Scrooge and a Big Bag of Christmas

Marron's Twelve Days of Christmas list for the global (but mostly US) economy, including 10 new Steve Jobses to rise and replace the fallen, 7 fed governors (we've been making do with 5 for the longest time) pushing for a 5% nominal GDP growth target, $3 trillion in budget cuts, and 2 new currencies (letting the Euro drop a couple countries).


Scrooge's name came from misreading the tombstone of Adam Smith's grandnephew? Are you sure this isn't a Dan Brown plot reject? If not, how about considering below the moral hazard of Scrooge:



In which a friend of mine tries to show a Pakistani a Currier and Ives Christmas, and ends up finding its deeper meaning with an Alaskan crab fisherman.


The First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints included this in their Christmas message:

This joyful season will bring to each of us a measure of happiness that corresponds to the degree in which we have turned our minds, feelings and actions to the spirit of Christmas.May this Christmas season be a time of prayers for peace, for the preservation of free principles, and for the protection of those who are far from us. Let it be a time of forgetting self and finding time for others. 

C. S. Lewis on two types of causality, that of work and that of prayer: "Prayers are not always -- in the crude, factual sense of the word -- "granted". This is not because prayer is a weaker kind of causality, but because it is a stronger kind."


Delicious satire: a response to Band Aid's "Do they know it's Christmas?" is found in Plaster Cast's "Yes, We Do." (HT: Blattman)

More Praise for Corporations

A lot has been written lately on the role of business in development (a little more here). Mostly because this has been underused. Even the neoliberal synthesis of the last several decades focused efforts on reforming government (admittedly to improve the business environment) rather than on directly improving the opportunities for businesses in developing countries.

Multinationals are reducing gender discrimination in South Korea by hiring women who are paid less than their male counterparts. This lowers their costs relative to domestic firms, giving them a competitive advantage. The way to level the playing field? Stop domestic discrimination.

IBM is leading the way by training management for international work by organizing volunteer international service projects that are accountable to the firm for success. On the other hand, there's the difficulty of getting out of social businesses or separating the profit and not-for-profit parts.

Rojas argues that the reason contemporary classical music sounds so terrible is that it is funded by subsidy and mandate rather than as a business that has to appeal to its consumers. Fedako would like to claim that the reason India and many African countries have many cell phones and few toilets is that the former are produced by companies and the latter by government... but who says businesses can't provide toilets? or electricity? They can, they do, and it's by far not enough. Companies are better suited to providing some goods than others.

The Economist's Schumpeter addresses importance of companies doing what they do best (earn profits by providing better goods and services at lower prices, generating employment and economic growth in the process) rather than focusing on corporate social responsibility. Excerpt below the fold:

"The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward."

Thus said John Maynard Keynes. And in that regard, Mankiw continues defending his views on tax avoidance:

A Rolling Stone gathers no taxes

For skeptics about the incentive effects of taxation:

The Stones are famously tax-averse. I broach the subject with Keith [Richards] in Camp X-Ray, as he calls his backstage lair. There is incense in the air and Ronnie Wood drifts in and out--it is, in other words, a perfect venue for such a discussion. "The whole business thing is predicated a lot on the tax laws," says Keith, Marlboro in one hand, vodka and juice in the other. "It's why we rehearse in Canada and not in the U.S. A lot of our astute moves have been basically keeping up with tax laws, where to go, where not to put it. Whether to sit on it or not. We left England because we'd be paying 98 cents on the dollar. We left, and they lost out. No taxes at all. I don't want to screw anybody out of anything, least of all the governments that I work with. We put 30% in holding until we sort it out." No wonder Keith chooses to live not in London, or even New York City, but in Weston, Conn.

Source. (HT: Matthew Kahn)

LDS in DRC and other news

Julie Beck, president of the LDS women's Relief Society organization - the largest and second oldest women's organization in the world - visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo recently. There are over 20,000 members of the church in the DRC. Though they are more than 2500 miles from the nearest temple, they were encouraged to obtain and maintain a current temple recommend (a formal approval enter the temple). In a short talk, she said:

"I love you sisters and I am so grateful for what you are doing to lift each other and build the kingdom of God on the earth. I know sometimes your lives are difficult, but there is much you can do to improve your lives and to become closer to our Heavenly Father."

In other news, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is opening a new Missionary Training Center in New Zealand, the 15th such training center in the world. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is being inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Idle Musings: Great economists and musicians

Why do we think Beethoven (et al) is so great? He has a few masterworks that are overplayed and a vast number of forgotten pieces no one cares about. That really sounds like a lot of performers, classical and current. How do we know who is really great and which of the great old masters is the greatest?

Clearly, one measure of great musician is and ought to be total number of masterworks.But this biases the measure in favor of old>young and prolific>perfectionists who don't publish unless it's brilliant - even if all musicians were equally capable of producing masterworks, with more random draws you'll likely come up with more masterworks. Oh, and should we handicap anyone because of their patron's requirements?

What about percent of pieces that are masterworks? Does anyone know of data on musicians and the percent of their pieces deemed masterworks? The problem I foresee is with (mostly modern) performers who are one hit wonders. That one song may be all they have and they would consequently show up too highly.

A third option is to ignore the masterworks and ask about the quality of the rest of their work. Mozart's 'average' pieces are just so many finger exercises while Bach being mediocre is complex and rich (even if it's the same complex richness he wrote in a dozen other places). I think Rachmaninoff would score rather higher on his non-miraculous works than many others.

