EclectEcon

Superman = Blue Jays?

In early August, when Ms Eclectic and I visited the Rogers Centre and watched the Trono Blue Jays defeat the Minnesota Twins, we were delighted that the Blue Jays were finally vying for a play-off spot, albeit the last of two wildcard positions.

Now look where they are: Leading the AL East Division and likely to clinch that spot today. And they are leading the entire American League with a game and a half lead over the Kansas City Royals, which (if they remain #1) will give them home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Wow. What a change from a mediocre .500 record. The new additions to the team plus the remarkable improvements of some already on the team really seem to have made a difference.

The Toronto Star thinks so. Here's today's editorial cartoon:

Question for Jeremy Corbyn: Does Israel Have the Right To Exist?

From David Hirsh at Engage,

Labour leaders usually address both Labour Friends of Palestine and Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) fringe meetings at Conference.  Corbyn had a particular job to do at LFI: he needed to reassure the Jewish community and antiracists that he understands what it is about his record that is so concerning:

He has presented a show on Press TV, Iran’s propaganda channel.  Iran wants Israel wiped off the map and has a public policy of Holocaust Denial.

Corbyn is a Patron of the “Palestine Solidarity Campaign” whose main business is to fight for a boycott of Israel.  Corbyn has reaffirmed his support for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel as recently as August 2015.

Corbyn has referred to Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends” and he said that they are dedicated to the good of the Palestinian people and to social and political justice in the Middle East.

Corbyn has jumped to the defence of antisemites, Raed Salah who indulged in medieval blood libel and Stephen Sizerwho said that Israel was behind 9/11. He continued to support “Deir Yassin Remembered” even when it was well known that it was run by a Holocaust Denier.  He has said that those who have raised these issues are making personal smears, not political criticism.

Corbyn sometimes says that he is for a two state solution but he also says, in a coded disavowal of such a solution, that the Palestinian right to return was “the key” to a solution.

So what did he say at the LFI meeting?

He refused to utter the word “Israel”.  He refused to say that he was for the right of Israel to exist, even within the ’67 borders. [emphasis added]

It is difficult to say that Israel has a right to exist and not also grant it some other options to defend itself. I really have to wonder if Jeremy Corbyn is so anti-Israel that he thinks it has no right to exist. I suspect he is and does.

Who Should Be the American League Most Valuable Player: Mike Trout or Josh Donaldson?

Everyone in SW Ontario (and maybe Canada) is touting Josh Donaldson, 3B for the Trono BJs, for AL MVP. I love watching him play, and he is clearly a very strong contender.

But Mike Trout, CF for the California Angels, has been very good, too. Here is a comparison of the stats (as of Monday evening) that might be relevant:

OPS (on base percentage plus slugging average), all positions:

Trout is first in the AL at .983

Donaldson is third at .951

Both OPSs are excellent, but a 32-point differential is fairly substantial.

Defence: 

There aren't any good readily available stats on defence at the MLB site. Here are two that are available, but since they play different positions, the comparison is with others at the same position: Fielding percentage and Range Factor.

Trout is tied for 1st in fielding percentage among AL centre-fielders. He has made noerrors. However, he is only 4th of 11 in Range Factor. 

Donaldson is only 8th of 12 in fielding percentage for third basemen in the AL. However, he is 2nd in Range Factor.

These stats are consistent with what I have seen: Donaldson makes a lot of plays, many of them electrifying. He gets to more balls and makes more plays than most 3B. 

Trout is no slouch in the field, though (I'm thinking, for instance, of the HR he stole last night, going high over the CF wall). He likely isn't quite as good defensively, but it's close.

As an unabashed BJ fan, I'd love to see Donaldson win the MVP. But unless things change substantially over the last 7 games of the season, I think BJ fans had better be prepared for some disappointment here. Trout will likely win the award.

Not Only Is This the First Time I've Agreed with Trudeau or Suzuki, I Agree with Them BOTH in this Case.

Yup I agree with them both.

• Justin Trudeau called  David Suzuki's views "sanctimonious crap"
• Suzuki called Trudeau "a twerp"

Right on both counts! From Maclean's,

During a testy phone call, Justin Trudeau dismissed David Suzuki’s views on the Liberal climate change policy as “sanctimonious crap,” according to Suzuki. Suzuki revealed the contents of the conversation during an interview on SiriusXM’sEverything is Political with Evan Solomon. Suzuki says he fired back, calling Trudeau a “twerp.”

 

 

This Is One of the Reasons I Loved and Miss Teaching Economics: A Wonderful Adventure

My former student David Henderson posted about what he loves about teaching economics. It is a beautiful posting. It captures so much about what I loved when I was teaching.

Another excerpt [from a posting by Steven Landsburg about Dierdre McClosky]:

Rising food prices or rising oil prices can't explain inflation, at least not by the mechanisms most people imagine. A frost in Florida won't cause a shortage of oranges. When there's an increase in the price of steel, car prices will rise by less if the auto industry is monopolized than if the auto industry is competitive--though several members of the president's Council of Economic Advisors had believed otherwise.

Steven's whole piece reminded me of why I'm looking forward, at age 64, to starting my new class next week. I never tire of teaching some of the things mentioned above...

