9th Selected Links

Some links for your weekend perusal:

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 Madison Square Garden speech. Skip to 10:47 of the recording to hear the speech's most famous line when he describes the financial and business elite lined up against his New Deal: "Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred."

2. The (mostly) apocryphal tale of 'A company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.'

3. A version of Robert Putnam's chart which plots the ratio of the word 'we' to 'I' in American books over the 20th century.

4. Atif Mian, Ludwig Straub and Amir Sufi's paper on 'Indebted Demand' was recently accepted by the Quarterly Journal of Economics. (The paper has been discussed several times on my podcast. Sufi is a former guest.)

5. One of social science's most ingenious yet simple studies, courtesy of some Kiwi researchers. They asked people late in life to recall and rank the past decisions they most regret. What sorts of decisions do you think came up most frequently? "If only I'd bought Apple stock!" Or: "I wish I hadn't let down that friend." We are moral creatures, not Homo Economicus.

Have a nice weekend,


Joe