Had some very nice dinner, and then a brief (by London standards; it was three hours, which was enough for jet-lagged MM) pub crawl with the Skarbeki and two lads from ASI.
And played "Seinfeld episode," because the two ASI-ers reminded me so much of George and Kramer. Let's call them "Sam" (the George K clone) and "Ben" (the Kramer clone). Because those are their names. They were kind enough to act out parts of the dialogue. I wish we had had a camera. Natural vaudevillians, Sam and Ben.
Here are the proposed Seinfeld episodes that I remember (and, yes, several of these apparently actually happened to Sam and Ben, in different ways):
1. George has a date with an Asian woman he doesn't really want to go out with. To get rid of her, he takes her to a very Americanized "Chinese" restaurant and then orders sweet and sour pork. She says things in Chinese that are impolite, but the waiter agrees with her and kicks George out.
2. Kramer decides that he is going to estimate a DSGE model for policy simulations for the New York area. The gang is skeptical, with George whining about the Lucas critique. But Kramer is insistent: "Jerry...it's DYNAMIC! And NONLINEAR!"
3. George decides to buy a new cell phone, but drives everyone crazy by dithering over the decision. Eventually he decides to test five of them at the same time. But he keeps running out of battery, and has to plug them in everywhere he goes. Eventually, he wears a utility belt with five large back-up chargers strapped to it, and then tries to go through airport security....
4. Jerry becomes obsessed with the Elgin Marbles, claiming they should be returned to Greece. George and Elaine are scornful, saying that England should keep them, because otherwise they would have been lost or destroyed, and it's "only right." Everybody is doing research on the internet, and then saying "Did you know...?" about some obscure fact. Kramer goes around driving everyone crazy, peeking in doorways and shouting, "Greece has lost its marbles!" and then closing the door again.
5. Jerry works on a routine that is based on telling jokes. But Kramer has heard them all, and he can't help but shout out the punchline. Jerry tries to hide, but Kramer can't help himself and keeps finding him. Worst of all, Kramer always follows up the punchline shouting by guffawing, "HA! Premature e-joke-ulation!" Kramer never tires of this joke, but everyone else does.
How are we to judge whether something is a church?
For example....is this a church? I expect most people would say "no," but the discretion to classify as a church, or not, is a pretty significant power for the state to have.
Mrs. Angus recently went to Pepperdine to talk about her book, "The Long Process of Development".
They just dropped a video of the talk on youtube.
Here are some of the titles I suggested for the book:
"The long and winding road"
"Time time time is on our side"
"Its just a matter of time"
Here is my one sentence synopsis of the book's main message:
"It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken".
What she shows in the book is that, while it's true that England adopted vastly superior economic policies in its North Atlantic colonies than did Spain, it was the relative strength and sophistication of the English state compared to the Spanish that allowed England to do what it did. The argument refutes the common view that Spain was strong and centralized, and the strength of the state led directly to its crappy colonial policies.
Just like I said, right?
Here's the Amazon page for the book. If the price tag is a deal breaker for you, remember that the paperback will be out May 1 at a considerable savings.
People, how can the Kindle edition be $60???? Have you ever heard of such a thing? My own dear wife is a price-gouger!
William Nordhaus American Economic Review April 2015, Pages 1339-1370
Abstract:
Notwithstanding great progress in scientific and economic understanding of climate change, it has proven difficult to forge international agreements because of free-riding, as seen in the defunct Kyoto Protocol. This study examines the club as a model for international climate policy. Based on economic theory and empirical modeling, it finds that without sanctions against non-participants there are no stable coalitions other than those with minimal abatement. By contrast, a regime with small trade penalties on non-participants, a Climate Club, can induce a large stable coalition with high levels of abatement.
This morning had a great time watching Pete Boettke wander around at APEE, complaining that all the breakfast (advertised on the program as "continental breakfast", btw) foods were breads and sugar. He wanted "protein."
If ONLY there were a system where one could go to some establishment, order exactly what one wanted, and then exchange some valuable tokens for that meal. We could call it... markets. And restaurants (there are at least six full service restaurants in this hotel complex...)