One of the things I tell my students, whose median age is about 31 and who (at least many of them) have seen more of the world than I have, is "you'll learn things you never knew you never knew."

Then between the first and second hours of class, to bring them back into the room, I play this song by Norah Jones. And no, I'm not saying that I will kiss my students. (I do hug.) It's just my way of communicating that we're going to go on a wonderful adventure together. [emphasis added. What a great way to think about teaching price theory!]

 

What Took So Long? VW Facts Were Known Last Year

From every article I have read, it seems pretty clear that Volkswagon cheated by installing devices that would detect when their cars were being test for emissions by the EPA.

But here's a puzzle: This cheating was detected nearly a year and a half ago! [see this]

Carder said he's surprised to see such a hullabaloo now, because his team's findings were made public nearly a year and a half ago.

"We actually presented this data [sic] in a public forum and were actually questioned by Volkswagen," said Carder.

Granted, Huffington Post has a reputation of not being entirely reliable among some circles, but I'm guessing this report is accurate.

If it IS accurate, what took so long? Why has this information not be disseminated widely before now? What did VW do, if anything, to slow its dissemination? And given they new these results, did VW keep cheating after learning of them? And if so, what kind of stupid is that?

If I had bought one of these vehicles, I'd want a full refund and then some.

And why would anyone buy a VW now? .... well, maybe if I were in the market I'd consider one at half price...

My friend, Ted Frank at the Centre for Class Action Fairness will surely have an interest in this situation. Perhaps as many as 11 million car owners who will now have to bear huge expenses and and/or inconveniences as VW tries to fix the situation, likely by reducing gas mileage and torque on the diesels.

Muskegon Michigan High School Band Alumni

At this time tomorrow, I will be on my way from London, Ontario, to Muskegon, Michigan, the town where I was born and raised.

Every fall, for the high school homecoming football game, all the alumni of the high school marching band are invited back to join the current marching band to participate in the pre-game and half-time festivities. Someone tells me this has been going on for nearly 40 years, but I started going only about ten or so years ago.

• We meet up, socialize, and rehearse late in the afternoon.
• And then we rehearse with the current high school marching band.
• The band alumni form their own procession and "march" to the stadium playing a school song [It's no long thighs parallel to the ground and 8-to-5 as it was when we were younger, but we sure have fun].
• We play school songs* with the high school band during the pre-game show.
• We participate in a portion of the half-time show, playing some piece to which we will have received the music only during the rehearsal a few hours earlier. One year we did 25-or-6-to-4, a great Chicago hit.
• Every time the football team scores, we play school songs (which seems often since the team is pretty good).
• After the game, the homecoming court is crowned (while the band members stand around and freeze our noogies [or so it seems], no matter what the actual temperature is).
• And then the combined bands march from the far end of the field through the tunnel under the stadium. The fans are lined along the walls of the tunnel and hoot and cheer us the entire way. What a thrilling feeling it is, marching to a really catchy cadence from the drum section, swinging our horns in unison, and straight-faced the entire way as the fans go wild!  Here is a video of the event from last year:
  
  
• After the march through the tunnel, the combined bands march down the street to the old high school gymnasium/auditorium, where the drums set  up in the middle of the gym floor and go through a complex series of cadences  while band members, old and new alike, prance/dance/jog around counter-clockwise in a huge circle. It struck me as a bit weird my first time there, but since then I have wholeheartedly joined in and loved it.
• After what feels like ten or fifteen minutes, the pulsing, sweating bodies break out and form a huge circle, holding hands and sing the high school Alma Mater (yes, I still remember the words).
• And then we race (figuratively, not literally) to Fricano's for pizza, etc.

I have made it back for only about four or five of these events in the past ten years. But for this year, I made sure I had no other commitments for the homecoming game because I have made so many friends during these band reunions and have renewed so many other friendships.

*The Muskegon Big Reds have four school songs.

1. "Indian Boy." The high school band is no longer allowed to play this for PC reasons, but at the end of the third quarter, the band alumni go into the crowd and play it. It is all totally unapproved of and actually disapproved of by the current band leadership. But they tolerate it because we love doing it and fans in the stadium love it.
   
2. "On Muskegon". Some school across Lake Michigan over in Wisconsin seems to have usurped this song from us (as have the Saskatchewan Roughriders!). When I played french horn in high school 87 years ago, we had afterbeats; now I play alto horn, and we have the trombone part, which is much more fun.
3. "Red & White",  a  really kick-ass fight song written by William Stewart, an amazing musician, conductor, composer, designer, mathematician, geometer, inspiring leader, and stern taskmaster. He died of a heart attack during my last year in high school, a severe loss to the music programmes in the Muskegon area.
4. "Alma Mater". A truly beautiful piece of music, also written by William Stewart. These two pieces by Stewart move me every time we play them. I'll try to attach some audio files of recordings made by our band back in 1959. The files are rather large MP4s:
   

   Red & White

   and the

   Alma Mater

   
   

Das Litigation

Professional Photographer? Ha ha ha

A couple of days ago, I received this email:

Hello, I'm Melissa How are you ? I'll like to know your free available date in October for my family reunion (5 hours photo coverage). Also i want family portraits done for the all the families coming together for the reunion. Do you accept credit card payment ? I got you contact information from the Internet can i have your name and cell number Thanks Melisa You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace . . . Isaiah 55:12

The wording makes me quite suspicious. So does the email address:

    [email protected] via users503.heteml.jp

From Japan? Send me the travel money!! Please!!

