Don't do it!

Nobel laureate Gary Becker has a debate with Richard Posner about drunken driving enforcement on their blog. If I didn't read it incorrectly, Gary Becker, a Chicago school economist, supports DUI enforcement. I detest most of government interventions in people's daily lives. Yet, I can't agree with Gary Becker more.

OK, I confess. It is not easy to be wrong to side with a Nobel Prize winner. Still, I have my reasons. The one big reason why I think strict enforcement of DUI is needed is that negative externalities are just too severe to be let for individuals to deal with. Both Messrs. Becker and Posner underestimate the magnitude of DUI's negative externalities. A reckless drunken driver hurts not only him and his family, but also the other party involved in the accident. That could be a promising young man on his way to invent something great, a loving father bringing home the presents for the holidays, or any of our family members. The worst of all is that no one sees it coming. Life is halted for no reason. Hell, Mr. Posner even compares DUI to consumption of trans fats. At least we see the heart attack coming in that suicidal behavior. But killed by a drunken teenager?

A similar case of favorable government intervention is the enforcement of wearing helmets when riding motorcycles. When I was in college, I used to ride a motrocycle to school everyday. It was the best transportation choice before MRT was built in Taipei. At that time, helmets were not required. I wore it from time to time. Although I got tickets all the time, it was never because of not wearing a helmet. In retrospect, I feel lucky that I wasn't involved in any major accidents. But it hardly went a day without seeing some serious motorcycle accidents in the newspaper. Those killed or brain-damaged in the accidents were most likely young people. Just when people seemed to get used to it, some miracle happened. The legislature passed a law requiring helmets to be worn at all time when riding motorcycles. In 1997, the first year the law went into effect, accidents dropped from number 3 to number 5 in the list of top 10 causes of death in Taiwan. They stayed at such ranking ever since. In addition to saved lifes, cases of brain damage also dropped significantly. The cost of enforcing the law is simply not comparable to the benefits society gains.

After personally witnessing the miracle, I for the first time saw the benefits of government intervention. Remember that yours truly is a hard-core libertarian.

(Picture: CrimProf Blog)

Not a TV junkie

It is good to have a break. Finally I have a chance to clean up my DVR, which has been loaded up with episodes after episodes of TV shows that I couldn't watch because of the tense end-of-quarter schedule. Curling up on the couch and watching Nip/Tuck nonstop was not only relaxing but also got me thinking again about the differences between Asian and American TV dramas.

Unlike American shows, Asian dramas tend to be less complicated and more predictable. Sometimes a character might sob for several minutes to reveal his/her inner emotions. Whenever the director pulls the lens and lets the character do this kind of acting, I can't help but fall asleep. I guess I am used to American dramas' fast pace and unforeseen twists. Being fast-paced doesn't mean it is shallow. I remember this line from CBS's Jeiricho, "We were both born on the third base. Don't pretend you hit a triple." Had this line been in an Asian drama, it would have been featured extensively and probably repeated several times. It just flashed by in Jeiricho and I've never heard it again.

Why the dramas are still an ocean apart while the people live more and more similar lives? It is not that Asians aren't fast-paced. People in Hong Kong might seem to run on the streets in the eyes of people in L.A. My theory is that Americans are more advanced in entertainment business, which itself is the product of advanced capitalism. Americans are entertained in various ways. TV dramas have to compete with football games, Nintendo, Hollywood movies, Larry Kings, and even Jerry Springers. If they don't get juiced up, they will be punished severely in terms of viewership. As a consequence, writers(unlike their Asian counterparts, they work in a team) have to squeeze more lines into a single episode. Just compare the reruns of Seinfeld and Friends and you will see the differences.

My fellow Taiwanese are in baseball ecstasy this year. After nearly two decades of professionalization, baseball finally becomes a daily stable of TV programs. Yet, baseball in the U.S. is deemed as a less exciting sport than football or basketball. Good thing is that Asians have begun to taste capitalism. Gradually they will shift from hardware providers to software makers to content creators. Just look how successful Japanese animations are right now. Asian pop culture will some day be as good as Americans', but for the time being, Americans still rule.

