Charlie Munger is not a fan of India. In February of 2017, the then 93-year old vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway said this about India in a speech. Anyone who cares about India, and understands what India is, will find his view hard to take. But Munger accurate in his assessment. Here’s a bit from his speech: Continue reading “Charlie Munger on Lee Kuan Yew”
Author: Atanu Dey
Economist.
HFTA – The Utility of Suffering
Hfta sounds like the Hindi word for “week” but it is short for “hauled from the archives.” Hauled from the archives is this Jan 2007 post “The Utility of Suffering.” Worth a read.
When I wrote that piece, I had not met Shri Arun Shourie. As it happened, around 10 years ago, I had the immense good fortune to meet him several times at his home and in various other cities, attend his talks and share meals with him. He is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met.
Nobies on The Simpsons
The all-wise wiki says, “The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield and parodies American culture and society, television, and the human condition.” Continue reading “Nobies on The Simpsons”
Trickle-Down Economy
I love our trickle-down economy. Meaning, in our economy good things start at the top and trickle down to the bottom surprisingly fast. But before going any further, we have to talk about “trickle down theory” which is quite a different animal.
From time to time, proponents of cuts in tax rates argue that that would cause changes in economic behavior which would increase investments leading to increased employment, incomes and consequently greater total tax revenues. Therefore, cutting tax rates actually benefit the poor since the increase in tax revenues can be used for more social services. Continue reading “Trickle-Down Economy”
Value, Price, and Cost
Often used interchangeably, the three concepts — cost, price, and value — are related but distinct. They are elementary and understanding them precisely is essential for reasoning about our world of production, exchange and consumption. People, including yours truly before learning economics, don’t even realize that they are confused about those simple concepts.
Let’s begin with value since it’s personal and therefore most intuitive. I want what I value, and vice versa. In nearly all cases, I have to give up something (S) in exchange for what I want (W). Logically, I must value S less than I value W if I do the exchange voluntarily. It would be irrational for me to give up something of greater value in exchange for something of lesser value to me. Continue reading “Value, Price, and Cost”
Covid-19 Data
The number of cases of Covid-19 shot up rapidly and is now decreasing fast. Among my friends and acquaintances, many got the virus. Fortunately no one got seriously sick.
With a bit of luck, perhaps this will be the end of the pandemic. Here are three charts showing number of confirmed cases per million from Our World in Data. Note that confirmed cases are lower than the true number of infections due to limited testing. Continue reading “Covid-19 Data”
It’s Cold
Today’s minimum is 11 degrees Celsius below zero, maximum 3 degrees below zero. It’s sunny. We had a bit of snow the past week. But nothing like this — in Nebraska. New Brunswick, Canada.
From the notes to the video:
Canadian National Railway locomotive 2304 (ES44DC) plows through huge snow drifts and gives me a big ass snow shower as it leads the daily CN manifest train 406 West (Moncton, NB to Saint John, NB) at Salisbury, New Brunswick.
Funny
“You’re T. S. Eliot,” said a taxi driver as he stepped into his cab. Eliot asked him how he knew. “I have an eye for celebrities,” he replied. “Only the other evening I picked up Bertrand Russell, and I said to him, ‘Well, Lord Russell, what’s it all about?’ And, do you know, he couldn’t tell me.”
— Valerie Eliot (her favorite story about her husband) Continue reading “Funny”
Aldous Huxley on Servitude
“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution” Continue reading “Aldous Huxley on Servitude”
Opposing Gun Control
I am a 2nd Amendment fundamentalist. The right to life and liberty is not something that one has because of the benevolence of one’s potential aggressors but because one has the power to resist aggression and tyranny. The greatest danger to one’s right to life and liberty is from the state because the state has a legal monopoly on the initiation of force, which it frequently exercises without any moral or ethical justification.
The primary reason for having arms to protect oneself is not because it deters the garden variety burglar (although that is a definite benefit) but because it puts the state on guard that it better behave or else. Continue reading “Opposing Gun Control”
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 