I'm all over the place

I recently made a Google Profile, because it seemed like a nice convenient way to link to all my different web presences in one location. In doing so, I had to face the sobering reality of just how many I've accumulated. Yikes.

Sophistpundit, del.icio.us, and Facebook I've had for a few years now. While I've had a Google Reader account for several years as well, I hadn't started using the "share" feature until quite recently. All the rest--Cloud Culture, Twitter, Friendfeed, LinkedIn, Flickr, and gdgt (which only launched this past Thursday) are accounts that haven't been around since before last November, when I started Cloud Culture.

It's not entirely unrelated; I wanted to turn Cloud Culture into something I could show potential employers, and I wanted to make it about new media. So I did feel a certain need to get into those things I was lagging on--Twitter and Friendfeed, for instance. But a lot of it is just for the fun of it, though the two reasons are of course hardly mutually exclusive.

Of course when taking account of it all one has to include my Google Profile page itself in the list...

...I'm going to be spending most of my day off today outside and with people. Clearly that's a very good thing. Of course, I'll bring my camera and pictures will inevitably end up on Facebook and Flickr...so maybe Mark Helprin is right, and I really am just a slave to technology and the internet.

Oh well. I'm off for now anyway. I'll undoubtedly see you later, internets.

I Finally Decided to Get Into Flickr

Check out my photostream.

A Mental Framework

There is a faction of economists that refer to economic theory as a way of thinking. This often offends those who consider economics to be truly scientific. But more and more I see the appeal of this perspective; I do think that economics is a lot more like applied philosophy than science. This doesn't mean I believe there isn't any truth to be found by dedicating the effort it takes to learn economic theory; just that you're never going to get anything equivalent to the predictive power of applied physics. You can't build an society with economics the way you can built a catapult and get a good sense of how to aim it using physics.

I also think that speaking of an economic way of thinking is more likely to encourage a level of humility not enjoyed so much by those who believe they are presenting arguments with cool,scientific indifference.

Cap And Trade

Haven't really paid much attention to the Cap and Trade discussion, but I did find this funny.



From GoRemy, the guy who made the awesome Arlington Rap.

Burning the Candle at Both Ends

I've been blogging in spurts lately. Sometimes I'm inspired and write a few posts here. Sometimes Cloud Culture becomes the object of that inspiration. I knew it was going to get harder rather than easier. The timing was such that just as I was going into Grad school I had taken a real, nonretail job with a 40 mile commute.

I thought I might get some more free time since I was taking just one class this summer, even with the compressed schedule that a summer class involves. But as it happens, this is the single most difficult class I have ever taken in my entire time as a student--which is to say, my entire life. So...no such luck.

When I'm cornered between my various responsibilities, I sometimes think about the projects I'd like to work on if only I had the time. I would love to get in touch with some of the big scanlation communities and write something more in-depth about the process. I'd like to write more fiction, maybe a book. I'd love to start a podcast; I had talked seriously to my friend Peter about it but that was before it became clear that I was going to have to fight to survive this class.

But I have my whole life ahead of me. It's easy to think about those things, but honestly, if I did have the time, I'm not sure I'd have the focus to do half of what I want to do. All of life is trade-offs, and despite my reservations, I'm glad I decided to pursue the MA in Econ at GMU. If I can make it through this class, the comps, the Fall semester, and my thesis...I'll be done.

I don't usually do more personal posts like this one, but what the hell. It's my blog, and I was in the mood.

For the Record

Paul Krugman is a man who loves to tell everyone that he knows, on subjects which it's fairly unlikely anyone does. So I think that drudging up this editorial from 2002 and making him eat his words is fair play for a man who can continue to be arrogant after having been most obviously in the wrong.

To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.

You know that housing bubble that just burst, the one that left a far more severe recession in its wake than the one we experienced after dot-com?

Well, back when the Fed was pumping it up, Krugman was among the crowd telling everyone that that was exactly what needed to be done.

Does that mean that you should listen to people who agree with me over people like Krugman? Of course not. Any libertarian that tries to predict the exact path we're going to take, or provide the precise "cure" for our current situation, should be taken with just as great a grain of salt.

But I do think that Mr. Krugman should learn some humility or just shut his goddam mouth.

Hat tip: lowercase liberty

UPDATE: Below in the comments, Stephen disagrees with my interpretation:

You're more knowledgeable than I am on these matters, but I think it's a bit disingenuous to say that Krugman called for a housing bubble in this editorial.

If anything, he seems to be saying that a housing bubble is the only thing that will replace the previous market bubble quickly, but that he doubts people will fall for it. I don't see any evidence in the editorial that Krugman thinks it's a good idea (he may say so elsewhere).

It's a fair cop. I may have misunderstood what he was saying; I didn't mean to come off as disingenuous. It should be obvious that I'm biased against Krugman; knowing this, I should have taken a much closer look rather than running off my mouth with my first impression.

Thank you Stephen for calling me on it.

Economics through comics

Forget my explanation of comparative advantage; this guy's takes the cake.

I really, really love the internet sometimes.

OK. All the time.

Does Not Fulfill Dietary Requirements

Nara deer love maps from Casey Paquet on Vimeo.

Deer eats map, from Japanification, my new favorite travel blog.