tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62684922024-03-13T04:27:17.912-07:00Peter Gordon's BlogA blog exploring the intersection of economic thinking and urban planning/real estate development and related big-think themes.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2235125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-31221665574219210782020-10-21T11:09:00.000-07:002020-10-21T11:09:29.102-07:00Majority for Bill of Rights The U.S. Bill of Rights is glorious and is supposed to protect us from majority
rule. But the Founders did not know about social media and how it would incite
populism. We now have populism of the right and the left. Populists do “reach
across the aisle” to go after “big tech.” My wish in any election is for divided government.
We also hear that the TV debates are (should be) thePamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-55570762476965983972020-09-29T17:37:00.001-07:002020-09-29T17:38:47.073-07:00RetrogressionMargaret Heffernan writes beautifully and wisely. "While we can never render complexity simple, we could embrace it as an adventure, calling us to investigate the infinite permutations of life that it contains. Surrendering agency, action and adventure for convenience is a miserable bargain. In the uncharted world, who is content to be left hugging the shore when we could use our freedom t Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-21731888296704748352020-09-10T13:15:00.002-07:002020-09-10T13:21:40.668-07:00Never simpleMLK's I Have Dream speech was beguiling in many ways. But I heard a Stokely Carmichael speech shortly thereafter and felt deflated. Didn't he get the word that it must be about content of your character rather than color of your skin? Fast forward and everywhere you look it is about the color of everyone's skin. How awful. And history cannot be simple. But seemingly educated adults can be Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-68458393420454444432020-07-22T08:57:00.002-07:002020-09-01T13:39:11.909-07:00What could go wrong?
From Wikipedia: “Executive Order 10988 is a United States
presidential executive order issued by President John F. Kennedy on January 17,
1962 that recognized the right of federal employees to collective bargaining.
This executive order was a breakthrough for public sector workers,
who were not protected under the 1935 Wagner Act.”
JFK thought this was smart politics. What could Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-57770871082324433602020-07-03T12:06:00.000-07:002020-07-04T11:36:00.006-07:00Happy July 4
Tribalism is natural and often hideous. But over many years,
it had been tamed – to some extent.
Every group has historical grievances. These are incited and
nurtured by demagogues (mostly politicians) as a matter of course. They are even
assisted by some who actually want to be seen as victims, very odd way to seek
(and find) status. Strange but
apparently true.
Retrogressing, wePamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-86996091699320709162020-05-25T06:32:00.000-07:002020-05-28T08:23:11.688-07:00Not static
In the time of pandemic, changes that had been underway speed up. People adapt and change a little faster, technology adapts and changes faster, even the rules-of-the-game change and adapt. The three prompt each other.
Rules-of-the-game involves politics and is the most sluggish of the three. The first two are dynamic and involve trial-and-error learning. (There is always some path dependence.)Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-23473536444412296082020-05-13T07:20:00.000-07:002020-05-27T16:21:31.105-07:00Common sense choices
Economists tell students and others that there are "needs" and "wants". And the distinction is subjective and personal for most people. "I need a drink." Likewise, who knows which are "essential services."? Politicians, of all people?
The news have been full of examples of questionable calls by various politicians on this question. Daycare? Essential for many working parents. "Green" Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-47798730057398051042020-04-19T17:46:00.000-07:002020-04-25T15:43:25.369-07:00Covid 19 in Santa Monica and Sweden
Palisades Park in Santa Monica has long been my favorite weekend escape. Many others feel the same way. It is a pleasant place for walks, picnics, exercise and much more. Some weeks ago, the City authorities posted Closure signs that no one took seriously. People kept on enjoying and the cops patrolled with loudspeakers. That failed. Now, the whole thing is fenced off. Why? Keeping a safe Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-63014445801834219312020-04-06T09:32:00.000-07:002020-04-06T09:36:19.420-07:00What do we know? What are we learning and re-learning? My top ten
-- Black swans can happen anytime, anywhere.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2 -- Initial responses are inevitably confused. But
trial-and-error learning happens and we do get better. The U.S. was horribly
unprepared going into WWI and WWII but, once on track, American productivity
stunned enemies as well as friends.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3 -- Policy makers are Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-15216333681448321352020-03-08T10:48:00.000-07:002020-03-09T11:49:08.749-07:00Envy
The 10 richest men of all time
Mansa Musa (1280-1337, king of the Mali empire) wealth indescribable
Augustus Caesar (63 BC-14 AD, Roman emperor) $4.6tn (£3.5tn)
Zhao Xu (1048-1085, emperor Shenzong of Song in China) wealth incalculable
Akbar I (1542-1605, emperor of India's Mughal dynasty) wealth incalculable
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919, Scottish-American industrialist)Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-40663773118516076472020-02-11T09:09:00.000-08:002020-02-11T11:36:54.652-08:00Because they can
I never took the Stanford Marshmallow test but presume that I am patient. The current issue of The Economist notes that transportation in Los Angeles ought to involve more buses and less rail transit -- and also congestion pricing on the freeways. Finally.
Tom Rubin sent this:
It is hard to fathom the bizarreness of the situation but the graphic helps. While $20-$25 billion have been Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-19604903621462048792020-02-06T10:24:00.000-08:002020-02-07T14:07:39.485-08:00Be careful out there
Watching last night's State of the Union was not easy. With cameras on and the nation watching, preening and pandering were on full display. That's our democracy (our politics). Some of the post-event talking heads, who were obliged to say something cited perennial stats about the low esteem/low approval that the public accords to "Congress." But that's a silly view in light of the Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-22551238372594196702020-01-27T12:02:00.000-08:002020-01-27T12:02:10.513-08:00The romance and the news
It's election season and we see sides of human nature that are not pretty. Seeking votes, candidates make promises they cannot keep. Voters chose to suspend disbelief. Many seek to be on a winning team.
