To follow up on our discussion of the natural rate hypothesis, here are some Milton Friedman's thoughts on more general topics. Admire the brilliance but keep an open mind and retain your critical thinking!
On greed...
Where does a pencil come from?
The Great Depression and monetary policy
What about market failures?
Policies must be judged by their results, not their intentions (reposted; this is a 30-min full interview)
Discrimination? Market solution vs affirmative actions.
This month marked the 13th year since Eva Cassidy passed away.
Eva Marie Cassidy (February 2, 1963 – November 2, 1996) was an American vocalist known for her interpretations of jazz, blues, folk, gospel, country and pop classics. In 1992 she released her first album, The Other Side, a set of duets with go-go musician Chuck Brown, followed by a live solo album, Live at Blues Alley in 1996. Although she had been honored by the Washington Area Music Association, she was virtually unknown outside her native Washington, DC when she died of melanoma in 1996.
Four years later, Cassidy's music was brought to the attention of British audiences when her version of "Over the Rainbow" was played by Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2. Following the overwhelming response, a camcorder recording of "Over the Rainbow", taken at the Blues Alley, was shown on BBC Two's Top of the Pops 2. Shortly afterwards, the compilation album Songbird climbed to the top of the UK Albums Charts, almost three years after its initial release. The chart success in the United Kingdom led to increased recognition worldwide; as of 2008 her posthumously released recordings, including three UK #1s, have sold around eight million copies. Her music has also charted top 10 positions in Australia, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.
Chungking Express 'On every flight, there's a stewardess you want to seduce. This time last year, at 25000 feet, I seduced one.'
Swallowtail Butterfly 'Once upon a time, when the Yen was the most powerful force in the world...the city overflowed with immigrants, like a gold rush boom town.'
Lost in Translation 'The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you.'
I first saw the following clip from Mankiw's blog a few weeks back. Please watch it, and think of the following issues:
1. Is everyone playing the game rationally? 2. Does the talking before decision time matter? 3. What do you think will happen if the game is played repeatedly between these two people? 4. What would be your rational strategy, if you know you're playing this game with an irrational opponent?
I hope you will find a very close analogy of this clip to the time inconsistency issue.
...is the only book Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote in his career. Here's its abstract.
Abstract 1. The world is all that is the case. 2. What is the case--a fact--is the existence of states of affairs. 3. A logical picture of facts is a thought. 4. A thought is a proposition with a sense. 5. A proposition is a truth-function of elementary propositions. (An elementary proposition is a truth-function of itself.) 6. The general form of a truth-function is [p, E, N(E)]. This is the general form of a proposition. 7. What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.
Recently I stumbled upon quite a few movies that I like. The title of this post is the name of one, which literally means "Josee, the Tiger and the Fish". A good review can be found here, and below is the trailer...
The basic story revolves around a romance between a young college student and a girl who is handicaped. The narrative is very low-key, and you do not need a box of tissues while watching this, despite the plot that seems to promise tear jerking scenes. Instead, this film is largely a uplifting tale that ultimately breaks your heart from the inside, and will leave you quitetly devastated. It is a honest study of humans, a depiction of the cruelty of reality, and it makes viewers ponder about themselves.
At a shallower level, this movie boasts a cast of top young stars in Japan today. Satoshi Tsumabuki was in the acclaimed "Waterboys", "Dororo", and even "Tokyo Drift" (he's the guy who shouted 'Go', and let the car race begin...remember?). Chizuru Ikewaki was in "Strawberry Cheesecake". It's also interesting to see Juri Ueno in her early years here playing a supporting role. She'd later appear as lead in "Swing Girls" and "Rainbow Song".
In the next clip, we have a Q&A session where Bernanke discussed the sources of business cycles, and the Federal Reserve's influence on them. For real economic contents, just skip Ron Paul's ramblings and go straight to 4.46th minute in the video.