The Economist on "the other worldly philosophers" and "What went wrong with Economics"

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14030288

http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14031376

The Economist with Greg Davies on behavioural finance

http://audiovideo.economist.com/?fr_story=e71885c25fada37622b1dd9e9f7600208e4ccc25

The greats

Adam Smith- The Wealth of Nations- http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3300/3300-h/3300-h.htm

J.M Keynes- The Consequences of Peace- http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15776/15776-8.txt

Karl Marx- The Communist Manifesto- http://www.gutenberg.org/files/61/61.txt

Malthus- Principles of Population- http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4239/4239-h/4239-h.htm- The Nature and Progress of Wealth- http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4336/4336-h/4336-h.htm

The Works of Thorstein Veblen

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/833/833-h/833-h.htm --The Theory of The Leisure Class

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20694/20694-h/20694-h.htm -- An Enquiry into the Nature of Peace

And why Spurs keep playing Pavluchenko....

Sunk Costs in the NBA:
Why Draft Order
Affects Playing Time
and Survival in
Professional Basketball
Barry M. Staw
Ha Hoang
University of California,
Berkeley (Sept 1995)

Interesting- 'good money after bad' theory-- Tegar(1980) Brokner and Rubin (1985)

Saving for a rainy day?

A lovely post taken from the Undercover Economist http://blogs.ft.com/undercover/

Not very long ago, Americans were terrible savers. In 2007, the average person put aside 60 cents of every $100, or .6% per paycheck. However, the current economic downturn has shocked us into depositing more at the bank. As of February, the personal savings rate was more than 4%. That’s a big improvement, but it’s still half of 1980s levels, when Americans routinely socked away 10% of their paychecks. Why is saving so hard? And how can we be smarter savers?
Behavioral economists—researchers who mix psychology and economics—have uncovered three reasons why people find it so difficult to save. The first is temptation: Although we often later regret it, we just can’t resist spending. The second is lack of understanding: Our brains can’t quite grasp the profitability of saving. The third is optimism: We believe that everything will work out, even if we don’t save…

American long term growth

Interesting article from the Economist, concerning the future impact of the financial crisis on america.

http://www.economist.com/finance/economicsfocus/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13648998