The russian sanctions are working

 One of my favourites Noah Smith at noahopinion ( get it?) writes on yes-sanctions-on-russia-are-working

I went to Tamworth

 I am a cricket umpire and the annual umpires conference was on at Tamworth so I decided to go for the first time. I had a great time.

Observations in no particular order.

1. Trucks go a lot faster then 90k that I was driving at going there.
2. I got there on less than half a tank of petrol.
3. Tamworth's petrol prices are 5cents less than at West Ryde ( which are not the dearest around).
4. I drove much faster going home and without a break. I just wanted to be home.
5. I stopped twice going there because I didn't really care when I got there
6. There is little traffic on the New England highway
7. My hotel di not have the test cricket. It did have motorbike races ( very boring) and golf ( just boring).
8. I got to sleep late on friday night as the couple in the next room was having sex and the woman much have kept everyone up by her moans!

The reckonings of europe

 Gerard Reid writes an interesting article at renew economy on the-six-reckonings-of-europes-energy-crisis-gas-nuclear-war-and-inflation

Abortion in America

 Tim Harford, a highly readable economist and columnist, turns his head to abortion-and-women-in-america-what-the-numbers-tell-us.

Around the Traps 26/8/22

 It is time again for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• Mark Kenny on australian-conservatism-succumbs-to-the-same-radical-tendency-as-like-minded-parties-abroad
• Kate Griffiths et al on pork-barrelling-is-unfair-and-wasteful-heres-a-plan-to-end-it
• Richard Olruntoba et al on conflict-in-the-south-china-sea-threatens-90-of-australias-fuel-imports-study
• David Walker on morrisons-secret-powers-scandal-democracy-is-safe
• Ross Gittins on good-news-why-our-low-unemployment-rate-will-last, housing-own-goal-worsens-our-inflation-problem, welcome-to-job-treasurer-rather-you-than-me
• Lisa Hill on australians-are-tired-of-lies-in-political-advertising-heres-how-it-can-be-fixed
• renew economy on snowy-2-0-hit-by-new-billion-dollar-cost-blowout-claims, even-a-one-year-delay-in-new-transmission-links-will-hurt-homes-and-businesses, coal-plant-outages-and-rebidding-why-electricity-prices-surged-towards-market-cap, solars-growing-daytime-dominance-caps-a-miserable-winter-for-ageing-coal-plants, wind-turbine-blades-can-be-recast-into-candy-and-nappies-says-new-research, hydrogen-in-the-gas-grid-is-a-dumb-idea-very-dumb, a-near-100-per-cent-renewables-grid-is-well-within-reach-and-with-little-storage, terawatts-of-solar-and-a-million-new-jobs-new-report-crunches-net-zero-numbers
• croaking cassandra on orr-defending-the-lsap
• Robin Smit on the-road-to-new-fuel-efficiency-rules-is-filled-with-potholes-heres-how-australia-can-avoid-them
• Kevin Bonham on poll-roundup-albanese-honeymoon-phase
• Greg Jericho on large-firms-are-consolidating-power-like-scott-morrison-consolidates-jobs-and-its-hurting-productivity
• Jim Stanford on if-productivity-was-the-magical-fix-some-claim-we-wouldnt-need-a-jobs-summit
• Pi-Shen Seet and Janice Jones on yes-we-know-there-is-a-skills-shortage-here-are-3-jobs-summit-ideas-to-start-fixing-it-right-away

Northern America

• Mathew Cooper on trump-will-be-indicted Thanks Brad
• Ben Jacobs on liz-cheney-never-trump-republicans, georgia-trump-fani-willis-investigation
• Jim Newell on republicans-senate-chances-getting-dicey
• Tim Harford on abortion-and-women-in-america-what-the-numbers-tell-us
• Nate Silver on can-tim-ryan-really-win-ohios-senate-race
• the bellows on what-is-trumpism-exactly? Thanks Brad
• Jonathan Chait on fbi-raid-isnt-unprecedented-trumps-criminality-is Thanks Brad
• the grumpy economist on wsj-inflation-stability-oped-with-pictures

