Last day in San Diego

Sixteen hours from now I will be standing at the ticket counter checking in baggage for a flight to Hong Kong. With a slight ocean breeze, the weather outside my house in San Diego is a warm 63 degrees Fahrenheit. I just spent my breakfast on my porch over-looking a horse racetrack 15 miles away. As the leaves rustled with the rhythmic beat of the wind, I stared at the crystal blue sky forgetting the mental checklist of things I needed to do before my flight.

The weather in San Diego is great. I would go as far as to say, the best in the country. While living in New York City, most New Yorkers would ask me, “Why did you ever leave?”

I admit, if life was only dictated by weather, that would be a fair and just question without a rational answer. But life is not only dictated by the weather. Often, life is this nebulous state of being defined by complex unique experiences.

I feel whenever someone has to leave a place they called ‘home’ for a long period of time, that person usually reflects upon the good times there as well as the bad. Not to use a cliché, but hindsight really is 20/20. Growing up in San Diego, this place will always have the feeling of a warm fleece pullover on a cold day. It's comfortable here.

During my time here I often wondered whether moving back to San Diego was the right life choice for me. I mean, not too many people would deny a promotion at a job they genuinely enjoyed in a company that was rapidly expanding to move back home and spend time with their 75 year old father and mother. When you add the fact that this job was in Manhattan, the center of the universe for all enjoyment purposes, and my parents live in a town of 2,000 people in desolate North San Diego County, the decision was a difficult one, and the transition while here even harder.

However, I do not regret my decision to move back one bit. I feel if I had decided to stay in New York, I would probably have regretted not spending time with those I love. When you add the fact that 75 years old is pretty damn old, the chances for me being able to spend quality time with my parents diminish exponentially as ‘Father time’ continues walking on the same path. This is true even more so as we all mature and have more and more time-consuming responsibilities such as a spouse, children and a career that forces you away from your hometown.

I guess in this respect, this life choice was the right one. Although it may not be the best choice from a career perspective, from an overall life perspective, using regret as the key indication for right or wrong, there was really no alternative. It has not always been easy being at home. I am sure most people can relate to the struggle between independence and honoring your parents’ wishes. However, I do feel it has generally been a good experience.

And now I’m moving to Asia for five months. This trip has been something I have wanted to do for a very long time. Realistically, this is also probably the last time I will be able to do it either. And, just like in my previous decision, I would hate to have the regret of not being able to accomplish this life goal.

Having grown up in Western-based American society, with a German father who has always had a strong influence in the culture of my family’s household, I often feel my mother’s culture has been marginalized by the stronger influences inside and outside the home. One clear example of this reality is the fact that I am fluent in German and English, but I can barely say two complete sentences in Korean.

It is important for a person to know where he/she comes from. I would hope, that when I have a family of my own, I would take the initiative to make sure they learn Korean, German, English and whatever traditional language my wife speaks. This is obviously very ambitious, but as most of you know, ambition is something I have in excess (see the million degrees I have as an example).

Language is very much the gateway to being exposed to the underlying aspects of a culture. I look forward to the trip. I look forward to being ‘lost in translation’ for most of the time. I look forward to struggling through the impossibility of learning a language as distant in familiarity as our nearest celestial object. I look forward to meeting some of my relatives I have not seen in 10 or 15 years. I look forward to kneeling on the ground and paying my respects at the graves of my grandmother, grandfather and great grandmother in the traditional Korean way. I look forward to seeing some of the other countries in Asia too.

But, most importantly, I am reminded of a quote by George Moore...

“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it.”

Check this out

A fish with a transparent head?

Kudos to a facebook friend of mine who brought this video to my attention.

Stimulating the Economy... and society?

It's easy with an economic stimulus package to focus on concrete economic benefits and costs. One example of that would have to be the issue of employment. However, in most economic and/or public policy analysis there are also social costs and benefits associated with any policy. There have been a few prestigious economists and financial writers who have written on the pros and cons and also the potential social cost/benefits of the economic stimulus package.

Here's a few,

The social side of things:

Gregory Clark

Marshall Loeb

Economic costs:

Ray Fair via Greg Mankiw

When things go south, people look to home

It's actually very natural for individuals to look to themselves during times of hardship. I mean, let's use a neighborhood as a microcosm for the world. If times are tough at the Jones' house, the Wilson's, being upstanding citizens and good Samaritans, are more than happy to do what they can to help. If times are tough for the neighborhood, often times it becomes 'protect my family and make sure they are secure.' The idea that helping the Jones' house would help you in the medium/long-run is something that most people don't see. One clear example of this tendency to focus on 'your own' during times of hardship is seen in how charitable donations tend to decline during periods of economic decline.

It also seems rational to save more. In terms of economic theory, the literature on consumption versus saving during times of uncertainty is abundant. Here, during times of uncertainty, like our current economic climate, people's APC (average propensity to consume) declines, and for most people the MPC (marginal propensity to consume) also declines. I say 'most', because in a graph of consumer spending as a function of cash-on-hand often those with much cash-on-hand are not inclined to change their consumption patterns based on uncertainty as much as those without a high level of cash-on-hand.

