If You are Interested in What Diamond, Et Al. Did to Win the Nobel Prize

Here's a nice summary of some of the work (and why it's important today) by Paul Krugman:

The Beveridge Curve.

Here's more detail on the history of this research area from Edward Glaeser.

The Work Behind the Nobel Prize.

Wouldn't it be nice to have someone in a policy-making position who understood how markets really work? Instead we get Senator "Know-Nothing" Shelby.

How to Regulate the Financial System--Are Big Banks the Problem?

From Project Syndicate: Why Target Big Banks?

A Note about Music

Something happened to my musical tastes when I crossed the Red River. Before that, I'd never been much into country music, even though my girls have liked it since high school. But in Texas, country music is different. It's not the slick over-produced Nashville sound that is played in Kansas City and Chicago (although not all of that is bad). Down here, country music is closer to rock and sometimes nearly indistinguishable. My favorite XM station is Outlaw Country and you are as likely to hear Bob Dylan as you are to hear Willie Nelson; the Rolling Stones as Asleep at the Wheel. I love it!

Winners of the Economics Nobel

From the New York Times:

2010 winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science.

Dale Mortensen was one of my professors at Northwestern.

Why are Texans so dense?

From the Burnt Orange Report:

"In any other state, in any other year, you'd think it would be a sure bet that a politician like Rick Perry would be headed for defeat - he's the perfect example of the type of incumbent that should. Consider the following -

1. Rick Perry had serious primary challengers from the right and left who spent millions attacking him and forced him to drain his entire bank account.


2. Rick Perry has a serious Democratic opponent - the former Mayor of America's 4th largest city, who's done the impossible in matching the GOP's typical money advantage.


3. Rick Perry is the epitome of incumbent - having been in one office or another for a quarter century and having been Governor for a whole decade. This weekend he refused to rule out a bid for a fourth term should be be re-elected.


4. Rick Perry doesn't have just one legitimate scandal, but multiple ones - shades of bribery, payola, land deals, hidden schedules, and countless cases of using his public office for personal or political desires. It's not like there is a debate on the question of whether Rick Perry has skeletons in the closet - we're just unsure of how many and what size.


5. Rick Perry goes full steam ahead, opponents be damned. That includes casting the media as opponents - refusing to meet with editorial boards, answering reporters' questions, or engaging in any debate with anyone."

What Spending?

Has government spending risen under Obama?

Punk Rock at the ACL

What better way to restart my blog than pictures of a grandchild?





Maya acquired the look at this year's Austin City Limits music festival, which she attended with her father.

Family Christmas 2009

Here are some photos from Christmas week in Texas.

I don't know if Ginger is looking for Santa or watching the turkey flock in the back yard. She did like her gifts, especially the quacking pull toy Chris, Tim and Maya gave her.



Here's a glamor shot of the cutest puppy in the world.



Our cousin, Jo Ann, was almost a Christmas baby, so we started the festivities on her birthday two days before Christmas. (Although we really started with a Cajun dinner my sister prepared the day before--we just didn't have anything specific to celebrate yet.)



My sister, Becky, was able to get here for the holidays (that's her on the left with my mom and Tim).



Uncle Ron read to Maya while we waited for dinner.



Our best Christmas present might have been the news that Chris got tenure at the University of Texas. She's worked very hard and certainly deserves this honor.



In addition to engineering software, she also acts as a sous chef for Tim. Usually he does all the work himself, but this Christmas there were so many dishes he enlisted Chris, his brother Arthur, and his mom, Audrey.



Here's Audrey.



We not only had a lot of people at Chris and Tim's but also a lot of dogs. Here's a subset of the six that came to dinner.



Becky brought Maya a tea set, so Maya had a tea party with Becky and her aunt Jocelyn.



We got Maya a scooter (with the appropriate safety gear) and she took to it like a champ. Note the cute boots she got for Christmas.



And of course, there was turkey.

October in Florida

We decided to use one of our timeshares to take a late season trip to Florida. We expected to get a one-bedroom condo, but to our surprise, we ended up with a two bedroom, two bath unit. We decided that having some company would be fun, so we invited my cousins to go with us. That proved to be a great decision and we had a great time. Ron and I got in four rounds of golf (Susan and JoAnn got in two, plus a lot of shopping). At first the weather looked dicey, when a late season hurricane blew up in the Gulf and headed our way. We ended up with a couple of days of rain, but by and large the weather cooperated and the storm landed west of us and went north to the Carolinas, which got hit much worse than Florida.

Here's a picture of the surf as the storm was rising.



I think two flags means stay out of the water. You can see it was beginning to blow.



We used one of the days of rain to visit the Naval Air Museum at Pensacola. It is one of the best museums I have ever visited (and it's free). We got a guided tour and saw an IMAX movie (not free). Here are couple of shots from inside the museum. All the planes are real, so you can get some idea of the scope of the place. This goes under the category of "Highly Recommended."



We were staying at a Marriott resort and it was very nice. It wasn't on the beach, but there was a marina and a boardwalk out into the channel that gave some really nice views of the water.



The resort has two golf courses, one of them a Nicklaus design. This is one of the holes. We could see part of it from our condo.



We walked out on the boardwalk to see the sunset. Here's a pelican that happened by.



This is a succession of shots as the sun went down.




By the way, did you know that a mixture of candy corn and peanuts tastes just like a Payday candy bar?

Road Trip

Chris and Tim had a chance for a work/pleasure trip to the Canary Islands and Madrid over Thanksgiving. We offered to babysit Maya and go visit Rob and Sarah and their family in Chicago. Most people thought we were crazy--two old folks taking on an eight day babysitting trip with a two and a half year old. We're back and we survivied. Here are some highlights of the trip.

Maya discovered luggage carts and always wanted to help and sometime ride when the cart was empty.



Once we got to Chicago, it didn't take long for the little girl mafia to organize. Here's a picture of their first meeting under the bunk bed.



It was really great to get to see the grandkids and how they've grown. Andrew is getting quite mature. I thought he was very grown up in behavior and looks.



Nate lives and dies with his guitar and Eli Manning.



Maya and Megan zoomed around the house.



I tried to provide Sarah with a family picture for their Christmas letter. This is the best of an indifferent lot. The subjects aren't done justice by my photography skills.



Maya was happy to get back to Texas. We stopped at the Texas welcome center to get some exercise and take a break from the car.