Arrested Development

Inflation Woe

2008-07-16T07:34:00.006+08:00

About this Talk Patrick Awuah left a comfortable life in Seattle to return to Ghana and co-found, against the odds, a liberal arts college. Why? Because he believes that Ghana's failures in leadership -- and he gives several mind-boggling examples -- stem from a

Wisdom from Partha

2007-11-05T10:20:00.000+08:00

“As economics matters to us (economists), we also have views on what should be done to put things right when we feel they are wrong. And we hold our views strongly because our ethics drive our politics and our politics inform our economics. … …(But) I realized that economics had increasingly driven my ethics and that my ethics in turn had informed my politics.” - Sir Partha

Taking Notes on Justin Lin - Marshall Lecture 2007 (Part Two)

2007-11-03T10:38:00.000+08:00

The second lecture was on transition; personally less insightful than the first. There is this part: … [T]he East Asian economies were lucky in the sense that their governments needed to be pragmatic in their policies… . China’s Confucian culture—which has a strong impact in East Asia—is pragmatic in nature. The core of Confucianism is ‘zhongyong’, the golden mean, which advises people to

Taking Notes on Justin Lin - Marshall Lecture 2007 (Part One)

2007-11-01T09:17:00.000+08:00

What I took out from the first lecture; part one is on development. Development, the progress and prosperity of a nation, is dictated primarily by institutions.Institutions, by construct of nationhood, is in fact determined by the one dominant institution, the government itself. Other institutions are mere derivations.Government is in turn a function of its leaders. Leaders

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2007-09-06T12:00:00.000+08:00

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go I'm standin' here outside your door I hate to wake you up to say goodbye But the dawn is breakin', it's early morn The taxi's waitin', he's blowin' his horn Already I'm so lonesome I could die So kiss me and smile for me Tell me that you'll wait for me Hold me like you'll never let me go 'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane I don't know when

Usefulness versus Truth – The Former Matters More

2007-06-19T18:33:00.000+08:00

From John Kay’s latest piece – really can’t agree more with it; serves to partially represents how my philosophical world-view has changed in recent years. Also a pseudo-response to Rational Thinker’s excellent comment on my previous post. “Why Rorty's search for what works has lessons for businessFinancial Times 19 June 2007 When a student of business and economics wants to ponder the

Malaysia's Demise

2007-06-17T10:26:00.000+08:00

Hoisted from my previous post; my response to a reader’s comment. Hi Anon, I am very sorry about the exclusivity of the post. About North's idea: economists have been increasing technical, relying on model building (equations), mathematics and statistics, to explain economics phenomenons. In a sense it is getting more like physics (disclaimer - this is an extreme oversimplification).But

Look North

2007-06-14T17:03:00.000+08:00

"In the analysis of economic performance through time it contained two erroneous assumptions: one that institutions do not matter and two that time does not matter... ...if the institutional framework rewards piracy then piratical organizations will come into existence; and if the institutional framework rewards productive activities then organizations - firms - will come into existence to

Women

2007-06-13T21:55:00.000+08:00

On MIX Breakfast today, Serena C and Ika discussed briefly on marriage and divorce and women in general. At one point, Serena said: “They say 30’s is the new 20’s now” Bless her :) Anyway, the latest IMF’s Finance and Development (June 2007, Vol. 44, No. 2) focuses on the role of women, with the tagline “Unleashing the Economic Power of Women”. The three main articles are: Smart

Arrested Development going Undercover

2007-06-09T19:45:00.000+08:00

Undercover economist Tim Harford's latest article on the FT is titled Arrested Development. Unfortunately, it is in no way related to this blog. An okay read for a Saturday.

