The A-List was out in force today at the market. Dora and I were there and people continue to think that I may be Quentin Tarantino (unfortunately I do see the resemblance). As an avid reader of People Magazine, I was quick to spot three young people who often grace its pages. Ashlee Simpson , her husband --- the tattooed Pete Wentz --- and baby seemed to be having a nice morning. Even "important people" can have a peaceful start to their day.

I am now listening to my son play his violin --- he is playing the Star Wars music that I bought for him. Yoda might not recognize the sound but the neighbors love it. We encourage him to play outside so that all of our nearby "friends" can hear it. This is payback for their barking dogs. If the Coase Theorem really holds, I'm expecting a payment from them (in return for shutting down the noise) of $10,000 very soon.

UCLA's final week of class starts tuesday. Despite the large paycuts and the absence of new hiring this year, I'm mildly optimistic about the short term future. I continue to lobby that we need to start acting like a cost minimizer and allow the economists and business types to play more of a leadership role in rational planning and prioritization. There are 10 campuses at the UC but I don't believe that any PHD economist plays a leadership role at any of them. At UC Davis, I believe that Steven Sheffrin was in a leadership role (Dean of something). UCLA would be in even better financial shape if strong incentives could be introduced into the system to encourage excellence and optimization. All Deans should be required to read Laffont and Tirole's book on the principal/agent problem. http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=8210

University management appears to be a classic case of how to incentivize a tenured group of agents to work hard for the greater good. --- Same issue with the implicitly tenured "staff".