But I have to admit that I was with Pete. Wouldn't it be great if there were just free food, as much as I want, and it had bacon and eggs (the Angus special) and cheese and ham and steak and.... Wouldn't that be great?
It's so tempting to want that, and to want someone else to provide it. The difference is that Pete was actually just joking and having a good time. Many people really think there "should" be free stuff for everyone. But when they/we try to provide free stuff for everyone, you get people standing in long lines for stuff like toilet paper. Forget protein...we're talking about toilet paper. That's not right. Markets are the best we can do, and they are actually pretty good.
"Every profession produces both private returns — the fruits of labor that a person enjoys — and social returns — those that society enjoys. If I set up a shop on Etsy selling photographs, my private returns may be defined as the revenue I generate. The social returns are the pleasure that my photographs provide to my customers."
People, private returns are the returns enjoyed by market participants both producers AND consumers. Consumer surplus is not a "social return". It flows to the buyer alone.
Social returns are returns that accrue to people outside the market. People other than the buyers and sellers.
Let's try an example of our own.
If I paint people's houses, the private returns are the producer surplus (which is not my revenue) I enjoy AND the consumer surplus my customers enjoy. The social returns could be (A) zero, (B) positive because the newly painted house raises my neighbors' property values, or (C) negative because my customer had the house painted purple and it is causing disutility for the neighbors.
If that quote above was given as an answer to a question about the difference between private and social benefits in my principles class, it would fail.
The worst part of the whole thing is that, to introduce the offending quote, the columnist says, "As an economist, I look at it this way".
So Mungo is finally home for a few days before his travels bring him to Texas and other exotic locales, and here is how he has chosen to spend his Easter Sunday:
If you say "it looks like he's preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse", you'd be right. Batteries, bleach, powdered milk and mustard (don't ask), canned food................
Looks like Mungo has seen America, and he is not amused!
"It seemed like routine business for the student council at the University of California, Los Angeles: confirming the nomination of Rachel Beyda, a second-year economics major who wants to be a lawyer someday, to the council’s Judicial Board. Until it came time for questions. 'Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community,' Fabienne Roth, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, began, looking at Ms. Beyda at the other end of the room, 'how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?'
...The council, in a meeting that took place on Feb. 10, voted first to reject Ms. Beyda’s nomination, with four members against her. Then, at the prodding of a faculty adviser there who pointed out that belonging to Jewish organizations was not a conflict of interest, the students revisited the question and unanimously put her on the board...Reports of anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish sentiment have been on the rise across the country in recent years, especially directed at younger Jews, researchers said." [NYT]
Yikes! For some reason, many people have come to believe that disagreement is cause for shunning and economic boycott. If A dislikes the policies of country or state I, then A is justified in punishing people who sympathize with I. (Note that "I" could be Israel or Indiana).
Suppose some guy comes into your store wearing a "I heart Indiana" hoodie. You are gay, or have gay friends. Do you have to serve him? After all, you don't like what he stands for. And...and...well, it's YOUR STORE. Do you really have to validate this person? Kick 'em out; he's intolerant.
But the meaning of "tolerance" is respectful treatment of people you disagree with, or hate. And tolerance is required of citizens in a democracy.
The hard problem: How tolerant should we be of other people we perceive (and that we have good reason to perceive, at least in our perception) as intolerant? (Referring now to the Indiana law, of course). Is it legitimate for a corporation to refuse to sell to people from Indiana, given that Indiana is intolerant of same sex couples?
Here is an article from three years ago from Wake Forest Law Review. It gives quite a bit of detail, but comes out against the constitutionality of laws such as those in Indiana.
And here is an even better (IMHO) law review article (from almost 50 years ago, when we were having an analogous argument about black folks) about common carriers and public accomodations. It is quite detailed, and historically useful.
Excerpt from the latter:
Under English common law, it was the duty of common carriers to serve all persons without imposing unreasonable conditions.
The English courts considered that "a person [who] holds himself out to carry goods for everyone as a business . .. is a common carrier," ' and that any member of the public may create a contract with the carrier by accepting its general offer.