Here, those with much liquidity (disposable income) could see steady or possibly increasing levels of consumption. A millionaire in this economic climate may say "yeah, times are tough," but then still go out and buy that Lamborghini because he can still afford it. But a blue-collar auto worker, who is just breaking even with household costs, may be inclined to save more and not buy a flat-screen t.v. to prepare for the possibility that she may get laid-off due to the uncertainty of the U.S. auto industry. In the case of the blue-collar auto worker, her marginal propensity to save has increased and hence her marginal propensity to consume has decreased. For the millionaire, although disposable income may decline, her consumption is not effected by uncertainty as much. Thus, the MPC could increase in this setting. Looking at the definitions (MPC = dC/dY and MPS = 1 - MPC), one can see the relationship.

So, in the current political climate, why wouldn't politicians strive to "look after their own." It's a natural tendency. Just like the Wilson's restricting their giving and helping, a country's first inclination is to help their own, in this case 'America' is a country in the integrated global neighborhood.

As a result, what we see is a rise in economic nationalism. If times are tough for the neighborhood, why not just help ourselves?

This level of self-interest is inherently flawed when taken to the global scale. If every country sought "buy/employ your own" clauses in their economic policies, we would see a dramatic decline in trade, which in turn would raise the prices of goods (for a number of reasons resulting from decreased competition), which would then lower household consumption even further (your dollar/euro/yen would buy you far less good/service so you would focus only on necessary purchases). Further, under labor protectionism policies foreign companies that employ U.S. workers and own factories in the U.S. could fire American employees and move industries back to their home country in retaliation for 'employ American' policies affecting their home country. Let's just say Hyundai decided to close its auto manufacturing plants in the southern United States, hundreds if not thousands of Americans would be affected by this move. The sheer magnitude of the trade and labor wars would do a lot more harm than the "buy/employ American" clause would do the economy well. The government would lose tangible private sector jobs for the hope that the "buy/employ American" clause would increase domestic employment in the long-run.

I am all for "hope," but when the bottom line is jobs, why not keep the ones we know we have? Running the risk of decreased trade in goods, services and labor for this short-term gain may in fact backfire leading to an even harsher economic decline.

If you look at the article from the economist I posted a few weeks ago, the choice by countries to restrict the flow of goods, services and labor exacerbated the severity of the Great Depression and led to prolonged economic hardship. We need to help China, Europe, Japan, Mexcio, South Korea and all of our trading partners as much as we need to help ourselves. If we allow the market to control the free flow of goods and services between countries, then in the long-run, consumption rates, income and demand for labor will increase with the stimulus spending plans.

It's funny, protectionism may seem like the helpful thing to do, but in the long-run the harm is greater than the short-term gain.

It seems China is more free-market oriented than the United States these days (see link).

Blog Name Change

So, I decided to change the name and address of my blog. I mean, I didn't really tell many people I had a blog to begin with. However, for those of you I did tell, and randomly visited the website, I had to change. I wanted to gain a slightly stronger level of anonymity with my blog. As a result, here's the new version.

You are probably wondering what's up with the title and the million repeat posts (no no I wasn't trying to mimic a double mint gum commercial). I had some technical difficulties associated with the importing of a few posts. I hope you like the new blog. I will try to add more video blogs (Vlogs) too.


With regards to the title, I was inspired by the popular Koan:

Before I sought enlightenment, the mountains were mountains and the rivers were rivers.

While I sought enlightenment, the mountains were not mountains and the rivers were not rivers.

After I reached satori, the mountains were mountains and the rivers were rivers.


I hope you enjoy the new version. Feel free to comment as I get a few posts going.

First Presidential Address

Some really good stuff in Obama's first presidential address. I'd recommend listening to the first 15 minutes for a good sense of why the stimulus package is a good idea at the moment.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog_post/first_presser/

First Presidential Address

Some really good stuff in Obama's first presidential address. I'd recommend listening to the first 15 minutes for a good sense of why the stimulus package is a good idea at the moment.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog_post/first_presser/

Depression Era Policies Reborn?

Great Article by the Economist. Really hits at why nationalism in trade and labor is inevitably a bad thing. Nationalist protectionism seems to be coming from both sides of the aisle. Let's just hope the Obama administration and Congress are not tempted to look at (questionable) short-term gain at the cost of the U.S. and entire global economy.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13061443&source=hptextfeature

Depression Era Policies Reborn?

Great Article by the Economist. Really hits at why nationalism in trade and labor is inevitably a bad thing. Nationalist protectionism seems to be coming from both sides of the aisle. Let's just hope the Obama administration and Congress are not tempted to look at (questionable) short-term gain at the cost of the U.S. and entire global economy.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13061443&source=hptextfeature

Two-finger handstand

Geez, talk about some strong fingers. How do you even train for something like this?

Two-finger handstand

Geez, talk about some strong fingers. How do you even train for something like this?