Newmark's Door

Eat our dust, Cali.

My dad was a CPA and he noted that there are lots of ways to fake accounting numbers, but that it's real darn difficult to fake a dividend check.

This is a really good idea.

Forget it, Jake. It's Europe.

But Breitwieser has spotted a 17th-century still life by Dutch painter Willem van Aelst that is simply too tempting. And it seems so easy to take. He puts the painting under his arm and walks out as casually as if he's carrying a baguette. A gallery employee instantly spots the theft, accosts the couple outside the gallery, and escorts them across the street to the police. Breitwieser and Kleinklaus remain in custody overnight but manage to convince the authorities that this is the first time they'd ever stolen and that they are terribly, deeply sorry. They are released with hardly any punishment.

So true: 

We can learn a lot about the priorities of bureaucrats by what they choose to prioritize when they are forced to make choices in spending taxpayer dollars.

UPDATE: Link fixed now. Thanks to commenters.

I certainly hope I--and you--never need this advice, but I'm bookmarking it just in case.

As I've noted here before, more federalism would go quite some way toward ameliorating our current political problems.

A change that I think will be all to the good:

The consumerization of healthcare is redefining how consumers engage with providers across each stage of care.

"My short answer is: Yes . . ."

I note that I find keeping track of my CRP value useful. Just be aware that it can spike misleadingly if you're losing a bunch of weight or if you exercise vigorously 48 hours or so before the test.

People can talk about the shortcomings of macroeconomics all they like, but this is economics you can count on.

It's one of those stories the media specialize in: a fact or two and a couple of quotes and voila, we have a trend. 

But with a supposedly "median-priced home in the 9-county region at $775,000 dollars and over $1 million in San Jose" it seems likely there's some truth to it.

Related: "California’s Rendezvous With Reality".

Just a note to say that if this is ever tried in the U.S. and it goes bad--as it inevitably will--don't blame the economists.

(Link via Gail Heriot at Instapundit who writes, "I really shouldn't have to link to this." Ditto. But when some people completely divorce themselves from history, economics, and logic, you should do what you can.)

Watch out, Chicago residents:

Illinois state pensions are getting all the attention as a result of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget speech, but don’t forget Chicago pensions. Believe it or not, they’re in even worse shape than the state pension plans.

For some informed speculation on how this ends, see "Even Warren Buffett Gets It: They're Coming For Your Money".

While it's been known in the economics literature for at least 50 years, it's underappreciated by the public that many--most?--hard-core price-fixing conspiracies are against governmental buyers.

(For one thing, sealed bidding, common in governmental purchases but rare among profit-seeking buyers, makes effective conspiring much easier.)

At the university I worked for "Elsevier" was a really dirty word, like "pedophile". I think they'll need to change their business model substantially and soon.

Actually "great" and the vast majority I hadn't seen before. (6.5 minute video.)

Sportswriter Sally Jenkins eulogizes her late father, famed sportswriter Dan Jenkins.

He preferred brevity, loathed false sentiment, prized candor and humor above all character traits and was a free speech absolutist. Privately, he was a lenient, adoring and adored man. As great a writer as he was, I don’t know that you can say anything higher about a guy than that his children preferred his company to all others and his approval to all the credit in the world. I was so lucky to be his.

Another bit of conventional wisdom from social science bites the dust:

“There seems to be a growing consensus that birth order does not influence personality in a way that can be measured in adulthood.” . . .

Damian has described birth order personalities as a “zombie theory” that lurches forward despite the evidence against it. Once we’ve accepted an idea, it’s often hard to let go.

Newmark's Second Theorem: the social sciences try to find regularities that are both true and simple. The only social science that can reliably find both is economics.

Short argument that yes, he really is.

Six years of construction distilled into a 2:10 minute video. Hudson Yards is "the largest private real estate development in the history of the United States."

Carrey at his very best. (2 minute video.)

Fine version featuring Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Jeff Bridges, and friends.

We may have some political problems in this country but at least we don't have this.

The House of Commons was a Benny Hill chase on acid, running through a Salvador Dali painting in a spaceship on its way to mad infinity and beyond.

Related: "Democracy? It's all gone Humpty Dumpty as the politicians take leave of their senses".

Concise summary by Bryan Caplan of one his most recent arguments.

"You might think this situation would prompt at least one of the Palestinians’ two rival governments to take action. But you’d be wrong."

Seemingly definitive answer here.

Yet still more on the weirdness of modern physics.