UVA grad reaches new heights

Some of you have probably heard about the American scientist and businessman who paid his way aboard (or is it on board?) the International Space Station. What you probably don’t know is that Greg Olsen is a University of Virginia graduate. During my first year at UVA, I used to study in a building in the Engineering School named after him.

Inside joke

This entry is intended to the edification of my former co-workers, because anyone else will probably not understand the significance of the humor.

Last week I had a conversation where I mentioned that I had missed the previous night's Bank of America presentation because I went to a Bible study but got back to the school afterwards in time to help myself to the cocktail shrimp that was left in the lobby. The person then started laughing and said "I just can't imagine you pigging out on the cocktail shrimp."

You wanna bet?

Shocked and awed

If there was any reservation in my mind that a portion of my classmates was still unaware of the existence of this blog, such lingering doubts were put to rest this past Wednesday at 8:10am. That was when I was outed by my accounting professor.

 

My accounting professor normally begins class every day with a shtick of some sort. It could be a funny anecdote or a video clip from the Internets. He began on Wednesday by talking about an email exchange he had three weeks ago with someone he initially thought was a student. This person wrote him an email about an Australian ad that was shown in class, called "Big Ad." The email included a link to a parody called "Small Ad" and a request for my professor to show it to the class. My professor played "Small Ad" for us the following week and wrote back to the sender (paraphrasing) "I hope you were in class today, I showed 'Small Ad.'" The sender wrote back (again, paraphrasing) "I am not in your class, I live in Australia."  The professor then inquired as to how he knew about what was going on in his class from halfway around the world. The sender then replied that he had done a search on the Internets for "Big Ad" and came across a blog entry about the accounting class.

 

At this point my professor clicked on the projection screen and my blog entry from August 29 was displayed on the screen for the entire class. After getting over the immediate shock of what had and what was about to occur, I quickly regained my composureand put on my best poker face. My professor read out loud the blog entry and clicked on the entry's link linking to his home page on the faculty directory. He said "I figure this student will be inthis room sometime during the day and he will be shocked to see this blog on the screen."

 

We then proceeded to talk about the AOL acquisition of Time Warner. After class ended, I sheepishly walked up to him and turned myself in. He asked if I was shocked and said the email exchange was one of the strangest thing that's ever happened to him.

 

Sir, seeing my blog discussed in class was one of the strangest thing that's ever happened to me too.

In praise of price gouging

As someone trained in economics, I look at the world differently than the average layman. One good example of this contrast is businesses increasing their prices in the wake of disasters such as the recent Hurricane Katrina. Most politicians naturally pander to the populist outcry by taking legal actions against such profiteering.

 

I beg to different with that approach.

 

I, along with many economists, happen to believe that profiteering is not only a good thing, but necessary in order to efficiently allocate resources. David Milton wrote about grain speculators in his book Hidden Order: the Economics of Everyday Life. He wrote that many hold such speculators in contempt because they take advantage of price swings to make profits and capitalize on citizens’ need desire to feed their families. But he also points out that these speculators help minimize the fluctuation in food prices by purchasing when prices are low (helping drive prices up) and selling when prices are high (helping drive prices down).       

 

David Leonhardt wrote an excellent column in yesterday's New York Times about the societal benefits of allowing prices to reach their natural equilibrium.

After Hurricane Katrina blew through the Gulf Coast, the price of lumber and other building materials shot up. Demand for these items was suddenly higher, and the people who sell them knew that they could charge more. So they did, in what seemed to be - and may, in fact, have been - an act of pure greed.

But it was also an act that hadsome clear benefits for society. With the cost of renovations now higher, some homeowners will delay their projects until the prices come back down. That will make more materials available for New Orleans and will also help reduce prices. It's the market economy's version of a virtuous cycle.

 

Bill Clinton to speak at 2007 graduation?

Now that Erskine Bowles has been selected as the next President of the UNC system, I am going to go out on a limb and predict that the 42 President of the United States will be our commencement speaker for 2007.

Here's how I analayze the situation. The last time we had a big name graduation speaker at UNC was Bill Cosby at 2004. I don't remember who spoke this past May. They just announced the speaker for this coming May's graduation and I was completely underwhelmed by the selection. Now that Clinton's former deputy chief of staff is the top dog at UNC, I am sure his name will be tossed around by the committee that selects the 2007 graduation speaker.

I think having Clinton speak at my graduation would be mostly a good thing. I can tell my kids he spoke at my graduation. As long as they put someone in charge of keeping him to a time limit, I think we will be okay.

President Erskine Bowles

It was announced yesterday that Erskine Bowles has been selected as the next President of the UNC system. He was a business major at UNC, I believe he graduated from what is now the Kenan-Flagler BSBA program. Someone described him to me "he came from money, married money, and made money." Right next to McColl is the Dean Dome, which is located on a street named after his father, Skipper Bowles.

Although he's a Democrat, a lot of Republicans have told me that extremely complimentary things about the man. The real irony of all this is that very much like his father, Bowles never managed to get elected to political office (he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate twice). This position will probably be the only time in his life he can be addressed as "Mr. President."

My financial aid disbursement

My sincerest apologies for not having updated this blog in more than a week. The past two weeks have been extremely hectic. We are at the very end of the quarter, the last class is this Wednesday and my first final exam is Friday.

This past week we closed on the sale of the condo and we had a bit of last minute drama. When the buyer and her agent viewed the condo back in August, I had already moved out and all my furniture was gone except for one Ikea couch that remained. Realtor Jim explained that I had made plans to dispose of the couch before the closing of the sale. The buyer (actually, I think it was her mom) then politely asked if I could leave it there for her. The words “Buyer requests that seller leaves the couch” were added onto the sale contract, which I signed.

My interpretation of the addendum was that the buyer was asking that I leave the couch, that my signature was my acknowledgement of her request, and that I was not obligated to give it to her. In actuality, I had no intentions of giving her the couch for I had already promised it to my next door neighbor. On the day of the closing, the buyer and her realtor made the final walkthrough and showed up at the closing office furious that the couch had vacated the premises. Realtor Jim explained that they had requested the couch, but I had never agreed to grant them their request.

 

Unfortunately the attorney at the closing office, who represents the interests of the contract, agreed with the buyer’s interpretation and I had to cough over some money for the couch. I was on the phone almost the entire time with Realtor Jim and at one point, he whispered to me, “this man must have gone to the Bill Clinton School of Law.”

 

Out of spite, I am going to go to the Ikea web site and add the buyer’s name and address onto the mailing list so she can be apprised of their next sale. Since I know from personal experience how hard it is to keep up with the mortgage payment, she will need to save every penny she can.