Newmark's Door

"A Quick Theory of the Industrial Revolution (or, at least, an answer to 'Why Europe?')"

Interesting conjecture that I, as a non-specialist in this line of research, hadn't heard before.

"Changes in the corporate landscape"

Arnold Kling explains.

"CRB: War Without End"

Scott Johnson at Power Line asserts, "At that price [$19.95/year] the CRB [Claremont Review of Books] affords the most cost-effective political education available in the United States of America."

I can't guarantee that you'll like it, but I think that for 20 bucks a year, you'll get a lot to read.

"The Myth of Cosmopolitanism"

This piece by Ross Douthat in the New York Times is over a year old, but seems just as relevant now.

But no less than Brexit-voting Cornish villagers, our global citizens think and act as members of a tribe. 

They have their own distinctive worldview (basically liberal Christianity without Christ), their own common educational experience, their own shared values and assumptions (social psychologists call these WEIRD — for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic), and of course their own outgroups (evangelicals, Little Englanders) to fear, pity and despise. And like any tribal cohort they seek comfort and familiarity: From London to Paris to New York, each Western “global city” (like each “global university”) is increasingly interchangeable, so that wherever the citizen of the world travels he already feels at home.

"The Most Successful CEO of His Generation Steps Down"

I'd never heard of him before this. Apparently, I wasn't alone: "In fact, most Americans, even those well versed in business, have probably never heard of Stephen Hemsley, the outgoing boss at America's largest insurer . . ."

"This simple trick keeps pollution out of your car"

If you don't want to read the whole thing, the trick is this: keep your windows closed and turn the A/C on.

"Raw Numbers: Charter Students Are Graduating From College at Three to Five Times the National Average"

There are some measurement problems, but the KIPP system, probably the largest charter system reporting, and the only network that tracks students from the 9th grade instead of just from the 12th grade, has a rate about 2.5 times the national average. And while such a number doesn't reflect the selection of students into charters--put another way, we'd like to have a comparable control sample--it could well be a quite encouraging sign.

Link via my older daughter.

Related: "Charter Schools Help District Schools".

"Newark Terrorized by Whole Foods"

Kevin D. Williamson does his usual excellent job. This is especially good:

Let’s recap the slate of urban worries on the left. “Food deserts,” meaning a lack of availability of fresh food (or a lack of market demand for it), are bad. The opening of a gigantic store dedicated to selling healthy comestibles and produce, though, is also bad.

When large corporations don’t invest in urban communities, that’s shameful. Investment? Also shameful. White flight by people moving to suburbs in the 1960s? Racist. Their grandchildren’s return? Also racist. Increased disorder that leads to garbage-strewn vacant lots, abandoned buildings, and declining property values is troubling, but increased order that leads to refilled buildings, cleaned-up neighborhoods, and rising rents is also troubling. Segregation? Bad. Integration? Bad.

"What Is the Best Scientific Paper Ever Published?"

"Best" is here defined as "impact per word". Hint: the author of the "best" paper was just 21 years old at the time of its publication.

"Who coulda seen this coming?"

 Supposedly, "program-driven hedge funds" are having trouble. It's another example of market competition doing what it does.