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The Unstarvable Beast by Kenneth Rogoff. Exit from comment view mode.

The Unstarvable Beast by Kenneth Rogoff

Click to hide this space CAMBRIDGE – As the world watches the United States grapple with its fiscal future, the contours of the battle reflect larger social and philosophical divisions that are likely to play out in various guises around the world in the coming decades. There has been much discussion of how to cut government spending, but too little attention has been devoted to how to make government spending more effective. And yet, without more creative approaches to providing government services, their cost will continue to rise inexorably over time. Any service-intensive industry faces the same challenges. Why does slow productivity growth translate into high costs? The government, of course, is the consummate service-intensive sector. Modern schools look a lot more like those of 50 years ago than do modern manufacturing plants. Indeed, not only has government spending been rising as a share of income; so, too, has spending across many service sectors. What about a Peace Prize for NATO.

Alex Massie has already offered an incisive takedown of the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award this year's peace prize to the European Union, but I can't resist the temptation to offer a few comments myself.

What about a Peace Prize for NATO

First, who exactly gets the award? Do all the citizens of the EU get partial credit? Only full-time employees of the EU Commission? Will I be soon be reading resumes from EU applicants for admission to Harvard, each of them listing "Winner of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize" among their accomplishments? Second, who gets to accept the award and make the usual platitudinous speech? Third, this year's award is essentially aspirational, in the same way that the Committee's decision to award the 2009 prize to President Obama was really a hope for the future rather than a reward for past accomplishment. Lastly, the main justificaiton for the award is the EU's contribution to building peace in Europe, a continent that had been torn by war for centuries. Why Do They Hate Us? - By Mona Eltahawy. In "Distant View of a Minaret," the late and much-neglected Egyptian writer Alifa Rifaat begins her short story with a woman so unmoved by sex with her husband that as he focuses solely on his pleasure, she notices a spider web she must sweep off the ceiling and has time to ruminate on her husband's repeated refusal to prolong intercourse until she too climaxes, "as though purposely to deprive her.

Why Do They Hate Us? - By Mona Eltahawy

" Just as her husband denies her an orgasm, the call to prayer interrupts his, and the man leaves. After washing up, she loses herself in prayer -- so much more satisfying that she can't wait until the next prayer -- and looks out onto the street from her balcony. She interrupts her reverie to make coffee dutifully for her husband to drink after his nap. Taking it to their bedroom to pour it in front of him as he prefers, she notices he is dead. She instructs their son to go and get a doctor. Yes: They hate us. But let's put aside what the United States does or doesn't do to women. Reuters. Are the "commons" a metaphor of our times?

By Jesús Antón, OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate, and Jeff Dayton-Johnson, Monterey Institute of International Studies The late Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote that "Perhaps universal history is the story of a handful of metaphors".

Are the "commons" a metaphor of our times?

By that standard, Elinor Ostrom's contribution has been huge, for over the years she has been responsible for a new and powerful metaphor–that of the local commons and their economic governance–which underpins so much global public policy debates. Markets and state-managed institutions are not always well suited to managing common-pool resources, such as water catchments, river fisheries or nearby pasture lands. Resources have to be managed sustainably over time, and market prices and government rules might not be able to deliver the most effective solutions. Elinor Ostrom’s research shows that local governance of such resources can work.

Elinor Ostrom’s work focuses on what is termed “common-pool resources”. See www.oecd.org/fisheries.