Sweet Lizard

2007-06-07T14:04:00.001+08:00

My second article on theCicak, adapted from my previous post on Dividing Wealth. Teehee…

Whole Brain Help

2007-06-04T18:48:00.000+08:00

Valued readers,I need help. I am currently looking for a free online test for the Hermann Brain Dominance Indicator (HBDI) thinking preference model. There is an almost identical one named Neethling Brain Instrument (NBI) whole brain model too. I have done it before and found out that I am mostly a Blue-Yellow thinker which makes me both a left-right brainer (which mean I get waaay ambiguous

North’s Big Ideas

2007-06-04T16:43:00.000+08:00

Important notes of the day… *jot jot*… from Arnold Kling: Off the top of my head, North's big ideas include: 1. Economics is not ahistorical. You can't just jump arbitrarily from one economic pattern to another. For example, you can't turn Russia or Iraq into a western economy overnight. 2. Institutions evolve from history, technology, and cultural beliefs. And institutions are what lock in

Dividing Wealth

2007-06-01T18:38:00.000+08:00

We Malaysians are absurdly concerned about dividing wealth. Not redistribution of wealth from the well-to-do to the needy, but plainly about dividing wealth amongst different races, treating wealth as though it is like manna from heaven. And when it comes to dividing stuff, we inevitably need to impose our judgement on what is equitable – on what proportion is fair. And after much observations,

Language is a Skill

2007-05-31T18:46:00.000+08:00

“It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.” - Michael Corleone, Godfather From my posts, it is rather obvious that I am disheartened by the current state of the nation. I am getting more and more convinced that the country is in a crisis – not a short-term 1997/98 type of crisis, but a gradual and ultimately more damaging and pervasive crisis of norms and institutions that will lead

Badawi on Financial Times

2007-05-28T10:44:00.000+08:00

The Financial Times yesterday carried a piece on the challenges of the Muslim world by our very own Prime Minister – I wonder who is the real writer behind the piece. I think subscription is needed to read the whole piece, so here goes: The real challenge for Muslim nations is economicBy Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi, May 27 2007 The divide between the Muslim world and the west has

Japanese Monetary Policy Oxymoron - A Contractionary Stance to Boast Consumption

2007-05-28T10:29:00.000+08:00

I have come across many commentaries lately suggesting that the Bank of Japan should stop its next to zero interest rate policy (n-ZIRP?) and increase rates to boast household consumption. For example, Oxford and Yale trained Thomas Palley wrote this on Project Syndicate: How Japan Fuels Global Financial Instability ... the policy of ultra-low interest rates may also be bad for Japan.

Good Government – Populism versus Institutions

2007-05-18T11:53:00.001+08:00

From Martin Wolf today: “A populist sways the electorate by playing on basic emotions. A populist element is present in most great democratic leaders. But populism is also dangerous: it is a step towards arbitrary government… The dominant characteristic of the populist is dislike of institutional constraints. This is why the populist is the opposite of the conservative. Conservatives

Potpourri Wednesday

2007-05-02T23:39:00.000+08:00

Many interesting readings today. Firstly, there is Ben Bernanke very timely speech on free trade and the dangers of protectionism. Mark Thoma from Economist’s View writes: I expect this will convert all you doubters into enthusiastic supporters of the free trade agenda. Insular Malaysian policymakers should take note too. Embracing the Challenge of Free Trade: Competing and Prospering in a

Malaysia – A Crisis of Norms and Institutions (3)

2007-05-02T00:23:00.000+08:00

Property Rights Another insightful piece from John Kay today: Property rights and the wrong path to democracy Financial Times 01 May 2007 There are two methods of allocating property rights: Top down – by the dictates of a central administration – or bottom up – rights to land are acquired by working it. … In Argentina – as in Latin America generally – the top-down

Malaysia – A Crisis of Norms and Institutions (2)

2007-05-01T00:36:00.000+08:00

Institutional Change: Natura Non Facit Saltum?Point to ponder today – from Dani’s latest blog entry: Oligarchic capitalism in one country Something funny happened to Russia on its way from socialism to capitalism. A bunch of politically-connected "oligarchs" managed to subvert the process while making themselves hyper-rich. In a fascinating paper, Serguey Braguinsky asks “whether oligarchic

Respect for the Dignity of Individuals

2007-04-27T18:53:00.000+08:00

"A society that does not recognise that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow can have no respect for the dignity of the individual and cannot really know freedom." - F A Hayek, The Constitution of LibertyReflection.

Influence

2007-04-26T21:50:00.000+08:00

One of the many reasons why I think Monterey is more interesting than Davos: I mentioned one of the TEDtalks by Hans Rosling sometime back. Anyway, not too long ago, in a discussion with a senior member of a reputable international institution, I was told that although intelligence, diligence and productivity are very important, they are not the most valuable attributes

Dani Blogs!