Black Ships have arrived

Private equity giant Carlyle Group made a splash in Taiwan with the announcement of the acquisition of ASE, the largest semiconductor testing and assembling company in Taiwan. Private equity firms are the new kings in financial markets all over the world. There are plenty of merits for a public firm to go private. For one, they can avoid more and more tedious filing requirements. Private firms are also free from Wall Street's myopic analysts. It is not new for American private equity firms to purchase Taiwanese companies, but Carlyle's move signifies another burden faced by Taiwanese companies: restriction of investments in China. ASE is said to get around the 40% rule by selling itself to Carlyle and becoming an American company.

The 40% rule says that Taiwanese public companies cannot invest more than 40% of their equities in China. It is obviously a political decision since China is still hostile toward Taiwan. China has more than 800 missiles targeting Taiwan. Sadly, a model I am currently working on says that the restriction doesn't work. I'll post another one once my model is finished.

I am not satisfied with the explaintion why ASE wanted to be acquired. I am more inclined to believe that many of Taiwanese companies are undervalued at Taipei Stock Exchange and private equity firms just can't pass on these good deals. It is a wakeup call for the officials regulating financial markets in Taiwan. If they don't do something about it, i.e. becoming more transparent and less restrictive, the number of companies they are overseeing will shrink at a very fast rate.

Commodore Matthew Perry brought the Black Ships to Japan in the 19th centurty. Instead of being wiped out from the earth, Japanese determined to reform and had successfully transformed the nation into a world power under Emperor Meiji. Black Ships literally triggered the modernization of Japan. Guess where Commodore Perry was from? United States! Do you see the Black Ships coming, people in Taipei?

(Picture: www.wikipedia.org)

Owning a newspaper or a ball club?

After ousting both the editor and the publisher at L.A. Times, Tribune Co.'s next step is becoming very interesting. My money is on the sale of the paper to one of the California moguls. It will probably be the best for everyone.

It is hard to reconcile the conflicts between short-sighted investors and "socially responsible" editors in any major media. Journalists burden themselves with the responsibility to report truth to the public; while the editors want to educate the whole world to believe in what they believe. None of them care much about profitability of the organization. Alas, the world had already ditched communism long time ago.

Being squeezed by the Internet both in ad revenues and readership, newspapers are not exactly an industry that looks financially attractive. However, both the management at Tribune Co. and the departing editor and publisher at L.A. Times barked up the wrong tree. The real solution is to run a newspaper like owning a ball club.

A few years back when I was still in Orange County, the Anaheim Angels(not Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim yet) made an amazing run all the way to the World Series Champions. Right after pouring champagnes, Disney sold the Angels to Art Moreno, who became the first Mexican American big league team owner. It wasn't like the Angels lost money for Disney. Disney is a publicly-listed company. Wall Street analysts franatically analyze each division's profitability quarter by quarter. Professional ball clubs never look good under such scrutiny even if they are extremely valuable. Private ownership is the best for professional ball clubs. The owners are not suckers, either. They get investment returns in two ways: (1) they can pocket in a great deal when the clubs are sold and (2) they derive other utilities from owning a ball club. Go ask around and you will find quite a few guys want to buy a football or baseball team if they have the money. It is the "field of dream" emotion that keeps ball clubs valuable.

The same logic should apply to media ownership. Media are not ideal for public-traded companies. They should be owned by people who value media not only basing on monetary utility. Short-term low/negative profitability is well compensated by enormous self-righteousness. If media are to be publicly-traded, preferred shares should be created to protect the ownership. Meantime, the stock prices of these media are not supposed to be sky rocketing. In fact, this is exactly what is happening among the esteemed media groups. The New York Times has the Sulzbergers, News Corp has Rupert Murdoch, and The Wall Street Journal has the Brancrofts. None of these mentioned has a stock comparable to Google's, but they will stay for quite a while for sure.

You might question that Tribune Co. is also controlled by a family, the Chandlers. Why did they yield to Wall Street so easily? Well, they don't derive any non-monetary utility from owning L.A. Times. The purchase of it a couple of years ago was purely a business decision. Dumping it is not going to be an emotional one, either.

We didn't start the fire

The rise of Senator Barack Obama is compared to that of John F. Kennedy. The 60's nostalgia is not without merits. In the age of no hero, I, too, want to see a real one like JFK, or MLK, or the combination of the two. In his hit song, "We didn't start the fire", Billy Joel gathered all the major world events happened between 1949 and 1989. Peruse the lyrics and you will find how important the 60's are.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Maciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Well, the post is not very related to Sen. Obama. I'll do a relevant one when he runs for the president.