But what really sealed it is that although I have won some prizes for my photography, Melissa clearly has not seen any of my family and portrait work. I take great photos, but often the subjects are less than pleased with the results. Think Ken Danby, something like this selfie:

or think "ultra-realism" like this.

Afternoon Tea -- What is REALLY Involved

Regular long-time readers of EclectEcon know that I was introduced to taking afternoon tea at posh establishments about eight or so years ago. My latest review/report, with links to all my earlier posts on the topic can be found here.

Unfortunately, practically NO ONE in North America understands what a proper afternoon tea is or should be (there are some notable, important exceptions of course). Here, via a UK correspondent, is an excellent summary. I have listed each of the major points below, but go read the article and look at the photos there. It is absolutely spot on, but there is a tone (and a tonne!) of humour throughout it that had me laughing out loud frequently.

• It is called "afternoon tea", not "high tea". [see this]
• Wait to see how strong the tea is before adding milk. [I don't add milk or sugar or lemon when I take afternoon tea].
• Hold the cup with your forefinger touching your thumb at the handle and with the handle resting on your middle finger. [I probably commit a minor gaffe by sometimes slipping my forefinger slightly through the handle.]
• Stir the tea with back-and-forth, not circular, motions. [not an issue for me]
• The sandwiches must have no crusts. Shapes don't matter much so long as the sandwiches are cut smaller than diagonal halves [I would add they should be smaller than the standard three-cut sandwiches I have seen some places. Also, open face is acceptable if attractive; and small croissant-based sandwiches, mini-quiches, and mini-sausage-rolls are a pleasant variation.]
• The primary pastry is a scone, pronounced skahn, not skohn. [I quite dislike the small dry scones that I have had at some of the more tony places. I like a good-sized scone that has some substance, even when split. And I prefer a choice between plain and fruit (usually raisin, but cranberry is nice too) scones].
• Good scones will split in the middle with your fingers. Don't use a knife to split them.
• Don't put the two halves of a scone back together to eat them like a North American sandwich.
• Strawberry jam is traditional, but plum jam is okay. [I prefer strawberry jam, but please do NOT bring out those high-pectin little jars].
• Clotted cream is mandatory. It is also sometimes known as Devon cream (or Devonshire Cream). It is a very dense, spreadable cream that is absolutely delightful. [Several places I have been in North American have served whipped cream. Phhht. As the writer of the piece says, if an establishment does this, report them to your local council and have them closed down immediately].
• Jam then cream, or cream then jam? It doesn't matter. [I prefer cream first just because I find it difficult to spread cream on top of jam.]
• Pastry desserts on the top layer should be dainty and either bite-sized or at least small. [I have had far too many dry, disgusting desserts at afternoon teas. I guess that's traditional. I prefer tarts and gooey squares.]

The above is a quick summary. The article itself is well-worth reading for the photos and the humour. The comments are interesting and fun, too.

The Beauty of Pure and Honest Living? Phhht

I recently received an email with a series of photos of people in obscure tribes. The photos are well-done and intriguing. But the introduction bothered me:

Photographer Jimmy Nelson set out on a journey to
the remote homelands of ancient, isolated
civilizations. "My dream had always been to preserve
our world's tribes through my photography. Not to stop
change from happening -- because I know I can't -- but
to create a visual document reminding us, and the
generations after us, of the beauty of pure and honest
living.

How about another video or document that shows the rampant disease, the malnutrition, the demagoguery,  and the astoundingly short life expectancies that have been associated with this so-called "pure and honest living"?

This is not to denigrate the photographic preservation of different cultures and styles. Rather, it is to emphasize that paying homage to mythical Nirvanas is misleading at best. Life was and is hard for nearly all the participants in cultures like the ones studied in these photographs. Modern life, with relative abundance and security, and far better health care, is amazing and so wonderful in comparison.

All Cultures are NOT Equal

Judeo-Christian traditions have not always been above reproach. But we have made serious progress in comparison with some other cultures. It is reprehensible that some cultures tolerate or even encourage things like this.

Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan,particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.

Sexual abuse of minors and of women is intolerable. I don't care if it is part of the culture, it is wrong.

That having been said, in the diplomacy of "the enemy of my enemy is maybe not my enemy", I can understand the dilemma faced by troops and policy makers.

Nevertheless, I hope all the warm fuzzy multiculturalists who argue that all cultures are equally legitimate will wake up.

Maybe now that piece in the NYTimes has blown the whistle, others will see the horribleness of that culture.

Macroeconomic Policy: New Keynesianism vs Market Monetarism

Ever since Scott Sumner began blogging, I have been enjoying his posts. They are rich and careful, and they have probably had a big impact on the thinking of many policy-makers. I hope so.

