Thoughts From a Nobel Mind

Even if you aren't into economics jargon, I would hope that you take the time each day to read Paul Krugman's blog (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/), Conscience of a Liberal. He is indeed liberal and his best economic work is behind him having taken the mantle of an endowed Princeton professor and New York Times columnist. Still it's not every day you can read the thoughts of a Nobel Prize winning economist written in accessible prose. He has recently had some great stuff about the Greek debt crisis, the Euro-zone, and Republican excesses.

While I'm at it I also have to give a plug to the other blog on my daily reading list, The Best Defense (http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/), which is written by defense expert Tom Ricks. If you are interested in defense issues this is the place to go (if you are really interested in defense then peruse "The Small Wars Journal" http://smallwarsjournal.com/ as well ).

Trip to Taichung

This weekend I took a nice trip to Taichung in central Taiwan; otherwise known as my girlfriend's hometown.

I got off of work a little later than I wanted on Friday and hurried home to get a backpack ready. Before I could even eat dinner I was off to catch the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Taichung. It is very fast, on time, convenient, and has a stop near my house. Except for talking with my girlfriend's parents (who are very good to me) I took it easy and hit the sack for some sleep.

The next day started a little earlier than normal for me at 6:50am because I had to join my girlfriend, her friend, and a friend of her friend for a day trip to the near-by Sun Moon Lake. The nice thing is that it is more than just a scenic lake. There is a big amusement park, gondola line, and Taiwanese aboriginal shows to see.

The amusement park was fun. The first ride I was on lifted you about 200 feet into the air then dropped you for about 2 seconds. Scary as hell but fun. Then there was a small roller coaster that I sat in front for. No problem I thought its only about a minute ride. But dear God, that thing was insane. Would I do those again? Absolutely

After that it was off to see the aboriginal cultural villages and culture shows. In a way it made me feel bad that they were being reduced to attractions on the level of a theme park. Sing and dance all day then do it again the next. So then we all headed off to the gondola to the Sun Moon Lake. It was great scenery and lovely views...but only if you like fog.

We had the fun we could then went back home for dinner. Before going to bed my girlfriend's mom taught me the basics of Chinese calligraphy and gave me a shot. It was my first time and despite my best efforts I was atrocious but after some practice improved to the level of pretty bad.

The next morning I went on a hike with my girlfriend's parents in jeans and nice shoes. Needless to say the hike wasn't hard.

So when I got back I cleaned up a bit and then made a french toast breakfast for everyone. I hadn't cooked french toast forever, which is sad considering I used to wake up early on the weekends back home and cook it for my family. Well it tasted just like the french toast back home. So I was quite pleased. On that note, I returned back to Taipei

Seriously?

Today was Round 1 of the NFL Draft. I was stunned that Denver would take Tebow. They mismanaged Cutler who was much more polished out of college and now they are taking a quarterback who (let's face it) isn't used to pro offenses, has a poor passing motion, and if he tries running like in college will get clobbered. What makes that even more inexplicable is that Jimmy Clausen was still on the board.

That said Tebow seems like a great guy. So best of luck to him. But, seriously, Denver what were you thinking?

Let's Have a Tea Party

As a political science major and a connoisseur of current events, I am somewhat intrigued by the American Tea Party movement (jokes about tea bagging aside).

Here is a disorganized umbrella movement that has no particular agenda but has still managed to shake up the American political scene. Normally not having a clear agenda is bad. But here it allows them to become a big tent where all members can bring their grievances and feel included since there is no set agenda. At the same time, their disorganization and lack of a clear agenda will eventually hinder their growth and political influence (unless they organize more tightly).

I mean if you say you don't like big government that feels good; not many Americans will say the oppostite. But what does that really mean to not like big government? Do you like big government (military) defense spending or do you taken away? Do you like Medicare or do you want that to be taken away? Do you like public roads or do you want that to be take away? Do you not like public healthcare and want that to be taken away? What I mean is that saying you don't like big government is fine, until you have to make a decision about what constitutes "big government" and should be cut.

