Saturday, July 28, 2012

Government Productivity

The lottery is a great example of public / private partnership with government productivity increases. What can we do the smae wit hstop and frisk ?

Sunday, July 22, 2012

The WE Upjohn Institue for Employment Research

Dr. William E Upjohn was a medical doctor and founder of the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Dr. Upjohn was concerned about unemployed workers during the depression and used some of his fortune to endow a research institute looking into the problems of the unemployed.

The Upjohn institute focuses on unemployment and the effect on workers.

Upjohn Institute

Mission and History of the Upjohn Institute are here.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Black / White happiness gap measures level of discrimination

Black / White Happiness Gap as a general proxy for discrimination in Society

Small Island Economies

Are there economic models of small island economies that would help with budgeting and resource allocation ?? What types of taxes are best ?? What tax levels ?? What level of government spending is appropriate ?? How efficient should the government workers be ?? How much for education ??

What is the optimum level of tourist taxes ??

Should small island economies resemble Scandinavian countries. Do they offer a model of operation that can be exported and copied ?

Black and Minority Unemployment rates

What is the Black unemployment or minority unemployment rate in other countries ?

Some countries deliberately do not collect statistics on minorities like france. The UK collects some general statistics. Mot sure what Germany and the Scandanavian countries collect.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Only Six Million Acres: the Decline of Black Owned Land in the Rural South

Someone needs to track black owned land in south. Black own farm land is regularly disappearing.

The BERC took the initiative in fundraising for a southern land bank, and secured a grant from the Rockefeller Brothers to do an exploratory study. The crisis motivating the interest in a land bank was the sharp recent decline in Black-owned land in the South from 12 million acres in 1950 to less than 6 million in 1970. The BERC’s study, Only Six Million Acres: the Decline of Black Owned Land in the Rural South published in 1973

Are Blacks overly materialistic ?

What it says.

Do we equate goods with happiness.