His recent post at Econlog is a four-point comparison of Keynesian macro policy with what has come to be known as Market Monetarism. He begins with a quoted passage from Paul Krugman:

Paul Krugman has a new post that summarizes Keynesian economics:

I would summarize the Keynesian view in terms of four points:

1. Economies sometimes produce much less than they could, and employ many fewer workers than they should, because there just isn't enough spending. Such episodes can happen for a variety of reasons; the question is how to respond.

2. There are normally forces that tend to push the economy back toward full employment. But they work slowly; a hands-off policy toward depressed economies means accepting a long, unnecessary period of pain.

3. It is often possible to drastically shorten this period of pain and greatly reduce the human and financial losses by "printing money", using the central bank's power of currency creation to push interest rates down.

4. Sometimes, however, monetary policy loses its effectiveness, especially when rates are close to zero. In that case temporary deficit spending can provide a useful boost. And conversely, fiscal austerity in a depressed economy imposes large economic losses.

This looks pretty much like the Keynesian macro that I learned as an undergraduate and that was mainstream economics still when I was in graduate school despite the emergence of monetarism and the beginnings of rational expectations.

The thing we all need to learn is that point #4 is incorrect. That's where Scott Sumner has done everyone a huge favour. Let us wish  him continued success.

His response, using these same four points, describing market monetarism:

If I were to do the equivalent for market monetarism, it might look something like the following:

1. Economies sometimes produce much less than they could, and employ many fewer workers than they should, because there just isn't enough spending. Such episodes occur because monetary policy is too contractionary, causing NGDP to fall relative to the (sticky) wage level.

[As an aside, economies can also produce too little due to real shocks, such as higher minimum wages. That's also true in the Keynesian model.]

[EE: Sometimes there can be unanticipated major sectoral shifts in demand which, with sticky wages, can cause things that look like supply shocks too].

2. There are normally forces that tend to push the economy back toward full employment. But they work slowly; a hands-off policy toward depressed economies means accepting a long, unnecessary period of pain.

[Notice this one is identical.]

3. It is often possible to drastically shorten this period of pain and greatly reduce the human and financial losses by "printing money", using the central bank's power of currency creation to boost M*V, i.e. NGDP, via the "hot potato effect".

[EE: and paying interest on commercial bank reserves on deposit at the the Fed was a major mistake here since it led to the opposite of printing money]

4. Monetary policy remains highly effective at the zero bound. As a result, demand-side fiscal policy is mostly ineffective in countries with an independent monetary authority---offset by monetary policy. Fiscal actions that shift the aggregate supply curve, however, can be effective.

This last point really needs explication. It is consistent with the older monetarism of Milton Friedman et al. The central bank can affect the money supply and aggregate demand by printing money, by buying things in the marketplace. That is what Quantitative Easing was all about.

And it appears to be working, albeit with a "long and variable lag".

Is the Fed Really Pursuing Expansionary Policies? Probably not much

I just saw this. It is spot on.

An excerpt:

Banks are lending the Fed about $3 trillion worth of reserves, reserves the banks could go out and lend elsewhere if the market were producing great opportunities. Spreads of other rates over the rates banks lend to or borrow from the Fed are very low, not very high. Deposits are flooding in to banks, not loans out of banks.

If you just look out the window, our economy looks a lot more like one in which the Fed is keeping rates high, by sucking deposits out of the economy and paying banks more than they can get elsewhere; not pushing rates down, by lending a lot to banks at rates lower than they can get elsewhere.

I thought it had been well-settled that it's what the Fed does with reserves and about reserves and about the monetary mechanism that matters, not what it does about interest rates. As Scott Sumner often says, "Never reason from a price change", and that's what people do when they look at the Fed and the overnight lending rate.

Maybe the rate announced by the Fed has some "announcement effect" but probably not much given everything else it does that is nowhere near so expansionary as too many financial writers think it is.

What the Fed has been doing since 2008 seems eerily similar to what the Fed did in the 1930s when it "soaked up the excess reserves" and put the economy back into a tailspin. It doesn't seem so bad this time around (thankfully) but it could be so much better.

Related articles

Economic Outlook

Say WHAT?

I was shopping for some placebos on Amazon yesterday and saw this:

3 x $28 = $84, doesn't it? I didn't see any comment that shipping would be included if I bought three bottles.

I was amused.

Disappointing Developments in Iceland

Another from the Daily Alert:

• Reykjavik, Iceland, Votes to Boycott Goods from Israel - Paul Fontaine
  Reykjavik City Hall voted on Tuesday to ban the purchase of products from Israel. Kjartan Magnusson, an opposition councilperson, accused the ruling coalition of hypocrisy, pointing out that China still occupies Tibet, yet Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson has accepted trips to China at the expense of the Chinese government. There is also no known proposal to boycott goods from China.
      Supreme Court lawyer Einar Gautur Steingrimsson said the move is unconstitutional and "goes beyond the city's role as a municipality." "This is just as illegal as refusing to do business with redheads," he said. (Reykjavik Grapevine-Iceland)

At least the city council is being called out for its racism and hypocrisy.

