic Advisor Pick?

New hires involving mere mortals handling the nation’s money problems emerged today; the one you didn’t hear of was Kathleen Weiss Hanley, who was named to the deputy post over at the SEC’s moderately shiny RiskFin division. It is both less important and shiny than that other announcement, wherein President Obama named Alan Krueger as his pick to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisors. Who is he, and what will he do? Read More