Random links
- The Aging of America, as Opportunity
- The New York Times reviews a book with a more optimistic outlook on population aging, concluding that "Each of the ideas makes theoretical sense, but where is the money, momentum and institutional power to move them off the whiteboard and into practice? Here, the book is largely silent."
- Indian micro-credit crisis puts poor women in a bind
- Vijay Bharati: "It took us so many years to demonstrate that poor women are creditworthy too. But the women who were so regular in repaying for the last 15 years are now waiting for a waiver of their loans. This is damaging our movement." While microcredit was once failed as to the solution to so many problems in recent years repayment fell not by but to 20%. Of course, if governments are willing to bail out the big banks...
- French riot police threaten to strike over alcohol ban
- Call me crazy but I'm going to side with the police on this one: they've "traditionally been allowed 25cl of wine or a small beer with their main meal of the day."
- Deterring terrorism: Is America spending too much on homeland security?
- Per the paper this Economist article links, "[T]o be deemed cost-effective, [the increased expenditures] would have to deter, prevent, foil, or protect against 1,667 otherwise successful Times-Square type attacks per year, or more than four per day."