Gaza and Hamas: We'd Rather Stay in the Dark

Gazans have been experiencing significant power cuts and outages. Here are two pieces via Daily Alert about the cuts:

• Gazans Protest Power Cuts - Majd Al Waheidi
  For three days, hundreds of Palestinians have demonstrated in central and southern Gaza over increasing power cuts which have left them with four to six hours of power a day. The latest shortages appear to have occurred after deterioration in the lines from Egypt, said Nathan Thrall, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. (New York Times)
      See also Hamas Leaders Refuse Deal with Israel for More Electricity - Gershon Baskin
  The people of Gaza should know that they are sitti! ng in the dark because the leaders of Hamas refused a deal to provide them with more electricity in exchange for releasing two Israeli civilians: Abera Mengisto and the [unnamed] Bedouin and the two bodies of [IDF soldiers] Hadar Goldin and Oran Shaul. This is not the only offer they have turned down. The leaders of Hamas don't give a **** about the people of Gaza - and I say that with a lot of knowledge to back it. The writer, founder and co-chairman of IPCRI - Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information, was involved in efforts leading to the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. (Facebook)

Confessions from the Lecturn

I spent too much time in my introductory economics classes trying to cover too many topics. Here is a good example.

I covered this topic in all my classes. I wish I had gone through it more, repeatedly, and made sure every student understood it well enough that they could explain it to their parents. From Scott Sumner:

One of the basic principles of public finance is that it makes no difference whether a tax is legally borne by the buyer or seller. The burden of the tax will depend on the relative elasticity of supply and demand, and the economic incidence of a tax doesn't depend at all on the legal incidence. Stephen Gordon did a post discussing this issue, and provided a nice set of graphs for comparison:

In this case most of the burden of the tax falls on buyers, in the form of higher prices. But his post also shows the opposite case, which is more likely to apply to labor markets (where sellers of labor, i.e. workers, are believed to absorb most of the burden of a payroll tax, whatever its legal incidence (which is 50-50 in the US.))

 I have often summarized this result as the "Bill Murray" result, quoting from his chant in the not-so-famous camp movie, "Meatballs",

It just doesn't matter! It just doesn't matter!

If all students learned this, and if they could see that it doesn't take long for the new equilibrium to be attained regardless of where a tax is imposed, they would likely understand a heckuva lot more economics.

Some Good Applications of Public Choice Economics

Robert Samuelson's column in the Washington Post does a nice job of summarizing why and how small interest groups acquire political power. 

Here’s an example: A company and its workers lobby for import protection, which saves jobs and raises prices and profits. But consumers — who pay the higher prices — don’t create a counter-lobby, because it’s too much trouble and the higher prices are diluted among many individual consumers. Gains are concentrated, losses dispersed. ...

[H]e argued that the proliferation of special-interest concessions could reduce a society’s economic growth.

“An increase in the payoffs from lobbying . . . as compared with the payoffs from production, means more resources are devoted to politics and cartel activity and fewer resources are devoted to production,” he wrote. “This in turn influences [a society’s] attitudes and culture.”

The dilemma for democracies is clear. Voters expect governments to cater to their needs and wants — and one person’s special interest is another’s way of life or moral crusade. But if governments cater too aggressively to interest groups, they may undermine (or have already done so) the gains in productivity and economic growth that voters also expect.

and the telling conclusion:

Even with a jobless rate of 5.1 percent — getting close to “full employment” — the Congressional Budget Office projects a 2015 federal deficit of $426 billion. That’s one measure of overcommitment: Americans desire more government than they’re willing to pay for in taxes.

Cheap Milk in Europe -- a Boon for Consumers!

Milk prices are plummeting in Europe. There are two big reasons:

1. Demand is dropping due to Russian embargoes and there has been a drop in the demand from China.
2. Supply restrictions and quotas have been lifted, leading to an increase in the supply.

Europe's dairy farmers were already reeling from the food embargo imposed by Moscow last year in retaliation for Western sanctions over Ukraine.

Russia was one of the EU's biggest markets for dairy products, accounting for 32% of cheese exports and 24% of butter exports.

A slowdown in demand from China, the world's biggest milk importer, is also hurting the dairy industry. China is a big buyer of powdered milk.

Europe's farmers are now calling for the reintroduction of production quotas to try to balance the market. The quotas were abolished earlier this year, leaving farmers free to produce as much as they like for the first time in 30 years.

The deregulation led to more oversupply, piling even more pressure on prices.

In the past, demand was high and supply was restricted. Then the demand curve shifted to the left (demand dropped) at the same time the artificial supply restrictions were lifted, leading to a rightward shift of the supply curve. Both these moves put downward pressure on the equilibrium prices of dairy products. From the link,

There is so much sloshing around the European Union that milk is often cheaper than bottled water. A liter bottle of water costs around $1.50 in the U.K.; a liter of milk $1.

In France, milk is also around $1 per liter, similar to the price of mineral water. And in German discount supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi, a liter of milk can be as cheap as 55 cents, while a liter bottle of water costs around 72 cents. ...

While the price of milk in shops has fallen by around 5% this year, wholesale milk prices have collapsed by about 20% to around 37 cents.

And this may seem harsh: I feel a modicum of sympathy for the dairy farmers. But not much.

They have been cushioned by supply management and gubmnt programmes for years; they have been assuming market conditions and gubmnt regulations would remain unchanged.

