As goes Carolina, so goes Costa Rica?

As loyal KPC readers know, our man Mungowitz was the Libertarian candidate in the most recent NC governor's race. While he clearly succeeded in his goals of (1) getting his message out, (2) getting the LP automatically on the next election's ballot, and (3) getting investigated by the election commission, alas, he did not win.

Spin forward to last Sunday where there was a Libertarian, Otto Guevara, running for president of Costa Rica (I am not making this up). He didn't win either. No word yet on whether NolanChart.com endorsed or savaged Otto.

It was the third time Otto ran. The first time he got 1.7%, the second, 8.4%, and this time he got 20.8%.

I'm just sayin'.......

 

Technical Efficiency in Basketball

Estimating Production Efficiency in Men’s NCAA College Basketball: A Bayesian Approach

Michael Rimler, Seongho Song & David Yi
Journal of Sports Economics, forthcoming

Abstract: Using Bayesian analysis with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation, we generate estimates of technical efficiency for each game played by an Atlantic 10 Conference men’s basketball team during the 2005-2006 season. The flexibility of MCMC, and its ability to provide an objective measure for assessing model fit, makes it preferable to maximum likelihood (ML) estimation of stochastic production frontiers. Within the context of men’s basketball, this article addresses the question of whether technical efficiency necessarily leads to success relative to one’s competitors. Results indicate that (a) technical efficiency does not vary significantly, either across or within teams, implying that teams in the A-10 play at very close and high levels of efficiency and (b) technical efficiency does not
correlate strongly with productivity, suggesting that the fundamental quality of one’s resources are more important than an efficient use of those resources. In addition, parameter estimates suggest that a single turnover or offensive rebound could mean the difference between winning and losing.

(UPDATE: Title was wrong, so I fixed it.)

When did Nigerian scammers take over the Home Depot?

So, Mrs. Angus and me eat lunch in our offices on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This usually requires using a microwave, and in our department, nothing is a better illustration of the tragedy of the commons than the department microwave. Sticky, filthy, smelly, AND a line of grad students waiting to use it!

So we decided to get one for the office. Mrs. Angus wanted powerful but not too big, picked out a model and ordered it from Home Depot online. It arrives and we take it to the office and open up the box.

The door of the thing won't open. Busted. Arrived busted.  

Mrs. Angus sends email to Home Depot asking if we can return it at a local store or if we have to mail it back.  Next day, we get a response from their "customer care" department:

Thank you for your email to The Home Depot Online Customer Support.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Unfortunately, we do not have arrangement with the vendor to exchange the entire product.

For assistance regarding the item 100489210 - 1.0 Cu. Ft. Countertop
Microwave Oven from your order number W100474273, please refer owner's manual and contact the manufacturer.

A representative would be happy to assist you.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Supriya
Your friends at The Home Depot.

Now there are a lot of funny things here."Inconvenience"?  "further assistance"?  cannot exchange "the entire product"?

But the best part is that the owners manual is INSIDE THE MICROWAVE and thus inaccessible because, you know, THE DOOR WON'T OPEN!

I guess I will take a hammer to the thing and see what parts of the product can be exchanged.

 

Lou Dobbs Goes Down, and Why

My friend and ex-student Josh Koster, of Chong and Koster in DC, talks about their plan. The piece was published in "Campaigns and Elections' POLITICS" Magazine.

With Lou Dobbs as the fall guy. Hee HEE! ANYTHING that drips mud on "Hate-monger" Lou is worth doing. But this was very cool. The ad....


Now, I should note that Josh and I hardly agree on everything. But on the "rationalize immigration policy" idea, I am definitely there with him. And it is so much easier to watch CNN for a few minutes now, without Lou Dobbs.

Corruption: Munger Investigated!

I feel SO SPECIAL. My campaign for governor is being investigated by a special inquiry of the State Board of Elections. I have FINALLY arrived as a real politician.

Governor "I am Easley the most corrupt governor in NC history" has decided to offer a defense to the charge that he routinely accepted illegal, unreported free private air travel as if it were a perq of office. And having the Highway Patrol "lose" the records of sending troopers to accompany Easley on these secret trips.

Here is an interesting video on the lead-up, and the charges against Ruffin Poole, head thug in charge for the Easley admin.

My main man, Don Carrington, was the one who broke, and has followed, the "Air Easley" story.

So, Easley's defense? Three Republican goob candidates did it, too! (My mom: "If someone else accepts illegal air travel, you would do it, too?" Or something like that).

Anyway, the state board of elections sent me a letter, on real letterhead, with a signature from an actual person, demanding all my campaign travel records! I am suspected of having received illegal contributions of air travel, on private jets!


I'm already planning for my perp walk video. What goes better with steel handcuffs, the grey pinstripe, or the dark charcoal, suit?

Except... that I don't have friends who have private jets. Not all of my friends have private cars. Every bit of travel for the campaign was in my OWN car, and I paid for my own gas.

Still, it is flattering to think that a Libertarian candidate might be the target of bribes from corporations. Implausible, since my platform was to END the payoffs and corporate welfare that those blood-sucking, rent-seeking leeches depend on. But flattering nonetheless.

Ezra Klein Asks For Something He Already Has!

Ezra Klein has his silk prancing pony boxers in a slip knot over the following:

"No single vote by any single senator could possibly illustrate everything that is wrong with Washington today," writes Fred Hiatt. "No single vote could embody the full cynicism and cowardice of our political elite at its worst, or explain by itself why problems do not get solved." But, as he says, Mitch McConnell's vote against the Conrad-Gregg deficit commission came pretty close.

McConnell wasn't some closet supporter of the proposal. He was a constant advocate. Here he is last May, for instance: "As I have said many times before, the best way to address the crisis is the Conrad-Gregg proposal." But when it came up for a vote last week, McConnell filibustered it. Asked for an explanation, McConnell offered some nonsense about how people serious about getting the debt under control should have opposed the stimulus. Yawn. If he's not going to try to offer a coherent explanation, I'm not going to bother with a detailed rebuttal.

The issue here isn't whether McConnell is a disingenuous opportunist. That goes without saying. What I'd like to see, however, is for people to begin predicting this sort of behavior rather than being surprised by it. ATSRTWT

Golly, Ezra! If only there were....something....call it "Public Choice" theory. There could even be a journal to study this sort of thing. If only there were a university, perhaps one in the DC metro area, that taught Public Choice theory. Let's make one up, and call it "George Mason." If only there were think tanks.... call them "Mercatus" and "Cato"... that publish dozens of articles and monographs every year taking EXACTLY the perspective that Mr. Klein appears to believe he has originated.

Public Choice: Predicting self interest since 1964.

(Nod to Tony V., who is not surprised)

Best Birth Control: Obstinance Training?

Study finds focus on abstinence in sex-ed classes can delay sexual activity
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 1, 2010; 4:35 PM

"Sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can persuade a significant proportion to delay sexual activity, researchers reported Monday in a landmark study that could have major implications for U.S. efforts to protect young people against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases...The study released Monday involved 662 African American students from four public middle schools in a city in the Northeastern United States. It was conducted between 2001 and 2004. Students were randomly assigned to go through one of the following: an eight-hour curriculum that encouraged them to delay having sex; an eight-hour program focused on teaching safe sex; an eight- or 12-hour program that did both; or an eight-hour program focused on teaching them other ways to be healthy, such as eating well and exercising...Over the next two years, about 33 percent of the students who went through the abstinence program started having sex, compared with about 52 percent who were taught only safe sex. About 42 percent of the students who went through the comprehensive program started having sex, and about 47 percent of those who learned about other ways to be healthy did. The abstinence program had no negative effects on condom use, which has been a major criticism of the abstinence approach." [WaPo]

Journal reference for article cited in WaPo....

