Some Links

This just in, from Penelope Trunk. I do not typically like articles like this, but this one struck me as incredibly honest and positive-in-spite-of-itself. This is a blog post for married adults; you've been warned.

Tim at Spootville decided to avoid corn syrup in a bid to eat healthier foods. (Follow-up here.) The only reason I haven't joined him is because my doctor just changed my diet recently and I don't want to make too many changes at the same time. I think you, the reader, should join him, though. I'm not against corn syrup, but I think it's useful to avoid certain foods periodically if for no other reason than to see what else is out there.

Posner says something that I found striking:

Partly because of the information revolution, which brings vivid images of war into our cell phones and laptops, it has become difficult from an emotional standpoint for the mighty United States to be seen as standing aloof from grave abuses of human rights in foreign countries, though we managed to do that in the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides, and in other genocidal episodes as well, and Assad doesn’t need poison gas to kill civilians. It doesn’t help that the consequences of our bombing Syria are not easy to foresee, and that wars develop their own momentum.

I find this striking because it is often said that Americans no longer have the stomach for successful war because the information age puts the grisly images of what it takes to win right there on our TV screens. So I guess this means that the information age makes war both unavoidable and untenable. Plus ca change...

This blog comment from Robert Murphy is a good explanation for why I think NGDP level targeting is basically circular reasoning that leads nowhere. But what do I know?

John Cochrane seems optimistic about Raghu Rajan's tenure at the central bank of India. Based on what he's written, I share his optimism.