(Picture: www.law.harvard.edu)

To the greatest

The San Jose Mercury News had an interview with Milton Friedman. Here is the excerpt. He is still sharp and inspiring at the age of 94!

*Rest in peace, Dr. Friedman. 11/16/2006
(If you understand Chinese, please read the obituary I wrote for Apple Daily.)

(Picture: www. adamsmith.org)

Long live economists!

Professor Aizenman assigned a paper written by Paul Samuelson in 2004. As the professor pointed out, Samuelson is still productive while enjoying his retirement. It is really amazing to observe that many great economists are still contributing to the society when they are well into their 90s. Two of the economists that I admire most, Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson, were both born in 1910's. Both of them are great in many ways. Friedman inspires me to become an economist. I read his autobiography over and over. Personally I don't like Samuelson's ideology, but enjoy reading every bit of his Principles of Economics. Many economics professors opt for more modern treatment of economics as their textbooks, but I think Samuelson's is so classic that no one economics major should miss it. Besides, the more economics I study, the more versatile I find in Samuelson. That guy is every where!

My classmate Ambrish is always amazed at the longevity of great economists. Well, here is my theory. Economists study rational behaviors of human beings. They themselves should behave rationally, too. Consequently, they eat "rationally", act "rationally", and exercise "rationally". On average, if they live rationally, they will live longer!

(picture: web.mit.edu)

Chinese savings and saving Chinese

Chinese foreign reserves are said to hit the trillion dollar mark in the next few days. Coincidentally, we are currently digging deep in the national saving models in our international finance class. If someone has just won a lottery, he should go out and spend lavishly. According to permanent income hypothesis, Chinese people should not have such a high saving rate because their economy is expected to grow substantially. The paradox can be partly explained by habit formation which says people won't go straight from a miser to a spendthrift overnight. Overlapping generation models can also explain such a phenomena. Young people save for their retirement while the old spend all their savings. For the coexisting two generations, if the young have much more income to save than the savings the old have to spend, the aggregate economy will have a growing saving rate at the same time of astonishing economic growth.

Well, the myth is solved in a way, but how do the Chinese officials do with the savings? Not long ago, they spent some of the foreign reserves to bail out the big four state banks. Not a smart move, I would say. Chinese people save money as a measure of self-insurance in case of disasters and the bureacrats in the People's Republic just used people's hard-earned money to save their own ass? The problems with state banks are more complicated than a couple of capital injections can handle. It is good to see that ICBC, one of the big four state banks, pulled a world-record IPO lately. After all, whoever bought the shares were out of their free will. It is a fair game to take away gamblers' bets, but please leave the savings alone because we know in China the road ahead is pretty bumpy.

(Picture: China Daily News)

Americans sweep the Nobels

With the announcement of Edmund Phelps as the latest Nobel Price winner in economics, Americans have swept the Nobels in sciences this year. What an incredible achievement! We should expect to see more Americans to win the prizes in the future because America is such a vibrant and open country that I don't see any threat of any kind in this area.

In discussion of America's vibrancy, I don't need to name how many important progresses in history were invented here in America. We all know the innovations are driven by capitalism and it is well protected by America's political and legal system. The openess of America can be best indicated by the number of Bush-haters in this country. There are millions (probably billions) of people all around the world that don't like George W. Bush, but if we count how many people truly "hate" Bush, the number in the US would far exceed the sum of the genre in the rest of the world. For me, that is how Americans reflect, debate, and move forward.

If the people on Capitol Hill or in the White House don't do anything stupid as to undermine America's capitalism and democracy, I don't see any reason to doubt whether the US will thrive in the future. Of the eight people in my batch in this program, none of us was born in the US. It is the spirits of America that drew us here and I really hope that we can make the rest of the world be more like America.

Commitment device

Freakonomist Steven D. Levitt has a hilarious account of "commitment device" on his blog. I have never heard of the name, but created something similar in my mind. I called it "revolving door mechanism". Basically, the idea is like this: people are generally lazy, or preoccupied by something else, or simply dare not take the risk to pursue things they truly want, but if they somehow put their feet inside the revolving door, they will have no choice but to finish it up.

Life has too many distractions for me (thank god, playing video games isn't one of them). I am always interested in doing different stuffs. I realized that it is not a good thing as I age and that I should probably get a revolving door for myself. Entering an economics Ph.D. program might be it. Since I am studying economics now, I shall say, "I finally found myself a commitment device".