2007-04-25T22:51:00.000+08:00

Dani Rodrik started blogging :) This is my previous entry on his work.

Vote - Defeating the Defeatist Tendency

2007-04-23T23:42:00.000+08:00

My ‘Why Malaysia Needs More Governance and Less Corruption?’ and the subsequent ‘Vote for Change?’ posts attracted many comments (for Arrested Development’s standard that is…) which are interesting, persuasive and worthy of lengthier discussions. Unfortunately, I can only respond to some of them briefly here. Evolution Analogy: Cantab used evolution as a parallel to election and the danger of

Rude Driving

2007-04-23T13:23:00.000+08:00

Woke up early today. Felt fresh and energetic, with much optimism and eagerness to brace the challenges that this new week brings. Like an enthusiastic bunny, I got ready to work. Then came the driving. As usual the town traffic was real bad, no surprise there. But today, I must have woken up with an ‘I am a pushover’ label on my forehead. At least 20 cars cut into my lane rudely, mostly

Stiglitz on China and Rogoff on Wolfowitz

2007-04-20T11:20:00.000+08:00

There are two recent and interesting Project Syndicate articles by Joe Stiglitz and Ken Rogoff. Joe: China’s New Economic Model China’s success since it began its transition to a market economy has been based on adaptable strategies and policies: as each set of problems are solved, new problems arise, for which new policies and strategies must be devised. This process includes social

Vote for Change?

2007-04-19T23:43:00.000+08:00

My post on Why Malaysia Needs More Governance and Less Corruption attracted two very interesting comments. Thank you Cantab and Elegent Lily. A quick recap – I ended the said post by saying: Vote for change. As Fukuyama said, the road to modernisation requires a society that desires democracy. To that, Cantab responded: Vote for a change? Democracy only works if there are viable alternatives.

Constructive Naïveté over Destructive Defeatism

2007-04-19T22:05:00.000+08:00

My rewritten piece on confusing target for objective in theCicak.com attracted this comment from ‘Anon’: If you’re so smart, design better targets and the appropriate incentive system. Hah, there you go. This is one of those problems that EVERYONE recognizes but cannot solve any better. Also, designing incentive systems is truly one of the most difficult things in the world and always always

Malaysia – A Crisis of Norms and Institutions (1)

2007-04-18T11:36:00.000+08:00

Why Malaysia Needs More Governance and Less Corruption I have some ideas with me on the state of Malaysia which I wish to develop formally in the near future. Unfortunately, those ideas are still patchy and insufficiently coherent and robust to build a strong and persuasive thesis. To assist me in forming my arguments, I will be using this blog as a guiding notepad for me to jot down ideas every

Contributing Lizard Writer

2007-04-17T18:41:00.000+08:00

My article appeared on theCicak.com today, yay :) You can also read the original, non-journalese version here. Thanks to Resurrected for alerting me of the site.

Rethinking Industrial Policy

2007-04-14T16:42:00.000+08:00

I have been reading a lot of Dani Rodrik lately and found his writings very insightful. His ideas are strongly persuasive but somewhat orthogonal to conventional mainstream economists thinking; I get a strong suspicion that this is because he is merely ahead of the curve. He principally favours ‘eclectic solutions that mix government and the private sector in pragmatic ways’ and is critical on

The Academia is a Meritocracy

2007-04-11T23:19:00.000+08:00

From Mankiw’s blog today: A student emails me from Greece to ask: I wish to follow an academic career and I would like to teach at famous universities (like Harvard, MIT, Stanford and so forth). Do you think that this is possible? Yes, absolutely. Academia is very much a meritocracy. Success at getting goods academic jobs is determined by research productivity, measured by such things as

Subsidising Idleness is Soul-Destroying

2007-04-11T22:52:00.000+08:00

I love reading the Financial Times – especially the op-ed articles. If I have to choose reading only one newspaper, FT is the one. This is from Martin Wolf today. Besides his usual remarkable insights on the matter he writes on, I found the last few paragraphs being rather instructive in thinking about economic policies in Malaysia. How to promote employment while protecting the

