USC's Price School was kind enough to invite me to give a speech in late January 2012 about China's Future Green Cities.   Here is the YouTube Video.  At first, I tried to be dignified but after a while I start to crack a number of pretty good jokes.

Forget the 1% and OWS.  The new key number in life for the people of Los Angeles is 3%.   In Los Angeles, it is easy to evade paying for riding the subway.  Turnstiles are unlocked, security is lax and commuters often hop over or pass through undetected (source).

I'm sitting at a midtown Manhattan Starbucks waiting for a friend of mine who actually works.  Below, I supply a photo of some urban garbage that I found close to the Hilton Hotel on 53rd and 6th.

This image nudged me back to my work on "green cities" and density.

For those who care about my views on China's environmental future, you can read a funny USC article here.  I won't be blogging for several days because I'll be in NYC.  You may see me in midtown on Thursday or perhaps at the Federal Reserve on Friday.  I look forward to seeing you.

In 2011, Meyer and Renee Luskin made an extremely generous gift to UCLA.  Roughly 1/2 of this gift was allocated to the UCLA Luskin School of Public Policy.  This was a very wise investment.   The other 1/2 has been allocated to a new conference and guest center.

Who knew that Grist has a free markets libertarian streak?  This piece  by Tom Horton makes  a lot of sense.  He argues that sea level rise along the Virginia coastline should nudge an organized retreat and the growth of wetlands.

If you were the Earl of Grantham would you be a benevolent daddy to your large staff of serfs and house maids?  The NY Times has a very funny piece focused on altruism  and class at Downton Abbey.

The rise of micro blogs in China helps to educate the public about product issues such as the bullet train accident or the milk safety scandal and this reduces the likelihood that the State can suppress  information.

In Rio De Janeiro, the following sequence has often taken place.  "It's the typical tale of doomed Carnival romance: Boy spots girl in the sweaty crush of a street party. Moments later, they're locked in a passionate embrace.

Now that I've turned 46, young economists ask me "big think" questions about where I think the field of energy economics should go.  Since nobody reads this blog, I can confidently sketch an answer without causing any trouble.

Everybody knows that we are now accessing better micro data.

Two University of Chicago scholars have posted an intriguing paper for establishing future "rules of the game" to reduce the likelihood of future financial market meltdowns.

My publisher has notified me that I can purchase hard copies of my Climatopolis book for $2.26 each.   This isn't good news in terms of my expected future royalties but demand curves do slope down. I am purchasing 200 copies and giving them away for free to my UCLA students.

An interesting debate is playing out between the NY Times Joe Nocera and Joe Romm and friends.  You can read the details here.  I would like to add one simple point.

I haven't read David Owen's new book but he appears to be taking Jevons too seriously.   He needs to read Gary Becker's work on the value of time in a society where our value of time is rising.

Steve Lohr has written a strong piece for the NY Times on the "age of big data".  I sent it to my UCLA Freshmen to read.  We will see if they bother.  I want to make a distinction here between 1.  crunching data from an existing data set  ,  2.

On Monday, I will deliver my first UCLA lecture of the 2012 calendar year.  The audience will be a group of about 120 first year undergrads.  They look young to me.  Is there anything I can teach them?   This is a general education cluster course at UCLA.

Here are Lee's answers.

Do you trust the engineers to develop new solutions for addressing society's challenges?  UCLA has an excellent engineering school and thousands of young, sober students attend the engineering classes taking notes and hopefully thinking.

I am at the enormous new Sacramento airport waiting to fly back to LA.  I have learned my value of time.  I could have paid $120 to take a 3 hour earlier flight to LA but I said no and I have gotten a lot of work done in this quiet airport that offers free wifi.

Tomorrow night I will be speaking at the Levine Family Fund Lecture Series at UC Davis.  Here are  my Climatopolis slides.

Joe Romm notes that Southern August football practice could be quite uncomfortable in the year 2035.

China's water quality is suffering from a recent industrial spill.  The simple economics of self protection offers a productive approach for studying this issue.  Let's return to the classic Ehrlich and Becker 1972 model.

Yesterday, I participated in a naval battle between two sailing vessels.  We left from the port of Ventura, California and fought it out in the Pacific Ocean.  My son was thrilled as we fired fake cannon balls at the other ship and yelled and screamed at our adversaries.

Hong Kong appears to take pride at being a "green city".  This LA Times article highlights a little bit of class warfare taking place with visitors from mainland China.

"Down the road, this data will be used against you."  Or so says one opponent of mandated installation of smart meters into homes.   This quote comes from this article  spelling out Tea Party opposition to "green initiatives" seeking to reduce our carbon footprint.

Young people who are good at math are told that being an actuary might be a good job for them.

In the developed West, individuals seek to have a comfortable retirement and have saved trillions of dollars in private savings and mutual fund holdings and retirement plans.   The institutional investors are aware that U.S Treasuries pay 0% right now.

In 2011, a book titled Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence was published.  The author is Christian Parenti.  Here is the amazon page for this strange book.

I was surprised to read that Japan's Western region has suffered many deaths due to recent heavy snow storms.  The details are posted here.

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