The Negative Externalities of Blondes

Blondes apparently make men dumber. What are the policy implications?

1. Place a tax on blond hairs, encouraging women to dye their hair another color.
2. Pay subsidies to men who are frequently surrounded by blond women. (Economists will probably point to endogeneity problems outside the laboratory.)
3. Regulation: Ban blond hair. Inevitably deal with the problem of defining the color.
4. Assign property rights over women's hair color to either women or men.

Feel free to post your own suggested policies to the comments below. This is all tounge-in-cheek of course. I would also argue the existence of an adverse effect on male intelligence suggests there is a positive externality occurring on men, one which might swamp the adverse effect on intelligence. (Hat Tip: Division of Labour)

Negative Externalities in the NK deal on Iran

It appears that the agreement with North Korea to disarm their nuclear facilities has been interpreted as an increased probability of U.S./Israel air strikes against Iran, as evidenced by the Intrade Trading Exchange on Current Events. On this website, people buy shares of stock based on the probability that a certain event will occur by a particular date, and if it does then those who hold stock will be paid a dollar per share they hold. Based on the link I provided, it appears that over the last few days as these talks with North Korea have advanced, people have increased the price they are willing to pay for these shares, i.e. they think it is more likely that the U.S. will attack and the shareholders will get paid that dollar. So even though Iran was not involved with the treaty, they appear to bear some cost of that transaction.