What I'm reading

1. Globalization of labor. Is labor getting a smaller share of income and yet a larger income? Yes says the IMF.

2. Driving alone, in traffic. Putnam redux.

3. The Constant Economist. Rachel Friedberg, economist, takes a busman's holiday.

4. The Obesity Conjecture, by David Friedman, "an academic economist who teaches at a law school and has never taken a course for credit in either field." Excerpt:

Over time, although the hardwired elements of behavior do not change--evolution is slow--the cultural elements do. Instead of demonstrating how wealthy and generous you are by urging your guests to have a second and third helping of dinner, you do it by providing them smaller amounts of particularly tasty, sophisticated, or expensive dishes.