Taxpayers and consumers owe them nothing. They made a bet and collected on it for years. Now they're losing on that bet.

For a Good Time,.... (Andrew Lawton v David Suzuki)

For a good time, listen to radio AM980 from London at 1pm today. Here is the link to their netcast.

1. In one corner we have David Suzuki, arrogant non-scientist elitist interventionist who wants to control our lives and who proclaims gloom and doom while living high off the taxpayer hog and preaching about consumerism. He was in town to take part in a "Stop Harper" movement.
2. In the other corner we have radio talk-show host, Andrew Lawton. Andrew is right-wing. Not libertarian enough to suit me, and with tendencies toward social conservatism, which can be just as controlling-interventionist as the left. But Andrew is knowledgeable and smart.

I gather there were some interesting confrontations during the interview Lawton conducted with Suzuki. It was supposed be a press conference but only Andrew showed up!! ;-)

What if they gave a press conference and nobody came?

[disclaimer: I have known Andrew, though we are not close friends, for several years.]

Racially Motivated?

What is it with those NY cops? Check this out. The headline says she is black.

The NYPD is facing a lawsuit from a woman who claims she was mistakenly put into a mental hospital, simply because police didn't believe she owned her own BMW.

Kamilah Brock, a 32-year-old banker from Long Island, was pulled over in Harlem for allegedly driving without her hands on the wheel. She was arrested, then released without charges.

"I was confused and did not know what was going on, why I was being taken into custody," Brock said to PIX11. “The officer said, 'why are you driving without your hands on the wheel?' I said I was dancing, I am at a light, he asked me to get out of the car.”

From there, things got weirder. Brock says police told her to come back for her BMW the next day, but when she arrived back at the station she claims they tricked her into being cuffed, telling her they were bringing her to get her vehicle.

Next thing she knew, paramedics were putting her in an ambulance bound for a mental health facility. The police apparently believed that Brock, whose lawyer says she has zero history of mental health problems, was delusional and did not actually have a BMW.

The lawsuit claims that Brock was held at the hospital for eight days, where she was given lithium and injected with powerful sedatives.

“He held onto me and then the doctor stuck me in the arm and I was on a stretcher and I woke up to them taking my clothes off, specifically my underwear,” Brock said in her interview with PIX11. 

According to the Huffington Post:

Medical records also show that over the course of her eight-day stay, personnel at the hospital repeatedly tried to get Brock to deny three things before she could be released: that she owned the BMW, that she was a professional banker, and that President Barack Obama followed her on Twitter. 

But all three of those things happened be true, he lawyer says.

To add insult to injury, Brock says she later received a $13,000 bill from the hospital.

Whether she was black or not, she should sue for a bundle.

Trade-offs

There is scarcity, and it is inescapable. Furthermore, scarcity necessitates choices from among the various feasible options available to us. This is a basic lesson hammered home (we hope) during the first two weeks of an introductory economics course.

It applies to nearly every aspect of our lives.

Consider, for example, blood pressure [link via Ms Eclectic].

The new research advises people with high blood pressure to keep their “systolic” pressure — the top number in the reading that health-care providers routinely tell patients — at 120 or below. Clinical guidelines have commonly called for systolic blood pressure of 140 for healthy adults and 130 for adults with kidney disease or diabetes.

It is both interesting and disappointing that the referenced article does not mention what I heard in interviews on a radio report: namely, that medications to reduce blood pressure (like nearly all medications) have various risks of potential side effects.

For someone like me whose blood pressure ranges between 120 and 135, and given my reaction to Crestor, I will probably prefer to take the risk whatever might result from having only very slightly elevated blood pressure rather than take the risks of side effects from medication to lower my blood pressure. I cannot take medication to reduce my blood pressure and  avoid the risks of side effects. I must make trade-offs and choose.

And, no, I don't wish to make lifestyle changes by reducing my alcohol and salt intakes. No point in not enjoying what life is left. And that decision also means making choices between different probable or possible outcomes.

Trade-offs.

 

I got up this morning, and you'll never guess what happened next...

Click here to see what happened next. You won't believe it

Geez, the postings on Facebook that say things like this irritate me. Silly click bait.

What happened?

----

---

--

-

I put in my hearing aids.

Bad Weather => Shortages (at former prices) => Clamouring for Political Solutions

Standard supply and demand analysis is simple:

• when bad weather hits the production of an agricultural commodity, the supply drops [the supply curve shifts to the left].
• That drop in supply brings about a shortage of the product at the old price (an excess quantity demanded at Po in econ-speak).
• The shortage at the old price causes the price to rise.
• As the price rises, there is an incentive for producers to produce (and/or import) more (increase the quantity supplied along the new supply curve), and
• There is also an incentive for buyers to buy less (reduce the quantity demanded along the demand curve).

The recent shortage of onions in India is a textbook example [h/t Jack]:

Unseasonal rains are named as one reason for the current shortage, sparking floods that destroyed crops earlier in the year -- while others blame the summer monsoon for disrupting supply. ....

The cost of India's staple vegetable -- an essential ingredient in curries and eaten daily by almost everyone -- soared in August to an eyewatering 60 rupees (90 US cents) a kilo on wholesale markets, up from 25 rupees in June.

