Uncle Ben's Express Economy Fix

This is really funny. Check it out!

Markets for Everything, Japanese Edition

Want to dress like a street corner vending machine? Yes, you can do it in Japan. More here from NYT.

Chicago, MIT, George Mason University

[A]t Chicago, they say "Markets work well. Let's use markets."

At MIT, they say "Markets fail. Let's use government."

At GMU, they say "Markets fail. Let's use markets."

More here.

Mrs. Watanabes

Guess who has the ability to move FX market these days?

Mrs. Watanabes from Japan. Read more here.

Best Line I have Read Today

Political scientists are at fault, he said, because they haven’t “got a clue about how to build a democracy.”

More here.

Best Line I Have Read Today

As a colleague of mine once warned: “nobody gets tenure for demonstrating that markets really work.”

Read more here.

The Funniest Line I Have Read Today

Paris Hilton: "One Economics, Many Recipes is a fascinating read. It is the perfect book to keep me in touch with the real world during my stay at the L.A. county jail. I cannot imagine doing without it."

That's from Dani Rodrik, here is the post.

Market for Everything, Chinese Style

"In a stunning illustration of how the market economy has overtaken communism, Party members were able to purchase generic self-criticisms from commercial Web sites capitalizing on the campaign, which in turn necessitated a new rule that required self-criticisms in handwritten form."

This is from p. 48 of Susan Shirk's China: Fragile Superpower.