Guy Berger

Hmmm.... I'll look into it. Thanks! San Clemente is indeed beautiful, though about 45 min away from San Diego. On the plus side you live next to these:

Kenny Dorham is gay?!?!? (Sorry, the two subject headers were next to each other)

Interesting article, with a good exposition of the Phillips Curve -- the relationship (sort of) that underpins much of modern monetary policy, and also the reason that almost all economists favor central bank independence.

By the way, I recommend Del Mar though it may be a little pricey or La Jolla if you are really loaded. Guy

This one is even better

The only thing I would say is pay attention to the business press... home prices in the US have not bottomed out. Of course if you don't care about buying at the bottom, go for it. I totally agree about San Diego, there is no nicer place in the US. (OK, maybe Maui.) Guy

Actually, he's not far off the mark, even if it is naive. I agree with Paul 100%. Guy

This will probably be funny only to people familiar with the episode in question, but I saw it last night and was rolling: crentist

While it's hard to deny that it's currently a "tinderbox," I'm not sure if that's an accurate assessment in general. Yes, California is in the midst of a severe drought (blame global warming?), and combined with worse-than-usual Santa Ana winds it makes the fire danger high, but it's not like these fires are occuring in remote regions were people shouldn't be living. Some of the areas are mountainous, but these are towns/cities that are in danger, not some antisocial hermit who's living on the edge of civilization. Many of the areas could be considered fairly high-density suburbs, bounded by interstate highways. Is it any better to live near lakes, rivers, and oceans because they may occassionally flood and/or be in the path of hurricanes and tornados? Well, San Diego has had two bouts of extremely destructive fires in five years. If people wish to live in areas that are particularly prone to natural or other disasters (and I would agree that the same criticism can be directed at those who live in New Orleans, earthquake country, tornadoes, floods, droughts, whatever), they should at least foot the bill for the inevitable rescue ahead of time. Whether it's through higher taxes or mandatory insurance... I don't know. Guy

I'm largely oblivious to these things in general, and haven't read the 7th book yet, so maybe it's obvious in that one. And frankly, I don't care much either way. But GA Russell's comments are... puzzling. I agree that in general explicit sex doesn't belong in kids' literature,* but romance (with occasional hints of more) has been in there since the beginning of time. And it's present in hefty doses inside the Harry Potter. That's not surprising because the series (particularly the later books) is aimed at young adults, who are experiencing this kind of stuff (along with more explicit stuff, as they age) daily in their real lives. Since I am guessing that GA Russell doesn't find this kind of largely chaste romance to be objectionable, it's pretty obvious to me why he is upset by the fact that a celibate character (who, after all, engages "the normal behavior of unmarried people") is homosexual. Guy *Anybody else read Piers Anthony novels as a teenager?

Forest will grow back... A better question is whether it makes sense to have people living in a tinderbox. Are people who live in these areas of CA required to purchase insurance against wildfire damage? Guy

A rational scheme? Not quite sure what you mean by that....Are you saying it's too cheap per gallon? I guess we could up the price some, but I feel that would be too little too late...Most people haven't been able to water their lawns for most of this year. Can't wash cars anymore, and probably won't be able to til next year at the very earliest. We can take shorter showers, but most people don't want to stop flushing toilets. For many a year all you can get is low flow shower heads, and toilets. Businesses on the other hand... at least up til a few weeks ago, I would see them running their sprinklers all the time to water a 2, 3 foot strip of grass We are a city growing faster than any other large city in the nation, and no one has been planning for what can/will happen with this kind of growth. Plus, Gatorade is the largest water user in Atlanta. And as I have mentioned a few times, the Army Corp of Engineers seem hell bent on draining the lake, or at least pumping it to a point water pressure will be non existent. For all the screw ups mentioned in the last article, they screwed up last year as well and dumped billions and billions of gallons of water to help some sturgeon, not realizing that they had measured the water level incorrectly! We are in a drought, a terrible one. We have been in and out of droughts for most of this century, and you just think that people at the state and Federal level would have a clue on how to handle this situation better. Beri, What I meant was... I know that in California and lots of other places, water is heavily subsidized to at least some users. (In Cal and Israel, farmers pay an tiny fraction of what others do.) I do not know if Atlanta residents pay the actual cost of the water they use, but yes, some sort of hike in the price of water would help alleviate some of the problems with the shortage and also potentially generate a market-driven solution to the water shortage. Guy

For what it's worth, when I was in grad school I bought the cheapest pair available ($40). You get pretty much what you pay for -- they are better than nothing, but I am thinking of upgrading. What about the Shure earbuds or whatever they are called? Everybody who has them swears by them. Guy

Maui, or some other tropical paradise. Though with global warming, we may dispose of this annoying winter thing in other places too. Guy

Missed that post earlier. Thanks Guy. We tend to think the same thing here. Lack of statistics helps to cover up regional prosperity gaps. MG I think that in the US the regional statistics are probably decent, though certainly not as good as the national ones. As far as prosperity gaps -- they exist both in terms of levels and in rates of change. For example, though Michigan is somewhere near the US median in terms of per capita income level it's pretty much been in a recession for the last XXXX years, much worse than the rest of country and even the rest of the rustbelt. Guy

A very funny graphic, but the "Helicopter Ben" moniker is based both on a misattribution (Milton Friedman was the guy that came up with the "dropping money from a helicopter" thought experiment*, Bernanke was just quoting Friedman) and a misunderstanding (printing lots of money may indeed be the best way to end deflation). Guy *Though I was recently amused to find out that as part of their strategy in WW2, the Nazis planned (or did?) to drop lots of counterfeit bills on the UK in order to cause runaway inflation.

Is there a rational scheme for water pricing in the Atlanta area? Guy

A few days later and a much more cynical article:

Seems fair to me. Caron Butler is an all-star in the east and Lamar Odom at his best is a very good player (though he hasn't lived up to his potential) -- not a fair deal, but not crap either. Guy

Doesn't make sense to me. Howard & Terry are nothing to write home about, and two very low first rounder? If the Lakers are offering to take that, I'm jumping on it right now if I'm Dallas.... I think Kobe wishes he took that Clipper offer now, that made so much sense for him. Maybe they meant Josh Howard? Terry is a good shoot-first point guard, and Howard is a very good (not great) all-star caliber player. Given that the Lakers are going nowhere with Kobe, maybe it's a good idea to blow up the team and start from scratch. Plus, ditching Kobe's contract makes trading for the right pieces easier. Personally, as a Laker hater, I hope they keep him. Guy