Saturday, July 3, 2010
It's in the Genes
WSJ:
UPDATE:> Greg Mankiw contemplates the significance of this development for the insurance industry by posing the following questions:
UPDATE 2:> Some are saying that the study was significantly flawed.
By analyzing the DNA of the world's oldest people, Boston University scientists said Thursday they have discovered a genetic signature of longevity. They expect soon to offer a test that could let people learn whether they have the constitution to live to a very old age.
"This is an extremely complex trait that involves many processes," said lead researcher Paola Sebastiani, a biostatistician at BU's School of Public Health. Even so, "we can compute your specific predisposition to exceptional longevity."
The researchers said they had no plans to patent the technique or profit from it, because they didn't consider it precise enough for commercial use. To foster longevity research and to prevent others from commercializing the test, they plan to make a free test kit available on the Internet later this month.
UPDATE:> Greg Mankiw contemplates the significance of this development for the insurance industry by posing the following questions:
*Will insurance companies start offering better life-insurance rates to those with these markers?
*Will they require annuity purchasers to take this test and offer the long-lived worse rates?
*If insurance companies do not use these markers, perhaps because of regulation, will the availability of these tests cause the markets for life insurance and annuities to unravel because of increased adverse selection?
*In light of the above considerations, what should public policy be toward insurance companies using these tests?
*To the extent that public policy is motivated by utilitarian concerns, should there be redistribution based on the outcome of these tests?
*If so, in which direction should it go? Away from those who are long-lived and can work a long life, or toward them, as they have longer periods of old age and retirement to finance?
UPDATE 2:> Some are saying that the study was significantly flawed.
A Faster Internet
PCWorld:
MIT researchers have developed technology that they say not only will make the Internet 100 to 1,000 times faster, but also could make high-speed data access a lot cheaper.
The trick to such dramatic performance gains lies within routers that direct traffic on the Internet, according to Vincent Chan , an electrical engineering and computer science professor at MIT, who led the research team. Chan told Computerworld that replacing electrical signals inside the routers with faster optical signals would make the Internet 100, if not 1,000 times faster, while also reducing the amount of energy it consumes.
Deflation
NYT:
Read the whole thing. I doubt the Feds will be able to bail them out this time.
Due to my interest in tracking the deflationary forces that are building in our economy, some people think that I'm a pessimist. They would be wrong! I'm actually pretty excited to see market forces overwhelm the pinheads' attempts to "manage" the economy. It is exactly these misguided attempts at management, at eliminating the normal business cycle, that allowed these deflationary forces to build to this extreme in the first place. Economic laws are natural laws, and "nature is not governed except by obeying her." The more we resist natural law, the more painful things become.
In short, deflation is nothing more than paying down (or writing off) debt, and that's exactly what our economy needs at this time. Paying our debts is never fun, but its ultimately a good thing.
And, as a side benefit of paying our debts, we will ultimately end up with a smaller, less intrusive federal government. And that's a very good thing.
CHICAGO — Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo.
“This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university — and it’s getting worse every single day,” he says in his downtown office.
Mr. Hynes shakes his head. “This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services,” he says. “That is obscene.”
For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession. Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state’s bills and refuses to take the painful steps — cuts and tax increases — to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state’s budget.
Then there is the spectacularly mismanaged pension system, which is at least 50 percent underfunded and, analysts warn, could push Illinois into insolvency if the economy fails to pick up.
Read the whole thing. I doubt the Feds will be able to bail them out this time.
Due to my interest in tracking the deflationary forces that are building in our economy, some people think that I'm a pessimist. They would be wrong! I'm actually pretty excited to see market forces overwhelm the pinheads' attempts to "manage" the economy. It is exactly these misguided attempts at management, at eliminating the normal business cycle, that allowed these deflationary forces to build to this extreme in the first place. Economic laws are natural laws, and "nature is not governed except by obeying her." The more we resist natural law, the more painful things become.
In short, deflation is nothing more than paying down (or writing off) debt, and that's exactly what our economy needs at this time. Paying our debts is never fun, but its ultimately a good thing.
And, as a side benefit of paying our debts, we will ultimately end up with a smaller, less intrusive federal government. And that's a very good thing.
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