(Picture: www.walcot.com)

Corporate governance and state governance

The Wall Street Journal featured a story about corporate governance in China today. The reporter touted an ex-Goldman Sacks banker's efforts to help erect new corporate governance paradigm in China. The banker, John Thornton, is a legendary figure who gave up his banking career and chose instead to teach in Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

I always support attempts that help modernize China. Only a civilized and modernized China could stabilize the entire Asia Pacific region. But Mr. Thornton's efforts will eventually hit the unbreakable Great Wall of Chinese Communist Party. It is all good that Netcom's chairman, Zhang Chunjiang, supports changes happening in Netcom. However, Netcom is not Mr. Zhang's company. It is still controlled by the Party. What if some reforms pursued by Messrs. Zhang and Thornton are in conflict with the Party's other goals?

Just by looking at how the Communist Party ousted Shanghai's party chief a couple of days ago, I would not be so optimistic as to believe Mr. Thornton's efforts will go anywhere.

Wal-Mart bashing

American liberals are lashing out hard at Wal-Mart right now. Chicago city council's attempt to mandate giant retailers to pay a "super minimum wage" was just a little episode of their efforts. I was relieved to find out that the mayor vetoed the Big Box Ordinance. There are still sane men standing among us.

On the other hand, I heard some commenter on NPR demanding the break-up of Wal-Mart for its being a monopolist. I couldn't believe my ears. Why is it branded as a monopolist? I haven't seen a single customer being forced into buying at Wal-Mart. Even when mom-and-pop stores are driven out of business by Wal-Mart, people still have a great deal of choices for their grocery shopping. And what do mom-and-pop shops do consumers any good anyway?

People always need an enemy to motivate themselves. Wal-Mart is a huge and easy target. I just hope the critics have studied economics harder in college. That way we will have a more constructive discussion of helping out the poor.

(Picture: www.yoest.org)

Moneyball and no-trade theory

To non-A's fans' chagrin, Billy Beane once again proved Moneyball rules in the big league. A's are red hot and Frank Thomas is on a home-run streak. Thomas costs the A's only half a million this year! Heard of Mark Mulder this year? I still remember how people scolded Billy Beane for giving away two of the big three. Voila! A's got a new pitching trio. Yet, not only Mulder is gone for the season, but Hudson doesn't do well, either.

Every time I read stories like that, I always recalled the no-trade theory learned in game theory class. If someone is giving up something valuable, he must know that stuff is flawed. On the other hand, if someone is eager to get something, he must know that stuff is very valuable. Consequently, there shouldn't be any trade at all.

Billy Beane is a proven genius. I just don't understand why any sane general managers would do deal with him. What do you know? They just keep on being preyed. I root for LA Angels, but can't find a way to hate Billy Beane, even when Angels are trailing right now. I just wish Arte Moreno can acquire Billy Beane some day.

(Picture: AP)

Driven by love- From China to America

Donald Tang wrote a piece in LA Times today. He told a compelling story of his love and his remarkable journey. He is Bear Stearns' China hand and recently said to broker a monster deal between China Construction Bank and Bear Stearns.

The story tells us that you are bound to succeed if you are sincere and able to concentrate. What a motto!

(Picture: Milken Institute)

Grading exams

Grading exams or papers is perhaps the least satisfying part of teaching. But sometimes students provide very entertaining and creative answers. This is not taken from the actual exams I have graded, but it serves the purpose.

Hedge your gasoline spending

Oil price dropped a few bucks the last few weeks. I beleive it is a good time to lock in the gasoline price now. If you have to spend 2 grands a year on gas, you can buy the same amount of oil price-pegged ETFs(Exchange Traded Funds). That way your gas bill won't be subejct to any fluctuations in crude oil or to any stupid conflicts in the middle east.

A few caveats: (1) The hedging strategy only lasts for a certain period of time. In the previous example, you still will have to take whatever the gas price is next year. If you want to lock in the price for more years, interests forgone should be taken into consideration as well.

(2) Hedging is a double-edged sword. You won't have losses, but you also give up any potential gains. If the oil price keeps dropping, your ETF holding will shrink, too. Such an outcome will be worse than doing nothing at all.

