Links for 2009-09-09

"A $100 account with no fees costs the bank more in paperwork and tellers' time than it's worth. In the long-run, such accounts can help depositors develop savings habits and savings balances, developing into the sort of customers banks can and do make money from. But neither the executives nor the shareholders of the bank are interested in that kind of long-run -- particularly not when, in the short run, they're losing money on these tiny accounts.

So seeing no incentive to provide such low-balance, no-fee accounts that would allow our young couple to cash their checks without a fee, the bank will instead try to push them into something more lucrative -- into the kind of account that generates a steady stream of nickel-and-dime revenue from ATM fees, minimum-balance charges, late fees and, above all, "overdraft protection" charges."

"Sure, the openess of evolutionary biologists to the concept of non-optimality is an improvement over the dogmatic insistence that people behave rationally (optimally). But Krugman downplays what has led to the success of evolutionary biology: the triumph of data. In fact, there was a period where evolution was disparaged by other biologists because it was viewed as "just so stories"--tales with no data to support them."

"Let's consider the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453). The big story back then? The English invade France, and they burn up everything including Joan of Arc. The population of France gets cut by two thirds. It's much worse than a Martian invasion because it lasts much longer, and the epidemics kill off the humans.

The complexities are deep and they ramble on endlessly. The guys living "the Hundred Years War" had no idea they were in one. Four generations of "war" isn't a "war," it's a lifestyle. And by now everybody's forgotten all about it."

"Spearheaded by the increasingly mustachioed Fake Paul, the four Beatles donned comedic Technicolor dreamcoats, consumed 700 sheets of mediocre acid on the roof of the studio, and proceeded to make Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a groundbreaking album no one actually likes. A concept album about finding a halfway decent song for Ringo, Sgt. Pepper has a few satisfactory moments ("Lovely Rita" totally nails the experience of almost having sex with a city employee), but this is only B+ work."

"Religion is many things. One of those things is an institutional framework which allows for collective action and communal participation by individuals. Religious institutions seem particularly robust, far more robust than the beliefs which are associated with religious institutions at any given time. "