Saturday, December 29, 2007

On Einstein


Christmas break allows one to read books that are fairly unrelated to my PhD program. So I am currently enjoying Walter Isaacson's Einstein - His Life and Universe. It is wonderfully written and very lucid; it explains continuity in Einstein's thinking and traits a lot better than the changes, however.

I want to share two tiny passages. On page 295, Isaacson tells how U.S. Congress in 1921 debated Einstein's general theory of relativity.

For reasons fathomable only by those whi live in that capital [Washington, DC - TH], the Senate decided to debate the theory of relativity. [...] On the House side of the Capitl, Representative J.J. Kindred of New York proposed placing an explanation of Einstein's theories in the Congressional Record. David Walsh of Massachussetts rose to object. Did Kindred understand the theory? "I have been earnestly busy with this theory for three weeks," he replied, "and am beginning to see some light." But what relevance, he asked, did it have to the business of Congress? "It may bear upon the legisaltion of the future as to the general relations with the cosmos.


As much as politicians' and politics' stupidity and hubris deserves to be pointed out, Einstein also performed poorly in realm outside his genius (original HT to Greg Mankiw). Debating John D. Rockefeller in 1930,

Einstein suggested that working hours to be shortened so that, at least in his understanding of economics, more people would have a chance to be employed.


D'oh.

By the way: The picture accompanying this post is the Albert Einstein Memorial in Washington, DC; I am baffled that I have not seen it despite its prominent location and my numerous trips to DC.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Germans' Buttery Fatuity

In Germany, Ikea is selling (story is in German) a pound of butter for 50 Euro-cents this weekend as some promotional deal. That's roughly slightly half the price what you'd pay in a regular supermarket. Awesome!

Not so fast. The German Farmers' Association (Deutscher Bauernverband) yells that Ikea is "shameless," treating such a precious product with such a disrespect (wanting a lower price) towards the producers.

Usually, I think of such moves in the baptists-and-bootlegger way. If some rent-seeking is pursued, there is a group that overtly preaches the virtues of such a move. They make morally palatable claims. They are the baptists. However, there is the group that covertly monetarily benefits from the rents, namely the bootleggers.

How did the German farmers' lobby manage to be baptist and bootlegger in unison?

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

The French government sells something?

Bewildering excitement set in upon reading this (NYT):

France: Government Selling Stake in Utility. Shares of the state-owned power provider Électricitée de France went on sale [...]


I was about to launch a celebration dance, but then I finished reading the sentence:

[...] as the government sought to raise about $7.4 billion to finance the university system. [...] The money is earmarked for the public university system.


Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

Monday, December 3, 2007

Betting on Airstrikes...



The National Intelligence Estimate suggested that Iran has actually ended its atomic arms work. How should that impact the probability of an U.S. (and/ or Israeli) overt airstrike against Iran? Intrade suggests that there's a very, very low chance. More on prediction markets here and here.

JCR 51(6) is out!

As the semester is winding down and snow is starting to set in (well, not in Houston), and with the Christmas break around the corner, the latest issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution comes at a very fine time. Read and enjoy!

I am looking most forward to more readings on sanctions by Letzkian and Souva, even though they do not use the best sanctions data in the world.