(Nod to Kevin L)

(Update: Yes, the title is intentional)

Obviamente

Binge drinking can hurt grade performance, study says.

Next up: over-eating can cause weight gain....

(Nod to Angry Alex)

(UPDATE: On the "that's why they play the game!" front, it has been pointed out that in fact the relation is NOT obvious, if one actually READS THE ARTICLE. So, does that mean I can overeat!?)

Easy to Explain

There's nothing confusing about this outrage. The job of "health inspectors," and in fact the job of all government regulation, is to protect the politically and economically powerful. In this case, restaurants that use expensive prepared foods made in factories from low-nutrition sources need protection from the little people who might actually use fresh, nutritious food. We can't have THAT, right? Excerpt:

One mom prepares hundreds of pounds of frozen fruit. The Chicago Department of Public Health says she doesn't have the correct license to make it into candy and sell it. Can she still give it to her son? Not in Chicago.

In a sad struggle that unfolded in a West Town kitchen Thursday night, Department of Health inspectors seized, slashed open and poured bleach over thousands of dollars of local peaches, pears, raspberry and plum purees owned by pastry chef Flora Lazar. She'd purchased the fruit from Green City Market farmers last summer and had planned to use it to make local fruit gelees for her business, Flora Confections.

More than $1,000 of food owned by the Sunday Dinner Club caterers was also destroyed by health department inspectors.

Inspectors cited no health problems with any of the food. They even encouraged Lazar's son to eat the confiscated granola bars from Sunday Dinner Club. They only said the food was prepared by chefs who didn't have the proper business licenses to prepare and sell it. But apparently in Chicago, you also need a license to give fruit to your child.

Even after Lazar had given the cooler to her son, health department inspector Greg Nelson refused to let him keep it. Instead the inspector called the Chicago Police Department to take it away from him. When I asked the inspectors why her son couldn't take the frozen bags of fruit, Nelson said "no comment." He gave the same reply when I asked if it posed any health risk.

These regulations have nothing, NOTHING, to do with protecting consumers. They are designed to protect campaign-contributing producers, and preserve the economic hegemony of corporations. There's no mystery here, except the mystery of why people think health inspectors are here to help them. ATSRTWT (Nod to MJE)

Cuisine: A Problem?

Interesting controversy. If the idea of "soul food" has any meaning, then it can't be inappropriate for Black History month.

On the other hand, it is such a stereotype, I can see why people might be upset. Anyway, a kerfuffle. Make sure and watch the short video by the cook who chose the menu that day.

Some interesting background, on a MLK day menu, and history.

"Elon James White, on the timely, "Look, I really like watermelon. But don't offer me any" question..." (I like the part where Elon admits he is afraid of Melissa Harris Lacewell, a friend of mine, and a fine Duke PhD). (And, I had to watch the whole TWIB video twice. It is extremely funny. You'll see.)

As for the issue: It's complicated.

(Nod to Angry Alex)

Scott Brown Commercial

One of Brown's commercials from the Mass Senate race.

The LMM was disappointed. She was hoping to see Scott Brown in a Speedo, I think.

The cool thing is that the craven Mass Dems hadn't changed the law, none of this would have happened, probably. Cool. (Remember this post? Wonder how the 9:15 pm Anon commenter feels about the outcome?)

60 % Female

The EYM chose to go to UNC. This may be why...

AT has some thoughts...

(Nod to Anonyman, who never needed good odds to win)

Waffley Wedded Wife

Poor Girl, couldn't stop laughing.


A lot of women say, about men they like, "He makes me laugh." This marriage might work. He certainly makes her laugh.

Fiscal follies

Joe Stiglitz, Robert Reich and Paul Krugman are all beating the drums for a second stimulus, more spending, and no current fiscal re-trenchment.

Let me politely as possible say that these drumbeats have everything to do with politics and nothing much to do with economics.

(1) GDP growth has turned the corner and job growth will follow. Job growth almost always lags GDP growth coming out of a recession. According to Jeff Frankel, a member of the NBER business cycle dating committee, this recession is not unusual in that regard.

(2)  I cannot help but laugh when I read people saying the first stimulus was too small or that we need a second stimulus. People, something like $500 billion of the first stimulus (i.e. more than half) has not even been spent yet. What the first stimulus definitely was is TOO SLOW! This is not surprising because the stimulus bill enacted had a lot more to do with politics than with economics.

(3) As we look at the world scene today, the problem of excessive sovereign debt seems to be at least as big of an issue as does the problem of insufficient aggregate demand.

(4) Yes, unemployment is bad. Yes, people are out of jobs due to no fault of their own, victims of bad corporate management, short sighted unions, and financial hijinks. If we had a program that would increase employment at a cost that was less than what the people employed in the program would earn, I would have favored it a year ago.

But no matter how much evidence we see, somehow we still can't face up to the fact that, while in theory it may be possible to do so, our government as currently constituted cannot create jobs in anything resembling a cost effective manner.

(5) One of the last things we need right now is more cost-ineffective pro-cyclical fiscal policy.

 

Free Books, From Duke Press, For KPC Readers!

In recompense for my faux pas in trying to circumvent the fact that the Gillespie paper is actually PUBLISHED in a book, available for sale, let me suggest the following:

The intrepid Laura Sell has offered two free books to KPC readers! I will mail them, at my expense.

If you want to enter the drawing, just send me an email, we'll have a "draw two from the hat" day on Friday, Feb 12. And then I'll contact the winners for their addresses.

And, NO, I did not get a free book, so the FTC can just work that knot right out of their boxers/panties!

Just send me an email right now! Only one entry per customer, even if you send multiple emails. (And that goes for you, too, Angus you ballot stuffer!)

Lagniappe: Laura Sell sent a letter about those bizarre FTC rules. Interesting...

The Biggest Swinging Ambassador

Frequent Commenter* Scott writes:

I must not be caught up on your blog, because there's no way you missed this.... Well, we HAD missed that, and I don't see how. How could we miss that, Angus?

*Though here, not on this blog. As he said, he apparently doesn't READ KPC.

Anyway, I tried to find out what "An gus" means in Arabic: "That the Gus" is the answer. And that sounds right to me.

"mun go witz" is closest to "depart from witt." Wow. Right again.

Don't blame me if the translations are wrong. I got them here. It is hard to type from right to left.

And if I just spell "Mungowitz" phonetically it looks like this:

مو نجو ويت

.

Long term musical greatness

I was deep in my music collection last night playing "There's nothing wrong with love" by Built to Spill from 1994 and re-realized that the first four songs on that record are just astonishingly good. Then I realized that BTS is still good as of 2009 and never made a record that sucked. That's pretty rare, so I started trying to think of who else could fit that bill, limiting myself to American groups. Here's what I came up with:

Built to Spill

Luna

Spoon

People, that's it! That's the list!

Modest Mouse now officially sucks. 

