Ferguson: Superficially, the setting in Bihar for our India case study is very different to the setting in Ferguson and other US cities today. But there are some common themes not far below the surface. In that light, I would be curious to know what you think of this oped in the Economist on the Ferguson issue.

Basic income: This piece from PBS news is relevant to today’s lecture on the idea of a basic income guarantee (BIG). Also see my CGD blog post on this topic.

Inequality in the U.S.  I recommend this article in the Financial Times a couple of days ago, by Martin Wolf. (We will be returning to the issue of the economic costs of inequality in Part 3 of the course.)  This NYT piece earlier this year is also worth reading in preparation for tomorrow’s lecture. Also, this reports on some new work, post-Piketty.

Effective altruism: As we move from the (rather dry) topic of measurement toward description and (in Part 3) the economy and policies, this TED talk by Peter Singer is worth looking at. Singer is a philosopher whose book, The Life You can Save, provides a moral case for effective altruism, grounded in data on living standards across the world.

India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: Here is my take on the problems with this ambitious scheme and how to fix them.

Global wealth inequality: Oxfam predicts that the combined wealth of the richest 1 percent of the world’s population will exceed that of the other 99 percent of people by 2016.