The economics of rape →

In 2006, approximately 49% of violent crimes were not reported to police. Being the victim of sexual assault is expensive; each incident imposes an external cost of over $100k on the victim. However, recent estimates of the total social cost are an order of magnitude larger suggesting that from a social welfare standpoint rape is likely to be underreported if the victim’s demand for reporting is price elastic.

Please excuse the jargon. The old adage that "what you tax, you get less of" is what this is saying. We can't both yell at victims to report crimes against them, and slam them with the costs for doing so. It's hard enough to report, given common feelings of societal betrayal.

Whites think discrimination against whites is a bigger problem than bias against blacks →

An insightful story by our Post colleague Robert Samuels this morning showed that whites in Ferguson were often surprised by the racial fault lines exposed by the shooting and the sometimes angry protests that followed. They said they had no idea of the simmering tensions between African Americans and police. They did not know that many black residents felt unfairly targeted by the police and unrepresented by city government. And they bristled when protesters portrayed their town as racist.

It turns out that whites' limited awareness about racial problems in Ferguson goes well beyond the St. Louis suburb.  A series of surveys in recent years about Americans’ perceptions of the very existence of racism and racial disparities in our society shows that white people believe the problem of racial bias against blacks has effectively faded as a national issue.

See how red tweeters and blue tweeters ignore each other on Ferguson →

So we have two groups of people who rarely communicate, have very different backgrounds, think drastically different things, and often spray vitriol at each other when they do talk. Previous studies of Twitter have found similar echo chambers, the Israel-Palestine conflict offering one representative example. It is unclear to what extent Twitter merely reflects social divisions as opposed to causing them; I find it unlikely that Mckesson and the red tweeters would be friends if they met over beers. But even this preliminary analysis does not bode well for the possibility of reconciliation.

To do so will require charismatic leaders dedicated to reconciliation, on both (all?) sides.

Further Strains in Unresolved War Between Armenia and Azerbaijan Over Disputed Territory →

Armenia has controlled most of Nagorno-Karabakh since 1994, following a formal cease-fire in its 1988 war with Azerbaijan. But the underlying dispute between the two, both former Soviet republics, remains far from resolved.

A spate of cease-fire violations this summer led to the deaths of more than 20 soldiers, and prompted a renewed push by international mediators, including meetings between the presidents, Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, in Sochi, Russia, in August, and in Paris in late October. The meetings produced no breakthroughs.

Drill On: U.S. Mantra as OPEC Power Wanes in the Face of Shale →

As Saudi Arabia and its 11 fellow members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meet for what’s viewed as the cartel’s most important conclave since 2008’s worldwide financial crisis, the U.S. has the most to gain and the least to lose.

For the oil industry, a significant production cut by OPEC would lift prices and profits across the board and help finance further U.S. energy innovation. And while a weaker response -- or no move -- would put more pressure on energy companies, the industry is increasingly insulated by burgeoning North American output.

The Downside of the Boom →

Since 2006, when advances in hydraulic fracturing — fracking — and horizontal drilling began unlocking a trove of sweet crude oil in the Bakken shale formation, North Dakota has shed its identity as an agricultural state in decline to become an oil powerhouse second only to Texas. A small state that believes in small government, it took on the oversight of a multibillion-dollar industry with a slender regulatory system built on neighborly trust, verbal warnings and second chances.

In recent years, as the boom really exploded, the number of reported spills, leaks, fires and blowouts has soared, with an increase in spillage that outpaces the increase in oil production, an investigation by The New York Times found. Yet, even as the state has hired more oil field inspectors and imposed new regulations, forgiveness remains embedded in the Industrial Commission’s approach to an industry that has given North Dakota the fastest-growing economy and lowest jobless rate in the country.