Links! Links! Links!

Wired:
The rise and fall of Bitcoin.
Amazon is the future.

The Economist:
South Koreans are insane when it comes to standardized testing.

A great Radio Lab short, just listen to it.

From Matt Yglesias, online piracy is not exactly theft.

From Atlantic Cities can we save Suburbs?

Links! Links! Links!

Bloomberg:

Afghanistan really was a no good very bad place, from a logistics standpoint, for the US to have invaded.

Leaving a party when you are the largest military force on the planet is a lot more complicated than you think.

I think Lithuania is getting one of the worst deals when it comes to the debt crisis.

China continues to experience growing pains.

The Economist:

Language continues to be weird.

And so does America and Religion.

3D printing marches onward.

Including Taxes in the Posted Price

In Colin Grey's video Death to Pennies he mentions how it is absurd that we do not include tax in posted prices at stores. As a result of this oversight individuals are unable to efficiently use their change to pay for items. My problem is with inefficiency of the whole affair; calculating the tax one time when marking the price on the shelf as well as the price being constantly priced and repriced in the heads of the customers and then recalculated again at the register. While the register does that instantaneously we humans tend to struggle even with the most basic of math. The result must be lost time, more stress and I would assume lost sales.

I think the excuse that if we include the tax in the prices people will be dismayed by the higher prices. I is exaggerated. Individuals take tax into account when making a purchase so why would they not switch from expecting tax to expecting higher prices?

Some Thoughts on Dollar Coins

The US government is ending the dollar coin program because they have 1.4 billion of them all ready in storage. Matt Yglesias jokingly (at least I think it's a joke) says we should pick 1,400 random people and give each of them a million of them. I certainly would love to receive that many dollar coins as would many 5 year olds but I can't say the same for the rest of society. I would assume they would for the most part end up back at the Federal Reserve.


Instead I think we should do away with the dollar bill all together and force people to use the coins. If coins are indeed more cost effective to use then we should be pushing individuals to use them not simply giving them the option. 


While we're at it how about we do away with the penny and add a 50 cent piece and a $2 coin to reduce the amount of coinage out there. I can't find a GAO report on that but I would expect that reducing the amount of currency by increasing denominations would save money. 


And for those of you who will complain about having to carry around pockets full of coins I would like to point out that with implementing $1 $2 & 50¢ coins and the elimination of the penny (also if you use them efficiently) you should never have more than 6 coins in your pocket at any given time. Think about it.

China is Screwed Continued

From Businessweek:

"at some point it doesn't make sense to keep on building," says Chovanec. "China has built tomorrow's infrastructure and housing today so what is it going to build tomorrow?"

Something tells me this chart is going to level off at some point, and a lot of people are not going to be happy about it.....

Some Critical Thoughts on China

Whenever I see an article that references China's success I always feel the need to comment on how much they still have to work out. Now the article got me going this time was actually a great article and the author did nothing wrong but I still feel the need to put China in it's place.

The point of the article is that China is booming and as a result fewer Chinese people are seeking out their futures in America. That's great, go China! In my opinion the more awesomeness in the world the better. But fewer emigration does not a successful society make. China has many unresolved problems that will crop up.

1. They have far more young men than young girls as a result of their one child policy. From this one can assume that their will be many sexually frustrated men in the coming decades. Either China embraces polygamy and or prostitution (both of which have numerous detractors globally) or it must seriously address the problem.

2. Another casualty of China's one child policy is it's aging population. In order to cope with this problem China is going to have to allow for a lot of immigration. Which we all know is never a hot button issue. More on this later.

3. Endemic favoritism and corruption. Not only will this get in the way of liberalizing an economy but this will stoke social and ethnic tensions. One can an imagine a situation in which Han Chinese officials prefer to do business with fellow Hans and not the countries minorities.

Which leads me to...

4. China's lack of an open society will be its Achilles heal. Without a proper way to air grievances how will China ever be able to overcome the effects of a gender gap, inequality, a need for rising immigration, disgruntled minorities and corrupt officials? Without a credible system what citizenry will stand by as the government ignores problems in order to maintain power and enrich itself? We are currently seeing A Russian population is growing weary of the implicit bargain that a limited society equals better living standards. What happens when China inevitably slows down (India all ready is)? I for one don't see the Occupy movement going over well in China.

While China is prospering now I do not see a happy ending if it maintains its current path.

For further reading I recommend The Economist's special report on China.

Blame Hitler for Suburbs

Kind of....

Edward Glaeser's Triumph of the City:

Levitt's average earned home buyer earned about half that amount ($8000 in 1950) per year. Few of them would have had eight grand to put down for a new Levitt house, but the federal government was splurging on housing subsidies. The GI Bill offered no-down-payment housing loans for veterans, and the Federal Housing Administration guaranteed up to 95 percent of mortgages for middle income buyers. With a government-guarenteed loan, Levitt's buyers only needed to come up with $400 to buy a home packed with modern appliances and surrounded by leafy space

Aaaaand if you want to really stretch it you could blame him for the culture of home buying that led to the housing crisis......

William Levitt invented the low cost suburb the predecessor of what we know as the modern day suburb.

Update: It should also be noted that another well known anti Semite in Henry Ford is also to blame for Suburbs.