Europe

• Menzie Chinn on cepr-macroeconomic-policies-for-wartime-ukraine
• Tyler Cowen on post-covid-excess-deaths-in-britain
• Mainly Macro on after-the-virus
• Marcus Colla on six-months-war-ukraine-europe-s-life-fate
• Tom Nicholls on a-murder-in-russia
• Mathew Sussex on russia-is-fighting-three-undeclared-wars-its-fourth-an-internal-struggle-for-russia-itself-might-be-looming

Asia

• Robert Stone on china-losing-ground-sri-lanka
• Manya Koeste on social-media-spectacle-china-s-taiwan-military-exercises
• Menzie Chinn on military-conflict-and-economic-warfare-china-taiwan, taiwan-strait-balance-of-forces
• Kuan Lee on china-semiconductor-industry-leapfrog-us-competition, china-development-faces-two-traps
• Samina Yasmeen on whats-the-dispute-between-imran-khan-and-the-pakistan-government-about
• Saamriddi Roy on blue-economy-may-be-key-south-asia-s-upswing
• joshua Leifer on uneasy-alliance-in-jerusalem
• Shaun Cameron on will-thailand-s-prime-minister-defy-time

Wonk

• noahopinion on the-war-economy-is-america-falling-behind-china, four-reasons-why-gdp-is-a-useful-number, the-uphill-battle-women-still-face-in-high-finance
• the conversable economist on drowning-in-figures, adam-smith-and-pin-making-some-inconvenient-truths, why-is-it-called-dynamic-programming, is-economics-disqualified-by-ideological-bias

General

• Mel Taylor and Katherine Haynes on no-not-again-a-third-straight-la-nina-is-likely-heres-how-you-and-your-family-can-prepare
• Luke Barnes et al on astronomers-have-detected-one-of-the-biggest-black-hole-jets-in-the-sky
• Tanya Smith and Daniel Green on revelations-from-17-million-year-old-ape-teeth-could-lead-to-new-insights-on-early-human-evolution

Climate

• Skeptical Science on most bleak report on high/tide sunny day tide floods

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

• krueger-uber-100000-update
  
• science-says-get-married-at-age-whatever-you-want-and-these-are-the-odds-of-divorce
  
• referendums-as-a-way-of-reducing-political-polarization-some-discussion
  
• i-agree-with-dean-eckles-that-this-study-effects-of-political-versus-expert-messaging-on-vaccination-intentions-of-trump-voters-is-too-noisy-to-be-useful-when-will-we-reach-the-point-where-res
  
• update-a-possible-answer-to-the-gladwell-penn-state-question
  
• here-comes-the-stats-the-impact-of-incidental-contextual-factors-on-research-acquisition
  
• Kaiser Fung on andrew-screaming-about-professional-fouls
• statschat on less-creepy-than-it-sounds

Econometrics

• No Hesitations on complexity-in-prediction

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

• the-slouch-of-history
  
• too-complicated-for-tragedy
  

Vox Wonk

• corporations-under-autocracy-lessons-russian-and-german-history
  
• feds-international-dollar-liquidity-facilities-roles-and-effects
  
• improving-carbon-border-adjustment-mechanisms
  
• size-and-census-coverage-us-homeless-population
  
• latest-us-tariff-sanctions-russia-sectoral-analysis
  
• feds-international-dollar-liquidity-facilities-roles-and-effects
  
• improving-carbon-border-adjustment-mechanisms
  
• size-and-census-coverage-us-homeless-population
  
• asset-overhang-and-financing-climate-change-technology
  
• take-social-benefits
  
• personalised-pricing-and-distribution-strategies
  
• crypto-and-regulation-i-cant-live-you-i-cant-live-without-you
  

Problems in statistics world

 Kaiser Fung follows up on an Andrew Gelman article on quite misleading claims in a paper.

Read both articles both  are short but to the point. Both show the true value of blogs.

Poll roundup

 Kevin Bonham gives us his first poll round-up since the election.

As always both essential and interesting reading