The Daily Dozen

1. How the world really works. Some insightful commentary on Obama's push for electronic medical records. "As for this being part of the stimulus plan, what a joke. The main thing that will be stimulated are the bank accounts of the people who make the products that help computerize the records." Indeed. Read this related article in the Washington Post. Also, some related webcasts from the Federal Trade Commission where they point out how the road to electronic records may not be as rosy, as easy, or as beneficial as many people want you to think.
   
2. Illegal immigration as a job market predictor.
   
3. How to set e-book prices?
4. When it comes to understanding economics, common sense is often wrong. That's part of what makes studying economics so much fun. Any why discussing it with non-economists can be so challenging.
   
5. What allows people to work, and love, as they grow old? Seven things: Employing mature adaptations, education, stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, and healthy weight. Follow the link and read the paper. I was surprised not to see religion on this list, but upon reflection realize it implicity is. Those with high rates of church attendance are more likely to have stable marriages, not smoke, not abuse alcohol, etc. More thoughts on this paper here and here.
   
6. Will BigLaw slash hiring by 90 percent?
7. A very cool optical illusion. (HT Eugene Volokh)
8. Arnold Kling reviews the new book by North, Wallis, and Weingast. I saw these three authors at a book launch at GMU and was impressed. I look forward to reading their book, Violence and Social Orders. It should be good. Now if only they came out with it in a Kindle version...
9. Debt: A Writer's Life?
   
10. Should health benefits be taxed?
    
11. UH-OH: Old age begins at 27.
    
12. Create your own economy? "Tyler Cowen, of Marginal Revolution, is trailing his new book, Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World, on the infographic blog Wehr in the World. From what I can gather, it seems that the focus of this book will be on organising your mind like an internal economy. This begins to sounds like David Allen’s Getting Things Done (’GTD’) system. However, one of the obvious benefits of the Tyler Cowen approach is that Tyler’s almost super-human information gathering and processing speed is obvious from his blogging. So there has to be something in it. I’m looking forward to this book."