The National has been good for a while and never made a record that sucks, but haven't done it long enough to qualify yet (they have a new album coming out soon!!), 

Neil Young was good for a long time but has gone on too long (not heeding his own advice), he's the musical equivalent of Willem de Kooning, only his family isn't destroying his late works. 

I love Guided by Voices, but I have to admit that a lot of what they did sucked. They are the musical equivalent of Picasso; lot's of very high highs but also lots of nasty lows. 

Nirvana didn't last long enough.

Who am I missing?

Sports

My man Michael Gillespie, questioning the status of sports, cited by David Brooks.

Can't find a copy of the paper on line, but here is the reference:

Michael Allen Gillespie, Players and Spectators: Sports and Ethical Training in the American University, in Debating Moral Education, edited by Elizabeth Kiss and Peter Euben (Forthcoming 2009), Duke University Press.

And if you ask nice, Michael might send you a pdf....

beware the PIGS

The sovereign debt crisis is heating up in Europe. The so-called PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) have weak economies, very large deficits, and no national monetary policies to ease their sufferings. Many are skeptical of whether or not they can internally resolve this problem and if they can't whether the EU can or will bail them out.

It is not impossible that we are looking at the end of the Euro as we know it, as one or more of these countries may have to drop out and inflate a new national currency to get out from under their fiscal situation. I would put this probability at something like 37%.

The situation appears to be getting worse rather than better as Greek workers have started striking and Portuguese legislators appear to be thinking about increasing spending and raising rather than lowering their deficit. The Spanish stock market fell 6% today, Portugal's 5% and Greece's 3.5 %

And to think that last year I finally stopped telling my students that, despite its apparent success, it was from from obvious that the Euro would really last as it had yet to weather a major crisis.

Dinosaurs walk the earth!

While everyone has seemingly gone miniature and digital, there are still a lot of folks out there keepin' it real. Here, courtesy of the WSJ is one of them:

The article in the journal is unintentionally funny as it sets up a weird dichotomy between "$1 songs and $100 players" and "$20 CDs and $1,000 stereo systems".

People, if you are planning to spend $1000 on your home stereo, I'd suggest sticking to your iPod. Even going the used route, that is just not going to cut it. I built most of my stereo myself and even that won't get you there for $1000.

The article also implies that mp3 is the state of the art for portable digital recording which is far from the truth.

We Get Letters: Gubmint ID Edition

A little while ago, we heard the first installment of the "No ID why yew cain't git service" saga. The second edition is even better, or worse but funnier, or something. I'll let our intrepid correspondent tell the story:


Return one week later to ID office for second attempt to pick-up new and improved gubmint standardized ID.

Me: Hi, I'm here to pick up my ID. I have a 10:30 appt (It's 10:15)

Office Drone: Have a seat, someone will call you.

(While sitting there and waiting, an employee/father asks them to register his already existing ID to work on the electronic lock at the entrance to the child care center so he can get in to drop-off and pick-up his kid. He is informed immediately (in a dismissive tone) that this is something they can not do, and they have never done it before. When he asks (rather politely) why other employees cards work on the doors, a supervisor comes over and tells employee/ father that he understands the request, but clearly they can not help him. The father (still being polite) asks them to call the child care center, who sent him there, to ask what to do. They tell him to take a seat).

45 minutes later:

OD: Why are you here?

ME: I had a 10:30 appt. (now almost 11)

OD: Who are you?

ME: Tell them I made an appt. on the on-line system to pick-up ID.

OD: We don't have your ID, so why are you here?

ME: Tell them I got an email saying to come in, show her copy of email, she tells me to follow her.

OD: Checks computer in cubicle, tells me my finger prints came back as unreadable, so you have to do them again.

ME: Why doesn't the email indicate this? It says my ID is ready.

OD: We don't control the emails that this office sends out.

ME: Putting fingers on scanner and watching prints come up on monitor: "Why didn't my electronic fingerprints work last time? Wouldn't your computer tell you if they were unreadable?"

OD: There's a glitch in the system, happens all the time.

ME: So what happens now, I did this 2 months ago?

OD: I don't know.

So I ask to see a supervisor, and following lead of employee/ father, introduce myself and explain situation and am very polite.

Super: Checks computer, says that the agency that checks the prints couldn't use them, so now back at beginning of process.

Me: What happens if these prints don't work?

Super: Then we run your name through the system instead.

Me: How long does that take?

Super: That only takes a few minutes, just a click of a button and it runs it through.

I must have had a look of absolute astonishment on my face, because after a long pause the Super sits back in her chair and sighs. She tells me that after 9/11 Homeland Security wanted to centralize the gubmint ID process, so individual federal agencies no long control it. Now it's spread out among several security agencies, and after a three year delay, and millions in costs overruns, they just started to use it. The problem is that no one knows how it's supposed to work, and as of yet it hasn't worked for anyone they've tried. So I should keep my fingers crossed and hope that someone figures it out.

I thanked her and was leaving when saw the employee/ father still sitting there. I spent remainder of the day looking for work in the private sector.

Let's put them in charge of health care!

The official state scent of Oklahoma!

We got a state bird, song, and tree, so why not a state odor?

A Little Goose is Always Nice

Okay, not always.

(Nod to the NCM)

Oh! Canada!

Our northern neighbors are hosting the latest G-7 Finance Ministers meeting this week. In Iquluit Nunavut!

Canada's Finance Department, the organizer of the G-7 event, has been limited in the activities it could plan. There are only 300 hotel rooms in town. And because some 500 guests, including ministers, security and media are expected, some will have to sleep in dorm rooms.

With a dearth of limousines in Iqaluit, ministers will use the 15 rental cars available from the town's single car-rental agency. After those are full, school buses will ferry around attendees further down the diplomatic food chain.

Local residents are anxious to see how the dignitaries respond to Saturday's traditional Inuit feast, which has muskox, caribou and seal on the menu—some of it skinned and served raw.

But, people I come not to bury Canada but to praise her. Why? Well because Timothy Geithner is the guy who goes to these meetings right? Who knows, maybe he'll get stuck riding a bus to his dorm room. Maybe he'll get slush kicked up on him by a passing snowmobile. Maybe he'll have a run in with some amorous caribou! Maybe he'll turn out to be allergic to seal heart!

Consider all the possibilities.....

Damn, I'm not the greatest Kevin in Oklahoma anymore

People, check out Kevin Durant's stat line for the month of January:

In 15 games, Durant averaged 32.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals. He shot 51.9 percent from the field, 53.2 percent on 3-pointers, and 89.8 percent from the foul line.

I have sent out a paper, done 3 referee reports, taught my classes, put together a dissertation committee for one of my students and almost completed a draft of a new paper.

Somehow, it's just not the same, is it?

Haiti gets the shaft again

Just when you think things couldn't be worse, word comes that an "all star cast" is re-making 1985's abomination "We are the World", this time for Haiti.

In no way do I mean to make light of the ongoing tragedy there, but haven't those poor folk suffered enough?

And talk about lazy, if you're a community of artists, why recycle an old, hackneyed, crappy, schmaltzy, song like that. No one can be bothered to write something relevant to the case at hand? Was Michael Jackson really the only modern pop star capable of such a feat? 

I think we should stop stealing Haitian kids, start letting Haitians emigrate, and if we have to have another overwrought pop star ego fest, they should at least have to come up with an original song that is about Haiti.

Of course there will be a video of the event so that all can see just how wonderful this current group of artists actually are.

