a book on housing

There is this book (in chinese) that I found very useful for insights on selecting a house.
Many aspects of house like waterproofing, earthquake rsistance, fireproofing, power supply, water supply, drainage, insulation, acoustics, airflow, exterior are discussed.

寻找梦想的家

More information on the book.
Book content, sample chapter are available.

Hospital charges – Malaysia, Singapore, US

Medical fees may be a drain on household income if any member of the family falls sick.
Besides long term medication costs, one of the big portion of medical fees will be hospital charge.
Malaysia hospital charges
Malaysia’s government hospital charges (various types of medical fees and dental fees, for class 1, 2, 3; refer to form A to G)
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health website
I wonder whether there is similar compilation on medical fees in private hospital.

Singapore hospital charges
Singapore’s medical charges (different types of wards, surgery, different procedures)
Information about different hospitals, volume, average length of stay, 50th percentile bill size, 90th percentile bill size are included.
Singapore’s Ministry of Health website

US medical procedure charges
US medical cost by principal procedure from a health insurance website
The data above are older data.

Economist - David Friedman

David Friedman is the son of economists Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman. He is one of the Chicago School economists too. He is a PhD. in Physics and has taught economics and law (AP of Econs, Professor of Law).

Some of his books:

• The Machinery of Freedom
• Price Theory: An Intermediate Text
• Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life
• Law’s Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters
• Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World

David Friedman’s website; blog (I have put into my bloglist) and
his books, book chapters, papers, detailed course outlines etc..
(Many webbed drafts, sample chapters are available.)

I like these 2 books by David Friedman: Law’s Order and Hidden Order.
The rest I haven’t browsed through.
Law’s Order links economics to law whereas Hidden Order links economics to everyday life issues.

I think I’ll like the book Future Imperfect. It is a book linking economics, laws and technology.

There is a portion "Living Paper: An Open Source Project" in his website which are software programs/simulations to teach economics. Some programs are available.

Cassandras of current financial crisis

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was granted the gift of prohecy, but was cursed such that no one would ever believe her predictions.

Quite some time back, I read with interest this article in Nouriel Roubini’s RGE Monitor on "the thinkers who predicted early on many aspects of this financial crisis". Many of the "Cassandras of current financial crisis" are mentioned.

Great article ! At least we would know whose theories/methods to learn from to make sense of root causes of the current financial crisis. Maybe we can learn the ability to "forecast" too.

Highlights of these "Cassandras of this financial crisis":

• Robert Shiller : housing bubble
• Kenneth Rogoff and a few other economists: the unsustainability of the US current account deficits and of the global imbalances
• Raghu Rajan: agency problems and incentive distortions deriving from compensation schemes in financial institutions
• Nassim Taleb and a few other finance scholars: the risk of fat tail extreme events in financial markets
• Paul Krugman: currency and financial crisis theories in international macro
• Stephen Roach, David Rosenberg and a few other financial sector analysts: the shopped-out, saving-less, bubble-addict and debt-burdened US consumer
• Niall Ferguson: between historical episodes of financial crises and current vulnerabilities
• Hyun Shin and other scholars in academia: modeling of illiquidity and of the perverse effects of leverage during asset bubbles
• William White and his colleagues at the BIS: how the "Great Moderation" may paradoxically lead to "Financial Instability", asset and credit bubbles and financial crises
• Gillian Tett and a few other FT journalists: complexity of credit derivatives and structured finance and of the systemic risks deriving from these new exotic financial instruments