April is the National Poetry Month in the US. “Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture.”
Continue reading “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock”
So last month I tweeted this:
People are recognizing that WHO is China’s bitch and is in bed with Xi and his gang. Good news is that Trump halted the US donation to the WHO. I hope this is the first step to giving the WHO a quick burial. And I hope that the UN is also dismantled soon. If Trump can do that it would be marvelous, and all his insanity will be forgiven.
Here’s a short take on why WHO is China’s bitch. Continue reading “Who is China’s Bitch?”
Culling is a well-known phenomenon in biology — the process of selective removal of weaker individuals from the breeding stock. Although not done deliberately, something similar happens in markets. Entities that are “weak” are selected out of the marketplace, and the health of the economy improves.
In a previous post, I wrote:
If an unprofitable firm fails, it is bad for the workers of the firm. But the failure of firms within an industry could be good for the health of the industry and for the larger economy. At the next level up, an entire industry could fail and cause misery for its workers, and yet that could be very good for the economy. Continue reading “Culling Improves the Herd”
Until a few months ago, China was doing spectacularly well in terms of economic growth, and the power and influence that the new wealth bought. But I think China’s goose is cooked, thanks to the Chinese virus that causes the Wuhan flu aka Covid-19. There’s going to be a backlash. OECD countries’ manufacturers who were off-shoring their production in China will pull out as fast they can. In all likelihood, electronics majors will cut their China-based supply chains.
This is not mere wishful thinking. It was economics that led to China becoming the global manufacturing destination. But the world has learned a lesson that will be hard to ignore — that putting all eggs in one basket is not a sound strategy. In any event, it was time for manufacturing to return to the OECD countries; the Wuhan flu just advanced the move a few years.
And one more thing. I think these institutions have to be given a quick burial: the FDA, the WHO and the UN. They are all evil. Continue reading “Well, China, the Game is Up”
Apollo 1
The US Apollo space program got started in May 1961 was a spectacular success in landing 12 astronauts on the moon. But it had a very rocky start when Apollo 1, which was scheduled to launch in Feb 1967 as a low Earth orbit test, never launched. A disastrous cabin fire during a ground test killed all three astronauts on the launch pad on 27th Jan 1967.
That set the program back by about 10 months but during that time, processes and procedures were put in place that ultimately resulted in the Apollo program being much more robust than it would otherwise have been. That is a prime example of how sometimes problems are portals to a better trajectory, provided that the right lessons are learned and changes made. Shocks to systems force systemic redesign and the system improves. Continue reading “The Silver Lining to the Chinese Virus – 2”
The Chinese Virus
The cost of the latest Chinese virus, aka SARS-CoV-2, is now going to be tallied in trillions of dollars and perhaps hundreds of thousand, maybe millions, of deaths. All that seems to be pretty horrific, to be sure. But here I am going to argue that that cost is worth the benefit that is sure to arise. That is the conclusion of my argument that this Wuhan coronavirus is going to be a blessing in disguise. It will make the world a far, far better place than it would have been otherwise.
What is the appropriate response to the disease now called Covid-19? That depends on the time and place, and other contextual particulars. In early Dec 2019 when the first cases were detected, the appropriate measure (seen in hindsight) would have been total containment. Continue reading “The Silver Lining to the Chinese Virus”
I love music
It’s hard for me to convey precisely how much I enjoy music. I’d rather go without food for a few days than go without music for a day. Fortunately for me, that would never have to happen. I have music on my phone, my computer, laptop — and of course on Youtube.
Over the decades, I have curated a very large and eclectic collection that includes all kinds of music — Indian classical, Indian popular, Western pop, country, rock and roll, Western classical, world music, electronic and trance, acoustic, heavy metal, and so on. Continue reading “Ask me Anything — the Dolly Parton Edition”
I think one of the main reasons why I find economics so fascinating is that I am a contrarian (adj. taking an opposing view, especially a view opposite to that taken by the majority; n. a person who habitually takes a view opposite to that held by the majority.)
Many of the findings of economics are counter-intuitive. When I come across those results, the delightful “Aha!” moment follows. I realize that I was wrong about something and enjoy being less wrong than I was previously. Continue reading “The Joy of Counter-intuitive Truths”
The Covid-19 pandemic is caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. It’s highly contagious with an R0 around 2 — an infected person passes the virus on to two others on average. Exponential growths always end up in large numbers pretty rapidly, contrary to our basic intuition. They are explosive, like in uncontrolled nuclear reactions. Once a few people in a population get the virus, nearly everyone gets it without proper containment.
Communicable diseases can be controlled and stopped, as has been demonstrated by the eradication of smallpox viruses (certified in 1980.) Smallpox eradication was mainly done by governmental and multinational health organizations. It could not have been otherwise since the non-governmental sectors (markets and civil society) were not up to the task. Continue reading “Covid-19: What Should the Government Do?”
I take the non-aggression principle to be a “relatively-absolute absolute”
I believe that societies that follow the non-aggression principle (NAP) are better than those that don’t. To me, the NAP is a “relatively-absolute absolute”. I learned the concept of relatively-absolute absolutes from James Buchanan. These are persistent truths about the world of humans; they are not necessary in some absolute sense like, say, the conservation laws but are generally true and fundamentally important for human flourishing. Continue reading “Rationality in a World of Suicidally Deluded People”
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 