And so people adjust:

Traders say there are imports ordered from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran in the past few days to ease the strain on prices.... [EE: increase the quantity supplied by importing now when it wouldn't have paid to import so much at lower prices.]

Tarkeshwar Kumar, who owns a small restaurant in Patna, said the price rise had a "huge" impact on his business.

"I cannot pass on the price hike on to the consumers and I cannot do without onions," said Kumar, who has started using magaj, a paste made from cashew nut and poppy seeds to flavour curries, and serving cucumber salad instead of onion. ...

In ordinary kitchens too, the shortage of the commodity is acutely felt.

"I reduced the quantity of onions I buy to half a kilogram from one kilo," said Usha Gupta, a Bihar housewife and mother of six. [EE: buyers find substitutes. They don't like the substitutes so much but they make do, responding to the higher prices and sliding up and to the left along the demand curve.]

And of course the higher prices lead to allegations of hoarding:

"The state should have gone cracking down on the hoarders and released tonnes of onions that were kept out of the market." [EE: a standard refrain about speculators who actually helped keep the supply larger than it would have been if they hadn't stockpiled some onions].

and clamouring for political solutions:

"Onions tend to be sensitive as there has been a history of onion prices worrying governments," Shubhada Rao, chief economist at Yes Bank in Mumbai, told AFP.

"In 1998 they shot up and the (New Delhi) government lost power and since then, governments have become wiser in terms of proactively handling such crises and taking action."

While Modi's administration has moved to address the shortage, raising the minimum export price by 65 percent to $700 a tonne in August, some say it has not gone far enough.

Groan.

The best solution to agricultural commodity "shortages" is the following:

• teach people basic supply and demand analysis
• teach people that speculation and so-called hoarding when prices are low perform valuable services to the economy by providing larger inventories than we would otherwise have during periods of reduced supply. If you crack down on "hoarders" and "speculators" during this shortage, people will have much less incentive to build up contingent inventories for the future.
• elect politicians who say these things to the electorate.

Yeah, I know. I'm dreaming.

 

Just Call Me "Mr. Mondegreen"

When I was a child, I thought the song was, "I Love Spare Ribs in the Summer...."

I have often misheard and misunderstood the lyrics of popular songs. Other fun confusions (not mine) that I remember are "Star-Speckled Banana" and "Walking in the Window Like a Lamb."

I had no idea I was referring to Mondegreens -- the mishearing of lyrics, according to this site. [via PJ]

Whereas spoonerisms are slips of the tongue, mondegreens are errors of the ears. They are the mishearing of something, usually a song lyric, so that a new meaning is created. For example, in the song “Bad Moon Rising,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, people have reported mishearing the lyric There's a bad moon on the rise as There's a bathroom on the right. ...

Some of my favorite mondegreens come from children’s misinterpretations of the Pledge of Allegiance.  I'm thinking of the scene in the movie Kindergarten Cop where the kids are saying the Pledge, and if I remember right there are lines like I led the pigeons to the flag and One Nation under God, invisible, with liver tea and Justice for all.

On to mondegreens! Whereas spoonerisms are slips of the tongue, mondegreens are errors of the ears. They are the mishearing of something, usually a song lyric, so that a new meaning is created. For example, in the song “Bad Moon Rising,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, people have reported mishearing the lyric There's a bad moon on the rise as There's a bathroom on the right. - See more at: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/spoonerisms-mondegreens-eggcorns-and-malapropisms#sthash.fG0qJH9q.dpuf

Mondegreens

On to mondegreens! Whereas spoonerisms are slips of the tongue, mondegreens are errors of the ears. They are the mishearing of something, usually a song lyric, so that a new meaning is created. For example, in the song “Bad Moon Rising,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, people have reported mishearing the lyric There's a bad moon on the rise as There's a bathroom on the right.

The name “mondegreen” was coined by a writer named Sylvia Wright who misheard a line from a 17th-century Scottish ballad.

 

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl of Murray,
And laid him on the green.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for the future of word play), Wright heard the last line as And Lady Mondegreen instead of And laid him on the green.

Wright had imagined a second slaying victim where there was none, and when she discovered the error she decided to name the phenomenon after the nonexistent Lady Mondegreen.

Some of my favorite mondegreens come from children’s misinterpretations of the Pledge of Allegiance.  I'm thinking of the scene in the movie Kindergarten Cop where the kids are saying the Pledge, and if I remember right there are lines like I led the pigeons to the flag and One Nation under God, invisible, with liver tea and Justice for all.

There are lots of great mondegreens from popular music. I like these three from The Eurythmics, Toto, and Cyndi Lauper: mistaking Sweet dreams are made of this   for Sweet dreams are made of cheese, mistaking I blessed the rains down in Africa for I guess it rains down in Africa, and mistaking When the working day is done, Girls, they want to have fun for What in the world can they get done? Girls, they want to have fun.

If you like mondegreens, Gavin Edwards has written a series of books about them, including 'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy, When a Man Loves a Walnut, and He's Got the Whole World in His Pants.

