Michael Ewens

Rewards for creating the innovation are offered in two ways, in the patent method the first person to produce the optimal solution gets the entire reward.  In the market system each participant is initially given an equal number of shares in each item.  The item-shares trade on a market. After the markets close a $1 dividend is paid to each item-share if the item is in the optimal solution, other shares expire worthless.  Thus, the price of the item-shares can be thought of as the probability that the item is in the optimal solution.  (i.e. is palladium in the optimal solution to the energy problem?  If so, it will have a high price.)  Dividends are set such that the total reward is about the same in the two treatments.  Proposed solutions were also collected in the market setting although the solutions per se were not the basis of any reward.

Marginal Revolution: Patents versus Markets.

People need to save more

Part of the problem is, of course, cheap credit. The ready availability of state support, whether through state schools, bond issues, or student loan programs has made it easier for tuition costs to rise rapidly over the last twenty years, as cost ascend merrily to match governmental credit-fuelled munificence. – Paul Kerdosky

People are Driving Less

Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street : The copula was really hot in econometrics.  I suspect that the academics that study it never thought the concept would be used in such a way that ignored any standard errors around its predictions.

Personal savings as a % of disposable income rises.  Note that with the recent increase in income, this shows an absolute increase in savings.

California Was a Housing Outlier

Investment in lodging finally starts to fall

US Imports Continue Their Fall

Patterns of changes in GDP components across recessions