It is no magic that I came up with this strategy. I got burned pretty bad by owning this ETF (symbol: USO) lately. I need to think a way to comfort myself and here it is. What a finance genius!

(Picture: Yahoo! Finance)

What economists do

The Wall Street Journal front page today covered a story about Yahoo!'s recent hiring of economists. To compete with Google and MSN, Yahoo! greatly increased its R&D spending. Of course, they hired computer engineers for research. But economists can help, too. With abundant information collected from clicks by users, economists can play their best games, too. We analyze problems, create models, simulate the behaviors, and then predict outcomes. It is not much different from what engineers do. Yahoo! took the lead and hopefully they have created a new job market for economists by doing such.

The guy in the picture is an economics professor at Harvard. He is now Yahoo! bound.

(Picture: The Wall Street Journal)

Hallyu

I was watching this Korean drama aired on AZN tv. Although I wasn't supposed to enjoy Korean stuff (Because I am a Taiwanese and Taiwan produces better stuff!), I found it entertaining. My Lovely Samsoon, the drama's offical title, has many elements of a successful drama: complicated plots, unpredictable twist, conflicts, comedy, love story, and well selected street scenes. No wonder it is the highest rated Korean drama ever (more than 50% of Korean population tuned in for the show when it was first aired).

As an economist wannabe, watching soap operas is not just as simple as it sounds.

(to be conituned)

(Picture: MBC Global Media)

Proposition 65

I shelfed my first research idea the other day.

Californians are used to warning signs like this one. As a libertarian, I loathed the language used in the sign. It was obvious that it helped no one. Ever since I learned the tremendous costs associated with putting up the sign, I extended the list of evils that governments can do to you. If I hate it so much, why don't I do something about it? I told myself.

As a consequence, I set out to prove Proposition 65 is useless. I started to read the literature and found it to be a daunting task. The purpose of Proposition 65 was to help consumers make the right choice when they are faced with the trade-off between health risk and price. Yet, people who drafted the proposition did not want to appear anti-business. The compromised version was then meant to be ambiguous. As it turned out, consumers are either totally scared away by the products or totally ignorant of the sign. The language is too vague to distinguish those with dire consequences from those with pretty mild effects. In a nutshell, it failed to help consumers make the wise decision it was purported to.

But the evidence is hard to come by. I thought that if I could prove nothing has happened in public health before and after the passage of the proposition, I would be able to claim it to be a waste of social resources. It was simply not workable, as I was told by Prof. Dobkin. If there is any effect of any specific chemicals, it would be long-term and complicated by other factors as well. The causal effect will be impossibe to identify. I had to turn to to study the effects on business side instead.

What do you know? Proposition 65 did do some good if we look from business' perspective. Reading archived newspaper and megazines, I identified some anecdotal evidence. Some big companies, like Gillette, did reformulate their products to avoid the Proposition 65 labels. Either out of fear of lawsuits or out of competition pressure, companies did try to eliminate the use of toxic components. Again I thought, "If I can find evidence showing that the use of certain chemicals dropped significantly after the passage of Proposition 65, I might conclude that Proposition 65 works."

You see how absurd researchers are. You set out to disapprove one thing and you ended up reinforcing the thing you were against. But the fact is, researchers must be open-minded and willing to accept any scientific evidence that is against you. It is not absurdness, but scientific spirits.

I was glad that I took this positive approach. However, I did not seem to be able to get the beautiful cliff-like curve. Companies do not react to regulation change at the snap of fingers. It takes time.

That was why I decided to shelf my first research idea.

As a concluding remark, libertarians like me still do not like such regulations. Without the proposition, firms still might reduce the use of toxic components either out of fear of lawsuits or out of competitioin pressure (see, the same market forces are working). The correct next step, ifthere is anyone desiring to pursue this avenue, will be weighting the costs and benefits of the proposition. Meantime, I will keep hating the annoying labels until Proposition 65 is proved to be economically beneficial.

Trying to be different

First of all, the guy in the picture isn't me. When I saw Jeremy Chang on TV, some thoughts came to my mind. He is a pop singer in Taiwan with several hits. Not a super star but popular enough that people won't mistaken him for someone else. One of my college buddies, let's call him K, looked like him in many ways. For one, they both have deceiving sad looks. For some reasons, college girls just fell for that look. Anyway, I am not here to whine about how popular they used to be. Just like Chang, K used to play great guitar in a band. Jeremy Chang's banal performance on TV got me wonder why a guy like K, who could have easily become another pop singer, ends up being a fat-belly, middle-class man that he used to hate so much.

