Archives for July 2008

Demography III – Faces of the Future

This in about Demographics, and tagged , , , , , was written by on July 21, 2008 . 18 Comments

I developed a model on Russia’s future demographic development in Matlab. First, I will describe (non-mathematically) the essentials of how it works; then I will present a range of different possible scenarios. Our data is sourced from Rosstat and the Human Mortality Database. Demography is a social science, and as such it is impossible to […]

News 21 July: Expansion amidst Turbulence

This in about Politics, and tagged , , , , was written by on July 21, 2008 . 2 Comments

Let’s start with two excellent new resources I’ve recently come across. Russia: Other Points of View states its objectives thus: We believe there is need in the public forum for a venue which offers opinions and facts that at times may differ from the prevailing view in western media. Hmm… Sounds quite similar to Da […]

Education as the Elixir of Growth II

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , , was written by on July 18, 2008 . 1 Comment

A while ago I wrote Education as the Elixir of Growth on DR, in which I noted that in most countries the educational profile is closely correlated to their level of productivity. The major exceptions are nations with resource windfalls (inflated productivity) and socialist legacies (deflated productivity). Furthermore, the greater the gap between the ‘potential […]

Why Obama Will Almost Certainly Win

This in about Politics, and tagged , , , , was written by on July 17, 2008 . Leave a Comment

Read these two posts by Krugman at Conscience of a Liberal, here and here. 1. A looming recession, after seven years of stagnation in the US median wage, means that the likelihood of positive income growth this year is very small. Even assuming it’s 0% would mean that the incumbent party’s nominee, McCain, can be […]

Victimized Venezuela

This in about Politics, and tagged , , was written by on July 17, 2008 . 4 Comments

Chavez is frequently shafted in the Western media, who allege that the only reason the Venezuelan economy is doing well is because of record oil prices. This is not to mention all the invective hurled against the Chavez administration for its supposed disrespect for democracy, from refusing to renew the licenses of TV stations support […]