Must Read/Listen

• Dean Baker, A Budget Deal that Does Nothing to Boost the Economy
• Eric Hodges on the implications of the military-civilian divide

Should Read

• Paul Krugman, The Biggest Losers
• David Cay Johnston, Is service work today worse than being a household servant?
• Dean Baker, Ezra Klein Misses the Mark: Inequality and Unemployment Are the Same Problem  (“…unemployment is a main cause of inequality. This is because when more people get hired it disproportionately benefits those in the bottom half and especially the bottom fifth of the income distribution.”)
• Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, Rethinking Capital and Wealth Taxation 

Economics

• John Cassidy, By George, Britain’s Austerity Experiment Didn’t Work!
• Charlie Pierce, Rick Scott’s Broken Promises
• Paul Krugman, The Punishment Cure

Trans Pacific Pact

• Joseph Stiglitz, An open letter to Trans Pacific Pact negotiators
• Joseph Stiglitz, The Free-Trade Charade

Politics

• Jonathan Chait, The Hack Gap
• Boston.com, Democrat [Katherine] Clark wins Mass. congressional race
• Paul Krugman, Counterattack of the Deficit Scold Deadenders

Health Care

• NY Times, Amid the Uproar Over the Health Law, Voices of Quiet Optimism and Relief
• NY Times, Health Care Exchange Is Vastly Improved, Users Say
• H.R.5155 – 108th Congress (2003-2004): Free Market Drug Act  (No chance in hell that it would ever pass but I like the concept.) 

Math and Science

• Andrew Gelman, How to model distributions that have outliers in one direction  (I find Andrew’s statement counterintuitive.)
• MIT News Office, In the World: A long haul to bring clean water to developing nations (This complements Jason Kass’ “Bill Gates Can’t Build A Toilet” op-ed I noted a few weeks back.  Murcott and Kass get it – use technology to solve problems, don’t get advocate techical solutions just because you find think they’re (you’re) clever.  Hats off to them for their work.)
• NY Times, Too Few Girls and Minorities Study Tech Subjects
• Boston.com, Former MIT president Charles Vest dies

International Politics and Foreign Policy

• John Scott and Robert Zaretsky, Why Machiavelli Still Matters
• Boston.com, China successfully soft-lands probe on the moon
• AP, Chinese Firm Paid US Intelligence Advisor
• NY Times, U.S. Suspends Nonlethal Aid to Syria Rebels (File under: The Enemy of My Enemy Isn’t Necessarily My Friend)
• NY Times, North Korea Says Leader’s Uncle Was Executed as a Traitor (File under:  The Rabid Weasel of Late-20th and Early-21st Century International Politics Gnaws at Its Leg)

Miscellany

• NY Times, British Wine Benefits as the Climate Changes
• The Dunning-Kruger effect (My day job:  Last Friday was the deadline for my colleagues and I to submit our self-assessment of our performance in 2013.)