Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

OLPC — The Rube Goldberg Variation

As if the OLPC was not Rube Goldbergian enough! What will they try next, I wonder. Try this definition of a Rube Goldberg device from the Wikipedia and tell me that it does not fit the OLPC to a t. Continue reading “OLPC — The Rube Goldberg Variation”

Smart New Togs

This blog is undergoing change. Not just in the looks but new editorial policies will be followed. New improved looks (50% increase in the number of columns, in case you have not noticed), tags, login for commenting, and whatnots.

Form changes will be matched with content changes. Let me know how you like the new looks and also what you would like to see by way of content.

Durga Puja

Durga Puja Greetings

For Bengalis, this is the biggest festival of the year. Today, the last day of the five-day event, is called “Bijoya Dashimi.” Mother Durga, who had come with her children (Saraswati, Lakshmi, Ganesh, and Kartik) to visit her parents, departs today. For five days her idols had been worshiped and today the idols will be given back to the earth from which they were made.
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What and How

Mr Adam Smith

It is not just an article of faith among economists (such as yours truly) that markets allocate resources most efficiently under a set of set of assumptions; it has been mathematically proved by theoreticians and empirically demonstrated in thousands of well-documented instances. However, that does not make the proposition that markets work better than other mechanisms – such as command and control – any more intuitive or easy for people to appreciate. It is easy to misunderstand, misinterpret, and often misrepresent.
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Creative Commons License

I am often asked by people if they can re-publish my blog posts. Most of what you read on this blog is original in the sense that I write the stuff and therefore by common convention, automatically the copyright to the material belongs to me. I have the freedom to assign rights to my work to others of course. There is an extremely flexible mechanism which has been developed for this purpose and I think it is worthwhile for us to become familiar with it — or if you already know it to some extent, revising your understanding of it. I am referring to the Creative Commons, an institution which is attempting to (and has succeeded to a marvelous degree) create a lot of middle ground between the polar extremes of “All Rights Reserved” — generally denoted by the (C) sign — and “Public Domain” — where the author has no rights at all.

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The Age of Profound Ignorance

Perhaps you have read it before on this blog. Now “The Age of Profound Ignorance” is available to a wider readership on LiveMint.com. (If the previous link does not work, please use this one.)
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Gore and the Nobel Peace Prize

Does anyone, other than the recipients and the Nobel Prize committee, take the Peace Prize seriously any more?
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You See Berkeley

UC Berkeley on YouTube. My alma mater.

Now you can virtually attend many of the lectures and events at UC Berkeley. I will miss Berkeley a little less because of this.

Here’s a video on “Energy Self-sufficiency in the 21st Century.” A bunch of Nobel Prize winning guys discussing that issue.

The Rs 1 Lakh car from the Tatas

I have been reading about the Rs 1 Lakh (about US$2,500) car that Tata Motors is planning on selling soon.

It scares me witless. These days, oil is selling for around US$85 a barrel. India imports most of its fossil fuel requirements. It is a poor country and cannot afford high priced oil — and oil is going to become increasingly costly because demand will continue to rise and supply will continue to fall. That is Econ101. India is also a very small country relative to its population. With 17 percent of the world’s population and 2 percent of the world’s land area, land is at a premium in India unlike say in the US (where the population density is a tenth of what it is in India.) You cannot just have cars: you need fuel and you need space to use the cars in. It is insane to not do basic arithmetic (“Those who refuse to do arithmetic are doomed to speak nonsense”) and realize that cars are not the solution to India’s predicament regarding transportation within its cities.
Continue reading “The Rs 1 Lakh car from the Tatas”