- Deep Throat is dead. Stratfor has an essay on the long-term effects of the FBI leaking information on Nixon White House shenanigans to the media. Wretchard has more analysis. The worst part about the whole affair is that the general public didn’t have any clue (nor did Richard Nixon, for that matter) that this was all an internal political game.
- See today’s technology through yesterday’s ads. I particularly like Mr. Nokia’s Mobile Telephonic Communicator. If Queen Victoria uses it, how could it possibly be bad?
- College is ridiculously expensive. The question is, why? The answer is, there are a few reasons.
Reason #1: financial aid shifts the demand curve to the right but keeps the supply curve the same. This results in a greater quantity demanded and higher overall prices. To put it in common sense language, if everybody gets $10,000 in grants (or low-interest loans) from the federal government, what are colleges going to do? Raise tuition $10,000…
Reason #2: signaling. You need a bachelor’s degree to do almost anything nowadays, in part because of how bad public schooling is in the US. This increases the demand well above what it would otherwise be, and increased demand will, with a relatively fixed supply curve, increase prices. In addition, where you go to school does make a difference, not necessarily in terms of education, but in terms of networking and university-based prestige.
- Samuel Huntington passed away yesterday. The original “clash of civilizations” curmudgeon was featured in this Robert Kaplan piece from December of 2001. Mark Steyn, to commemorate Huntington, notes that man’s culture is more determinate than economic circumstances.
