Asymmetric information creates a moral hazard problem if one party in a transaction cannot observe the (possibly bad) behaviour of the other party. It was moral hazard that caused the […]
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Unsurprisingly perhaps there have been more than a few eyebrows raised in British political circles at the decision by an apparently cash strapped UK Government to loan the even more […]
While there is little doubt that regulatory failure played an important role in the recent economic crisis, the solution should not be to walk away and leave systemic risk in place.
In a seemingly dramatic change of opinion, Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that condoms can be justified for male prostitutes seeking to the stop the spread of H.I.V.
If marriage is no longer obligatory or even—in certain cases—helpful, then what is it for? A new poll from the Pew Research Center charts the changing attitude toward marriage.
Blind patients suffering from a type of eye disease that strikes in childhood will become the second group of people in the world to receive stem cells left over from fertility treatment.
Much of what investment bankers do is socially worthless. The New Yorker’s John Cassidy says banks modern iteration is far removed from its historical role of funding business.
High food prices might be considered a good thing from the standpoint of overall global economic efficiency, says Richard Posner on the current increase in global food prices.
Nowhere did the imaginations of capitalist utopians run so rampant, and nowhere did they receive a more stinging rebuke than in Ireland, says Ross Douthat.
Polemic author James Frey has built a controversial writing factory, applying the model of an art studio along the lines of those run by Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons to the book world.
The DREAM Act sends the message that although American immigration law in effect tries to make water run uphill, we are not monsters, says the Democracy in America blog.
Money can’t buy you happiness—or social skills, apparently. A new psychology study finds those who are poor are better at empathy than the wealthy.
Football, the king of American sports, is under fire for its violent tendencies. This is nothing new, says sports historian Chris Klein who favors rule changes to clean up the game.
After reading Josephine: The Hungry Heart yesterday, all I could do was shake my head. The five hundred page biography by Jean-Claude Baker and Chris Chase brought Josephine Baker to […]
China moves to Russia and India takes over Canada. The Swiss get Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi India. And the U.S.? It stays where it is.
We’ve been covering bike-sharing programs quitea bit over the past few months. And now Mexico City is stepping in with what could easily be the most impactful bike-sharing program of […]
Colonel Russell Williams is one of those double-life people—an able military commander who was also a rapist and murderer. The crimes for which he was sentenced last month were shockingly […]
“If a week is a long time in politics”, as Harold Wilson once said, two weeks away from politics on paternity leave is clearly an age. The Leader of Britain’s […]
Non-denominational spirituality plays an important role in the day-to-day functioning of post-apartheid South Africa, says a former director of its Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, N.A.T.O.’s purpose dissolved. Still, America’s embrace of “collective security” has since become a rationale for subsuming Europe’s military autonomy.
Will Facebook’s up and coming messaging medium prove an important advancement in communication technology or just another step toward communication overload?
How will the Giving Pledge, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s quest to get billionaires to donate half their wealth to charity, impact philanthropy and the world’s needy?
A sculpture nestled in the courtyard of C.I.A. headquarters contains four secret codes. To date, three have been uncovered, but the fourth remains a mystery.
An inventor believes he has solved the riddle of how to get humans exploring serious ocean depths previously too dangerous to investigate—by getting us to breathe liquid like fish.
Federal land conservation efforts are a failure and large swaths of the nation’s property should be turned over to the states, say Holly Fretwell and Shawn Regan at Forbes.
Wi-Fi may be killing trees. A study by a Dutch university suggests that Wi-Fi radiation causes strange abnormalities in trees and stunts the growth of other plants, such as corn.
Expertise might come with a dark side as all those learned patterns make it harder for us to integrate wholly new knowledge. Jonah Lehrer on why expertise is inflexible to new ideas.
When economists advise the government, their vision may be clouded by their own financial interests, say two University of Massachusetts professors.
Is history repeating itself? Professor of English Alan Jacobs draws parallels between the moral development of 18th century England and our own post-modern times.