My Sister is Brilliant

This is not a complaint, but an awesome thing. My sister is now blog famous. Here is her Ph.D. Job Market Paper:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~millermc/Job_Market_Paper.pdf

Her web-site:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~millermc/ (ps - she is at U.Mich. but she is a native Clevelander, so don't give Michigan the credit)

It is being discussed all over the web. She basically determines that if slaves had been given land they would have been better off through a lot of math and extensive research (namely comparison to slaves living on Indian reservations who did get land). The funny thing is that the paper has turned to a discussion on reparations and the paper's support for reparations in blog world. This is funny for primarily two reasons: (1)the paper does not discuss monetary reparation in any way but instead the initial grant of land and (2)my sister believes (this is not really in her paper, but was mentioned to me when I asked about how this affects the concept of reparations) it is likely that in today's society neither land nor money would do anything to improve the status of former slaves. Instead, inner city primary and secondary schools need to be improved to provide african-americans with a better educational base as education is todays land and mule. If only people read what the paper discussed.

Also, aren't you impressed by the level of intelligence in my family? If only the elder sibling hadn't taken all the brain power, I might have had a chance at awesomeness. Oh, well.

All these really important blogs are discussing it:

the one that started it:

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/12/would-it-have-h.html

the ones that followed:
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/12/40_acres_and_a_mule.php

http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2007/12/revolution-but-half-accomplished.html

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/45543.html

http://greenespace.blogspot.com/http://www.strategicboard.com/index.php?s=%22Civil++War%22

http://www.prometheus6.org/node/19044

http://www.agoravox.com/article.php3?id_article=7324#commentaire356906 (this one is funny because it features a picture of shirley temple - my sister looks nothing like shirley temple).

PS - Schools you should really hire her at the New Orleans Economics job fair

Boycotting China Products

Usually I use my blog to yell at people for being stupid. Now this is very easy to do because there are a lot of stupid people out there. But this article is about what we as a country should do to be smart. I'm not saying we're being dumb (though when you look at it, we are) but just that we can be smarter.

It is very important that we shift manufacturing away from China and back to our own hemisphere. There are a lot of problems (beyond loss of jobs) with the push to manufacture things in China.

I decided I was going to boycott China products, because, you know, I didn't want to die or kill a family member due to lead paint exposure or poisonous toothpaste. I have learned this is very hard to do because almost everything is made in China.

I then ran an informal comparison test between the few non-Chinese products I could find and those made in China. I have found my made in the USA socks are much more durable than the ones made in China, and they haven't been recalled!! It is actualy amazing the higher quality I found in US socks compared to China socks. I have also found a similar better quality of US products in the few other products from the US I have found. Also, south americans seem to make better jeans than China. The lesson is that there is more than just cost involved in manufacturing location choice and companies and consumers should be aware of this (This is also very apparent in consumer help call banks - they are much better in the US than abroad. When you purchase a product with consumer assistance, ask where the cal bank is).

Anyway, if a company was smart they would start making things here in the US and not in China. Also, this would be a good time for Unions to negotiate to increase their work here in the US. This would mean giving up some benefits in exchange for guaranteed expansion.

Also, I truly believe that China's undervalued currency and our extreme trade inbalance with them is one of the factors weakening our dollar. Well, that and unchecked predatory lending and a bust in the real estate markets due to idiots buying on speculation and unnecessarily driving up housing costs.

So companies, this is what I propose. First, make things in Mexico. I did not say US, because, though this would be most beneficial, it make be too much of a jump for companies. If things are made in Mexico, less Mexicans woudl illegally migrate to the US because they would have jobs. Stuff would also be less likely to be recalled and be closer to the US to allow for better oversite.

All in all, we should just stop buying from China. It would be best for everyone. Even the Chinese. If we stopped buying their lead based products, the Chinese workers would no longer be exposed to lead. It would be good for us because it would increase the value of the dollar, weaken the political threat of China, increase the quality of goods produced, potentially increase the available jobs for those without higher education, and all in all restabilize trade relations internationally.

So the message of this post: DON'T BUY CHINA