Events

With 10 games left in the season, the Cubs' elimination number is still a number: 1. (The rest of the NL Central has already been eliminated.) They're also within spitting distance of the Rockies for the wild card. Hey, it could happen.

Between my clients and school, I have run out of free time. I hope to have some in 2011; I hope to. But I have seen a bunch of interesting things in the past few days: Tim Harford, the Undercover Economist, visited Freakonomics, and opined on marriage and sex. A different Economist, this one in print, made a good case for Toronto as a place to live. Via Andrew Sullivan, an interactive foliage map. I hope to resume my normal posting frequency soon.

Perhaps we should look at Atlanta's example: Thirteen years later, the financial legacy of the Olympics in Atlanta is harder to detect. Like many major cities, Atlanta has fallen victim to the recession, forced to lay off teachers and city workers while slashing services. The City Council recently voted to raise property taxes to cover a $56 million budget deficit. Winning the Olympic bid catapulted Atlanta into the big leagues, giving it name recognition around the globe. Atlanta's $1.7 billion...

Continuing from Saturday, here are the actual values of the items in the post. How did you do? Did you get 9 of 10, indicating you have a good handle on your ability to estimate? Fact Units Actual GE total revenues (2003) $ bn $134 bn Michael Eisner's salary (2003) $ $1m Microsoft employees worldwide (2004) thousands 57k Starbuck's stores worldwide (2004) stores 6228 McKinsey Group annual revenue per consultant (2001) $ $500k United Auto Workers total membership, non retired (2004) thousands 710k...

We had an interesting lecture this morning on overconfidence and decision making. Here's a quiz: guess the range that you can say, with 90% confidence, contains the correct value. So for example, if the question were "Parker's weight in kilograms," you could guess a range of 10 to 40, which means you are 90% confident that Parker weighs between 10 and 40 kilos. (You'd be right; he weighs 25 kilos.) Here are the questions our prof hit us with today: Fact Units Low end? High end? GE total revenues (2003)...

The Ferris Bueller house in Highland Park may be torn down: Built from 1952 until 1954 and designed by architect A. James Speyer, the Highland Park home and pavilion that appeared in the 1986 movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is for sale for $2.3 million. It is at risk of being torn down, Landmarks Illinois officials say, because several inquiries have been made regarding the demolition of the house and a possible lot split.

Tom Friedman on why the U.S. is falling behind in alternate-energy research: The reason that all these other countries are building solar-panel industries today is because most of their governments have put in place the three prerequisites for growing a renewable energy industry: 1) any business or homeowner can generate solar energy; 2) if they decide to do so, the power utility has to connect them to the grid; and 3) the utility hasto buy the power for a predictable period at a price that is a...

Via Calculated Risk, tomorrow the Irish Finance Minister will explain, somehow, what Ireland's government will do with the €90 bn in real estate loans now crippling the country's economy: In what may be the biggest financial gamble in 87 years as a sovereign state, the government will become the owner of loans for property developments that have plunged in value. Ireland is suffering the worst economic slump of any developed nation since the Great Depression, according to the Economic & Social Research...

From reader DW:

The Cubs won again tonight, against the Milwaukee Brewers in a very fast 8 1/2 innings. Ryan Dempster had a no-hitter for 4 2/3 innings, and a solo homer by Derek Lee got the Cubs on the board. Oddly, the park was as empty as I've seen this year. I say "oddly" because (a) it was a gorgeous, clear, 24°C evening, and (b) this was the upper deck ten minutes before the game started: That was a troubling sign. This was not: Of course, it hardly matters, with the Cubs now 10 games out with fewer than 20 to...