Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two!

Thanks to Lin for sending this my way and getting me to blog again.



First Keynes vs. Hayek rap here!

A few longer posts to follow, I promise. Probably about harmful subsidies (this is a note to myself so that I won't forget)

I've just been spending way too much time on my new bioeconomic model at work. It's BEYOOTEEFUL! Excel sheet after excel sheet all speaking to each other. The only frustrating thing about Excel is that if it doesn't do what you want it to do, you know it's because YOU made a mistake. I've definitely ripped out a few chunks of my hair over the past few months.

Ex-Aide to Bill Clinton Leads GGGI

Richard Samans as ED of GGGI.

Strange to see all of these things happening from the outside now.

Happy to see it all start falling into place.

Toxic Homes

Have you ever heard of the Beveridge Curve? Me neither. But it has nothing to do with drinks.

I was just reading the Modeled Behavior blog and there's an interesting post about friction in the job market being caused by "underwater" mortgages.

Basically, the Beveridge curve has job vacancy rate on the y-axis and unemployment rate on the x-axis.

When unemployment is high, job vacancies should be low. But that hasn't been true in recent years! Why?

Apparently, people end up being stuck in their underwater homes and can't move to places where their skills are needed. 

This American Life had a great episode about toxic assets that were bought on purpose by reporters of Planet Money. They interview people with underwater mortgages and discover elaborate schemes of those who made bank (sort of) from the subprime mortgage crisis.

Sigh. Housing is stressing me out. Still looking for a place to live in SF. Looking through Craigslist postings is always entertaining.

There was a post that said, "Home is shared by 2 guys and 2 girls. We like to cook dinner together, sometimes at 4:20 PM." I thought, "What? 4:20 PM is so early for dinner! I'll never get to bond with my housemates because I get out of work so much later!" And then it hit me...like the strong smell of pot when I take the bus home sometimes.

News

Nobel Prize

Climate

Education

Joy

Yoram Bauman, Standup Economist. New Video!

His older video, which I love:


And finally, his book, which will make a great holiday gift for anyone!

You would think that I work as this guy's publicist, but I've only ever spoken to him once. On this very blog! See his comment on my blog here!

A Day In the Life Of...

My team is insane, in the best possible way.

One guy flew in from China for the UN MDG summit and is now flying over to India. Yeah...that's right. China --> NY --> India in a span of like 5 days. INSANE.

Two guys got invited to Leonardo DiCaprio's house for dinner tomorrow night. One had to decline because he's just THAT busy. INSANE.

One guy managed to get everyone ground passes (pretty much unlimited access to all of the UN). INSANE.

Two guys made time to have dinner and watch Promises, Promises with me! INSANE given how busy these guys are.

I couldn't catch a cab after the MDG summit so I took a pedicab for the first time and it was THE MOST FUN THING EVER. And we ended up taking one after the Broadway show. Two pedicab rides in one night?! INSANE!

NYC is adding tax on clothing and shoes soon. INSANE. That has nothing to do with work, but I felt the need to add it. WTF NY?

Goals

Going here tomorrow.

I am contemplating a 6 month shopping hiatus. Not as ambitious as the MDGs...I know.

Ugly Names and Ugly Situations

The Economist had an article about the proposed Cordoba Centre in New York (at ground zero).
I completely agree that by treating Muslims in America as "outsiders" or as "terrorists," we are providing actual terrorists with new recruits.
I also completely agree that Americans should be the "bigger person" and say, "This is America. We are intelligent enough to recognize the difference between Muslims and al Qaeda. We not only accept, but embrace having a mosque at ground-zero."

However, having been so close to ground-zero on 9/11 (saw the 2nd plane hit from bio class at Stuy), I can understand the emotional response to the Cordoba Centre proposal. I am lucky enough to have had a diverse group of friends and know for a fact that none of my Muslim friends would EVER condone such horrific acts of terrorism. But let's face it. Most Americans are from boring, homogeneous cities in the middle of nowhere. I can easily see myself being one of those Americans...and if I had lost a loved one on 9/11, I can see my anger being horribly misdirected.
In fact, even though I'm Catholic, if an extreme sect of Christianity murdered one of my family members, I can see myself turning against my own religion.

I get that Imam Feiisal Abdul Rauf has good intentions, and that he wants to promote interfaith understanding. He hopes that his mosque will "heal some of the wounds opened by the felling of the twin towers and all that followed." But it's hard to get Americans to realize that diversity is a good thing when you have shameless idiots like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich running around.

