The prices must be crazy

Badly written pricing algorithms can generate quite strange results: a $23,698,655.93 book. (via boingboing)

The Surface of Consumption

This is a photograph of a model that Prof. Irving Fisher used in his classes. Beautiful.

I promise that I will stop complaining when I can not get the right colors in my scatterplots.
Source: Frisch, R. 1932. New methods of measuring marginal utility. Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr. p. 16.

Chinese Ghost Cities?

Some say they are dead. Other people say that this is not exactly the case.
All right, I volunteer to fly to China and check it myself . Please, cable the money.

"Brazil's achievements and Challenges" by Luiz de Melo

An excellent introduction to Brazilian contemporary economic issues with emphasis on macroeconomics and the educational problems. (HT José Roberto Afonso).

How unequal is Brazil?

A lot. The table bellow shows monthly family income per capita by percentile. (Yes, it includes Bolsa Família, the cash based transfer program that reaches 11 million families).

Percentile	R$	US$
5	53	33
10	100	62
50	375	233
90	1300	807
95	2000	1242
99	4650	2888
Source: PNAD (IBGE, 2009)

1,61 BRL=1 USD (the current exchange rate).

5th Spatial Econometrics Conference

Ici.