Racism and Religionomics.

I had a conversation with a man who reminded me of a real life Michael Scott. And not in a good way.
Here's how it went.

Me: Hello. Can I help you?
----: Oh, my. What a cute voice you have. You're so cute. You must be brand new.
Me: Well, I just started 2 weeks ago...
----: Well, you're brand new and squeaky clean, aren't you?
Me (in my head): Well, I did take a shower this morning, but he doesn't know that...
----: I'm looking for L----. Is she here today?
Me: Yes, but I'm not sure where she is right now.

A little while later.
----: L----, isn't she nice? (points toward me) What's your name?
Me: Esther.
----: Oh, cmon. That's not your real name.
Me: My real name?
----: Is it?
Me: Uhh, yeah...
----: Where did you go to school?
Me: Wellesley.
----: (laughs) Oh, well I went to Babson. I know you Wellesley girls, with your noses in the air. Who did you date in college?
Me: No one. My econ textbooks. If we have our noses in the air, it's with good reason.
----: You probably only dated Harvard men, isn't that right?

WTF. Does he SERIOUSLY wonder why Wellesley girls wouldn't go out with him? I'm pretty sure it's not because he went to Babson...


Anyway, I've been feeling sick and went to bed at 7pm last night thinking that I would wake up in an hour or so. I ended up waking up at 9am the next morning. Haha. WIN.

I've been reading Brothers Karamazov, which I love love love. I just finished reading "Rebellion," a chapter in the book that makes one of the strongest arguments against the existence of God. (according to people who know way more lit than I do...) I will probably still go to church tomorrow and ask God to make sure I don't get H1N1. (Thanks, God.)

In Development Econ, Professor Lucas once asked us to name examples of things that are correlated with GDP per capita where the causation only runs from GDP per capita to that something, and not vice versa. It's actually kind of difficult, no? My group's response was religion. We figured that as countries become wealthier, they place less importance on religion. However, religion does not really have an effect on GDP per capita. [Apparently, the U.S. is an outlier and is very religious for its level of wealth.]

Robert Barro has also studied religion in the context of economics. It was mentioned in Marginal Revolution here!

The Economist had a little something about Islam: here.

As Voltaire once wrote, s'il n'existait pas Dieu, il faudrait l'inventer. [In Bound Together, Nayan Chanda claims that Voltaire drank 80 cups of coffee a day at Le Procope, to which I say, eww.]

It was probably not a good idea for me to blog in a feverish state...I don't think this is a very coherent post.

OMGSH GUYS. I just googled "religion economics" and found a blog called RELIGIONOMICS. HAHAHAHA. How funny is that?!

I also found this article about economists and religion.

That's all for today. Is it a bad idea for me to try to make Phoenician honey biscuits while sick?