Virginia Issues Apology for Slavery

Discussions on the collective effects of slavery on the descendants of the enslaved and the extermination of the indigenous American populations on the determination of America's racial relations remain obscured by accusations of exploitation and apologist explanations that it was justified and justifiable on the basis of the moral code of that time. Here is an example of moral courage that came centuries too late for those who lived and died as slaves but the moral ambiguity is being put to rest. Enslavement of people of all races for whatever reason is inconsistent with high-minded political formations based on expansion of human freedom. The legislators and people of the State of Virginia deserve my congratulations. That state can then seek greatness without hypocrisy.

Quote of the Day

"There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by governmental action". Bertrand Russell

Ken Livingstone Understands Applied Economics

Apart from the proven contribution to global warming, another externality that results from increasing use of automobiles is that of road congestion in many mega cities. So who would be best placed to answer the question that Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of the City of London who introduced what was an unpopular measure in the apt name of the congestion charge. at the point of its introduction, there was widespread skepticism about its effectiveness and indeed some cynics simply stated that it was a measure meant to merely raise more revenue.

Writing in a blog entry in the Guardian newspaper, Ken Livingstone responds to the major criticisms that the initiative has encountered since its introduction in 2003. Among the successes of the Congestion charging initiative was that the number of automobiles going into the metropolis reduced by the number of vehicles going into the city by 70,000 in 2006 but also a concomitant expansion in the number of cyclists by n expansion in the number of cyclists into the capital's major roads by 72%. pessimists had forecast that shopping in the city would be reduced due to the charges and yet London outperformed the rest of the country in retail sales.

Following the admirable improvements, the mayor is contemplating an expansion into other parts of the city that are faced with road congestion and I will not hedge my bets here. It too will be successful. The moral of the story: intelligent application of economic principles in market design can solve common problems with a high level of efficiency.

The Three Faces of Milton Friedman

That Milton Friedman was the most influential thinker in the profession of economics in the last half of the 20th century is hardly in doubt. Following his demise in November 2006, a large number of obituaries and other tributes were generated and most were not only largely laudatory but extremely deferential in a way that would perhaps have embarrassed the great thinker. His accomplishments were numerous and indeed distinct and this was covered in an earlier post by this blogger who only met his thinking from his publications.

What has been lacking so far is a concise and systematic review of his accomplishments and perhaps faults as a human irrespective of his gigantic intellectual stature. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Paul Krugman has written a very elaborate and more incisive piece than I have encountered since Milton Friedman's demise. Krugman not only writes in style but also analyzes Milton Friedman's intellectual life as an Economist's economist, as a policy entrepreneur and a free market ideologue. For those who believed in the departed man as an absolutely clear thinker without academic or other blemish, this is one piece to read again and again. Krugman is in my view quite dispassionate in the sense that he not only elucidates the elder professor's singular accomplishments, but also states inconsistencies that emerged in proclamations as a public intellectual.

This is a piece to file because it makes me have even higher regard for the minds and intellectual ability of both men even if I detect that they would not agree much on policy prescriptions. Krugman writes with respect for the departed as any decent intellectual should. The subject of economics lives.

Steve Jobs Tests the DRM

Writing this piece on his thoughts on Music, Steve Jobs presents a very clever and valid argument for reviewing the system of Digital rights Management that the most dominant music corporations have imposed on Apple and in turn on buyers of digital music. He argues that the average iPod contains about 3% of music that is encoded with DRM, with the rest being music that is ripped from CDs which are not subjected to that stringent protection requirement. Running a corporation that sells the premier digital music player and has sold 90 million units, he presents really clear data that customers have bought about 22 songs for every iPod sold and yet most of these iPods carry about 1,000 songs each.

The burden of maintaining the FairPlay DRM that Apple developed to protect illegal copying of the music sold through the Itunes site appears to be largely in vain. The rational business case in Steve Jobs’ view (and I agree) is that the Music majors ought to consider a review of the placement of DRM systems on all songs sold online. Again, from the selected data that Steve Jobs presents, this conclusion is altogether irrefutable. Whether the four music majors will be amenable to this is altogether a different matter but the situation suggests that the imposition of DRM at present is a mere technological stunt that does not result in increase sales of music but merely displaces piracy and genuine sales to CDs. It is easy to understand the basic economics behind this behavior. Music buyers appear to prefer by a ratio of ten to one, the format that allows them maximum flexibility in transferring music. Because CDs presently allow for this, DRMs only serve to deflect purchases towards CDs and it may well be the reason why hackers have not tried enough to crack the FairPlay DRM system that Apple has put together at what I surmise is considerable cost.

With such elaborate data and much more at his disposal, why did it take Steve Jobs’ this much time to figure this out? Is it perhaps because it appears now that the iPods market dominance is momentarily unassailable? Cynicism aside, the economics of the case has been argued fairly cogently and the four majors must review the data and move towards making the expensive technological stunt that is DRM redundant.

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