Great Moments in Seminars....

Went to a seminar at the Law School today. Speaker was the irrepressible, and quite irredeemable, Mat McCubbins (yes, one "t")


Seminar started at 12:15 pm. Pretty good crowd, considering the ice on the ground and sidewalks.

Well into it, by 12:45. Then at precisely 1 pm, precisely: Armageddon! The powerpoint presentation on the computer shuts down, the window shades roll up, the projector shuts off, and the lights come up. We are surrounded by sound and lights flashing. Apparently Hal the self-aware computer of the Law School had had enough of this crap.

Cheering, and abuse, rain down on McCubbins. Voted off the island, by the computer! Most excellent. Of course, he isn't sure how to start everything back up, and it takes a while to restore order. Mat was much calmer than I would have been. Hee hee!

My NASA budget

People, it's exactly 0 dollars and 0 cents. If I was king, getting rid of NASA would be one of the first things I would do. Instead, President O has found room somewhere in his newly announced 3.8 trillion dollar austerity budget to bump NASA's funding up to 19 billion dollars. Now I know 19 billion doesn't amount to a hill of beans when considered in the light of a projected 1.6 trillion dollar deficit, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.

My second choice for a zero budget is the Transportation Security Administration. There's another 7 billion or so we could stop smacking ourselves over the head  with every year.

Who's got next?

Roaring Lion was wrong?

One of the many things I have learned from Tyler is an appreciation of calypso music from Trinidad especially the founding fathers, Roaring Lion and Attila the Hun.

One piece of advice the Lion gave me was:

"If you want to be happy and live a king's life, never make a pretty woman your wife

All you've got to do is just what I say, and you'll be always happy and gay

From a logical point of view, always marry a woman uglier than you."

Now in my case, following this advice was problematic, well, because, there just aren't that many women out there uglier than me! So I had to turn my back on the Lion and go in a different direction.

Now Science has spoken and it turns out I was right and the Lion was wrong:

 "the relative difference between partners' levels of attractiveness appeared to be most important in predicting marital behavior, such that both spouses behaved more positively in relationships in which wives were more attractive than their husbands, but they behaved more negatively in relationships in which husbands were more attractive than their wives."

Maybe now it's a little clearer why Mrs. Angus deigned to marry me.

Efficient Market Hype?

Collective Hallucinations and Inefficient Markets: The British Railway Mania
of the 1840s

Andrew Odlyzko, University of Minnesota Working Paper, January 2010

Abstract: The British Railway Mania of the 1840s was by many measures the greatest
technology mania in history, and its collapse was one of the greatest financial crashes. It has attracted surprisingly little scholarly interest. In particular, it has not been noted that it provides a convincing demonstration of market inefficiency. There were trustworthy quantitative measures to show investors (who included Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill, and the Bronte sisters) that there would not be enough demand for railway transport to provide the expected revenues and profits. But the power of the revolutionary new technology, assisted by artful manipulation of public perception by interested parties, induced a collective hallucination that made investors ignore such considerations. They persisted in ignoring them for several years, until the lines were placed in service and the inevitable disaster struck. In contrast to many other bubbles, the British Railway Mania had many powerful, vocal, and insightful critics. But the most influential of them suffered from another delusion, which misled them about the threat the Mania posed. As a result, their warnings were not persuasive, and were likely even counterproductive, as they may have stimulated increased investments. The delusions that led to the financial disaster of the Railway Mania arose from experience with the railway mania of the mid-1830s. Seldom even mentioned in the literature, it was about half the size of the big Railway Mania of the 1840s (and thus still far larger than the Internet bubble). The initial financially exuberant phase of it did collapse. But it appears to have been unique among large manias in that a few years later it was seen as having collapsed prematurely, as projects started during its exuberant phase became successful. That mania demonstrates the difficulty in identifying bubbles that are truly irrational. Both railway manias provide a variety of other lessons about the interaction of technology and financial markets.

(Nod to Kevin L)

Stimulating, Stimulating--"Push the Private Sector"

Near the end of his truly terrible pop song, "I do the Rock," Tim Curry starts mumbling to himself, "Stimulating....Stimulating..." (Video, if can stand it). Makes me think of the Porkulus package.

Here's a terrific example, sent in by Jason S. JS writes: "[Here] is a hyperlink to how the San Antonio transit agency is going to fund their match for more federal funding for a street car application to the Feds. Clearly this shows how stimulus money is fungible, or laundered if you want to be more crass. It also demonstrates that the transit agency is not spending any more money at all in the short run and its essence is to shift funding to lower return investments for the public, but higher returns to the transit service providers. I am sure that this is not the only example of such behavior but just a good example.... "

Excerpt from the article:

VIA President Keith Parker has said his agency would commit $20 million from its capital budget. Because of federal stimulus funding VIA has secured to buy new buses, the transit agency can divert the money from its capital budget for use on a streetcar system.

Officials also underscored the need for help from others.

“The mayor and I feel very strongly that we need to push the private sector,” Wolff said.

A public improvement district could be formed that would levy an additional tax on property owners within a certain distance from the track alignment. The private sector helped fund the streetcar line in Portland, Ore., a model for other cities seeking streetcar programs.

So, they got "Federal money" (whatever that means). They are moving "city money" from one line item to another. And all this spending of tax money is an excuse for... raising taxes! If you look at a taxpayer, how do you tell if she is a Federal taxpayer, or a state taxpayer, or a city taxpayer? The answer is, "YES!"

Bonus link: The Transportation Department is now exempt from worrying about things like costs and benefits. Instead, the goal is to improve "livability." I think that means that people with Volvos also to get to ride street cars at public expense.

Paul Volcker is not a magic bullet

He has an editorial in the NY Times outlining his views on financial reform which is totally eviscerated here by Yves Smith.

People, Tall Paul is 82 freakin' years old. Sure he created an awesome recession back in the 80s and is a member of the Trilateral Commission, but he's been out of government since 1987 and, as Smith demonstrates, is pretty out of the loop on current events.

Let's give him a break, let him relax on the beach under a couple of umbrellas, and maybe try to get some non-octogenarian input into financial reform.

Snow Time Like the Present

Two photos out the back "picher window" this morning. 5+" of new snow...




































(UPDATE: The YYM points out that if you look carefully at the second picture, at the center left, under the tree house, you will see our dog Tanzi taking a dump. Nice. I'm not a very good photographer. Or, maybe I'm a GREAT photographer.)

The Capitalist Peace

You hear a lot of crap about "democratic peace." "Capitalist peace" is more like it, as others have said.

"Trade networks and the Kantian peace," (working paper version)
Han Dorussen & Hugh Ward, Journal of Peace Research, January 2010, Pages 29-42

Abstract: Classical-liberal arguments about the pacifying effects of international trade are revisited, and it is argued that they consistently refer to the ability of trade to provide ‘connections’ between people and to create a perceived ‘global community’. Dependency and openness are commonly used to test for any pacifying effects of trade in the current literature, but these measures fail to capture some of the classical liberals’ key insights. Several network measures are introduced in order to give natural expression to and to develop the classical-liberal view that trade linkages reduce interstate conflict. These measures applied to trade flows are incorporated in the Russett & Oneal triangulating-peace model. The main results are that trade networks are indeed pacifying in that both direct and indirect trade linkages matter, and as the global trade network has become more dense over time, the importance of indirect links by way of specific third countries has declined, and the general embeddedness of state dyads in the trade network has become more relevant. These findings suggest that the period since World War II has seen progressive realization of the classical-liberal ideal of a security community of trading states.

