August Links

Here are some of the writings that caught our attention this month:

Brian Potter details the history of AT&T. He notes that “from 1925 to 1981, phones per 100 population in the U.S. rose from 14 to 84, and over the same period, the real cost of a 3-minute coast-to-coast phone call fell by roughly 98 percent.” Also, AT&T’s investments through the years were over the moon, so to speak:

Michael Bradley discusses the success of PIAA football powerhouse St. Joe’s Prep, which has won the 6A championship 6 times in the past 8 years. One not-so-secret sauce: while public schools are prohibited from bringing in players from outside their boundaries, private schools face no such restriction—and the most recent student body of 937 boys at St. Joe’s Prep spans 172 different zip codes.

Barry Ritholtz expresses skepticism in polling, as those few who actually respond to polls may not be representative of the broader population, and may be wildly inaccurate in their assessments. He points out that survey respondents typically by large margins overestimate the prevalence of minority groups and underestimate the size of majority groups:

Ben Carlson argues that everyone is terrible when it comes to predicting recessions.

Noah Smith provides a massive literature review of industrial policy, from a variety of sources across the political spectrum. The overarching theme is reindustrialization and abundance as the goals of economic policy, with a tolerance or endorsement of government intervention when it services these goals.

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