The application to economists' productivity is straightforward. Edit: By randomness and luck, it turns out Easterly was also considering the production of Mozart's masterworks the same day. I would not dare to presume to suggest that "great minds think alike," but on occasion, even a Volkswagon and a Mercedes' turn signals will blink at the same time.

The love child of imperialism and muzak

With thanks to Texas in Africa, a textual deconstruction of Toto's "I Bless the Rain Down in Africa"



There are delightful zingers throughout. My favorite:

Quintessentially American attitudes:
1 - The consumption of televised suffering grants me moral depth.  [my favorite]
2 - Benevolence begins and ends in my imagination
3 - Africa sure be exotic
4 - All this consuming and appropriating is tiring. Break time!

Advertising that makes me smile

I'm sorry that Africa is a Country didn't like this or the other videos from the song "Oh Africa" by Akon or the remade "Wavin Flag" by K'Naan for the World Cup. I understand why, and they are valid points. This is not high music, the lyrics were changed to suit corporate interests, and the stereotypes are abundant.

I still think they're clever and I appreciate him continually posting the songs he doesn't like for me to enjoy. I will have to plead guilty for being part of the target audience for the musical junk food. It's making me much more interested in the World Cup than I've been before (aside from when I was in Germany and everyone was addicted to it).





The battles between Coke and Pepsi (neither of whom sponsor me) are always good entertainment.

Exporting Chuck Norris

Makmende has a number of catch-phrases to his credit, including “Just heard that #Makmende can tweet 141 letters!”; “Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears #Makmende pajamas”; “#makmende is so cool, Even his enemies list him as their emergency contact number”; and “#Makmende can never have a heart attack, his heart is not so foolish to attack him.”

All this from a Kenyan music video featured in that bastion of all things African, the Wall Street ... Journal? Comments: "makmende sleeps with his pillow under his gun" "Makmende types with 2 fingers. He points them at the keyboard and the keyboard does the rest."



Hat tip: Africa is a Country

And it came to pass

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass
by yom_

One of my favorite poems (typed from memory, so I may have a word or two wrong):

Once, in Persia, reigned a king
Who, upon his signet ring
'Graved a maxim true and wise
Which, if brought before his eyes,
Gave him council at a glance,
Fit for any change and chance.
Timeless words, and these are they:
"Even this shall pass away."

Trains of camels through the sands
Brought him gems from Samarkand.
Fleets of galleys through the seas
Brought him pearls to match with these.
But he counted not his gain,
Wealth of mine or main.
"What is wealth?" the king would say.
"Even this shall pass away."

In the revels of his court,
At the zenith of his sport,
When the palms of all his guests
Burned with clapping at his jests,
Said he, among figs and wine,
"Oh living friends of mine,
Pleasure comes, but not to stay.
Even this shall pass away."

Fighting on a furious field,
Once a javelin pierced his shield.
Soldiers with a loud lament
Bore him bleeding to his tent.
Bleeding from his tortured side,
"Pain is hard to bear," he cried.
"But, with patience, day by day
Even this shall pass away."

Standing in the public square
30 meters in the air
Rose his statue made of stone.
Then disguised and unknown
The king stood before his engraved name.
He pondered, "What is fame?
'Tis nothing but a slow decay.
Even this shall pass away."

Struck with palsy, sere and old,
Waiting at the gates of gold
Said he, with life's last breath,
"Life is done. But what is death?"
Then, in answer to the king,
Fell a sunbeam on his ring,
Showing by a heavenly ray:
Even this shall pass away.



[Sadly, it won't let me tag this with every tag I have: there's a size limit. It will all pass away, so it is relevant to any search you might have, including: Fun, Derrill, Celebrities, Conflict, Constitution, Crime, Disaster, Diseases, Health, Institutions, Language, Marginalization, Markets, MDG, NGO, Nobel, Pledges, Political Will, Politics, Africa, Agriculture, Aid, Asia, Auto, Bangladesh, Behavioral, Biodiversity, Books, China, Christmas, cons/lib, Development, Demand, Cornell, DRC, Economics, Energy, Environment, Ethics, Europe, Food Quality, Governance, Food Policy Book, food, FDI, Exchange Rates, Evolution, Food Safety, Forecasting, Ghana, Growth, Haiti, Inputs, Informal, Inequality, India, Hunger, History, Insurance, Kenya, LDS, Lit, Livestock, Local Food, Monetary, Methods, Malawi, Madagascar, Macro, Nigeria, North America, Nutrition, Rwanda, Resource Curse, Risk, Property Rights, Poverty, Population, Science, Soils, South America, Statistics, Tanzania, Tax, Trade, Traps, Zimbabwe, WTO, Water, US, Uganda ...]

Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra

Another hat tip to Africa is a Country. "The trailer for the documentary, “Kinshasa Symphony,” about the Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra and Chior, ... based in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital." It will be debuted at the Berlin Film Festival next week.

From the blog Solo Kinshasa:

Why ‘Kimbanguist’? Because the orchestra (originally a church big band) was founded and is led today by Armand Diangienda, the grandson of Simon Kimbangu, the popular Baptist faith healer who was imprisoned by suspicious Belgian authorities from 1921 until his death in 1951, and is today revered by some 5 million followers.
The musicians are largely self-taught, and all have other trades, of course: pharmacists, electricians, hairdressers, food sellers. Among them is a guitarist who makes some of the stringed instruments and other craftsmen who invent the tools to fix and maintain them, although recently the orchestra has received more support from admirers, including donated instruments and training.

Best quote as men practice singing 'alle Menschen' from Beethoven's Ode to Joy in the background: "It may not be obvious, but there are African rhythms in Beethoven."

If my unreliable French is right, the orchestra is 15 years old.