Proton: The Perfect Basket Case Study

2007-04-06T14:10:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, the Star had a surprisingly interesting and candid article on Proton, our favourite national car. Despite the very heavy editing (methink, since some of the paragraphs read so very weird), the piece retained some crucial points that reflected the dismal state that is our national automotive industry. Read it here. Excerpts: Proton saga continues …As consumers, all the

The Road to Modernisation

2007-04-06T12:46:00.000+08:00

“…If a society [wants] to be modern, there [is] no alternative to a market economy and a democratic political system. Not everyone wanted to be modern, of course, and not everyone could put in place the institutions and policies necessary to make democracy and capitalism work, but no alternative system would yield better results. … …[But] long before you have a liberal democracy, you have

The Problem of Badly Designed Targets

2007-04-05T23:22:00.000+08:00

As prosaic as it might sound, a policy is designed to achieve its ultimate objective. Very often, incentive will be a part of the policy that will encourage behaviours and actions towards achieving that objective. Unfortunately, objectives are often subjective and difficult to measure. Nonetheless, for a policy to work, something has to be measured in order for an incentive mechanism to be

Out – Skinny Jeans and Babydoll

2007-04-05T21:20:00.000+08:00

Girls, according to my microeconomic textbook author, skinny jeans are out and baby doll dresses might soon be passé: …Skinny jeans have been fashionable for the last few years, but there are signs that the trends are now moving toward straight-leg designs. If the tide changes, pretty soon everybody will be selling straight-leg jeans. … If all the designers are showing baby doll

Important Things in Life

2007-04-04T22:08:00.000+08:00

He wisely counsels that anything that happens to your finances is secondary to the important things in life – picking a suitable and compatible mate, developing a relationship with your children, and doing something that you enjoy. - Jeremy Siegel on Warren Buffett As quoted from Greg’s blog. Look at all those defensive comments from both entries. Makes you wonder.

The Journey Matters

2007-04-04T15:42:00.000+08:00

Resurrected asked: “On a very separate note, what are your thoughts on the FTA with the US? I just read on CNN that South Korea has signed theirs with the US.” Good question :) There are three reasons why I chose not to openly opine on this issue. Firstly, I am not adequately informed about the finer details of the US-Malaysia FTA to formulate specific arguments for or against it. And

Existential Crisis?

2007-04-04T09:29:00.000+08:00

The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to avoid being deceived by economists. - Joan Robinson, Cambridge University Hmmm… PS: Sorry for the hiatus everyone. Will resume blogging soon after my many things are sorted.

Beauty Central

2007-03-31T11:31:00.000+08:00

It's not bad that they call themselves 中国 ["central country"] as long as they keep calling us 美国 ["beautiful country"]... Teeeheee… From Brad deLong’s blog entry. Interesting comments too.

Tuesday Bog Roll Readings

2007-03-27T22:21:00.000+08:00

Donald J. Boudreaux’s latest Economics in Many Lessons on Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, on how DIY economics could lead to bad policies. Our policy-makers should take note. Consistent Common SenseBy Donald J. BoudreauxTuesday, March 27, 2007 Every semester I emphasize to my freshman economics students that "economics is little more than common sense, consistently applied." Although I

A Short Trip to McDonald’s

2007-03-26T23:35:00.000+08:00

After a long and tiring day at work, I vowed not to think about economics at all for the rest of the night. The plan was to have a quick dinner followed by a therapeutic shower and a brief casual reading on bed before dreaming of sunbeams, sea breeze and autumn leaves. I dropped by a McDonald’s for the quick dinner. Fine Parking The restaurant is relatively big for a MacDonald’s with its

Introspection

2007-03-26T09:56:00.001+08:00

Rat in a Cage: A Convenient Journal The reason why I started blogging was rather simple – I found it to be an ideal creative outlet and a convenient journal to track the flow of my ideas and the interesting things I found. I often find myself with many pent up ideas; ideas which are not as formal and lengthy as they are worthy of proper investigations and penned down as research reports (which

Believing in the Majority

2007-03-20T22:20:00.000+08:00

Overcoming Bias has a very interesting entry today, on ‘Philosophical Majoritarianism’. Firstly, it is very obvious that the author do not believe entirely in what he wrote, especially given the frivolity of the exposition. Secondly, I believe he meant for it to be more of a thought experiment (Scott Adam’s God’s Debris comes to mind). But I could be wrong. The premise of the argument in

