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Jun 17 2011

Krugman on Macroeconomics

I often quote Herr Docktor Professor when I agree with him because he’s got a Nobel Prize and I…

Well, I have many accomplishments I’m quite proud of but a Nobel Prize in Economics is not among them.

Recently he’s published two summaries of his pieces on macroeconomics that I’d like to draw to your attention before they scroll away and get hard to find-

Macro Readings, Self-Referential Edition, June 10, 2011

Macro Readings Update, June 13, 2011

(note: He includes some duplicates I have omitted.  Also I have arranged them chronologically.)

Now just because I’m drawing them to your attention does not constitute endorsement.  I think Krugman’s criticisms of Modern Monetary Theory miss the mark almost entirely and he makes frequent category errors, too charitably ascribing to ignorance positions that are mercenary at best and motivated by pure evil in other cases.

Still, it’s not every Nobel Prize winning professor who gives away his lectures for free.

Jun 17 2011

DocuDharma Digest

Regular Features-

Featured Essays for June 16, 2011-

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Jun 16 2011

DocuDharma Digest

Featured Essays for June 16, 2011-

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Jun 16 2011

Rolling in the Mud

Sometimes it’s deeper than others.  I recall a year when I foolishly volunteered to help park cars.  Now when I say it was raining hard I’m not talking 40 days and 40 nights, but it was more than merely damp.

And the drainage was poor.

Now my practice when it rains, which it does more frequently than you ordinarily notice but are forced to confront when working out doors, is to ignore it.  Yeah you’re wet, but you’re going to get wet anyway (though Gortex is a wonderful thing) and unlike Margaret Hamilton you’re not going to melt (My beautiful wickedness!  What a world, what a world).

Well, this was hipboots and waders and the job was to squish through to the cars and get them from the unpaved lot to the driveway in front of the nice dry tent where the owners were waiting.

Now sometimes being good is not exactly a blessing and my winter driving skills honed in the lake effects of upstate New York meant that I was less likely than some others I could name, but won’t, to grind the cars into an almost untowable morass.  This resuling in my spending a lot more time than the untrainable or unlucky getting dirty and moist.

It was almost the last car of the day that I got my first tip which I wasn’t really expecting but gratefully pocketed and I said to the driver as he climbed in the car “I’m not sure you’ll think it’s as good as all that once you sit where I was sitting, but thank you just the same.”

Jun 12 2011

F1: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

As they never quite got tired of pointing out during all 24 Hours of Le Mans, Sports Cars race harder, faster, and longer in a single day than Formula One does in a whole season.

Pedro de la Rosa gets a ride with Sauber today, coming from the McLaren reserves to replace Sergio Perez who is not yet recovered from his Monaco concussion.  bmaz reports on the Bahrain decision I covered Friday.

Scuderia Marlboro UPC did a little better in qualifying than I expected, but it doesn’t mean much for anyone as they are forcasting a 60% chance of rain.  To make things even more (ahem) interesting they’ve all dialed down the downforce because of the long straights and it’s not the kind of thing you’re allowed to adjust.  Virgin will start it’s second car despite missing the 107% cut off.

Hopefully during the boring parts I’ll find a source for the Le Mans results, it was actually much closer than I predicted, a mere 13 seconds after 24 hours that Audi won over Peugeot with their single remaining car.

Pretty tables below.

Jun 12 2011

DocuDharma Digest

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Featured Essays for June 11, 2011-

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Jun 11 2011

The Belmont Stakes

Are we through yet?

I’m sorry about my lack of enthusiasm, but as I’ve mentioned it’s the busiest time of the year.  This third race of the Triple Crown is the longest even though it doesn’t get the hype or coverage the other two do and usually serves as a reminder that we aren’t going to have a Triple Crown winner, not that it’s important.

For one thing Thoroughbred race horses are as ridiculously inbred as any Hillbilly, Hapsburg, or Versailles Villager (yes, I’m talking about you Luke Russert).  For another it’s just stupid to judge them on the basis of 3 races when they are a mere 3 years old.

But we’ve indulged in Bullfighting and Bear Baiting for thousands of years and cock and dog fights are still popular with a certain sadistic mindset.  Horse racing, as cruel as it is, isn’t necessarily harmful to the ponies or those that watch them.  It is a spectacular display of wasted resources by our oligarch upper class.

