Friday, June 11, 2010
Onions
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Where to put your money, non-Mungowitz edition
Monday, February 22, 2010
Exteme Home Makeover, Okie style
Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne has been remodeling his house in a marginal OKC neighborhood. All I can say is Wow! You can see more here.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Thursday, January 07, 2010
This week's sign of the apocalypse
Monday, December 07, 2009
The never ending temporary tax?
Now THAT tax is set to expire and sure enough, voters are being asked tomorrow to approve yet another extension for "MAPS 3", which is supposed to last for 9 years, and to fund a laundry list of projects such as:
- A new, approximately 70-acre central park linking the core of downtown with the Oklahoma River. The park would include a restaurant, lake, amphitheater, dog park, skating rink and other amenities. ($130 million)
- A new rail-based streetcar system of 5 to 6 miles downtown, a downtown transit hub to link streetcar, commuter rail and bus systems, and possibly increased funding for the building of commuter rail lines. ($130 million)
- A new downtown convention center on the south edge of downtown near the proposed park. ($280 million)
- Sidewalks to be placed on major streets and near facilities used by the public throughout the city. ($10 million)
- 57 miles of new public bicycling and walking trails throughout the City. ($40 million)
- Improvements to the Oklahoma River, including a public whitewater kayaking facility and upgrades intended to achieve the finest rowing racecourse in the world. ($60 million)
- State-of-the-art health and wellness aquatic centers throughout the city designed for senior citizens. ($50 million)
- Improvements to the State Fair Park public buildings, meeting halls and exhibit spaces. ($60 million)
- Contingency funds to cover unforeseen costs ($17 million)
So maybe in a few years I can take a streetcar to the senior aquatic center and then walk a luxury trail down to the Oklahoma "river" to see some white water kayaking! And after that, who knows? Maybe MAPS 4 could build a ski resort in south OKC!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Larry got game!
A quick look at Summers suggests diving for drop shots isn’t really his game, though opponents say he’s deceptively agile. The typical Summers point will start with a cannon-like serve. If the return is weak, the bulky six-footer will cut the ball off and swing for a difficult angle. Each additional shot is more likely than the last to either be out or un-returnable--the shorter the rally the better. As a player, "Larry is very tenacious … like his personality," says Summers’s sometime coach, Nick Bollettieri. "I don’t think Larry ever smiles." (Adds Bollettieri: "I told Larry if he has enough money, I can still get him to another level.")
Yes that's THE NicK Bollettieri, erstwhile coach of Andre Agassi and tons of other pros. What's he doing in the story? Well:
Not long after leaving office in 2001, Summers and a Treasury colleague named Lee Sachs spent a long weekend refining their strokes at Bollettieri’s world-famous tennis academy in Florida. "He and I were making the adjustments to post-government life," Summers recalls. "His father lived down there, and we decided to try it for several days."
The trip soon became an annual ritual, with Geithner, Sperling, and several other former colleagues joining in. Each March, the wonks-in-exile would present themselves to the Bollettieri instructors for two days of extensive drilling.
Yikes!
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Bill sticks it to Hill (again)
But I don't get it. We are on the outs with North Korea right? Hillary said we shouldn't give them any attention. But yet we did. I am happy for the two women and their families, but I have to say, if I were President I wouldn't have done this.
The White House says Bill went completely as a private citizen, the Northies say he carried a message from Obama. Either way, there is no way he went without the approval of the White House.
What about them firing missiles? What about the sanctions? Why are we giving the Dear Leader a global stage upon which to prance? Because conditions in North Korean jails are too harsh?
Even if the journalists didn't actually enter North Korea as they were alleged to have done, I believe that this circus is too high a price to pay for their release.
I wonder what we will have to do to "win" the release of the next group?
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Mission accomplished
Here is an example, taken from a small boat on the Cuiaba river in the Pantanal:
Click on the picture to enlarge. That was pretty much the coolest thing ever.
More soon.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Words of wisdom from Naomi Klein??
"I vote to banish Larry Summers. Not from the planet. That wouldn't be nice. Just from public life.
The criticisms of President Obama's chief economic adviser are well known. He's too close to Wall Street. And he's a frightful bully, of both people and countries. Still, we're told we shouldn't care about such minor infractions. Why? Because Summers is brilliant, and the world needs his big brain.
And this brings us to a central and often overlooked cause of the global financial crisis: Brain Bubbles. This is the process wherein the intelligence of an inarguably intelligent person is inflated and valued beyond all reason, creating a dangerous accumulation of unhedged risk. Larry Summers is the biggest Brain Bubble we've got.
Brain Bubbles start with an innocuous "whiz kid" moniker in undergrad, which later escalates to "wunderkind." Next comes the requisite foray as an economic adviser to a small crisis-wracked country, where the kid is declared a "savior." By 30, our Bubble Boy is tenured and officially a "genius." By 40, he's a "guru," by 50 an "oracle." After a few drinks: "messiah."
The superhuman powers bestowed upon these men -- and yes, they are all men -- shield them from the scrutiny that might have prevented the current crisis. Alan Greenspan's Brain Bubble allowed him to put the economy at great risk: When he made no sense, people assumed that it was their own fault. Brain Bubbles also formed the key argument Greenspan and Summers used to explain why lawmakers couldn't regulate the derivatives market: The wizards on Wall Street were too brilliant, their models too complex, for mere mortals to understand.
