Environmental and Urban Economics

Read this NY Article about Internet freedom being limited in China.  Towards the end of the article, here is a direct quote: "The vast majority of Chinese Internet users, especially those not fluent in English and other foreign languages, have little interest in vaulting the digital firewall. But those who require access to an unfiltered Internet are the very people Beijing has been counting on to transform the nation’s low-end manufacturing economy into one fueled by entrepreneurial innovation."

So, the elite 1% of China's society are now being limited by President Xi's campaign to reduce Chinese Internet users access to Western content.  The NY Times worries that without access to tools such as Google Scholar that innovation in China will slow down.

I was in Manhattan on Monday night as the big snow storm got ready to hit.   The Subway was closed and all vehicles were ordered off of the roads as of 11pm that Monday night.  These stringent measures turned out to be too stringent. Roughly 6 inches of snow landed and this stuff was quickly swept away.   How costly was it for the city and its residents to have their lives disrupted for a day?  On the production side, can the lost output be produced at other times?  Yes.

I have been in NYC since Sunday night.  On Sunday night, I had the opportunity to sit snugly with some teenagers in the Economy Plus section of a United Flight.    I worked for several hours and then watched Think Like a Man.  Kevin Hart packs a punch.   When I fly back to LA tomorrow, I will sit in a larger seat with fewer close (or young) neighbors.  While my Manhattan Institute event was cancelled (due to the snow), I had a great time with my parents.

The NY Times holds a diversified portfolio.  On page 3, I read an optimistic piece by David Leonhardt highlighting economic growth in Africa and the progress in their middle class' quality of life.  In the same front section, I read a pessimistic Opinion Piece by Nick Kristoff that since 1980 middle class life is going to hell in the United States.    A direct quote from Saint Nick;

"Since the end of the 1970s, something has gone profoundly wrong in America.

Inequality has soared.

The NY Times  returns to Owens Valley near Los Angeles.  Recall that that water from Owens Valley played a key role in the growth of Los Angeles (we do use water here but it doesn't rain).  A consequence of grabbing the Owens Valley water was that the lake dried up and dust from where the lake was blows around sharply raising air pollution in the Owens Valley area.

Several points arise.

1. There were gains to trade between the water sellers (the Owens Valley farmers) and the urbanites.

The NY Times this morning wrote about three new companies that I have never heard of.  Each of them seeks to make loans to people who they believe will pay them back.  These potential lenders rely on crunching "big data" to determine if an individual is "worthy" of a loan.  A direct quote:

"None of the new start-ups are consumer banks in the full-service sense of taking deposits.

In this new world where more scholars are focusing on the development of a child's non-cognitive skills, it still is interesting to ask where you stand in the pecking order with respect to your cognitive ability.  Today, the lead piece in the NY Times Book Review is written by someone named Leon Wieseltier.  This gentleman mocks economists when he writes;

"Meanwhile the discussion of culture is being steadily absorbed into the discussion of business.

Back in the 1980s, Hyde Park in Illinois looked a little run down.  The housing stock was a series of single family homes and brownstones that looked old and battered.   Flash forward to November 2014 (my last trip to Hyde Park) and tremendous reinvestment has taken place making this area look a lot better.  Much of this investment must be tied to falling crime, and improvements in local quality of life and the increased vibrancy of the University of Chicago.

The NY Times achieves quite a feat today. It simultaneously gossips about Prince Andrew's life while it also gets philosophical and ponders what is a meaningful life.  I am impressed with this "two for one bundle".    This "news item" implicitly gives Prince Andrew "thumbs down".  At the mere age of 54, he is written off as a has been who has been pampered and had too much fun during his life.   This article raises deep issues that all academic economists should ponder.

My long plane ride to Boston for the annual ASSA meetings provided me with the chance to read a biography of UCLA's great coach John Wooden and Leon Panetta's autobiography.    At UCLA, John Wooden's long run of multiple NCAA College Basketball Championships sets a high bar for the athletics program. His success also poses a challenge for the nerdy UCLA faculty because everyone thinks of basketball when you think of UCLA.