Vision 2020

2007-03-20T18:05:00.000+08:00

“Personal maturity lies in aligning expectations with aspirations, capabilities and goals… The problem lay not with strategy, but with execution. But effective strategy is not separable from execution and is not based on visions and dreams, but on a match between capabilities and activities.” - John Kay, Dreams are no basis for a sound

Political Infeasibility

2007-03-19T09:48:00.000+08:00

Lifted from Greg Mankiw’s blog – a quotation from the late Milton Friedman in his new biography (emphasis added): “The role of the economist in discussions of public policy seems to me to be to prescribe what should be done in light of what can be done, politics aside, and not to predict what is ‘politically feasible’ and then to recommend it.” I am convinced that public policy debates in

Building a Better World

2007-03-16T10:50:00.000+08:00

The Development Data Group at the World Bank launched this very interesting and interactive online Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Atlas. In case you are new to MDG, here’s a little info on it from its website: At the Millennium Summit in September 2000 the largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global

Anwar Ibrahim on Financial Times

2007-03-15T21:58:00.000+08:00

FT.com prompted me to read this just now: Malaysia’s Anwar seeks return to power By Tom Burgis in LondonPublished: March 15 2007 11:52 | Last updated: March 15 2007 11:52 Anwar Ibrahim, the former golden boy of Malaysian politics, said on Thursday he hopes to stand for prime minister in elections that could be held by the end of this year. … In an interview with the

Listening to Kahneman

2007-03-15T12:35:00.000+08:00

Regular readers of the shared articles on my coffee table (that would be one of you, including myself) would notice that I often find myself fascinated by articles on cognitive biases, particularly from this collaborative site, Overcoming Bias. I did not read behavioural economics back in university, preferring instead to focus on game theory and econometrics (perhaps I should have taken an

Cellar Door

2007-03-14T15:51:00.000+08:00

‘‘Mighty is the charm Of these abstractions to a mind beset With images, and haunted by herself And specially delightful unto me Was that clear synthesis built up aloft So gracefully.’’ - Wordsworth And thus in utter randomness she descends…~~~(http://www.jtran.net/, http://www.duskyward.com/)

Democracy and Economic Progress

2007-03-13T11:39:00.000+08:00

The Wall Street Journal Online has a very interesting entry today in their Econoblog. WSJ.com invited economists Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ed Glaeser of Harvard University to discuss the delicate relationship between economic growth and broader political freedoms. Highly recommended because, firstly, the discussion itself is very interesting and secondly,

Tax the Poor

2007-03-13T08:55:00.000+08:00

Steven E. Landsbury wrote this somewhat light-hearted piece on Slate last Friday, on income and leisure, suggesting that you shouldn’t only look at income levels when considering inequality. And how policies to redistribute from the rich to the poor is like subsidising the poor to have more leisure time. A more nuanced and deeper read into this, and perhaps we could relate it to the Malaysian

Search Malaysia

2007-03-10T01:03:00.000+08:00

Having had to do economic research on matters pertaining to Malaysia, I often get frustrated and disappointed by the lack of good academic papers on Malaysia. It makes understanding on any particular issue difficult and investigation tedious – to have a progressive and fruitful search for knowledge, we are suppose to stand on shoulders of giants. This is made worse by the fact there are very few

WTF?!!

2007-03-09T09:24:00.000+08:00

This is from Elizabeth Wong’s blog, by our Minister of Tourism, Tengku Adnan: “Bloggers are liars. They use all sort of ways to cheat others. From what I know, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women. “Bloggers like to spread rumours, they don’t like national unity. Today our country has achievements because we are tolerant and compromising. Otherwise we will have civil war.

Turning Point? Confusing a Cycle with a Trend

2007-03-07T15:55:00.000+08:00

More on the recent share market movements in the Financial Times yesterday, this time by Martin Wolf. A more serious and ecumenical take. Equities look overvalued, but where is the turning point?By Martin Wolf Is the market turbulence of the last week telling us something or is it no more than “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”? Some analysts are