Coeficiente de Gini, desigualdade, pobreza e ditadura

Iraque

Ninguém comentou o post sobre o Iraque abaixo, mas eu insisto. Leia esta aqui.

Agora, leitor(a), ao invés de continuar discutindo sobre se a guerra foi justa (sic) ou não, novamente: o que fazer no dia seguinte para tornar o país mais democrático?

p.s. incrível a ausência deste tipo de discussão na nossa imprensa, comparada com a dos EUA. Tá, não mandamos soldados para lá, mas não passamos boa parte do tempo falando mal ou bem de Saddam e Bush? Hello!!! Além dos dois, tem um monte de iraquiano no país do ex-ditador...

Autobiografia de um amigo

Meu amigo Fernando Zanella teve o privilégio de colocar a história resumida de sua vida online. E não disse para ninguém! Clique no trecho abaixo para ler toda a saga "zanellica"!

I was born in Volta Redonda, State of Rio de Janeiro, where my father worked as an engineer of one of the most famous Brazilian state companies, i.e., Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN). CSN was founded in 1941 as the first steel producer in Brazil. The U.S. funded it after the then Brazilian President, the dictator Vargas, threatened to join the axis powers instead of allowing American military basis in Brazil. CSN was and it still is considered a watershed in the Brazilian industrialization process, an industrialization with central command. Government, in the words of Vargas, had the duty of organizing the "market anarchy." My father died when I was three years old and my family moved to Porto Alegre.

I always had the passion for economics; I am not sure why. I used to buy books about economics even before going to the university. When I was thirteen years old I used to do my mother’s income tax, my first concrete experience with the "mafia’s" work. Brazil was not yet a democratic country in 1982, the year that I entered a public university to study economics. After years of hampered economy, Brazil had a widespread system of inefficient state owned companies, all kinds of regulation and uncontrolled government debts at all levels of government. CSN was finally privatized in 1993. Its net income jumped from US$ 22 millions to US$ 154 millions in 1994.

Harberger

Quem sabe um pouco da história dos primeiros estudantes de economia em Chicago já ouviu falar de Arnold Harberger. Quem estuda Economia do Setor Público, também.

Bem, meu amigo Sérgio o conhece bem e diz que as aulas são excepcionalmente boas. E, claro, não é só ele. Ele foi homenageado, recentemente, numa universidade chinesa na qual leciona o professor Justin Yi-Fu Lin, um autor com uma quedinha novo-institucionalista.

Com vocês, Harberger:



A legenda original: Arnold Harberger with a soldier at the Mausoleum of First Qin Emperor in Xi'an. (http://www.econ.ucla.edu/gallery/harbergerchina2002/pictures.cfm)

Angry

Angry.

Hernando DeSoto fala do Iraque

Os que não gostam da National Review vão perder a entrevista. Agora, vem cá, quantos fãs do presidente brasileiro deixaram de ler suas entrevistas só porque eram transmitidas pela Globo?

Who Should Own Iraq? - An interview with Hernando de Soto.

Outro futuro também está nos laboratórios

Combatendo o Anthrax....(achei no Instapundit aí ao lado)

Another antibiotic approach pits a virus against anthrax. Rockefeller University microbiologist Vincent Fischetti identified an enzyme from a virus that infects only anthrax-causing and closely related bacteria. In test-tube experiments, the enzyme kills about a hundred million bacteria in two minutes or less. “It drills a hole in the cell wall, and the organisms explode,” Fischetti says. He adds that the treatment should boost the power of existing antibiotics against anthrax, as well as kill resistant strains of the bacteria. His group is currently performing animal experiments to test the enzyme further.

O que isso tem a ver com Economia? Bem, desta vez os reguladores governamentais resolveram relaxar nas exigências (às vezes absurdas) de segurança. Ironicamente, graças a gente da qualidade de Bin Laden...

That’s an optimistic timetable: drug development typically takes 10 years. But Collier may well meet his goal because last year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration moved to speed approval of treatments that improve the nation’s readiness to respond to bioterrorism. Rather than undergoing the usual extensive preclinical animal testing and three-phase human trials to establish drug safety and efficacy, treatments such as Anacor’s, Fischetti’s, and PharmAthene’s will have only to demonstrate effectiveness in two different animal models and safety in one human trial.

Um caso raro de crowd in, he he he.