Background.... More.... The Final Word.

Idiots.

(Nod to Kevin L)

I am not alone

KPC readers know that I cannot abide Novak Djokovic, the Serbian clown. Apparently it's not just me. Here is the beginning of Jo-Willie Tsonga's press conference after he beat Djokovic in the Aussie open quarters:

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Novak talked about his problems. He had some problems during the match. When did you first notice that he was having problems?

JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Five years ago


Ummm, oh snap??? Jo Willie, you have a new fan even though Federer beat you down in the semis 3,2 and 3 in 88 minutes.

That's a mighty good number

The initial estimate of 4th quarter GDP growth is 5.7% (this is an annualized rate), a welcome improvement from the 3rd quarter's anemic 2.2%. It is not thrilling that a big chunk came from "inventory investment" (stuff produced that wasn't sold), but business investment grew almost 3% after falling almost 6% in the third quarter. Export growth continues to be very robust, growing at an 18.1% annualized rate in the 4th quarter, which is only a slight improvement over the 3rd quarter's strong 17.8%.

A couple quarters like that (assuming the number survives revisions), and unemployment will definitely start coming down.

  

post-regional politics

Y'know, when I read the erudite and witty posts of my esteemed co-blogger Mungowitz, I sometimes even forget, for a minute or two, that he's from Florida!

Carter Wrenn Dishes

I understand that Bev Perdue claimed she was looking at ways to cut the budget.

And I understand that the News and Observer, ever credulous (that's the BEST interpretation...), reported it as fact.

But....allowing the state to make only no-bid contracts so that it can channel money directly to friends and cronies...wouldn't that be a place you would think of cutting, if you were serious? Why is it that the News and Observer only tries to go after the corruption of ex-governors? Why not question this horrible mess while they are still in office?

Look, even Mickey Michaux is surprised.

It's just them and Stephon, them and Stephon

Starbury has arrived and set up shop in Taiyuan, China.  But for how long I wonder? Forgive me for being cynical about his chances, but here are some things to consider:

"Wang Jianguang, a spokesman for Zhongyu, said the team has hired an interpreter for Mr. Marbury to help with his adjustment, but the team expects Mr. Marbury to be at all of its twice-a-day practices, which start at 9 a.m., six days a week."

"Taiyuan is the capital of China's northern Shanxi province and the center of China's coal-mining industry. The whole city is covered in a thin layer of coal dust, including Zhongyu's Binhe Sports Stadium, which seats about 4,500 people. It has less than a fourth the capacity of New York's Madison Square Garden where Mr. Marbury played from 2004 to 2008. Courtside seats in the arena, which run about $1,464 a season, are a collection of worn red sofas and lounge chairs."

"The Binhe Stadium looks like an abandoned building in the daytime while the team is practicing, its gates held closed with bicycle locks." \

"Taiyuan is markedly less tourist-friendly, internationalized and cosmopolitan than bustling cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. It's hard to find a bank ATM that will accept foreign credit cards."

Add the facts on the ground to the fact that Starbury is Starbury, and, well, I guess the upside for him is that there are only 17 games left in the league's regular season.

What is the over/under on how many games he lasts? Does it depend on how many shoes he's selling?

Here is my best memory of Steph:

 

The Importance of Religion

Why Religion’s Burdens Are Light: From Religiosity to Implicit Self-Regulation

Sander Koole, Michael McCullough, Julius Kuhl & Peter Roelofsma
Personality and Social Psychology Review, February 2010, Pages 95-107

Abstract: To maintain religious standards, individuals must frequently endure aversive or forsake pleasurable experiences. Yet religious individuals on average display higher levels of emotional well-being compared to nonreligious individuals. The present article seeks to resolve this paradox by suggesting that many forms of religion may facilitate a self-regulatory mode that is flexible, efficient, and largely unconscious. In this implicit mode of self-regulation, religious individuals may be able to strive for high standards and simultaneously maintain high emotional well-being. A review of the empirical literature confirmed that religious stimuli and practices foster implicit self-regulation, particularly among individuals who fully internalized their religion’s standards. The present work suggests that some seemingly irrational aspects of religion may have important psychological benefits by promoting implicit self-regulation.

(Nod to Kevin L)

In our increasingly secular society, I think public commitment to environmentalism have taken the place of traditional religion, and likely have some of the same psychological benefits. The idea that "recycling is cheaper, no matter how much it costs," is clearly a religious claim, not a practical one....And you can see the religious fervor in the reactions, when someone points this out! (Check the comments, smell the incense)

We Get Letters!

We get letters. This from a stalwart reader and commenter, who shall remain anonymous....

Get an email to pick up my new and improved ID for which I was fingerprinted and photographed 6 weeks ago. Email says to go online and schedule a day/place/time to pick it up. Show up at designated gubmint building, go to security, they call the ID office to ask if they should let me in.

ID office says my ID is not ready. I ask why the email says it is in fact ready to be picked up, and the official website let me make an appointment, if it is not actually ready.

They tell me they have no control over what the email says or the on-line system, and I should have remembered that they told me that 6 weeks ago when I went in for the fingerprinting. Therefore it is my fault and maybe it will be ready by next week, but I can't call and check and will only know when I show up to pick it up.

Your tax $ at work.

Now, this person works at an actual government agency, one you have heard of, one that has a budget in the billions. Wow.

Markets in everything: Weight-loss cutlery edition

What if your fork was a dumbbell? What if your knife was too? How cool would that be? I guess just about this cool:

They weight 1.5 lbs each and are real enough to have the LA Times write about them.

visit exotic Oklahoma

One of the highlights our our trip last summer to the Pantanal in Brazil was seeing tons of kingfishers (my favorite type of bird). Here is an example:




I have been extremely surprised by seeing and hearing a similar bird on our morning walks in Normotopia. I've been telling Mrs. Angus, "hey that bird looks, sounds and flys like a kingfisher, I wonder what it is"? Turns out WE GOTZ KINGFISHERS IN OKLAHOMIE!! Like this one:


Awesome!

And, while I am pretty sure we don't have jaguars here, we do apparently have mountain lions!

Sweet home Oklahomie, people!

Markets in everything: Celebrity smells edition

Headline Magic! News on Great Tits....

So, here's the headline:
"Flashier Great Tits Produce Stronger Sperm!" Now, I expect that's right, on the merits.

But it turns out that the article is about how bright and colorful chests, on birds called "Great Tits," are a sign of fitness.

Excerpt:
The birds' vibrant plumage appears to act like a flashing billboard, broadcasting the males' reproductive superiority to females eager to produce offspring.

The advertisement likely finds an appreciative audience in female great tits, since snagging a male with high-quality sperm isn't exactly a lark.

That's in part because free radicals threaten sperm cells in many animals, including humans. Created by cells when stressed by pollution and other factors, free radicals are groups of oxygen-activated atoms that can damage sperm cells, weakening their swimming ability. (Learn how DNA works.)

Many animals' bodies produce antioxidants that fight free radicals—including male great tits. The birds have an antioxidant called carotenoid that not only defends against free radicals but also gives their breast feathers a yellow hue.