- See more at: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/spoonerisms-mondegreens-eggcorns-and-malapropisms#sthash.fG0qJH9q.dpuf

Mondegreens

On to mondegreens! Whereas spoonerisms are slips of the tongue, mondegreens are errors of the ears. They are the mishearing of something, usually a song lyric, so that a new meaning is created. For example, in the song “Bad Moon Rising,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, people have reported mishearing the lyric There's a bad moon on the rise as There's a bathroom on the right.

The name “mondegreen” was coined by a writer named Sylvia Wright who misheard a line from a 17th-century Scottish ballad.

 

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl of Murray,
And laid him on the green.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for the future of word play), Wright heard the last line as And Lady Mondegreen instead of And laid him on the green.

Wright had imagined a second slaying victim where there was none, and when she discovered the error she decided to name the phenomenon after the nonexistent Lady Mondegreen.

Some of my favorite mondegreens come from children’s misinterpretations of the Pledge of Allegiance.  I'm thinking of the scene in the movie Kindergarten Cop where the kids are saying the Pledge, and if I remember right there are lines like I led the pigeons to the flag and One Nation under God, invisible, with liver tea and Justice for all.

There are lots of great mondegreens from popular music. I like these three from The Eurythmics, Toto, and Cyndi Lauper: mistaking Sweet dreams are made of this   for Sweet dreams are made of cheese, mistaking I blessed the rains down in Africa for I guess it rains down in Africa, and mistaking When the working day is done, Girls, they want to have fun for What in the world can they get done? Girls, they want to have fun.

If you like mondegreens, Gavin Edwards has written a series of books about them, including 'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy, When a Man Loves a Walnut, and He's Got the Whole World in His Pants.

- See more at: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/spoonerisms-mondegreens-eggcorns-and-malapropisms#sthash.fG0qJH9q.dpuf

My Watchband

I wear a Timex Expedition watch with a Velcro strap. It suits me very well [see this, this (see item #8), and this for previous items mentioning my taste in watches].

I have recently adjusted the strap slightly:

It's the same Velcro watchband, but it has a lump attached with black duct tape.

The lump is a "key" fob. The building we live in, like many, has changed security procedures, eliminating Medeco and other types of keys and switching to keyfobs instead. Keyfobs are trackable [more Big Brother possibilities for the sake of security. I approve but feel somewhat squeamish about the trend.] And fobs are quicker and easier to use than keys.

I wanted to go one step further. I sometimes have my hands full, and so digging into my pocket to find my key ring with the key fob takes an empty hand. By attaching the fob to my watchband, I have made entry (and exit from some places in our building!) quicker and easier.

What's more, I can use this while still holding a bag or two in that hand.

The only problem is that sometimes the fob sensor is on my right, and either I have to move my left wrist across my body to touch the sensor, and I sometimes end up doing a 360 pirouette to use the fob. However, the fob sensor for the parking garage door is on the left, and so having the fob on my left wrist works wonderfully there (and other places where the sensor is on the left). Overall, having the fob attached and taped there a minor but pleasant improvement.

The Media and The Candidates

For those of you who don't keep abreast of Canadian affairs, we are having a federal election next month. We have a parliamentary system, which means we will vote only to elect an MP (Member of Parliament) in our riding (voting district), nothing else.

As I watch the major newscasts on television, it seems to me that more often than not, the "journalists" refer to Stephen Harper as "Harper". And they refer to Justin Trudeau as "Justin Trudeau".

At the same time, they tend to refer to Thomas Mulcair as "Mulcair", but they refer to Elizabeth May as "Elizabeth May".

My perceptions may be incorrect, but I expect I'm right. Ms. Eclectic says she has the same impression.

It seems so jarring to me when newscasters refer to some politicians by just their last names. And the tone is quite different (or so it seems to me) when they say "Harper" vs when they say any of the other names.

I'd venture a guess (though I have no idea how to test this) that no more than 5% (if that) of all television newscasters would support Stephen Harper.

At least that's the impression I get before I mute the news.

Related articles

Politicians Hate You

Yes! Increased Competition in the Taxi Biz

Trono is a major market where UberX has been expanding rapidly and eroding the market power of licensed taxicabs. Trono is now considering bringing UberX into the fold:

Before any [UberX company] could obtain a licence, it would need to provide proof of insurance, confirm that drivers have had a criminal background check and driving record screening, and sign an agreement that protects the city against any losses related to the private vehicles-for-hire.

As only a quasi libertarian, I don't mind these possible regulations. But here is the kicker that had me cheering when I saw it:

Another of the report's recommendations is to reduce the starting fee for a taxi ride, also known as the "drop fee," from $4.25 to $3.25, effective Nov. 1 to make taxis more competitive with Uber.

I love this result. More competition, better and more available service, and slightly lower prices! Vive la competition!

Musical Rumble Strips

Over a decade ago, I wrote about the suggestion by my older son, David Ricardo Palmer,

One of his ideas... involves rumble strips. 

Many secondary roads in the country-side of this area have rumble stripspreceding stop signs. They make an intermittent noise as you drive over them and alert you that there is a stop sign coming up very soon. ...

[M]y son's idea is that the grooves in the pavement should be spaced so they play "O Canada" as cars drive over them at the proper speed.

Well, whaddya know! I think he should earn some royalties: