Epilogue: The Economic System of China

Prof. Steven Cheung has declared that “The Economic System of China” will be his final academic paper. So it is even more fascinating to read the behind the scene stories/comments (in Chinese) of the writing of this final academic paper. Here is an excerpt from the article,

殊不知个多月后，高斯的助手传来一个暂定的会议程序表。我的《中国的经济制度》开 场，给我两个小时，跟着是两个诺奖得主评论该文，加上其它人的讨论占了整个上午，其它提供文章的是空白格子，要填上，每人仅得二十分钟。高斯跟着来信，说 要以我的开场文章引导整个研讨会议的发展。一九九一在瑞典见过他，当时我的女儿刚进大学，今天已有两个懂得欺负我的孩子了。难道高斯忘记了我早就是个老人 家？昔日他欣赏我的来去纵横的思想，还在吗？他怎可以假设我还宝刀未老？

我逼着去信，说：「答应你的文章我会写，但不少被邀请的人会来自中国，费用不少，会议的 经费怎样，要我帮助吗？」他回信说不需要资助，他自己的基金足够。我想，那应该主要是他的诺贝尔奖金，很感动。跟着想，我欠他，中国也欠他，大家来日无 多，他要搞，我就舍命陪君子吧。于是给他信，说：「我答应你的文章将会是我平生最重要的作品！」

Ronald Coase’s concluding remarks at 2008 Chicago Conference on China’s Economic Transformation

I am eagerly awaiting for the publication of papers delivered at the 2008 Chicago Conference on China’s Economic Transformation (the conference proceedings). Until then, I will settle for the following concluding remarks delivered by Prof. Ronald Coase at the end of the conference. (Source: Prof. Steven Cheung’s original article with Chinese translation). (emphasis added)

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Although I knew that I would have to say something at the end of the conference, I am nonetheless taken by surprise when I had to do it and I am not sure I know what I am going to say. Which puts me in the same position you are in, you don’t know what I am going to say.

This conference has clearly been a great success. I wanted this conference to take place because what happened in China was a great surprise to me. If you are surprised at what happens, it means you don’t understand it, and I don’t understand it. And I thought we should have a conference in which the participants in the events in China could speak as against having people who didn’t take part in the events and whose opinions weren’t always very reliable. So we tried to get businessmen, government officials, academics who had been involved in the transformation to speak to us.

I must say I had belief in China’s future for a long time. As a young boy I read Marco Polo, and just as he was amazed at what he found, so was I, and I felt here is a country with great potential but somehow didn’t achieve it. And it was a puzzle to me as to why didn’t achieve it and I was very surprised when, in the period after 1978 it seemed it was going to achieve its potential. And what I heard in this conference has confirmed this view. I now have a feeling that the events which were set in motion in 1978 will be a great success.

However, human beings have a great capacity for messing things up. You will understand that, when I describe what happened in my life. When I was born in 1910, the industrial revolution has been absorbed in Europe. The social system seemed stable. And what happened when I was four the Great War opened. It was a stupid war. It achieved nothing worthwhile, in fact it did harm, and millions of men were killed. People lost faith in the social system and then communism came in. It was absolute disaster and it destroyed changes in attitude in people and resulted in a world a good deal worse than it was when I was born.

Now if you think of the present situation, that is, we have a situation in which everything seems be going along well, that’s what I’d learnt from this conference. When I wrote the forward to Steven Cheung’s book of English articles, I said that the struggle for China is the struggle for the world, that I truly believe. Well, will we actually achieve this desirable result? Well of course I will never know although you will. All I can do is to say that our discussions carried out will make it possible. But to make it possible as we know is not enough. The political regime has to carry out its actions. Whether it will or not, I don’t know. All I can do is to hope it will and to wish you well in the next hundred years. And I can now thank you…thank you.

What you are going to do, as I am sure you are, is to bring about desirable results. And I would think of you now, because it would be difficult to do much thinking in that long sleep which I am going to have. But it makes me happy to think that you will, as is shown by what you said in this conference, make the efforts. That makes me happy and I thank you.

Steven Cheung on Coase Introduction - 2008 Chicago Conference on China’s Economic Transformation

Steven Cheung on Coase Introduction at the 2008 Chicago Conference on China’s Economic Transformation. Here is an excerpt (emphasis added) from the article,

老人家把他的诺贝尔奖金拿出来搞这次研讨会议，搏到尽。认识了他四十多年，知道他历来的 执着与坚持，但毕竟是九十七岁了，我不能不舍命陪君子。为该会议提供的开场文稿我用心地写了一整年，而筹备中的招兵买马，我插手指导，因为老人家的品味我 知得清楚：高斯重视真实世界，要知道中国究竟发生了些什么事，对不着边际的理论没有兴趣。为此，我建议多邀请中国的企业家与地区干部，结果是这两组人（约 占讲话的四成人马）为该会议增加了无限的光彩。

第一天，老人家清早起床，晩上十一时半才睡觉，电话中显得很兴奋。通常他只能应酬两三个小时，这次我有点恐怕他会累死了，不断地催他休息。跟着的几天他当然不能全日参与，但天天到，静坐聆听，感动着年轻的神州学子。这些学子中不少会执笔叙述他们的所见所感，我不多说了。

I hope the webmaster at Prof. Cheung’s blog will help post links of articles/blog entries by some of the conference participants, those pieces will be wonderful to read.

Coase Introduction - 2008 Chicago Conference on China’s Economic Transformation

Here is a link to the introduction Prof. Ronald Coase delivered at the 2008 Chicago Conference on China’s Economic Transformation. Thanks a lot to Gary and especially Linda, Professor Steven Cheung’s wife, for kindly providing Gary with a copy of the introduction.

P.S. See other conference coverage here, here, here, here, and here.

Day 1 & 2 coverage - 2008 Chicago Conference on China’s Economic Transformation

17 July, 2008 Update: More coverage here, here, and here (with audio interviews).

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The University of Chicago 2008 Conference on China’s Economic Transformation started yesterday (July 14th) and day 2 of the conference has just finished 30 minutes ago.

On Day 1, Professor Ronald Coase delivered the welcome speech and Prof. Steven N. S. Cheung delivered the conference keynote address via video (DVD) to the conference participants.

There were many interesting sessions and discussions in the first two days (see official program) of the conference and I am trying my best to get in touch with some conference participants in Chicago to do a few over-the-phone interviews to find out their conference experiences and what they’ve learned so far.

I have reached out to some of the conference participants and requested help from Julia (Chicago’s media contact). I will keep you posted and see if I will have any luck at all.

At the moment, while it may be egoistically and idiotically “nice” to see the few blog entries I wrote on the conference appear on page one of a Google search alongside with University of Chicago’s announcements, I would rather see some in-depth news coverage of this most important conference (which news coverage is sadly lacking at the moment). Hopefully with some luck, may be I can start provide some good coverage by conducting some interviews with the conference participants.

On that note, I would like to specially thank Marjorie, Julia, and Lorrie for all the wonderful and kind help they have been providing from Chicago. Thanks.

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July 16, 2008, 6:46 MST Update: I’ve just finished my first interview with one of the conference participants (Dr. Heiwai Tang). The interview went really well and was very enjoyable. I will be posting my interviews (in both English and then Cantonese) with him once I finish processing the audio recordings. Stay tune.

2008 Chicago Conference on China’s Economic Transformation

17 July, 2008 Update: More coverage here, here, and here (with audio interviews).

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The University of Chicago 2008 Conference on China’s Economic Transformation is, in my opinion, one of the most important economics conference on China’s economic transformation ever. [K: I thought of simply saying "the most important" and skip the wishy-washy "one of". (smile)]

Before I add my 2 cents on things, I like to include an excerpt from the official program to give you some idea about the conference (emphasis and links added).

Time: July 14-18, 2008

Place: University of Chicago Business School Downtown Gleacher Center

Sponsor: University of Chicago Law School, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and Coase Foundation [K: Sorry I couldn't find a link to CF, so I link to Ronald Coase Institute instead]

Format: This 5-day conference has two parts. During the first three days, the conference is organized by thematic panels. Panelists will each have 20 minutes for paper presentation, and each panel will have two discussants, who will each have 15 minutes to comment on all the papers. Each panel will be ended with a two-hour or so open discussion. To facilitate open discussion, papers and commentaries will be circulated to all conference participants at least one month before the conference. Papers will be sent to discussants at least two months before the conference.

The last two days of the conference are organized differently. Chinese entrepreneurs, and government officials will speak about China’s economic transformation from their personal experiences. Their presentations, which, if necessary, will be translated into English simultaneously, are expected to be shorter. As agents of change behind China’s economic transformation, these entrepreneurs and government officials will be able to provide inside information and share their personal struggles and insights, which are not easily (if at all) available to academic researchers.

In addition, a group of American academics specializing in the Chinese economy will be invited to the conference.

I am not making the “most important conference” claim simply because there is a long list of China experts attending, including at least four Nobel prize winners (chair and conf. organizer Ronald Coase (1991), discussant Robert Fogel (1993), panel chair & discussant Douglass North (1993), panel chair & discussant Robert Mundell (1999)).

And I am not making the “most important conference” claim simply because Steven N. S. Cheung is going to deliver the in-depth keynote address “The Economic System of China“. (I am a big fan of Cheung’s ideas and have written frequently about them.)

I think the Chicago conference is going to be the most important economics conference on China’s economic transformation ever because,

• “Each panel will be ended with a two-hour or so open discussion. ” With the high caliber discussants and participants all so well prepared, I expect some of the most insightful exchanges and possibly (and hopefully) some heated discussions.
• “Chinese entrepreneurs, and government officials will speak about China’s economic transformation from their personal experiences.” With Cheung’s deep insight in China, I assume he plays a key role in inviting and selecting these Chinese entrepreneurs and government officials to present at Chicago. To me, I don’t think it is an exaggeration in calling it ground breaking in having the great opportunities to hear some “inside information and [listen to them] share their personal struggles and insights, which are not easily (if at all) available to academic researchers“.

If I may, I would like to single out Prof. Coase (at 97 years young) and Prof. Cheung (at 73 years young) for organizing and making this conference possible.

To me, a non-economist, I see the conference program as a guide to the who’s who of researchers and insightful people who have deep understanding of the Chinese economics. And I am also using the program as a guide to identify some of the important issues and challenges. In some senses, these researchers, entrepreneurs, attendees have now been put on my radar screen and I know they will be good starting points to understand China’s Economic Transformation.

Finally, I hope the University of Chicago and Coase Foundation conference organizers will make all of the conference proceedings (including the videos of the presentations and discussions, the presented papers, etc.) available online for free.

In the age of the free MIT Open Courseware initiative , the 200+ higher education institutions strong Open Courseware consortium, and free Google Tech Talks, I hope the University of Chicago will do the right thing and share with the community at large.

[HT: Gary]

The Economic System of China - initial random thoughts

Thanks to my free lunch co-blogger Wallace for mentioning the existence of Prof. Steven Cheung’s first two installments of “The Economic System of China“, I ended up staying up 3+ hours (well passed 3am) to finish reading part of the paper and blogging about it. A paper that I had been waiting for since Sept 2007 . Yes, the paper is that good! (note: Prof. Cheung has dedicated the paper to his long time friend/mentor/colleague Prof. Ronald Coase).

Knowing myself, I will probably be staying up late for the other ten installments when they are published in the coming days on prof. Cheung’s Chinese blog. By the way, my apologies to those that don’t read Chinese as the only version I can find online is the Simplified Chinese version translated by the professor himself (note: the original paper is written in English, so be patient, I will try to find it for you).

Now, before I go on to comment on the substances of the first two installments, allow me to indulge myself by sharing a few random thoughts and comments.

1. As an appreciated bonus, I think my Simplified Chinese will improve by the end of this series. :) At school, I was taught reading and writing Traditional Chinese and nothing in Simplified Chinese.
2. When I have them, I will appreciate having both the English and Chinese versions of the articles sitting side-by-side as I see myself picking up Chinese/English terms and their equivalents in English/Chinese.
3. My further appreciation of English/Chinese translation is such a difficult art. In particular, technical English and Chinese.
4. I have 14 different books written by the professor. Many of these books are still in print and being sold. Since most (if not all) of the articles in these books are also available for free on the professor’s blog site, do they count as “free lunches”? (smile) I know they are ad-supported but they are still “free”? My fellow free lunchers, what is the economic explanation for this “free stuff”?
5. I finally appreciate what my dad must have been thinking from reading this quote by the professor, “我要专注于中国做对了什么。这里我只能再说，要批评中国我可以写很多本书。” (My translation: “I want to focus on what China did right. Let me repeat here, I can write many books if I want to be critical of China.”) Knowing what China has been through, my dad is probably more willing to focus on what China did right and give China the benefit of the doubt. Whereas I am more willing to ask a lot more from China, thus being naturally more critical (in hope of faster progress).
6. In the second installment, this quote intrigued me, “这一切之上是高斯的原创思想，当时容易推销。如果当时的中国像今天那样，我是不会那么幸运的。” (My translation: “Above all these were Coase’s original ideas, it was an easy sale then. If the China then were like today, I don’t think I would have been that lucky.”) I am trying to figure what the professor think is happening in China today?
7. Now, I am willing to put some money where my mouth is. I have one wild US$500 wish.

Here is my US$500 wild wish.

Assuming this series is not in the works already, I would be willing to be the first to put up US$500 to buy a DVD set of a 10-part documentary series hosted by Prof. Steven Cheung in similar format & style to Prof. Milton Friedman’s original 1980 classic “Free to Choose” (a series that I have watched more than twice now).

I don’t think I am exaggerating as I think a small percentage of professor Cheung’s millions of fans and admirers will probably be very willing to invest in an independent production of such a documentary series.

I know professor Cheung is a busy man but I see so much benefits in professor Cheung sharing his deep insight in Economics and the Economic System of China. I think such a 10-part series will definitely be appreciated by millions in China and also by many others around the world.

Now, here is a wild wish, if no one else is producing such a 10-part documentary series with Prof. Cheung, I would love to have a chance to give it a shot. May be I can beg (I mean beeeeg) my free lunch co-blogger Gary for an introduction and a possible chat/audience with professor Cheung to help convince him?

After all, prof. Ronald Coase gave an hour+ long lecture in 2003 when he was 93 years young. (smile) (file is 500MB, recommend downloading first before watch)

Re: The most important statement made by Steven Cheung

Interesting to read what Wallace considers as “the most important statement made by Steven Cheung“. For the curious readers who want to read the complete article where this quote comes from and the statement’s context, you can check out “假若人是不自私的（附后记）” (1984.02.17).

I don’t know enough to pick which is Steven Cheung’s most important statement. But I can say Steven Cheung’s way of thinking and analyzing problems play an important role in shaping my own. And Cheung has written this series of articles to share his insight in 1984,

思考的方法（上）, （中）, （下）

As an aside, some of my friends have commented that I read very broadly. Over the years, I’ve tried to learn from a diverse group of people. If you have time, I encourage you read and learn from people like Warren Buffett, Richard Feynman, and Bill Buxton (with videos and book recommendations). These three people are very different from each other but I believe we can learn from them just the same. For fun, I’ve created a series of posts call “Great minds of our time“ to share my personal picks of some of the great public minds of our time.

free lunch with Steven Cheung

A four friends and I have started a new blog “free lunch with Steven Cheung (五友 論 五常)” to talk about articles and ideas by the deeply insightful economist Steven Cheung (see my my many blog entries here).

Please feel free to check it out.

Top Ten List of Steven Cheung Chinese articles

Just or fun, I looked at nine of Steven Cheung’s earlier books (in Simplified Chinese) and picked my “top ten” favourite articles. I wonder if my fellow free lunchers would like to join me and share their favourites?

1. 卖桔者言
2. 私产可养鱼千里
3. 灯塔的故事 & 高斯的灯塔
4. 思考的方法（上）, （中）, （下）
5. 没有兄弟姊妹的社会
6. 给女儿上的一课——也是女儿给我上的一课
7. 赵紫阳与佛利民的对话 & 假若赵紫阳是个独裁者
8. 艾智仁 & 赫舒拉发 & 我所知道的高斯 & 老师普纳
9. 最佳、最劣、最受欢迎的教授
10. 初遇佛利民 & 再遇佛利民 & 佛利民与二十世纪

P.S. OK, I’ve cheated by grouping a few links into one pick. And some of those picks are actually multi-parts articles up to 7 parts like the Coase one. (smile)

Links: 2008-03-02 Google Sites, Chinese sue Yahoo, Scrabulous, Share Tenancy

1. Google Sites: More Trouble for Registrars
2. More Chinese Dissidents sue Yahoo!
3. Will RealNetworks Buy Scrabulous? - Nice background and analysis
4. The Theory of Share Tenancy — A Celebration (Oct 2008 in Shenzhen)

More Steven Cheung Videos

For those that understand Cantonese or Mandarin, I’ve found a few more interesting and insightful videos of the insightful Chinese economist Steven Cheung. (see my extensive blog entries tagged with Steven Cheung)

On the occasion of Steven Cheung’s 70th birthday (in 2005), he talks about his academic thinking process and how he learns economics Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

《张五常七十诞辰学术思想研讨会》上的发言，题为《七十自述：我是怎样研究经济的？》 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Brief speech before 70th birthday dinner part 1, part 2

《张五常七十诞辰晚宴》上的发言 part 1, part 2

P.S. Here is an interesting Chinese interview posted on 2007, Apr 24 “张五常：我是天才因为我简单“

P.P.S. I am eagerly waiting for Steven Cheung’s upcoming English paper “The Economic System of China” which should be a great read to understand China.

Ronald Coase - Great minds of our time

It is my great pleasure to finally fulfill my earlier promise to blog about professor Ronald H. Coase in my Great Minds of Our Time series.

As I blogged earlier, “Here is prof. Coase’s 2003 Coase Centennial Speech (500MB QuickTime file, recommend downloading it before you watch it) from Ronald Coase Institute’s online material section.” I now can say I have watched or listened to the video more than three times now, and I am sure I will still learning from it when I watch it again.

I am going to use a different approach to blog about professor Ronald H. Coase for this Great Minds of Our Time entry. Here is my Top 10 list,

1. Ronald is a really funny and sharp witted man as we clearly can see from his 2003 Coase Centennial Speech.
2. Well, he does have a Nobel Prize in Economics.
3. Ronald’s “The Federal Communications Commission” has helped governments around the world “make” billions from Frequency Spectrum Auctions. (including the latest round of auction by the FCC in U.S.)
4. When describing a ground breaking discussion where his idea in the FCC paper fundamentally shifted the thinking of University of Chicago, he said, “I could not understand why a statement, the equivalent of 2+2=4, should be treated on the par with e = m c square.“
5. His 1974 “The Lighthouse in Economics” not only shed light in economics but also taught us an important lesson in not to take things for granted and the fruits in doing research from the ground up with real data.
6. Have I already said that he is a funny (and humble) man? (smile)
7. And he was 93 years young when he gave the speech in 2003!
8. Millions of Chinese have learned about Coase’s work even before he won his Prize in 1991 because of Steven Cheung. (As an aside, Steven Cheung bid $25 (in an used books/magazines auction) and bought a copy of the 1958 first issue of Journal of Law and Economics which contains Ronald’s “The Federal Communications Commission“.)
9. I want to thank Prof. Steven Cheung again for introducing ideas from great economists like Professors Coase and Friedman to millions of Chinese over the years.
10. Ronald, age 93 then, said this at the 2003 Coase Centennial Speech, “New ideas are most likely to come from the young. Who are also the group most likely to recognize the significance of those ideas.“

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Feb 15th, 2008 Update: Additional readings,

1. Looking For Results - Nobel laureate Ronald Coase on rights, resources, and regulation - by Thomas W. Hazlett
   
2. A Conversation with Ronald Coase, 2006 - by Wladimir Zanoni
3. Bio at econlib.org
4. Bio at University of Chicago Law School

Happy Year of the Rat - with Cheung, Friedman & Coase videos

I want to wish everyone a happy and prosperous Year of the Rat.

Please consider the following videos of professors Steven N.S. Cheung, Milton Friedman, and Ronald Coase my Chinese New Year gifts to you. May you be prosperous in the Year of the rat.

1. For those that can understand Mandarin or read Chinese, here are some interview videos of Prof. Steven N. S. Cheung as I discovered from his blog.
2. For those that are more comfortable with English, I highly recommend the late Prof. Milton Friedman’s “Free To Choose” series being freely streamed on the idea Channel.
3. Here is prof. Coase’s 2003 Coase Centennial Speech (500MB QuickTime file, recommend downloading it before you watch it) from Ronald Coase Institute’s online material section.

In my humble opinion, professors Friedman, Coase and Cheung are great minds to learn from. And if we are to advance, improve, revise or refute the ideas they originated, it makes sense for us to learn and understand what they are trying to say. And to me, it is fun and more engaging to see them explaining their ideas in their own voices and style. Quoting prof. Coase in the above wonderful video, “It is strange for me to give a Coase Lecture. After all, every lecture I give is a “Coase Lecture”. (big laughs)” The 97 years old (93 when the video was shot) is a humorous man. (smile)

Wishing you a happy and prosperous Year of the Rat.

Armen Alchian

I finally finished the 19-page book chapter “In Celebration of Armen Alchian’s Eightieth Birthday” from “Uncertainty and Economic Evolution: Essays in Honor of Armen A. Alchian”.

I have read about Prof. Alchian for many years from his famous Chinese Ph.D. student Prof. Steven N. S. Cheung. So it is really nice to read from other prospective.

I was particularly touched by this quote in “In Celebration“,

Armen is an extremely clever man, but I count as one of the great virtues of his work that it contains no cleverness for the sake of being clever.

Here is Alchian’s insightful article about Property Rights.

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Apr 24, 2008 Update: Here is an hour long audio interview of Alchian, “The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Armen A. Alchian (2000)” at The Online Library of Liberty [Hat Tip: Gary & Josh]

on Making Mistakes - part 2

In part 1 of my Making Mistakes series I promised to tell you an embarrassing story about my teacher and I in an exam hall. A story that I am embarrassed to say it happened and yet proud of what I did at the end.

Turning something bad into a defining moment

This story may seem like nothing to most people. And yet it became a defining moment for me.

The setting was my grade 11 high school exam and we were all sitting in a large hall. The tables and chairs were put in columns with plenty of space between each column. And being me at the time, I didn’t know the subject well. Contrary to exams’ usual convention of not learning from ones’ classmates *during an exam*, I decided to ask a classmate for some quick help. Unfortunately for me, my stern teacher, who was standing on the stage of this hall at least 20+ feet away, noticed me in the act!

My “Oh shit!” moment happened when she decided to call out my name from the top of her lung! I was stunned and I stopped my “chat” with my classmate right away.

The story could have ended there because she didn’t even walk to talk to me nor did she have any plan to punish me or anything. But at that defining moment, I chose to act atypically for a student who got caught “chatting” in an exam hall. I went to her office afterwards and apologize to her personally. For me, something clicked that day and I changed.

Since then, the stubbornness in me made sure all my exams were done fair and square. Later, even when many of my undergrad or grad school university classmates decided to crack open their exams and took advantage to read up on question sheets a few minutes ahead of the actual start time, I never did.

From the day I apologized to my teacher on, I think I subconsciously decided to compete with myself. It is like playing golf, I am playing against myself, in the pursuit of excellence to the best of my abilities. If my best deserves an “A+”, great. If it only gets me a “B”, then I will take it as well. What I know or don’t know will not change because of my grades.

My general philosophy on making mistakes

My desire and wish is to maintain the curiosity, the speed in making mistakes, and speed in learning as close to the rate of a baby as I can throughout my life.

My friends Allan, and the new parents Nicole & Ken and their 10 months old baby Kristopher came over for dinner last night and we had a great time. It was fun to watch baby Kristopher so curiously crawling around on the floor exploring, trying to feed on usually not edible junk on the floor and our sometime successful attempt stop him from feasting on these junks. Ken’s comment on Kristopher’s deep amazement in looking at his own hands for minutes as if they are the most interesting things on earth. And Ken wandered how did we lose the sense of fascination and amazement that Kristopher had shown us so happily and readily?

I, for one, don’t think we have to lose this sense of fascination and amazement. I think if we, as adults, are willing to question and inspect things around us as if we are noticing them for the first time, think harder about them, then we can maintain or regain our sense of amazement.

UCLA economists Armen Alchian and many of his students, including Steven N. S. Cheung, are known by their abilities to ask deep and simple (child-like) questions to bring out new perspective and new angles to look at things. Alchian helped clarified many economists’ confusion with respect to “Utility” in the early days. May be we have something to learn from them all.

I would like to end this posting with a quote from Armen Alchian’s biography as I think it is a fun read and I think it shed some light on how I feel on things (emphasis mine),

Alchian is also known for his textbook, University Economics (now called Exchange and Production), coauthored with William R. Allen. That text is unique in economics. It is much more literary and humorous than any other modern economics textbook that deals with complex issues for an undergraduate audience. Example: “Since the fiasco in the Garden of Eden, most of what we get is by sweat, strain, and anxiety.” It also welcomes controversy rather than shying away from it, in the process daring the reader to disagree. Take, for example, Alchian and Allen’s discussion of violence:

Before condemning violence (physical force) as a means of social control, note that its threatened or actual use is widely practiced and respected—at least when applied successfully on a national scale. Julius Caesar conquered Gaul and was honored by the Romans; had he simply roughed up the local residents, he would have been damned as a gangster. Alexander the Great, who conquered the Near East, was not regarded by the Greeks as a ruffian, nor was Charlemagne after he conquered Europe. Europeans acquired and divided—and redivided—America by force. Lenin is not regarded in Russia as a subversive. Nor is Spain’s Franco, Cuba’s Castro, Nigeria’s Gowon, Uganda’s Amin, China’s Mao, our George Washington.

Why be safe when you can learn much faster by making potential mistakes? Be provocative but with a willingness to admit to errors, to change and to correct ourselves. Be humourous and have some fun. Learn baby learn!

May you learn like a baby all your life!

P.S. I love the many unexpected bonuses from my researches when I write a blog entry. Here is a book chapter from “Uncertainty and Economic Evolution: Essays in Honor of Armen A. Alchian” that I found on Google Book Search which I am going to read next, “In Celebration of Armen Alchian’s Eightieth Birthday by John R. Lott, Jr.” Enjoy.

Boasting Corner - sharing some fond memories

In Albert Einstein: The Human Side, I read that Einstein has a “Boasting Corner“. So I am going to start one myself to keep track of a few fond blogging memories and have some fun sharing these memories with you. (smile)

Note: Einstein’s story is much funnier as he hid most of the awards and honours except one. You can use Amazon’s “Search Inside” function to search for the word “Protzenecke” and read why he picked one to frame on page 7 in Einstein’s words.

Some friends I got to know from blogging

1. I’ve been reading Kevin Roberts‘ ideas (articles, interviews, etc.) and learning from Kevin for over 10 years now. (Kevin is the CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi.) At one point, I even had his quote “ideas are the currency of the future” on my professionally printed business cards (until I ran out on that 500 cards). So I was thrilled to receive and review Kevin’s wonderful book Lovemarks (and later Lovemarks Effect) from his PR company. And then one day out of the blue, I accidentally discovered that Kevin has kindly linked to my blog (see right column under “LINKS”)! And in one entry, he even personally spotlit three of his regular blog readers including me. (smile) So I guess it is nice to gain a new blog friend in Kevin.
2. Angela Wang and I are just like old friends these days, even we only knew each other since April 2007 after Angela left me a comment in an entry about my documentary “Long Hair Revolution”. Later, it was only with her introduction that I finally got to fix up Prof. Steven N. S. Cheung’s Wikipedia article with a few economists. I have been a big fan of Prof. Steven N. S. Cheung for over 20 years and it was an honour for me to help fixing up his Wikipedia entry. (Incidentally, Angela and I both love Gilmore Girls!)
3. Austin Hill, Canadian entrepreneur & angel investor, and I started to notice each other after our somewhat heated online comments/debate over the merits or problems with of CBC Dragons’ Den (I have changed a tiny bit closer to Austin’s view now (smile)). And we became friends after we had lunch when he visited Calgary. And then he helped instigated DemoCamp and BarCamp in Calgary at a following visit to Calgary.
4. With Mike Dillion, Sun Microsystems’ General Counsel, I’ve been reading his blog since day one as I read about it from the Wall Street Journal Law blog in 2006. Later, I was thrilled when I got email replies from Mike answering my questions and reading his praise of my blog. And Mike and I have become blog friends (and friends), even we have not met nor talked on the phone. Well, that will change as I have scheduled a phone interview with Mike for my blogs. Stay tune as it should be fun.

Some of my fond blogging memories

1. The wonderful report by the tech website Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow in “Canadian DMCA rally in Calgary — photos, videos, reports” was fun because a spotlight has been shone on the embedded challenges in the new Copyright law for Canadians across the land and also a chance to let tech people around the world know about the issues a little.
2. I feel really warm & fuzzy & proud to be mentioned and discussed in the wonderfully titled “The Canadians Again Show us how to do things” by William Party, Senior Copyright Counsel, Google (note: Google is doing some great work in the Copyright front, e.g. Google’s book scanning and book search project).
3. Having CBC Radio Search Engine reporter Danielle reporting on the Copyright rally in Calgary (mp3 audio file available for listen).
4. Writing the pair of postings “AAA game with philosophical twist” and “Followup on the AAA BBB CCC DDD game” to try to shine some light on the chain-mail/virus of the terribly time-wasting AAA BBB CCC DDD game (which was very popular on Internet and Facebook, etc.)
5. And me taking apart arguments written by a national newspaper columnist in Deconstructing “The Telecom Trotskyites”
6. To write and create my own Great Minds Of Our Time series of people. Thinking about this, I should create an entry for one of my most admired former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour. She is just great and gutsy.
7. After attending Banff as a CTV Fellow in 2006, I was excited in providing extensive blogging reports on the 2007 Banff World TV Festival where I reported on and video interviewed Broadcasters and content creators from around the world.
8. Getting to know the CBC anonymous blogger Ouimet a little more. Mind you, I still couldn’t tell whether if a post was a practical joke or not. (smile) Assuming this wasn’t a joke, it was my pleasure to be mentioned in an Ouimet-style positive post. How can I complain about a post that talks about my increased chance of getting some action (Copyright becoming sexy). (smile)

The above are some of my fond memories in blogging. Now, I want to end this entry on a personal note. I want to dedicate the following Cat Stevens’ song “Father and Son” to my dad who reads this blog.

Dad, I know you are both “proud of” and “puzzled by” what I am doing and trying to do these days. (big smile) Dad, may be I am trying to change the world one small thing/goal/objective at a time. Just may be.

P.S. Kevin, thanks for Cat Stevens’ song “Father and Son”. I think I am growing to love it more and more every time I listen to it.

My Love of Law and Economics

I forgot how I got myself interested in law but it probably started in the late 80s as a result of being exposed to Law and Economics as a combined discipline. Reading the ideas of Ronald Coase and Steven N. S. Cheung for over 20 years have probably shaped my thinking in law and economics more than I realize.

Prof. Cheung like to say he never prepare for his speeches about topics related to Economics because he has been thinking about Economics day and night for 40+ years, so “preparing” is not going to get him more prepared than he already was.

Now, if you ask me what exactly did I learn from Coase and Chueng, I probably won’t be able to tell you precisely what. But then I have been reading and thinking about some of these law and economics related topics, day in day out for over 20 years, so I bet if you look at my thinking and how I analyze a problem or an issue, you may see hints of the thinking of Coase and Cheung. Plus I do have this personally inscribed poster to “prove” my claim of influence since I bought it in 2000 and scribbled on it. (see bottom right of poster) (big proud smile)

Also, out of personal curiosity, I have taken courses since early 90s in Business Law (taught by a practicing lawyer), Intellectual Property Rights (taught by a in-house IP expert), and also a course in Trademarks and Patents issues (taught by a practicing lawyer/Trademark and Patent agent).

While my better half is a practicing lawyer (as she said, “the boring type”), I am the one that actually enjoy reading Supreme Court of Canada decisions for fun from time to time (e.g. interesting cases like Harvard mouse, Barbie, and the famous/infamous “bonnet and crinolines“ case where Supreme Court Justice L’Heureux‑Dubé gave a serious legal lecture to Court of Appeal Judge McClung).

Finally, if you conclude that I know a lot about Law and Economics, then I thank you for your kind but possibly misguided thoughts. What I can claim and hope you will take away is my sense of love of Law and Economics. Plus may be the feeling that I do read a lot “useless” stuff. (smile)

Steven N. S. Cheung - Wikipedia article

I have been a big fan of Prof. Steven N. S. Cheung for over 20 years and have read countless books and articles by him during that time. I even wrote a blog entry called “Ronald H. Coase & Steven N. S. Cheung - Great minds of our time” to show my admiration for these two great economists.

Since October 2007, four volunteers (including me) worked together to improve Prof. Cheung’s Wikipedia entry and we finally considered it in a reasonable state and ready for others to further enhance it.

I would like to thank Wallace for doing most of the writing and research; Aries for good discussions and points, and introducing Wallace to me; and my friend Angela for introducing Aries to me in the first place. My part was doing some editing, rewording, and minor economics research to make the entry reads more in an “encyclopedic” tone (whatever that means (smile)). And also starting this project.

So please check out the new revised Wikipedia entry of Prof. Steven N. S. Cheung. I hope you will find the entry more balanced in content and not having a disproportional part of the entry about the professor’s legal troubles.

P.S. If you can read simplified Chinese, I highly recommend his official blog where he does Q&A with readers.

Updating Steven N. S. Cheung on Wikipedia

I’ve read the influential Chinese economist Steven Cheung for close to 20 years now and have blogged about him for over a year. See my recent entries here, here, and here, plus an earlier entry h