Shame on you, Sarah and Newt, for blatantly using the emotions of those who have already been so hurt in the past to promote your own political agendas. As my friend Dan says, "[you] are so hellbent on making another party look bad that [you] will hop on the bandwagon to resonate with an issue [which] is clearly against the foundational underpinnings of our government."

I am thoroughly disgusted.

And Newt, you have a problem with the name "Cordoba" but really...you're not one to talk with a name like Newt. Newt Gingrich has got to be the ugliest name I have ever heard in all 22 years of my life.

Sponge-worthy Men

I was on the elevator with two guys and pressed the 12 button, but they didn't notice initially.

Guy #1 to Guy #2: Did you press 12?
Me: Oh, that's my floor.
Guy #2 to Guy #1: But I would rather be going with her than with you.

Awkward...but then!

Guy #1: That's not funny.
Guy #2: You're right. That's not funny. I'm sorry, miss.

I have had encounters with sketchy people before, but at least this guy had the decency to apologize. And it's not like he was absurdly inappropriate. I wish boys were more chivalrous nowadays...

I wish they were more spongeworthy - an economist at Princeton, Avinash Dixit, wrote a paper on the option value problem of Seinfeld. "The paper uses option pricing theory to deconstruct Elaine’s decisions in the “Seinfeld” episode number 119 “ The Sponge.” In it, Elaine’s preferred contraceptive sponge goes off the market, sparking an ultimately fruitless hunt for a greater supply. Her limited supply of contraceptive sponges forces her to reassess their usage, and decide whether a potential partner is “sponge-worthy” or not." [See full WSJ article here]

Buying Happiness

More on buying happiness.

But sometimes people can't handle the choices. SF is considering banning Happy Meals b/c parents are complaining that the toys cause their children to become...pigs. Right. And I grew up in a bubble where McDonald's did not exist. Therefore, I am 42.5 kg/94 lbs.

Please.

Deja vu

On August 18, 1976, two US Army officials in the JSA of the DMZ (between North and South Korea) were brutally murdered by axe wielding North Koreans. This event has been called the axe murder incident and the poplar tree incident because it happened while South Korean soldiers were trying to cut down a poplar tree (on South Korean land). See the full story here.

On August 3, 2010, two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist, and an Israeli officer were killed because an Israeli maintenance crew was using a cherry-picker to prune a tree. See the full story here.

WTF is wrong with people. The world is a f-ing mess.

I will drown myself in retail therapy, despite the NYT's advice on happiness...

I found an Alice + Olivia dress on shopbop.com, and they only had one left in my size. But I'm at my aunt's house in Incheon and left my wallet in Seoul. Almost had a fashion emergency b/c I couldn't remember the 3 security digits on the back of my debit card. They came back to me eventually.

Alice + Olivia dress, you are so much lovelier than this world.

40%

40%. 

That's a pretty significant number.

If I were to lose 40% of my body weight, I would be 25 kg, or 55 lbs. Basically, I'd be dead.

So how can we flippantly dismiss this fact:

Phytoplankton, the basis of the entire marine food chain, and an important player in the global carbon cycle, have declined by 40% since 1950. (probably in response to ocean warming)

The average global phytoplankton concentration in the upper ocean currently declines by around 1% per year and this rate is increasing. [Boris Worm]

Why should you care?

Phytoplankton, through photosynthesis, produce around half of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere and drive the 'biological pump' that fixes 100 million tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide a day into organic material. 

Open-ocean fish will also be severely affected by the drastic decline in phytoplankton.

The Little Mermaid is one of my favorite movies and I want us to be able to tell our future children that Flounder (Ariel's best friend) is a real animal and not just a figment of my imagination, or a thing of the past. OKAY? 

BUY THE ECONOMIST THIS WEEK!

3GI's ad will be in the Executive Focus section of the Economist this week! Even more exciting - I got to draft it!

I personally think my original draft is better than the one that's being published, but I suppose I'm biased...haha.

Anyway, remnants of my original draft still survived the harsh world of politics, so check it out!

We also placed an online ad that will be posted for a month.

I feel like I've come pretty close to my life goal (or death goal?) of having my obituary appear in the Economist. Yay!

UPDATE (July 11th)
Here it is!

July 4th

I firmly believe that NYC is better than Boston at everything, EXCEPT 4th of July fireworks.

I miss you, fatkids.

I wish I were in either NYC or Boston today. Maybe I'll run into some rowdy expats here in Seoul.  =)

Life Lessons

1. Comparative Advantage: Learn it, love it, live it 
2. Be entrepreneurial and work in small teams. "Jesus Chris tried 12, and that proved one too many." ~Norman Macrae
3. There is a high correlation between success and e-mail volume. At least, that's what I will tell myself when I wake up to a bajillion e-mails from Seoul, SF, and London.
4. Before you send an e-mail, always save a draft and go back to it later
5. You will never be as happy and optimistic as you were in college.
6. I'm a sensitive soul, though I seem thick-skinned. ~Pumba, from the Lion King

A Toy Story.

