On my list to read...

...I have at least one Amazon gift card coming, I know, and this new Paula Stephans book on the economics of science looks very good. I've mostly seen her present and have read works of hers on the glut of biology PhD's. She's very much in the same camp as Hal and I on the science and engineering labor market. Hal and I have done and are doing a lot of work addressing these claims about "scientist shortages" - Stephans does a lot of research on gluts that crop up as a result of bad policies. I think there's a place for active science policy, but there are a lot of pitfalls and bad ways to go about it, and when all that is fueled by irrational fears about "shortages" it can be especially bad.

I've been reading several books this morning from my mother-in-law (purging the library) on Greek and Roman economies. Good stuff - lots of interesting discussion of evolving views on property.