75 Degrees Today and Blue Skies in Westwood, Los Angeles

I read today in the newspaper that it is roughly 100 degrees in large parts of the Northeast and Midwest. I am sorry to report that it has been 75 degrees and mostly blue skies here in Los Angeles. Easy access to Northeast elites has pretty serious amenity costs. I will fly to the east coast in late September but I didn't want to do this. If I could, I would never leave Westwood. Right now, I'm sitting outside on my porch in a shaded spot typing this out.

I did thumb through all of the NBER Summer Sessions to see what I will miss . There certainly are some interesting papers being presented but even they aren't good enough to tempt me to get on a long flight to a hot place to eat some one armed lobster. I have mixed feelings about the importance of "face to face" communication in modern economics. I can read someone's paper faster than he/she can present it. Now, you might say that if you don't show up that "people will forget about you". I hope that's not true. But, there is always a silver lining --- the egoist inside me will respond by writing better papers and funnier blog posts. We need some economist to act
like Eminem in "Without Me".