Back in 1991, Summers argued that the subject of economics was no longer up for debate: The answers had all been found by men like him. "The laws of economics are like the laws of engineering," he said. "One set of laws works everywhere." Summers subsequently laid out those laws as the three "-ations": privatization, stabilization and liberalization. Some "kinds of ideas," he explained a few years later in a PBS interview, have already become too "passé" for discussion. Like "the idea that a huge spending program is the way to stimulate the economy."
And that's the problem with Larry. For all his appeals to absolute truths, he has been spectacularly wrong again and again. He was wrong about not regulating derivatives. Wrong when he helped kill Depression-era banking laws, turning banks into too-big-to-fail welfare monsters. And as he helps devise ever more complex tricks and spends ever more taxpayer dollars to keep the financial casino running, he remains wrong today.
Word is that Summers's current post may be a pit stop on the way to the big prize, Federal Reserve chairman. That means he could actually make "maestro."
Mr. President, please: Pop this bubble before it's too late."pretty good, no? Geithner could go on this list too, I think.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
God bless Ron Paul
"Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and a growing number of national security experts are calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe.
Used heavily during the Revolution and the War of 1812, letters of marque serve as official warrants from the government, allowing privateers to seize or destroy enemies, their loot and their vessels in exchange for bounty money.
The letters also require would-be thrill seekers to post a bond promising to abide by international rules of war.
In a YouTube video earlier this week, Paul suggested lawmakers consider issuing letters, which could relieve American naval ships from being the nation’s primary pirate responders — a free-market solution to make the high seas safer for cargo ships.
“I think if every potential pirate knew this would be the case, they would have second thoughts because they could probably be blown out of the water rather easily if those were the conditions,” Paul said."
Friday, April 10, 2009
Be careful what you wish for
Sunday, February 08, 2009
The unbearable arrogance of the "Nudge-ers"
Now I can.
It's the incredible arrogance of some of its practitioners. Really. Check out this NY Times story about the "Nudge" movement:
Let's begin with this:
"Mr. Thaler has found that people often don’t act rationally and in their own best interests, as is assumed by traditional economic models. He calls such idealized people “Econs,” as distinguished from “Humans.” Econs are walking computers, and behave according to the laws of classical economics; Humans are quirky, like the people you meet on the street. Humans may know that they should eat less and exercise more, but they often miss the mark. They may know that they should save more, but often don’t. And so, Mr. Thaler says, most of us would benefit from a nudge."
Ah yes, pity us poor, weak, misguided, humans. Lucky for us we have benevolent demi-gods like Sunstein and Thaler to shove us onto the path of enlightenment via their "libertarian paternalism".
Yes people, that's what they call it; libertarian paternalism:
"Nudging people for their own benefit in unobtrusive ways is part of what the co-authors call “libertarian paternalism,” a seeming oxymoron that links the notions of freedom from constraint and firm, well-intentioned guidance."
"Mr. Sunstein and Mr. Thaler say that this apparent contradiction is reconciled through what they call “choice architecture.” This is the deliberate imposition of structure in an environment — etching flies in a urinal — to induce people to make better choices. Consider a cafeteria where healthy foods like fruit and yogurt are placed in a prominent location, while junk foods are relegated to an out-of-the way spot. People are free to choose, but they are being nudged toward healthier decisions. "So I would ask the nudge-ers: if people are quirky humans who don't know what's best for themselves, how in the world can you know what is best for them and exactly where to nudge them? After all, you are human too, aren't you?
This stuff is pretty much just trying to enforce a particular view of the world or pattern of behavior on others via implicit taxation. Paternalistic, yes, but libertarian? No.
Almost any economist, if asked how to curb some behavior or increase some other behavior will tell you they'd alter the incentives on the margin. This is not a new insight. What is new I think is the glee with which the Nudge-ers propose to use economics for social engineering. I can't see any way how it's not saying "We are better than you so we will make the rules of the game for you".
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Mother of Porkulus
From the WSJ: "There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.....Most of the rest of this project spending will go to such things as renewable energy funding ($8 billion) or mass transit ($6 billion)."
From Martin Feldstein: "On the spending side, the stimulus package is full of well-intended items that, unfortunately, are not likely to do much for employment. Computerizing the medical records of every American over the next five years is desirable, but it is not a cost-effective way to create jobs. Has anyone gone through the (long) list of proposed appropriations and asked how many jobs each would create per dollar of increased national debt?
The largest proposed outlays amount to just writing unrestricted checks to state governments. Nearly $100 billion would result from increasing the "Medicaid matching rate," a technique for reducing states' Medicaid costs to free up state money for spending on anything governors and state legislators want. An additional $80 billion would be given out for "state fiscal relief." Will these vast sums actually lead to additional spending, or will they merely finance state transfer payments or relieve state governments of the need for temporary tax hikes or bond issues?
The plan to finance health insurance premiums for the unemployed would actually increase unemployment by giving employers an incentive to lay off workers rather than pay health premiums during a time of weak demand. And this supposedly two-year program would create a precedent that could be hard to reverse."
Yikes!Thursday, October 30, 2008
That's gonna leave a mark
The Knicks beat the Heat and it seems like a new day might be fixin' to dawn in MSG. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo sports says that the Starbury burial is likely permanent.