Hal Varian interviewed by McKinsey Quarterly talks about innovation, productivity and other things.

The interview MP3 file.

H/T to FlowingData for the link.

Charlie Rose and Marc Andreessen talk about innovation and other stuff.

As Marginal Revolution says:

Add Thomas Friedman to Tyler, myself, Lee Ohanian and others suggesting immigration as a way to alleviate the recession:

Leave it to a brainy Indian to come up with the cheapest and surest way to stimulate our economy: immigration.

“All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans,” said Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper. “We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate — no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”

Note that the multiplier on the “buy a house, get a visa” strategy would be much larger than any possible domestic multiplier since the money would come from outside the economy (and efficiency would improve as well.)

H/T to Carpe Diem for the video link.

Strange how I used to think Ron Paul was insane. Now I’m beginning to think he is the only sane one in Washington.

I highly recommend this podcast from C-SPAN of Law Professor David Friedman discussing the differences between a republic and a democracy. He also touches on the subject of my last few posts on the increasing power of the Federal Government.

Address by Law Professor David Friedman (1 hr. - February 17, 2009)

David Davenport, Hoover Institution Research Fellow and former President of Pepperdine University, on the difference between a republic and a democracy, why he thinks too much democracy is dangerous, and how this might affect President Obama’s agenda. He spoke at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on January 12.

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” - Benjamin Franklin