Zeitlinks

As I ponder my dissertation's depressing word count, here are some interesting comings and goings in the world of punditry/journalism aside from z'geist:

- The Economist's Free Exchange discusses the results of presidential prediction models, all of which featured so far have Mr. Obama winning with a probability of 50% - 99%. There's still time to take an Obama position in the prediction markets, like I mentioned earlier...

- In Thursday's FT, Warren Maruyama, general counsel to the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), says it would be crazy to walk away from the WTO and Doha because there is no alternative. I'm fairly sure that when Bob Zoellick was USTR during this same administration, he couldn't stop gushing about the very glaring alternative: regional trade agreements. There's a valuable lesson to be learned here: the words of officials in controversial public positions (like trade negotiation) aren't even worth the paper the Doha draft agreement was written on

- Commodities are taking a killing, as oil's continued fall has initiated a broad sell off. Soaring commodity prices, particularly those related to food and energy, have been at the center of recent inflation concerns. Related: the top 20 mining stocks are collectively down $667 billion from recent highs; the top 20 oil stocks are down about $943 billion.

- If you've got time, read this analysis of the facts behind some of the energy policy options du jour.