In Spite of Myself

The Economy of Words

[ryanpanos]

The Guardian | Via

[thisiscitylab]

The Economist Who Just Won a Nobel Prize Thinks Owning a Home Is a Terrible Investment

[inspiteofmyself]

If everyone you know is telling you to buy a house, you should read Robert Shiller’s work.

[inspiteofmyself]

Best or worst reaction to a roommate dispute ever?  Got RA duty on my mind...

[inspiteofmyself]

"Am I a Jew or am I Jewish?  Or neither?"  A funky question...

[inspiteofmyself]

THE REPORT I WORKED ON AT BROOKINGS IS OUT AKA 147 PAGES OF TENNESSEE AUTO MANUFACTURING WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT RELATED GOODNESS...

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Post by The Brookings Institution.

[comedycentral]

Hey, look who makes an appearance in Guillermo del Toro’s intro for this year’s Simpsons Tree House of Terr—ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD

[inspiteofmyself]

Crime thought of as a "blood born pathogen" not an epidemic...Soon it won't be "Crime...Boy I don't know," anymore!

[cityprojectca]

The Los Angeles River appears in the new Grand Theft Auto 5 video game. 

[inspiteofmyself]

Loops mesmerize me...

[inspiteofmyself]

A sad day...

[inspiteofmyself]

Can't believe it has been 10 years...It still affects me the same way!

[thisiscitylab]

Casey Neistat’s new video on Citi Bike has a very simple premise: Getting to work in New York City is a pain in the ass. Is Citi Bike a pain in the ass?

Read: Should You Commute by Citi Bike? One Man’s Hilariously Detailed Analysis

[inspiteofmyself]

RIP Frank Lautenberg.  Only Joe Biden could deliver a eulogy like this.  Sometimes a little bit of humor can lighten the load of grief, if only for a little bit.  Classic Joe!

[inspiteofmyself]

My supervisor at Brookings Martha Ross was on a panel two weeks ago that I was able to attend.  It was put on by the National Journal magazine and I got to not only listen to people speak on interesting topics, I got to speak with some fancy lobbyists prior to the panel.  The main speaker was Jane Oates, the Assistant Secretary for the Employment & Training Administration in the Department of Labor.  This event was her last hurrah as Assistant Secretary as she was resigning effective at the end of the week after 4 years in Washington and a checkered record as an administrator.  So she said some things that I don't think she would have said if she was still going to be in the job long term.

A couple things she mentioned that were a bit off-putting to me:  1.)  "The recession has hurt employers more than employees."  A qualitative judgement that wasn't supported with data or any evidence really and arguably isn't true.  Employment is a two way street but the aggregate demand problem that is holding our whole economy back is more likely than not harming workers more than employers as the economy slowly grows.  2.) 90% of Workforce Investment Boards are outstanding.  With my intimate knowledge of working at a WIB that was considered outstanding by the National Association of Workforce Boards, I've found that not all WIBs necessarily have a clear picture of what is going on as far as the true impacts of their services.  WIBs do good things but let's not oversell the results.  That hurts their cause when evaluation finds their effects to be negligible.  Instead, I believe that the use of administrative data to make smart decisions about what policy levers WIBs can pull to improve outcomes for their service providers and recipients is the key to seeing if 90% of WIBs are truly outstanding.  In the end, Oates is out the door but those were some thoughts I had while sitting in the audience, madly taking notes.

[thisiscitylab]

“There’s this quietness that L.A. has when it’s dark that is really nice. It’s like you can finally have a conversation with the city without having to shout.” - Vicky Moon

Read: Capturing the Hidden Beauty of Los Angeles at Night

[inspiteofmyself]

Congrats to Councilman Bill Peduto on his win in last week's Democratic Primary for Mayor!  I happen to think he has the potential to be a great Mayor in the tradition of Tom Murphy, who I admire, as a civic leader and visionary for the City of Pittsburgh.

[inspiteofmyself]

Just a little primer to start my summer blogging.  I'll be interning at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program working on a project about what kind of human capital and workforce training programs will help Tennesseans get good quality jobs in the growing automotive sector.  Is Tennessee the new Detroit?  Only time will tell!