The Belmont Stakes are perhaps the most democratic of the Triple Crown Races even though it is held in Queens.  Indications of that are they can’t settle on a song or a drink.  The song has ranged from Sidewalks of New York, a charming Tin Pan Alley tune better known as East Side, West Side, to the Theme from New York, New York (as performed by Frank Sinatra and appropriated as the Yankees anthem and not the original Liza Minelli rendition), to 2010’s Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z (I can’t believe that will last for long).

Likewise the drink has changed from the absolutely un-potable White Carnation to the refined trashcan punch that is the Belmont Breeze.

I suggest instead the classic Cosmopolitan.

Ingredients-

  • Ice cubes
  • 1 1/2 fluid ounces lemon vodka
  • 1 fluid ounce Cointreau
  • fluid ounce cranberry juice
  • 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
  • Long thin piece orange zest

Directions

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the vodka, Cointreau, and cranberry and lime juices. Cover and shake vigorously to combine and chill. Strain the cosmopolitan into a chilled martini glass. Twist the orange zest over the drink and serve.

Note: The drink can also be stirred in a pitcher.

In my club, we used to call this a Woo-Woo and there are 2 things to remember about it.  First, you can never have enough ice.  Second, no toast is too long.

May the camels of your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grand children be numerous and healthy.

Jun 11 2011

F1: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Qualifying

Also known as the Canadian Grand Prix the track itself is notable for an extremely long straight down the backside of Ile Notre-Dame now punctuated with a chicane that’s actually hardly noticable but which complies with FIA regulations.  The other one at the end of the Start/Finish straight is jocularly called “Welcome to Quebec” for it’s tendency to collect cars who’s brakes have failed under the stress.

During yesterday’s practice they were running the Softs and Super Softs, but they’re expecting a rainy weekend so as per usual it’s not an indicator of actual performance.  Last year Hamilton and McLaren had a particularly good day.  The year before that it got dropped in favor of Abu Dhabi.

At least Bernie got negotiated down from the $35 million he initially demanded to a mere $15 million taxpayer dollars.

Other than that I’m not sure what there is to say.  Vettel has a commanding lead in the Driver’s Standings, Red Bull is not quite so convincing in the Constructor’s Championship.  Scuderia Marlboro UPC needs several miracles to avoid being overtaken by some of the mid-range teams like Mercedes, Renault, and Force India and Maranello is unhappy about it.

Race coverage tomorrow is on Fox starting at 1 pm.

Developments and surprises (if any) below.

Jun 11 2011

24 Hours of Le Mans

So a couple of weekends ago I talked about Lime Rock and I mentioned then that Sport Car racing is a little bit different from most other kinds of motor sports.

One of the differences is the length of the races.  Many of the events are timed rather than a fixed distance and some last quite a while.  This weekend is the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency commonly known as Le Mans.

It’s run on the Circuit de la Sarthe which at 8.5 miles is one of the longest still used for racing.  The Ligne Droite des Hunaudières (better known as the Mulsanne Straight) is 3.7 miles long though they added 2 chicanes in the ’90s when the FIA decided that no straight section of track over 2 kilometers would continue to be allowed.

Other safety changes include not letting any driver do a shift of over 4 hours or drive more than 14 hours in total.  You must have a team of at least 3 drivers.  The top 2 classes are Le Mans Prototypes 1 & 2 and the other 2 classes are GT 2s and GT 1s (for the last year) and GT AMs (their successor).

It really is an endurance race.  Cars are required to turn off their engines in the pits so there’s always the question of if you can start them up again.  It’s very hot which is tough on tires and the high speeds (over 200 mph in many sections of the track) put a lot of strain on the brakes when you want to change direction (say for a corner or something trivial like that).

Just as in the iconic movie Le Mans, interesting things can happen at any time, though in fact they rarely do.  Speed will have 18 hours of live coverage starting at 8:30 am with breaks for the Turn Left Pocono 500, Qualifying at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (at 2 pm), and Motorcycle racing from Mt. Morris.

This year they’ll be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 1991 Mazda win and the 44th of Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt spraying Henry Ford II and Carroll Shelby with champagne instead of drinking it starting the tradition of wasting good wine.

If anything actually exciting occurs feel free to make note of it below.

Update:  Now with Grid positions.

Jun 11 2011

DocuDharma Digest

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Featured Essays for June 10, 2011-

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