Everyone tries so hard to be different. I am no exception. So is K. He despised pop music. Everybody could play pop songs. The lyrics are soft and meaningless. The only music that was good enough for him was alternative heavy metal. Just by looking at the name, we would know there wasn't a big crowd cheering for him. He went on playing that until his band flopped.

He was just trying to be different. Thank god K has so many talents. He got a decent job with his computer programming skill. He is now having a good time with his family and work, I guess. Nothing wrong with that. I just thought that if he could just be a more ordinary guitar player or singer, he would have left a bigger footprint because he would have been so popular.

Better be the head of an ass than tail of a horse, as they say. Such mentality best describes why we want to be different. But how do we know we can't be the head of a horse some day?

(Picture: Jeremy Chang)

Journalism down to the bottom

Taiwan's Apple Daily (Don't be fooled by this funny title. It is actually the most widely read paper there) published a piece of mine on 7/21. I criticized the widespread blogs provided by traditional news media. Being a blogger myself, I am not against blogs at all. It is just wrong to have editors in the media writing blogs that are compiled by the same media. News reporting is a serious business. Publishing unedited blogs will only hurt the hard-earned credibility.

We Taiwanese are going through the most painful period on the way to be fully democratized. The last thing we need is irresponsible media to exacerbate our agony. I am glad that these irresponsible newspapers are gradually driven out of business by Apple Daily, which I believe is the only newspaper that knows something about journalism. Squandering their barely existing credibility is the very proof of Apple Daily's success.

You know what they say about eating apples, "It is good for your health." Well, your mind, too!

Wharf to wharf

I ran the race from Santa Cruz to Capitola. It took me one hour and 23 minutes. The winner finished the race in 27 minutes. That says everything.

50-50

Recent escalation of the Middle East crisis and the handling of the major world powers remind me of my childhood fights with my siblings. In the end, everyone got punished. My parents always attributed the responsibility equally to both kids involved. G8 just asked Israel to exercise "utmost restraint" and Hezbollah and Hamas to return the hostages. The 50-50 styled justice again came to my mind.

That is not justice to me. It is never 50-50. There is always someone that arouses the conflict and should be held responsible for the behavior. Punishing both sides just obscures the principle and encourages future stimulation. I don't like the 50-50 because I was never the party to begin the fight. So is Israel in this case.

This should be the right message to Hezbollah and Hamas: Return the hostages unconditionally!

(Picture: New York Times)

Hainan chicken

I know I am a terrible restaurant reviewer, but can't help writing about this terrific dining place. I would say Layang Layang is easily a top 10 Asian restaurant in South Bay. A friend of mine, a pregant one, was craving Hainan Chicken tonight. We had to come up with a Singaporean/Malaysian resturant fast. It turned out that Chinese Yellow Page was awesome and extremely helpful. Before the future promised by Google realizes, Yellow Pages are indeed indispensible.

Check out Layang Layang's website!

Mexican

Living in California is a bliss. You never need to take a flight to taste authentic international cuisines. But I don't like how Americans call them: ethnic foods. It just doesn't sound right. Anyway, California boasts the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam, the largest Korean community outside Korea Peninsula, and many more different ethnic groups. Despite that many international cuisines are twisted to appeal to Americans, we still can find first-rate foreign foods if we look harder.

I have an obstinate Taiwanese/Chinese stomach. Yet, I still try different foods once in a while. I love Pho, Pul-kogi, Larp, and Sashimi. To be honest, I learned to taste them only after coming to California. If you know all the names I just flashed to you, you probably know I still have an Asian stomach. Not that I don't like western foods. I need some guide to learn to appreciate American/European foods. It always takes a lot of luck if I just venture into "exotic" restaurants and try them out.

Consequently, it is safer for me to order hamburgers from Carl's Jr or Jack-in-the-Box if there isn't an In-N-Out around (don't want to talk about McDonald's here). The same logic applies to Mexican foods. Baja Fresh and Taco Bell know their ways. Yet, if someone shows me a really good Mexican restaurant and tells me which to order, I won't hesitate to try.