The question of why has this movement blossomed has been bedeviling columnists. I suggest looking at the columns by Leonard Pitts Jr. he has some good stuff on the topic. Although the reactionary aspect and the vitrol the protesters have shown is extremely worrisome to me I don't mind people organizing politically. After all, that is the basis of America. So I'll let others deal with the why, I'm more interested in the implications.

A lot of people think this is good for Republicans and bad for Democrats. That maybe so--but don't bet on it. Republicans have just as much, if not more, to be frightened of than do Democrats. You see the Tea Party is generally right wing, far to the right of moderate Republicans. Now is the primary season and to capture the votes of those on the far right (who are the key to winning over in primaries in order to be elected) you must appeal to them. So what we have seen is normally centrist Republicans (John McCain and Charlie Crist) running to the right to gain votes.

That is normal. The problem comes in the general election when Republicans are split. Their candidates will have taken far right positions in the primaries that they cannot easily renounce. So they will be stuck on the far right. The unfortunate part for them is that most of the electorate is in the middle (Median Voter Theory). So while they may make it out of the primary intact they will be shooting themselves in the foot for the general elections. Furthermore, their is no guarantee that the Tea Party candidates will pull out of the general elections. This hurts them by splitting the base Republican vote even further while repelling moderates, who are central to winning any election in American politics. At the same time the Democrats don't face a similar third party challenge, so they should have the advantage, right?

No. Or at least not necessarily. The Tea Party seems to be tapping into a strong anti-incumbency current in the US. That feeling could be bad for Democrats. But unless the Republicans/Tea Party can put up viable candidates in big races, things could still swing the Democrat's way (assuming the left votes as a block and turns out). The biggest question will be turnout. If the right gets a lot of people out to vote then the Democrats will be in trouble. Still the Democrats are running scared and after the election likely still will be scared (keep in mind it is normal for the minority party to gain seats in the mid-term elections).

I do wonder, though, if the elections go poorly for the right what the reaction will be. My fear would be that all this talk of impending doom on their side would fuel many crazies. If they did poorly in an election then they would lose hope of affecting change at the ballot box and instead resort to other means. Hopefully that doesn't come to pass. The problem, though, is that they have adopted very extreme rhetoric towards the government in general and Obama in particular. This is a problem because, despite what Jesse Helms said, politics is the art of compromise--so when you call your opponents devils and say there are soon to destroy all that is good then you leave yourself no room to compromise. Ironically, people angry at the government not moving fast enough adopt extreme rhetoric which then incentivizes politicians not to compromise thereby introducing further gridlock.

The final interesting thing is that most politicians are elected saying what they will do to bring your more services or pieces of pie. Instead, the Tea Party wants nothing of the sort. I wonder how long it will last in an electoral system geared to generate two parties and weighed with its own contradictions.

Only time will tell.

A Crazy Little Thing

A crazy little thing indeed. I was talking to a college friend who, for now, shall remain nameless when I was in Xiamen. Told him I was dating a very lovely lady over here and it was going on 5 months since we had been together. He responded by joking and saying something along the lines of, "5 months? Wow, she must be great since 5 days is usually a long time for you." I laughed. In college 5 days sure was a long time since I had other interests like running, beer, and class that came first.

Then I came to Taiwan and lived here for a little less than a year and a half before I met my girlfriend.

Time certainly does fly by and those 5 months have been no exception to that rule. So to celebrate our 5 months together my girlfriend and I both went to take a gondola ride, have a nice dinner, and do some shopping this last weekend.

Like all time with my girlfriend it was great fun and I had an absolute blast. So here's to the next 5 months!

Xiamen

Looking back at this month you can pretty clearly see it is threadbare in terms of posting. The reason for that sorry state of affairs is that at the beginning of the month I was in Xiamen, China.
There really isn't too much to report.

Up at 6:30am most days, outsourcing company by 8am, lunch and dinner there, head out ~6pm, work in hotel lobby until late, talk to my girlfriend on Skype, sleep, and do it again. Besides talking to my girlfriend the highlight was seeing the graffiti below (it says "Heaven"):
I was there solely for work and that is exactly what I did. I arrived on Wednesday and then worked full days (plus using a few hours of hotel wifi to do more work when I got back) until I left on a Tuesday. So basically full days sitting in an outsourcing factory going crazy with emails, Skype, and all manner of other communication.

