Category: Random Draws

Both personally and professionally I love markets. As an economist, I marvel at what the market can do. As a consumer, I am grateful for what it brings to life. It is one of the most significant inventions of humanity. Although it is an old idea, it makes the modern world possible. It is the great coordinating mechanism that creates order without orders, or “spontaneous order.” Markets enable cooperation between strangers, each of whom is motivated by self-interest (which is not the same as selfish interest) but is a necessary part of an emergent order that, in the words of Adam Ferguson, “is the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design.” Markets enable cooperation as mentioned before but their power is a consequence of competition among market participants. Let me tell you a few simple stories.
Continue reading “Markets & Competition”

Don’t you like the new header images? In any case, there it is. Now that the blog has a new cap, it is time to write a new post. So I was thinking about development in general. After all that’s the idea, isn’t it? The idea I was turning over in my mind is this: what comes before development?
Continue reading “What Comes Before”

It is very satisfying when research corroborates naive intuition. We expect water to flow downhill and when research after much painstaking data analysis concludes that indeed water flows downhill, it is a valuable addition to human knowledge and understanding. Switching off sarcasm mode now. I entered that mode when I read “Rich People Are Great at Spending Money to Make Their Kids Rich, Too” in The Atlantic. (Hat tip: Rajan.) An accompanying graphic shows “Share of Spending on Certain Categories, by Income Group” —

Continue reading “Rich People Spend More”

Right now, as seen from San Jose, CA, the moon is close to totally eclipsed. The footage from Los Angeles’s Griffith Observatory below.

http://rt.com/on-air/blood-moon-total-eclipse/embed/

This is the third in a series of four total lunar eclipses that began in mid-April last year.

But first, if you are superstitious then be wary since it is Friday the 13th. If you know anything about numbers, and you live in the US, then you can be irrational on Saturday which is Pi Day.

This pi day stuff works only in the US convention of writing mm/dd/yy for dates.

But whatever you do, beware the Ides of March.

Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826), one of the Founding Fathers of the US and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence is believed to have written that “an informed citizenry is the bulwark of a democracy.” Bulwark — a defensive wall — is against something or someone. I don’t know the context in which Jefferson wrote that (or even if he did write it at all) but I’d like to think what he meant was that an informed citizenry protects democracy from the possible tyranny of the government.
Continue reading “An Informed Citizenry is the Bulwark of a Democracy”

There are problems. That implies solutions. Whether or not you can find a solution to any specific problem cannot be granted. It cannot be also be granted that you know the solution or are even capable of finding a solution. The solution may exist but you aren’t given the capacity or the means to solve it. Then it is not a problem that you should concern yourself with. Live with it.

Quite often a situation is defined as a problem. It may not be. It may be that that’s just the way things are. Being able to distinguish between situations that you can do something about or not is important. It’s not a problem if no one can do anything about it. Get used to it.
Continue reading “Problems and Solutions”

After I wrote that post on “People I Admire“, I began thinking that I should start listing my heroes. So let’s make this a series. Here’s part 2 of the series. I will mention two people. One of them used to be my neighbor at the Convent. Did you know that I spent one year at the Convent? Yes I did, although it was naturally not a functioning convent when I lived there. The other person is someone I haven’t met but I would dearly like to meet. He works (and I guess, lives) in the SF Bay area, and therefore I can claim that he’s a distant neighbor. They share one thing in common: they are both black — or to use the more politically correct term, they are African-American.
Continue reading “People I Admire – Part Doh”

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” That according to Nelson Mandela.

I object to the characterization of education as a weapon. Weapons are used as tools of destruction, not construction. Remember the distinction between tools and weapons: all weapons are tools (instruments; means to an end) but not all tools are weapons (“any device used in order to inflict damage or harm to living beings, structures, or systems.”)

Changing the world is a fine objective. Most people want some changes in the world around them and most people (though not all) want some change in themselves too.
Continue reading “Nelson Mandela on Education”

This one is hauled from the archive. Why? Because these two articles are nice. Even if I myself say so. Also, I am very busy reading and so don’t have the time to write fresh stuff. Or perhaps I am just plain lazy. In any case, do check out the following.

1. Profiting from Conflict. The Monkey and the Cats.

Wars are generally very costly for most people but are always very profitable for some. It is also not too difficult to start a conflict. Envy, greed and covetousness lie just beneath the surface and can be summoned almost at will. Arms manufacturers and arms dealers have the greatest incentive for provoking, fuelling and maintaining conflict. Follow the money if you want to know why some parts of the world suffer chronic conflict.

2.On Constitutions and the Generality Principle.

Societies which have potential fracture lines can still avoid catastrophic breakdown provided the basic set of rules — the constitution — that constrain behaviour were such that it did not stress those divisions. The real danger arises when the constitution makes those fault lines explicit and laws are enacted in accordance with those rules which then discriminate for or against identifiable groups.

Questions, comments?