ATSRTWT

Now, it will not be news to avid birders that there are many types of tits. I have to admit that I have never seen, and frankly would not WANT to see, the "bearded tit." I'm pretty open minded, but... One has to draw the line somewhere.

(Nod to Taren S-K, who has a highly refined sense of the absurd)

How Could This Possibly Be Funny? Or, Worse, Serious?

1. What kind of idiot could think that this was going to be funny?

TSA Agent plants white powder in bag....

Next: Hilarious pranksters plant bomb in ladies underwear! "I got punk'd! I got punk'd!" laughs victim.

2. This guy, Lt Gov of South Carolina, appears to believe that no humans should have an "ample food supply." You can see the point, I suppose, if you are a naive Malthusian, but his point would also appear to apply to charity soup kitchens and homeless missions. I'm a Libertarian, but even I donate money to homeless shelters and charities. As long as it's voluntary, those organizations do good work and I support them.

(Nod to Anonyman)

KPC: Your Hip Hop Headquarters!

The video. I humbly present the video: Fear the Boom & Bust.....



LAGNIAPPE: Here is an actual picture (really) of Russ Roberts with Ke$ha.

One size fits all

We pretty much all know that the real answer to questions of the sort "why does X occur"? is "to get the girl".

You know what I mean right? "why do birds grow elaborate feathers?", "why do rams butt heads at 30 mph?" Why do boys play football?", "why do bloggers blog?".


Now, LeBron informs us that this simple, powerful answer also applies to explaining our current global imbalances, viz:

Q: Why do the Chinese save so much?

A: To get the girl!

Life in America just keeps getting better

First our overlords decided to let us eat jamón ibérico, and now, in even a bigger culinary coup, HAGGIS IS AGAIN LEGAL IN THE USA!!!!

From the Guardian:

Smuggled and bootlegged, it has been the cause of transatlantic tensions for more than two decades. But after 21 years in exile, the haggis is to be allowed back into the United States.

The "great chieftan o' the puddin-race" was one of earliest casualties of the BSE crisis of the 1980s-90s, banned on health grounds by the US authorities in 1989 because they feared its main ingredient ‑ minced sheep offal ‑ could prove lethal.

Some refined foodies might insist it always has been and always will be: in the words of Robert Burns, in his Ode to a Haggis, looking "down wi' sneering, scornfu' view on sic a dinner". But now, as millions of Scots around the world prepare to celebrate Burns's legacy tonight with an elaborate, whisky-fuelled pageant to a boiled bag of sheep innards, oatmeal, suet and pepper, its reputation has been restored, on health grounds at least.

Some notes on the above quote:

1. they banned sheep guts due to concerns about mad cow? WTF?

2. "great chieftan o the puddin' race"? Robert Burns, who ranks right behind Andy Murray but ahead of Robert the Bruce as the second greatest Scottsman ever.

3. In actuality, ALL meals in Scotland are "whisky-fuelled pageants"! However, speaking from experience, copious amounts of whisky would be a huge help in getting down a plateful of haggis.

hat tip to Felix the Fish

Los Partidos del Te

Boy, once you get in the old Rolodex...

Article in El Mercurio, Santiago, Chile. Excerpt:

...el republicano terminó por quedarse con el estado que perteneció a Kennedy por 47 años, y el Tea Party se anotaba su primera victoria política.

"Para nosotros no se trata tanto del apoyo a Scott Brown, sino sobre la idea de que si colaboramos en masa podemos ganar cualquier asiento (parlamentario) en el país", dijo Eric Odom, del America Liberty Alliance, otra institución bajo el paraguas del Tea Party.

Y es que así funciona el movimiento: es descentralizado, se organiza espontáneamente, y carece de un manifiesto claro. Hasta el momento no se consideran parte del Partido Republicano.

"Sería un error pensar que son una fuerza capaz de dar un apoyo continuo. No son un partido, son una masa acéfala que puede ser peligrosa incluso para quienes la abrazan", dijo a "El Mercurio" Michael Munger, director del departamento de Ciencias Políticas de la Universidad de Duke.

¿Qué unió entonces a Brown y al Tea Party? El mismo descontento que ha hecho a este último impulsar a miles de ciudadanos a protestar en los últimos meses contra la administración Obama. Decirle que "no" a Washington y a los demócratas, y representar el enojo contra el sistema político contra el plan de salud, los paquetes de estímulo y el desempleo.

ATSRTWT

(I'd translate, but my Spanish is terrible. And, hopefully, Mr. Autodidakto will do the honors...again)

Dance Dance Revolution

Yikes!

Reelin' in the grants: The things that pass for research, I don't understand.

Looking for Gender: Gender Roles and Behaviors Among Online Gamers

Dmitri Williams, Mia Consalvo, Scott Caplan & Nick Yee
Journal of Communication, December 2009, Pages 700-725

Abstract: Several hypotheses regarding the importance of gender and relationships were tested by combining a large survey dataset with unobtrusive behavioral data from 1 year of play. Consistent with expectations, males played for achievement-oriented reasons and were more aggressive, especially within romantic relationships where both partners played. Female players in such relationships had higher general happiness than their male counterparts. Contrary to stereotypes and current hypotheses, it was the female players who played the most. Female players were also healthier than male players or females in the general population. The findings have implications for gender theory and communication-oriented methods in games and online research—most notably for the use of self-reported time spent, which was systematically incorrect and different by gender.

-----------------------

Get Back into that Kitchen, Woman: Management Conferences and the Making of the Female Professional Worker

Jackie Ford & Nancy Harding
Gender, Work & Organization, forthcoming

Abstract: Conferences are a little studied aspect of working lives. In this article we explore how management conferences contribute to the continuing imbalance of power between men and women in management. We analyse data gathered from a reflexive ethnographic study of a management conference. We show that women arrive at conferences as knowing subjects, able easily to occupy the subject position of conference participant, but they are then subjected to processes of infantilization and seduction. They are made to feel scared and are given the order, as were their mothers and grandmothers: get back to the kitchen. We avoid using a theoretical explanation for these findings, preferring to offer them without much explanation, for we favour instead a political approach, and we use the findings as a way of making a call to arms to change the ways in which conferences are hostile to women.

-----------------------

Fast-girls, babes and the invisible girls. Gender relations in snowboarding

Mari Kristin Sisjord
Sport in Society, December 2009, Pages 1299-1316

Abstract: The purpose of this essay is to examine gender relations in snowboarding through conceptions and experiences articulated by female participants. The main objective is to focus on relations between female and male snowboarders as well as relations between different groups of females. The empirical investigation was conducted in conjunction with a workshop organized by the Norwegian Snowboard Federation. Methods employed were participant observation and personal interviews. The results reveal male domination in different snowboarding contexts during practice and competition. Moreover, the analysis revealed different femininities among the female snowboarders, characterized within the subculture as the Babes, Fast-girls, and the Invisible Girls. The results are discussed in relation to perspectives on subculture and Bourdieu's conceptions of field, capital and masculine domination.

So if you select for females who play a lot of video game, they play a lot of video games.

And the second paper: Really? Isn't that from the Onion, instead of a journal? I LOVE that paper. "We avoid using a theoretical explanation..." Yes, that is correct. But, "They are made to feel scared and are given the order, as were their mothers and grandmothers: get back to the kitchen." That's a paraphrase, right? In my experience, woman are allowed to sit with the boys during the actual conference proceedings. And if someone told the new chair of my department, Karen Remmer, to go back to the kitchen, that person would need to visit the Emergency Room, stat.

