Competitive Notes

Moving On

2008-08-17T23:00:00.000-07:00

Point your browsers in this direction: http://overtonsarrow.wordpress.com/

This blog will self-destruct in 5, 4, ....

Stand By

2008-08-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

Changes are coming.

Olympic Bleg

2008-06-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

Chicago has made it into the finals for the 2016 Olympics. That makes me happy, but I'll withhold congratulations as I have my doubts about the value of the Olympics to a city.

News stories always refer to the city's "bid" and its "bid package" to the International Olympic Committee. Has anyone ever seen a bid? I've done some preliminary research and can't find any ... even an old one. What do they look like? How detailed are they?

The Economist Philosopher?

2008-06-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

I am very sympathetic to Robert Driskill's Foreign Policy article "Why Do Economists Make Such Dismal Arguments About Trade?" I actually spent this past semester trying to write an article defending trade as a means to growth and technological advancement. (Hopefully, that article will be published somewhere more distinguished than this blog.) Its tough work because the gains to trade do not manifest themselves immediately nor do they appear in the places that people traditionally look. People look for jobs, but they should be looking at technological change .... which in turn brings jobs. Economists do not do a great job of making these arguments. The profession suffers as a result. So do politics.

I thought Driskill's final paragraph missed something:

Who are economists to judge whether benefits to future generations justify current hardships? That’s a question for philosophers. But it is the kind of useful knowledge that economists can present to the world to help people make up their own minds. It clarifies the trade-offs that societies face when they follow different policies. That is what economists are trained to do: see the pros and cons of different policy choices, trade-offs that are not obvious to non-economists. But they don’t have to practice philosophy without a license to do that.

Driskill misses the point of focusing on the future and misses the most important trade-off. He questions whether future benefits are worth current hardships. But those benefits are enabled by the process of change that produces short-term hardships for some. To avoid those hardships today (job loss, technological change, social dislocation) is to ensure that those future benefits never happen. Driskill seems to be questioning the very value of change.

Do I really need a philosophy license to state that?

New Orleans

2008-06-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

Caren and I are back from vacation in New Orleans. We had a tremendous time ... I recommend NOLA for anyone who hasn't been there in a while. The city is alive, rebuilding, and largely optimistic although there remain significant post-Katrina problems. I've added New Orleans to my list of U.S. cities that I would consider living in (being careful to find a well-located abode not in a flood plain).

The rest of this post will be a quick recollection of the trip in short-sentence "Larry King in USA Today" style.

My libertarianism tells me I should hate Amtrak. And I do. But when you get a sleeper compartment and leisurely make your way down to New Orleans, its a very pleasant ride. Note that your meals are free with a sleeper ticket.

Caren and I spent a grand total of maybe 3 hours on Bourbon Street. Its loud and annoying. And crammed with ugly people. The outdoor courtyard at Pat O'Brien's is the only Bourbon Street place that was even close to relaxing.

Go to Napoleon House and order a Pimm's Cup. It's the best possible drink involving a slice of cucumber.

The muffuletta is delicious.

Avoid the French Market. Its overrated.

Caren and I stumbled on a George Rodrigue exhibit at NOMA. It was a good introduction to Louisiana, Cajun, and Creole culture.

Visit the Cabildo for a nice historical overview.

Get out of the Quarter when you can. Go to Frenchman Street in the Faubourg Marigny.

Take the streetcar out St. Charles Street to the Garden District and visit Sean Perry at the Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. He is a strange man with a terrible website, but very knowledgeable.

The Magazine Street neighborhood seemed like a good balance between tourism and livability.

Am I the only one that finds Preservation Hall fake and strange?

Cochon is delicious. I think strictly no-pork people would have a tough time in New Orleans.

Yeah, I went to the National World War II Museum. Eh.

Go to Cafe du Monde at odd hours.

We bowed to the Emeril idol and went to NOLA for dinner. He is still annoying but puts together a hell of a shrimp-and-grits.

Visit Natchez, MS when there is something going on. But I did find the Natchez Trace fascinating. That's a potential bike trip in the future.

Go to New Orleans.

Richard Florida @ Google

2008-05-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

This is worth watching. Richard Florida (former GMU School of Public Policy professor) is arguing that technology is not ending the importance of place .... indeed its more important than ever. I like it because its informative to my notions of the importance of labor mobility. (Although he does freely admit that leaving a community has costs.)

He's making a (tenuous) connection between social openness and tolerance to economic growth, which I think is important. Its very early in this research, however.

It also has political ramifications, which he addresses in the first question asked. He argues, essentially, that Red-Blue is an economic manifestation and not (just) a cultural issue.

Krugman and Trade, Wages, and Distribution

2008-04-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

I just got around to reading Krugman's "Trade and Wages, Reconsidered". You can read the draft here. The most compelling part is here:

Yet there is good reason to believe that the apparent sophistication of developing country exports is, in reality, largely a statistical illusion, created by the phenomenon of vertical specialization in a world of low trade costs.

In layman's terms: Every iPod counts about $150 against our trade deficit with China, but that is largely B.S. Apple gets some of that, as do component producers in Japan, South Korea and other places. Perhaps most significantly, the IP owners get a big chunk of that and most (all?) of them do not live in China. But its too hard to actually track all of that down for every product. As a result, I have to listen to Lou Dobbs.

Business in Iraq

2008-04-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

This NYT article on a gentlemen's shoe business in Iraq shows that even under the most terrible circumstances, people can put together a survivable business. I share this as a celebration of human resilience.

And as a shot at cheap Chinese products:

“After 2003, people were so attracted by the Chinese products,” Mr. Zahra said. “But after realizing that these products are not good quality, now they turn to the Iraqi shoes.”

That's tremendous.

The Wealth of People, Not Places

2008-04-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

Will Wilkinson points out, with his typical enthusiasm, a paper that tries to develop a metric on the wealth of people rather than the wealth of places:

It is easy to learn the average income of a resident of El Salvador or Albania. But there is no systematic source of information on the average income of a Salvadoran or Albanian. In this new working paper, research fellow Michael Clemens and non-resident fellow Lant Pritchett create a new statistic: income per natural — the mean annual income of persons born in a given country, regardless of where that person now resides.

I like this, but I'd like to work on a domestic version of this. When places fail (towns, neighborhoods) and people move out, we typically focus on the place failure. But those people moving out went on to something else, some worse, most probably better. We don't do a good job of capturing that aspect of change.

I was on WTOP this morning,

2008-03-31T12:14:00.000-07:00

Listen in here.