I've had this Tweety doll for nearly 22 years now (I'm almost 23) and I bring it with me whenever I travel for long periods of time. A few weeks ago, I left it on my bed and housekeeping accidentally took it to the laundry room along with my sheets and blankets. I called the front desk and reported the missing doll. A few days later, I get a phone call from the front desk:

"Hello?"

"Hi. Did you call few days ago about missing doll?"

"YES!"

"Is it a duck?"

"Uh, it's a bird. A yellow bird."

"Yes, duck! We found it. We will bring it now to your room."

Saved!

Since then, I have carefully moved Tweety from my bed to my living room sofa every morning, but yesterday morning I forgot to do so and Tweety is missing yet again!

Parag offered to send me a new Tweety doll (thanks, friend!), but it's not really Tweety that I'm attached to. In fact, I'm afraid of birds because of a traumatic chicken experience that I had while living in the sticks of Korea as a kid.

I'm attached to the fact that Tweety is so old that my mom has to handwash it because it would probably fall apart in the washing machine. I'm attached to the fact that I still have no idea whether I should call Tweety a "he" or "she." I'm attached to the fact that Tweety is the same as always, minus the drool that it was covered in once upon a time.

On that note, I really want to watch Toy Story 3 in 3D.  Too bad I can't find a theater in Seoul that is playing it...

July 1, 2010:
Tweety has been found!
=)

More Pictures!

Click photos to enlarge.

On June 15th, we got to ring this giant bell in the middle of Seoul at noon. They usually ring it on New Year's Eve, and only ~2% of people in Korea have had the opportunity to ring this bell. Pretty awesome! The guide told us to make a wish while ringing the bell. I made four.

My happy team - Andreas, Chris and Mattia.

Words of wisdom from Andreas - "May you break many bells in your life."  He's sticking his tongue out in this picture! Haha. He totally wants to break that bell.

My turn! My turn!

President Lee Myung Bak

Yvo de Boer

Professor Heller - Okay, so Tom's speech came with a powerpoint that was controlled by someone in the back of the room. However, Tom decided to skip around a bit...
The Korean guy in the back had no idea that he was on the wrong slide for a while, so I ran to the back to help him. Unfortunately, Tom had skipped like 6 slides and when I kept going back and forth searching for the correct slide, (which everyone in the room could see me doing) the tech guy yelled at me and was like, "do you have any idea what you're doing?!"
Mattia came and saved me. Just reaffirms my love for economists. Haha.

Lord Nicholas Stern

Professor Ekins

Secretary Kim Sang Hyup - so funny! I'm pretty sure he's pretending to be a pimp in this picture.

Andreas (behind me) is 6'4".  How silly of me to think that I would have to bend my knees a bit in order to not cover his face!

East Asia Climate Forum/GGGI Launch!

East Asia Climate Forum was pretty cool. Keynote speakers included President Lee, former Prime Minister Han Seung Soo, Ban Ki Moon, Lord Nicholas Stern, Thomas Heller, and Yvo de Boer.

Secretary Kim Sang Hyup, Andreas Merkl and Thomas Heller get ready to break the bell!

Mattia Romani, our economist, and (half of) Chris Stori, my Jedi Master.

Andreas enjoying some wine.

The man who escaped death, Eric Beinhocker! (His plane to Seoul had to make an emergency landing and all the tires blew off! He still managed to make it to the Board Meeting on time, of course.)

Younghoon Kang, our liaison to the Blue House, is soon to be married and leaving for MIT Sloan. "Esther, the only way you can escape is if you get married, or die."  TRUTH.

From left to right: Yoo Yeon Chul, Chris Stori, Jang Won, Jung Tae Yong. Chris looks super happy!

Prime Minister Han Seung Soo on far right. (I see Chris in the background. Hehe.)
One of the highlights of my week: PM Han told my team that I was "very small, but very good." Haha. YEAH, POWER TO THE LITTLE PEOPLE!

Soy exhausted from all of the preparation and events, but it was a good week.

=)

Yvo de Boer or Christiana Figueres?

Yvo de Boer?
Wiki entry
Guardian
Huffington Post
Washington Post

Christiana Figueres?
Wiki entry
Guardian
Huffington Post
NYTimes

Press Release From the Blue House

My life for the past month (GGGI)