Finally, the third paper: "The results reveal male domination in different snowboarding contexts during practice and competition." It's snowboarding. Women are fine at playing video games; no reason they can't be better than men. But men are likely to be better at purely physical sports, Billy Jean King aside. Roger Federer v. Serena Williams: anyone want to bet on Serena? Finally, as for "the invisible girls," they had better be careful on the mountain. Make them wear an orange reflective vest or something. Some boy is going to run smack into them, if they are invisible, and then some researcher is going to write that down as a "male dominance behavior."

(Nod to Kevin L)

Conan's Exit Interview, and a Ken Burns Special...

Markets in everything: Omnisexual Valentine's Bison edition

Yes people, America's favorite mascot, Rumble T. Bison (the T stands for The) is available to service your valentine.

Here, let me quote from the solicitation:

Each visit includes a basket full of romantic items, music, and quality time with Rumble.... It doesn’t matter if your Valentine is a man, woman, or child; Rumble will make this Valentine’s one to remember. Call Rumble’s “loveline” for more info.

By the way, it's $249, and that includes tax!

Here's a teaser; a little bison-cake for y'all:

GuhDAY! Russians Hack Up Aborigines from Oz

So, here's the story:

Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, the favorites for ice-dancing gold in Vancouver, wowed the crowds with their routine at the European Championships. They sit in the lead after their original dance, a tribute to Australian Aborigines.

Except, Aboriginal leaders don't see it as a tribute. They don't really see how it has anything to do with their culture at all.

"They have got the whole thing wrong," said Stephen Page, artistic director of the respected indigenous group, the Bangarra Dance Company. Page said there were no traditional movements in the routine, the music sounded more like it came from India or Africa than Aboriginal Australia and the body paint looked like "a three-year-old child had drawn it on"... "Probably the elders in the bush would be laughing because they would be saying, 'Look how stupid these fellas are,' " he said.
ATSRTWT


Okay, I think that last sentence is probably right. But that would also be the reaction of the elders in the bush to all of the OTHER ice dancing costumes also. It is certainly MY reaction.

And here's the thing. It is ICE dancing. The idea of authentic Aussie aboroginal ice dancing is a little hard to imagine. The only ice in all of Oz is at the MacDonalds, and they won't give you any. These pictures here? Don't believe it. They are photo-shopped.

(Nod to Anonyman, who would look good in those costumes)

Judge Made Law

The Trouble with Cases

Frederick Schauer & Richard Zeckhauser
Harvard Working Paper, August 2009

Abstract: For several decades now a debate has raged about policy-making by litigation. Spurred by the way in which tobacco, environmental, and other litigation has functioned as an alternative form of regulation, the debate asks whether policy-making or regulation by litigation is more or less socially desirable than more traditional policy-making by ex ante rule-making by legislatures or administrative agencies. In this paper we step into this debate, but not to come down on one side or another, all things considered. Rather, we seek to show that any form of regulation that is dominated by high-salience particular cases is highly likely to make necessarily general policy on the basis of unwarranted assumptions about the
typic ality of one or a few high-salience cases or events. Two cornerstone concepts of behavioral decision – the availability heuristic and related problems of representativeness – explain this bias. This problem is virtually inevitable in regulation by litigation, yet it is commonly found as well in ex ante rule-making, because such rule-making increasingly takes place in the wake of, and dominated by, particularly notorious and often unrepresentative outlier events. In weighing the net advantages of regulation by ex ante rule-making against those of regulation by litigation, society must recognize that any regulatory form is less effective insofar as it is unable to transcend the distorting effect of high-salience
unrepresentative examples.

-----------------------

Judicial Duty and the Supreme Court’s Cult of Celebrity

Craig Lerner & Nelson Lund
George Washington Law Review, forthcoming

Abstract: Judging from recent confirmation hearings, there is now a consensus that
Supreme Court Justices should be humble servants of the law, highly respectful toward precedent and without personal agendas of any kind. Few informed observers expect this to happen. After describing some of the institutional factors that operate to discourage adherence to the traditional ideal of judicial duty, this article proposes four statutory reforms that could help the Justices stick a little closer to the promises they are expected to make, and do make, at their confirmation hearings. First, Congress should require that all Supreme Court opinions, including concurrences and dissents, be issued anonymously. This should lead to fewer self-indulgent separate opinions, more coherent and judicious majority opinions, and more reason for future Justices to treat the resulting precedents respectfully. Second, Congress should require the Court to hear at least one case certified from a circuit court (or one diversity case) for every federal question case they choose from their discretionary docket. This would reduce the temptation to assemble a docket consisting largely of interesting or high-profile cases, and encourage the Justices to grapple with more of the important but unglamorous issues vexing the lower courts. Third, Congress should forbid law clerks to draft judicial opinions, and move them to the office of the Court’s Librarian, where they would do legal research for the Court rather than for individual Justices. Truly humble and old-fashioned judges should study the precedents themselves, discuss the law with their colleagues (rather than with their handpicked votaries), and write their own opinions. Fourth, Congress should require Justices to serve part of their time on lower federal courts, as they did for the first century of the republic’s existence. Restoring “circuit riding” would give the Justices some on-going experience with playing the role of a modest judge whose decisions are subject to appellate review and who is often required to interpret and apply muddled Supreme Court opinions. If serving as a Supreme Court Justice were to become a full-time, non-delegable job with fewer opportunities for personal aggrandizement, the Justices would behave more like judges than legal celebrities, Presidents would have more incentive to appoint genuinely able people, and fewer Justices would insist on staying in the saddle past the time when they can even mount the horse.

(Nod to Kevin L)

Not hard to explain....

Efficient Regulation, Andrei Shleifer
NBER Working Paper, January 2010

Abstract: Regulation of economic activity is ubiquitous around the world, yet standard theories predict it should be rather uncommon. I argue that the ubiquity of regulation is explained not so much by the failure of markets, or by asymmetric information, as by the failure of courts to solve contract and tort disputes cheaply, predictably, and impartially. The approach accounts for the ubiquity of regulation, for its growth over time, as well as for the fact that contracts themselves are heavily regulated. It also makes predictions, both across activities and across jurisdictions, for the efficiency of regulation and litigation as strategies of enforcing efficient conduct.

Actually, it's easy to explain. Regulation makes it possible for felons like Andrei Shleifer to steal millions. There, that puzzle is solved!

(Nod to Kevin L)

Yes, There IS Such a Thing as Left-Wing Authoritarianism

Paul Krugman reveals just how far he has gone in a totalitarian direction. Angus and I have long believed P-Kroog has sold out, but I at least have had the sense that there is some underlying part of his brain that still perceives some part of reality.

I am no longer sure. P-Kroog apparently believes that Obama does not, in fact, have enough midi-chlorians, and so (I'm not making this up) wrote a post called "He Wasn't The One We've Been Waiting For." Yes, he did. Russ Roberts gives the appropriate response, a combination of confused surprise and dispositive counterarguments. Will W also is incredulous, and rightly.

And he also wrote this unbelievable op-ed. I really thought that this was from the Onion at first. As my man Don B put it:

Polls show that health-care ‘reform’ of the sort the Senate passed is now overwhelmingly unpopular. Indeed, as Scott Brown’s victory makes clear, it’s unpopular even in Massachusetts – perhaps the most ‘Progressive’ state in the union. And the President and members of the House obviously believe these polls, otherwise they wouldn’t have so quickly run away from the Senate bill.

