reviewing books

After clearing out my files and storing records, I ended my spring semester. This past week I have determined to do nothing productive. That is, take a vacation of sorts. What I like to do when doing nothing is read. I have quite a backlog of titles, mostly gifts, that I haven't had time for in the past year.

I started with Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. Despite its grandiose title, it is accessible to the general reader and written in an interesting fashion. If you could read only one book on the financial/banking crisis, this would be the one. It takes the reader by the hand from the beginning of modern financial markets less than four hundred years ago to the present, explaining how financial markets are inherently unstable. By the end you are not too surprised but still impressed by what happened in the past few years.

After this I purposed to stay away from anything having to do with economics. After all, I am on vacation. I started a recommended Indian (South Asian) novel, which will remain nameless. I read one hundred pages before I gave up. If it hasn't got you by then it is unlikely to ever do so. My wife also had a similar reaction. However if you want a real page-turner of an Indian novel, try Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance (an Oprah's Book Club selection).

On Thursday I grabbed off the shelf an unread book given as a gift, Robert Moore's On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery. A great read and I didn't even realize when I started that I'd be finishing it over the Memorial Day weekend!

I'm about to pick up another given-some-time-ago-as-a-gift-but-still-unread book. I'll let you know how it goes.

Be blessed!
RB

P.S. Tired of reading, last night we watched a very good film, End of the Spear. It is available on Netflix, DVD and on hulu.com.

shuck and tyler: give us your huddled masses of engineers - wsj.com

This argument not only applies to engineers but to any foreign student studying in the USA.

Wall Street Journal, 13 May 2011.

Give Us Your Huddled Masses of Engineers:
Why are we educating the best and the brightest, only to turn them down for visas?

By PETER H. SCHUCK AND JOHN TYLER

President Obama devoted almost all of Tuesday's speech in El Paso to the problems raised by illegal immigration: border and workplace enforcement, the need for a fair legalization process, and, almost apologetically, deportation. Only briefly did he mention our interest in attracting more high-skilled immigrants to work in the upper reaches of our economy.

"Today, we provide students from around the world with visas to get engineering and computer science degrees at our top universities. But then our laws discourage them from using those skills to start a business or a new industry here in the United States," Mr. Obama said. This "makes no sense," he added. The president is right.

The critical question is what to do about it. Finding an answer is urgent because the market for these workers is increasingly competitive—and the U.S. is no longer the only powerful magnet. Indeed, new studies from the American Enterprise Institute and the Kauffman Foundation find that we are losing ground in this competition.

Our current policy is plain stupid. Of the more than one million permanent admissions to the U.S. in 2010, fewer than 15% were admitted specifically for their employment skills. And most of those spots weren't going to the high-skilled immigrants themselves, but to their dependents.

The H-1B program that allows high-skilled immigrants to work here on renewable three-year visas, which can possibly lead to permanent status, is tiny. The current number of available visas is only one-third what it was in 2003. Plus, the program is hemmed in with foolish limitations: Visa-holders can't change jobs, and they must return home while awaiting permanent status.

Thus, many employers find the H-1B program useless. Many high-skilled workers prefer to go to more welcoming countries, like Canada and Australia, or to stay home where their economies are now often growing faster than ours. The U.S. does have a program to attract job-creating investors, but it is more limited than some of our competitors' investor programs. In 2010, we granted fewer than 2,500 such visas, down from the 2009 total although higher than in earlier years.

We're shooting ourselves in the foot. Research shows that high-skilled immigrants, particularly those in the so-called STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, enrich American society in many ways. These workers are notably innovative at a time when the U.S. is in some danger of losing its competitive edge. Not only do they apply for patents at a disproportionate rate, but the government grants their applications two to three times as often as with comparably educated Americans. Even if we limit the comparison to scientists and engineers, high-skilled immigrants in those fields still receive 20% more patents than their American counterparts.

In addition to being more innovative, high-skilled immigrants tend to be more entrepreneurial. They start and grow the kinds of new firms, such as Google, that account for the bulk of job creation. Research consistently shows that they start at least 25% of the STEM companies, which is double the percentage of all legal and illegal immigrants in the U.S. population.

So what can be done? Even without increasing the total number of permanent visas, we can redress the imbalance between admission categories to increase the proportion of those that are highly skilled. Two existing allotments merit low priority and should be granted instead to high-skilled workers: the 50,000 "diversity" visas granted at random to applicants who need only have a high-school education, and the 65,000 visas given to siblings of U.S. citizens. A lottery for the low-skilled is an absurd way to select future Americans, and sibling relationships today are readily sustainable through tourist visas and Skype.

A second reform would move to a point system for most would-be immigrants except for immediate family members, in which skills, entrepreneurship, English fluency, and other factors would count as well as close family ties. Third, we should grant permanent visas to any foreigner who receives a graduate degree from a qualified U.S. university. Finally, we should liberalize the H-1B program, perhaps moving from the current bureaucratic approach to an auction of the visas to employers who would bid for the skills they need, but also allowing for more job mobility for workers after a certain period.

Attracting more of the world's best talent should be a no-brainer. It should not be held hostage to the much harder problem of illegal migration.

Mr. Schuck, a professor at Yale Law School, is visiting at NYU Law School. Mr. Tyler is general counsel of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article wrongly stated that India is subject to the same H-IB visa ceiling as Iceland. India is in fact subject to the same permanent visa ceiling as Iceland.

wanna see my great nephew?

