1. Although I generally don't like the pessimism of George Parker, he's written an interesting "theory" on how BDAs (Big Dumb Agencies) work. It involves monkeys. Because everything with monkeys is brilliant by definition. Right?
2. The Hans-Brinker Hotel of Amsterdam. I love them. Many thanks to Jason & Rob who turned me on to the genius that is HBH.
3. 50-pages I really want to read, but to date have only read synopses of: An Empirical Analysis of Street-Level Prostitution. Highlights include:
The transaction-level data we collected suggests that street prostitution yields an average wage of $27 per hour. Given the relatively limited hours that active prostitutes work, this generates less than $20,000 annually for a women working year round in prostitution. While the wage of a prostitute is four times greater than the non-prostitution earnings these women report (approximately $7 per hour), there are tremendous risks associated with life as a prostitute. According to our estimates, a woman working as a prostitute would expect an annual average of a dozen incidents of violence and 300 instances of unprotected sex.