Back story is that I was there to monitor some outsourcing production we were doing. The company we were working with has a good reputation and in the end turned out a good product. The problem was that every step along the way was fraught with errors, problems, or delays. What should have been a quick project dragged on far too long. I'll keep the details confidential but it should suffice to say that the outsourcer had some serious problems with production management. At one point, the problems came to a head for me. Those of you who know me know that I do not get visibly angry very often--especially not in front of customers or in a professional setting. But this was not most times. Seeing these problems and the lack of urgency on the part of the workers made me very angry. Thinking like a Chinese person I knew there had to be a hard response but one that would allow everyone to save face.

So I first worked myself up even more to prepare for my show (I was angry but what I did was more of a show). When I was angry enough I took the lady in charge of this project and the manager aside for a terse conversation in Chinese. Basically, I told them, "We are going back to the office now! I cannot accept this situation because it has already taken you so much time to adjust this machine and we've had too many delays." That was to let the manager know I was angry. Then as we walked back to the office and inside the office I tried my best to bust the chops of the lady in charge out of ear shot of other; to let her save face. When I finished she went away smarting. I have no idea if it worked but after waiting 5 hours to that point the adjustments were done within 45 minutes. But, damn, did it feel good. Now I know why my GM likes to bust chops so much.

After that there were still problems. But we got things done and I've been taking care of shipping since then. Toward the end I was just tired of things. I was tired of the problems, tired of delays, and tired of not seeing my girlfriend. I made sure things were set and then promptly came back to Taiwan.

The Dentist

Last night I went to the dentist after probably the longest absence my whole life (going on 2 years since I last visited) thanks to the joys of not having insurance.

For a lot of people a trip to the dentist is kind of like the picture above. Frankly, I have never found it that scary or bothersome. Even as a little kid they gave me laughing gas when filling my cavities and I had a great time. A few years ago having oral surgeries I talked with the doctors while they were slicing and dicing my gums and I had a great time.

But I was a little nervous about the Taiwanese dentist since I know NO Chinese vocabulary words for dentistry.

So the night before I set up an appointment by walking to the dentist office about 1 minute from my apartment. It was no problem, I set up an appointment for 7pm the next day and took 1 minute to fill out a form.

On the day of the appointment I arrived at 7pm and got right in. At 7:24pm I walked out with a basic tooth cleaning (using the scratch tool and then smear some mystery solutions on my pearly whites). The cool thing is that I could have been out 10 minutes sooner if the dentist hadn't wanted to talk so much. He would be cleaning my teeth then take of his mask and talk for a few minutes about his kids in the US or ask me questions to practice his English. Real nice guy.

The best part was that my wallet was only NT $500 lighter (US $15) when I walked out. I will eventually get my Taiwanese health card and then that number will be even less.

That Time Again

I can feel it in the air, sometimes. Summer is coming. How do I know this? In Taiwan you can tell by the humidity. When you walk outside in the middle of the day and it feels like someone draped a wet towel over you in a sauna then you know summer has arrived. Right now I can tell that it's coming.

The last few days have been in the upper 70's and low 80's with a hint of humidity. But I can feel it; I know it's coming.

Sure the weather will mess with my head like it has the last two months. Three days are hot and require AC then the next three will be cold and rainy requiring some layers. It goes back and forth and is wonderful if you want to get a cold.

So tomorrow will no doubt be cold. Still the mercury will creep ever upward as the days go by and soon even the cold days will be mid 70's and humid. What else does that mean, besides me drowning in sweat for a few months before I get used to things? Typhoon season is around the corner.

Whew!

Well it's been a while since I have posted anything. Yes, I've been busy. But more importantly I've been in China and thanks to the censors I have no access to my blog--hence, the lack of updates. I'll try to provide a bit of insight about what I was doing in China for 6 days.

Just note that it's really not too interesting. 6 days of only seeing production, the same office, a hotel lobby for free wifi, and an apartment isn't overly interesting material.

The worst part was missing my girlfriend. She is one hell of a great gal.