My sister's grandson is graduating from Shiloh Christian and he played Saints football for three years there and they won three state championships. Troy is #58 (6'3" 270#) and his best friends are Sam Harvill #53 and Kiehl Frazier #15. They are all great kids from good families. All three and one more received Division 1 football scholarships. Not bad for a school of 300 with 40 boys on the football team. This is Troy's highlight video:



An hour-long FRONTLINE show about H.S. football and head injuries aired earlier this week. Sure it had its slant, but I got to see my nephew. A shorter segment on QB Kiehl Frazier is below:

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

Here is the complete hour-long show is HERE.

the magic washing machine

This explains in an interesting manner what economic development is about:



[ht: him]

no-fly zone buzz kill

I find it hard to see how the no-fly zone over Libya is going to drive Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi from power. Maybe a couple of weeks ago it would have made sense, but since then pro-Gaddafi forces have recaptured most of the rebel-held cities. The no-fly zones won't help those folks. Even if Benghazi is not retaken, Gaffafi has control over most of the country and will stay in power.

This military strike does not seem to have been thought through. No wonder DOD Secretary Gates opposed the no-fly zone. Most military people do not relish the thought of putting their people in harm's way, to spend hundreds of millions on armaments that kill, to merely send a message.

Think I'm wrong about the no-fly zone? Well you can put your money where your mouth is. At Intrade.com, a prediction market (i.e., an Irish betting site), you can buy "stock" in Muammar al-Gaddafi to no longer be leader of Libya before midnight ET 31 Dec 2011. The current price is $6.67 to get $10 if Gaddafi is gone. If you are correct then you would make a 50% profit!

As you can see from the chart below (red marks price), a week ago the price was $4, but after yesterday's hoopla over tomahawks being fired, the price soared up to $8. Of course, the smart money is moving in and the price is falling. I suspect it will be back to $4 or less in a week or so.


Will I put my money where my blog is? Nah. It is illegal and therefore too much trouble to get money to and from Intrade.com.

Be blessed.
RB

spring break

RB spent seven weeks getting caught up at work. Then Spring Break! Problem: RB gave tests in all his classes just before break. Why not? It is the halfway point in the semester. A logical time for evaluating learning. More on that later.

Nine days of break. The first three days began with the #1 grandson visiting us. Oh yeah, his parents were here as well. The next three days was spent traveling to and from Boston with a day and half in between looking at apartments for my #3 offspring (#1 daughter).

After visiting potential apartments, mostly overpriced, very old, flats with were once chopped up from 100+ year old housing, we made an offer on the first apartment we saw.

It was the biggest, nicest apartment we visited and at a rent below what we expected. That is, just exorbitantly expensive rather than outlandishly exorbitantly expensive.

No undergrads, a quiet, well-maintained, well-built building, an outstanding management company on the premises, on a safe street, with a T-station (Boston trolley) at the corner. Near stores and other businesses. No need for a car but parking if you have one. In short, a real, big-time blessing.

Friday, the seventh day of break, I slept in and then watched an NCIS marathon. Georgetown later lost big time in the NCAAs.

The highlight of this weekend, the last two days of break, is a visit by our #1 granddaughter.

However, I must spend all tomorrow afternoon, and well into the evening, grading tests. Last day of break will not be the best of the nine days.

Be blessed!
RB

killing bunnies

[ht: him]

international security threat levels

Below is a compendium of security threat levels from various countries. Although RB received a forwarded email attributing this to John Cleese, a careful scholarly inquiry (i.e., searched "clesse terrortist therat" before Google automatically corrected for misspellings, but RB did not use Wikipedia), indicates that John Humberstone seems to be the primary original author, with useful additions provided by various reader comments.

Here are the threat levels with minor editing:

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance."

The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

Canada has also raised its threat level from "No problem, eh?" to "That's not nice and please stop." They may still raise the level further to "Apologize to terrorists we offended by asking them to stop." Of course the top level is painting signs on rooftops with arrows pointing south saying "U.S. THAT WAY."

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is canceled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

testing communist cars

In this morning's introductory economics class we discussed the practical, inherent problems with centrally planned socialist economies -- like the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the bad old days before the Berlin Wall fell.

A colleague told me about the following video and now I'm having my students watch it. It is from the British TV show Top Gear. I do find it a bit ironic that these two smart-alecks make fun of Communist cars, given that the Brits during the 1960's made some of the free world's worst cars. You probably have never heard of most of the British car models mentioned. They were all bad, very bad, and these guys know it; their viewers know it. However, that is part of the humor. So this clip could be titled "Best of Communism v. the Free World's Worst."

(Vocab lesson: biro is a British term for a ball-point pen.) BTW, my favorite part is the drag race.

william on the lunar rover

We spent the weekend in NH. A good time to visit since Friday was William's six-month birthday. The kid has more stuff than I ever had. It is also way cooler. Among his impressive equipment, as pictured here, is what I call his lunar rover.

William's mom is a lecturer at Dartmouth this semester. Her office is in a wing off the Baker Library and is in the nicest office suite I have ever seen. Picture 80-year old real-wood paneled offices with 14-foot high, or more, ceilings, off a room filled with books, leather uphostered chairs, and a gorgeous conference table.

Come to think of it, don't try to picture it. It is nicer than you can imagine. I told William's dad that no matter how high he climbs the corporate ladder, he will never have as nice an office as his wife now has.

Be blessed!
RB