That is how I get to know this authentic Mexican restaurant- Tepa-Sahuayo(There is another one in Wastonville, called Cilantros. I will try it next time when I feel like Mexican). I went there and asked the waitress for some suggestions. I can't remember the names of the dishes, but the food was greasy and spicy and even came with rice, just like Chinese! Anyway, we had a good time eating. I did a poor job talking about the food, but please consider it a good review.

Chancellor Denton and the "scandal"

Chancellor Denton's story was featured in today's San Jose Mercury News. Her death is still a myth so far. Most people blame the pressure Denton had since the UC-wide financial "scandal" was reported in major media outlets here in California.

I don't know how it became a scandal. Most likely the bureaucrats in the UC system mishandled the whole executive-pay thing. Why did they try to hide the not-so-exorbitant executive salary? Let's be realistic. If UC wants to remain as top research universities in the world, the spending of the system has to catch up not only with that of top public universities, but also with that of private ones, such as Stanford. Executive compensations are part of the spending, too. Good chancellors or presidents are hard to come by. If there is anyone available in the market, guess which institution will snatch him or her up? The one with deep pockets, of course!

Let's not be hypocrite. Outstanding scholars are human, too. You can't always count on them to be philanthropic or on their endless love to public education. Let's pay them well and ask them to bring the reputation and donations Californians really want.

I don't know if the bureaucrats have learned a thing or two from the tragedy. Hopefully, they will not simply list dog runs as not-to-offer items, but also deeply re-exam their attitudes toward executive compensations. If they still feel they are inept to explain the necessity of reasonable pay package to the politicians in Sacramento, I will suspect that they feel guilty about their own pay as well.

(Picture: UC Santa Cruz Review)

The richest and the second richest

Warren Buffett announced to give away his wealth to Bill Gates' foundation. When I first saw the news, I thought they must be on to something big because Bill Gates not long ago decided to step down from Microsoft's chief software architect position and to focus on his philantrophy business. Unless they are planning something gigantic, they have no reason to combine their fortunes together. Well, they both denied it. What a coincidence!

I totally can see Buffett's reasoning. So many foundations built by so-called robber barons have fallen into the hands of crazy liberals. Were those barons still alive today, they would have found a way to kick the executives out themselves. Bill Gates is still young. He is definitely the guy to take care of Buffett's money and do things Buffett can feel comfortable when he is up in the sky.

It then comes to why Buffett's move is so novel and noble. It isn't hard to reason, either. Successful business men have a common feature: super-sized ego. Just today, I saw a story in the Wall Street Journal about a guy trying to build a dynasty. This Harlan guy literally comes up with a 200-year plan for his family. It is good to have a dream, but a wish like this? I can't really appreciate it. Ben Franklin once said(these are not the exact words), "It is insane to say that your eighth generation descendents are related to you." What is the purpose of building a dynasty when a total stranger is going to reign?

Hats off to Buffett.

(Picture: AP)

It's over

It is officially over for my first year in the Ph.D. program. Hopefully I will see great results for my prelims next week. I have never studied this hard since the college entrance exam. During the preparation time, the university's chancellor jumped off the tallest apartment building in San Francisco. I've never seen her before(you can see how distant graduate students are from the place where we spend our youth), but the news still sent a shock wave throughout the campus anyway. The first thing we discussed right after the prelim was exactly the death of the head of school. Of course, her being gay added some gossip ingredients. Well, it's over for her, too. I don't know her, but rest in peace.

Give him a Ph.D. right now!

I got my TA evaluation back today. One of my students compliments my work and concludes with that line. I am totally elevated. During the grueling prelim preparation, I do need such an encouragement. Too bad teaching is only a small part of graduate study and I need more than compliments to complete my study.

Back to study!

The Wall Street Journal

This was originally written on 11/18/2005

One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received was to subscribe to The Wall Street Journal. I did just that when I first came to America to get my MBA at UC Irvine. Reading The Journal somehow changes my life. It is one of the reasons why I started studying economics. I admire The Wall Street Journal's authentic journalism. Unlike New York Times, it might be the only national newspaper that clearly separates news and editorial sections. Not just I see it this way. I recently found out Milton Friedman said the same in his memoir, Two Lucky People. Of course, you have to be a true libertarian to appreciate The Journal. If I were at the position to give advice, I would urge you to subscribe to it.

Let's blog!

In addition to the website maintained in the school, I decided to begin blogging. I like to tell people what I think (trust me, lots to say). It is a natural move for me. Let's see how far I can go.