Academic

Weekend Links

By Kim Krawiec

Eater.com analyzes the Madoff AmEx statements, released to the public this week (PDF copy here), to determine the Madoff clan?s most expensive meal ($1,943.46 at Patroon); worst tip (6% at Lure); restaurant visits by neighborhood; and other matters of interest to scandal followers. (HT: Felix Salmon)

California State Controller John Chiang announced that California?s new $85 billion budget deal would allow it to stop issuing IOU?s in early September, ending a two-month period in which the state could not pay its bills.  Prior Lounge coverage of the California IOU?s are here and here.

U.S. Army to get ?wikified.?  Via The New York Times:

In July, in a sharp break from tradition, the Army began encouraging its personnel ? from the privates to the generals ? to go online and collaboratively rewrite seven of the field manuals that give instructions on all aspects of Army life.

The program uses the same software behind the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and could potentially lead to hundreds of Army guides being ?wikified.? The goal, say the officers behind the effort, is to tap more experience and advice from battle-tested soldiers rather than relying on the specialists within the Army?s array of colleges and research centers who have traditionally written the manuals.

Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Harvard University, and former chief economist at the IMF, on the failure to bail out Lehman:

The overwhelming consensus in the policy community is that if only the government had bailed out Lehman, the whole thing would have been a hiccup and not a heart attack. . . .

Unfortunately, the conventional post-mortem on Lehman is wishful thinking.  It basically says that no matter how huge the housing bubble, how deep a credit hole the United States (and many other countries) had dug, and how convoluted the global financial system, we could have just grown our way out of trouble.  Patch up Lehman, move on, keep drafting off of China?s energy, and nothing bad ever need have happened. (HT: Mark Thoma) 

Paul Horwitz at Prawfs On Crying Students.

Deven Desai at Concurring Opinions on Opening Up the Law: Pacer, CITP, and the RECAP the Law Project. 

And twelve gerbils, some leprechauns, and Austan Goolsbee on Jon Stewart:

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on August 16, 2009 (boomark / email).