Americans (and others) enjoy prosperity that is out of all proportion to the other-worldliness of their politics. Davies writes: "People alive today, even the poor, are the luckiest people in Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-52724691984861130422019-12-25T05:35:00.000-08:002019-12-25T05:35:22.008-08:00Big data and big plans
The year-end issue of The
Economist includes a nice essay on planning. “Beware of the Borg” (title in print edition). Everyone
plans; plans can be coordinated by markets or usurped by top-down grand plans.
The latter often fail, ending in calamity and often much worse. We have heard
about Venezuela, USSR, North Korea and many more. Top-down plans fail because
utopians ignore the fact that Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-90337431129630402672019-12-10T17:04:00.002-08:002019-12-10T17:16:10.481-08:00It takes a horrific hurricane
Where to start? We have too much crony capitalism. Many of our young people graduate unprepared for productive work. Productivity gaps translate into income and wealth gaps. Some of our poorest children are condemned to the worst schools.
Terry Moe and Russ Roberts report that these are all wound up as one big problem: the ways in which the education establishment has succeeded in choking off Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-81730624629722212492019-10-27T06:40:00.000-07:002019-10-27T06:43:51.620-07:00So many confusions
In the current the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik writes "We Built This City: What we can learn from a long-reviled master of 'urban renewal" which is a long-winded review of Lizabeth Cohen's Saving America's Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age. (which I have not read). Gopnik is seemingly perplexed and ends this way: "What aspects of Ed Logue's legacy do Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-3744033541741584632019-10-07T16:06:00.000-07:002019-10-07T19:36:35.156-07:00Near and Far
We know that information is crucial, complex and dispersed. This is why there are ubiquitous information markets. We are all on a mission to seek out, not just data and not just information, but also key ideas. We start with hunches re what ideas matter to us and where to look find them. Just hunches. They are the place to start.
Many ideas are best transmitted person-to-person in conversationsPamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-72225115257787097002019-09-18T07:42:00.000-07:002019-09-19T16:49:10.219-07:00Progress and panderers
Progress is my favorite idea. Steven Pinker has (and many others have) documented how much better off we are than those who preceded us. I am happy to be alive now, rather than at any other time in history. Whoops! I have used the fraught word "happy". John Gray tells us to get real. "Drug use is a tacit admission of a forbidden truth. For most people happiness is beyond reach. Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-57626904075978320652019-08-31T12:21:00.004-07:002019-09-10T08:23:45.019-07:00Inequality
The New Yorker (Sep 2, 2019) reviews yet more recent work on
increasing inequality ("Widening Gyre"). There are many discussions
like this one. What to keep in mind? It’s very complicated! Here is a simple
checklist. Pick any one for your next chat with a political candidate. I stop at ten.
1. Inequality is not to be confused with poverty – although the
zero-sum people seem to think Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-44645090664016134512019-08-15T13:32:00.001-07:002019-08-15T13:32:12.492-07:00It's the season
The very long U.S. election season is here. What to keep on mind? Two things strike me as
fundamental.
1. Knowledge is complex and dispersed. This means that
innovation (and progress) depend on trial-and-error innovation in a competitive
environment – one not encumbered by the heavy hand of you-know-who. This is especially
important in a season when the candidates have policies, plansPamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-51709119623894006582019-07-27T16:28:00.000-07:002019-07-27T16:28:34.096-07:00Thirteen thoughts on growth and cities
<!--[if !supportLists]--> n <!--[endif]-->Economists’
favorite question is still “How did we get so rich?” We learned how to
coordinate production. We learned how to coordinate discovery. We learned how
to form mutual loyalties – for social as well as economic reasons. Can we unscramble
the social from economic? Does it matter?
<!--[if !supportLists]--> n <!--[endif]--Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-79972906449310460912019-07-09T18:39:00.000-07:002019-07-10T10:53:08.018-07:00Engines of growth -- and new ideas
Fly low over a major urban settlement and what do you
see? A mesh of an uncountable number of supply chains, including supply chains for things and for ideas.
Discussions of cities and how they work are of three kinds.
Economists like the neoclassical model of spatial equilibrium; sites are
evaluated by competitors and equilibrium site rents emerge. Designers (often
utopians) like Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-141215778376834642019-07-07T15:16:00.001-07:002019-07-07T15:16:53.519-07:00Be a persuader
David C. Rose explains Why Culture Matters Most. Small-group moral intuitions, small-group trust, are our heritage. But how to get
large-group trust? How do we get and sustain the many individual acts that
create and sustain large-group trust? Large-group trust is a commons and hard to
sustain. Rose writes that today's multiculturalism embraces tribalism and is a step
backward. Yet he Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-91155960896351464282019-06-24T16:26:00.000-07:002019-06-25T11:54:27.193-07:00Perhaps
There are many possible futures we hope are not in our future. Nuclear war, meteor colliding with Earth, infectious diseases that we cannot stop, many others. The consoling thought is that (for all we know) the odds of a bad outcome are low. But here is a scary future that is by no means low-odds: is crony capitalism inevitable?
The widespread acceptance of "green" policies (accompanied Pamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-12295515814451017692019-06-05T14:45:00.003-07:002019-06-13T14:50:20.521-07:00Road diets
It's clear that most people like their cars. But it is also true that many people like to complain about cars and traffic. Some of the confusion comes from the fact that the auto-highway system is poorly managed. Access and parking ought to be priced. But many planners see pricing as exotic and/or nefarious. Bob Poole's latest book is a great reference. These are policy failures evenPamelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350429059357508366noreply@blogger.com