For Mr. Krugman nevertheless to insist that “the nation is waiting” for final legislative approval of this ‘reform’ reveals that Mr. Krugman’s arrogance has reached such Brobdingnagian proportions that he mistakes his own desires for those of the American public.

So, to Mr. Overwater: There IS such a thing as left-wing authoritarianism.

Irish University System Does Something Smart!

Irish university system aboishes the center! Let a thousand flowers bloom. And save a lot of money, at the same time you get rid of central bureaucracy.

The objection of the center:

"We produce all their degree parchments and also run awards competitions, from the undergraduate to the postdoctoral level," she said. Those awards allow the university to promote comparability of standards and reward academic excellence as a central unit. The university also supports academic publishing and gives grants to individual scholars, she said.

We produce all their degree parchments?

(At this point, Angus sticks his right fist in the air, sticks his thumb out between his ring and long fingers, wiggles his thumb, and yells, "ARRRRRRRRRR!")

(Nod to Tommy the Brit)

Glen Beck is Afraid

Wow, Glen Beck is pretty much all upset about Scott Brown. "A dead intern...."? Really? That's pretty extreme.

My wife, the good LMM, has expressed....let's call it "admiration," since this is a family blog, for Scott Brown and his photo. Fine with me: doesn't matter where you get your appetite, as long as you eat at home.

(Nod to Anonyman, who also has a yummy "treasure trail." Or, that's what I hear)

Poll Cats

Interesting horse race from HotAirPundit, on who were the real poll cats and who stunk.

Blue Mass Group had Coakley +8? Even Kos played it straighter than that, calling it a toss-up. What did Blue Mass Group do, talk to everybody's mom? That's not a very random selection algorithm.

And Zogby...really?....what the heck?

(Nod to the NCM)

A Little Happy, A Little Sad

Watching this made me miss Storchbier, and Eva and Sebastian, and Frau Uhlich, and Herr Kauffmann, and Martin, and Hajo, and der Geist, and lots of people.



In Franconia, where I was, it would be Fastnacht; in Western Germany (esp. Koln) it would Karneval; and in the rest of Bavaria and Austria, Fasching. In any case, as Stephen rightly says: Prosit!

El Mercurio

Bill Galston and I fuss at each other about Prez Obama, in El Mercurio, newspaper of Chile's capital, Santiago.

El problema es que hasta ahora los intentos de reforma y la implementación de planes económicos han dado malos resultados políticos: los congresistas han perdido respaldo en sus distritos y la popularidad de Obama ha caído significativamente.

Michael Munger, profesor de la Universidad de Duke, sostiene que los demócratas interpretaron mal el mandato con el que llegaron al gobierno. El voto por Obama fue para el político carismático y no para todo su programa, asegura.

La mayor desilusión ha sido para sus seguidores. "Por años, él hizo campaña asegurando que reduciría la polarización política", comentó a "El Mercurio" William Galston, analista de la Brookings Institution. Pero durante su gestión la brecha entre los partidos ha crecido, dijo Galston, y se ha visto poco del bipartidismo prometido.

For some reason, it tickles me to think of Bill Galston as an "analista." I'm just sayin'.

Book 'Em, Danno!

Oh, so now it's "Who has the bigger bookshelf?", is it. It's not the size of your books, it's how you USE them, or something like that. Anyway, let's do this. Side wall....

















The back alcove....






















Finally, the window wall. And, yes, the fridge has beer in it, some fine hefeweisse and a couple of local micro-brews.


And, let me share this: in grad school, Angus and I shared an office. The office had four desks, but because I was "elected" Prez of the Grad Student Association, I assigned offices, and I felt like the two of us in an office for four would mean we would be more comfortable.

Angus at one point attempted a coup, by ballot stuffing. But I Chavezed all down his leg, by declaring the election to be void, and announcing I would be President for life. Since that meant he got to keep the office, Angus converted to being a Mungista again.

Anyway, I remember one day I came back from the bookstore, with about 10 or 12 new Poli Sci books. Angus went through them, increasingly incredulous. "Stupid...stupid....REALLY stupid (A Gary Jacobson book, I think)...stupid...." Not one of the books impressed him as worth having.

Angus didn't realize that political scientologists don't actually READ these books. We just use them as an excuse for ending conversations: "It was here somewhere...let me look for it and get back to you...I know I JUST saw it...." With all the books I have, I almost never have to talk to anyone.

I may be an ingrate, but I am NOT illiterate!

Wow, I am taking a beating in the comments. BR points out that I don't seem to have any books in my office and Mungo mashes me in the forehead with a driver, Mrs. Woods style, for not having invited him to visit Soonertopia. I have no defense against the latter but against the former I can say that I do indeed have books in my office. Here is a picture to prove it:



They are mainly on Macro/growth, econometrics & bayesian statistics, and political economy, with some finance and international econ thrown in.

Maybe some day I will be able to post a picture of Mungo riding the Sooner Schooner!

Liberty Wins! Liberty Wins!

That's my Harry Caray imitation.

The Supreme Court comes through. Stupid freakin' campaign finance law! Yay! Here's the ruling. I can't believe our side actually WON for once.

"My" amicus brief in the case, if you are interested....(Allison wrote it; I just signed it).

UPDATE: For you half-wits commenting (i.e., everyone who disagrees with me), check this!

Left and Right agree: soak the "rich"

Tyler reports on health care contingency plans from the right and left sides of the blogosphere and they have one thing in common; the rich should pay.

M. McArdle:   "eliminate the tax-deductibility of health insurance benefits for people making more than $150K a year in household income, $100K for singles."

E. Klein:  "Revenue comes from a surtax on the wealthy."

Yikes!!!!

How about increasing the supply of medical providers? How about allowing insurance companies to compete for clients across state lines? How about eliminating the tax-deductibility of health insurance benefits for ALL people? How about experimenting more with the Mayo clinic type model which is not (in my understanding anyway) a fee for service model? How about encouraging people to exercise more, eat better and stay healthy? How about tort reform?

Of course the best thing would be to somehow reduce the hysteria about access to health care. Most health care doesn't actually work, and our society wastes billions of dollars annually on the health care game. How about a subsidized national pool for catastrophic coverage insurance and the rest is up to you?

It is a very disturbing trend to see individual groups getting singled out for benefits or tax hits. Unions getting exempted from the "cadillac tax", big banks singled out to repay the TARP money that went to GM and Chrysler, the rich to pay for increased health care coverage, Nebraska getting exempted from having to pay for expansion of Medicaid in the state.  I don't think we can expect good results from continuing this method of getting agreements or financing expenditure in the long run.

Edwards: She Said That....I am the One! But The Kid Is Not My Son!

Wait. Yes, it is.

You have to like the "my mistress is such a slut she slept with everyone on my campaign" defense that Edwards tried at first. I'm sure Ms. Hunter liked that a lot.

On the "here's my office!" meme....

From the door....






















Cute Hayek painting, and my view of a roof...



















Best part: The Gothic window, facing southest, looking out over the main quad! Lots of the exterior shots of Dawson's Creek, the old TV show, were shot looking up at this window. It was supposed to be "Worthington University" on the show....