The Rogers News

Author: Chris

  • I Miss Fall Golf

    Tenth grade in high school seems like a long time ago. I was spending my summers playing golf and working at a golf store. And in September of 1997 (a decade ago!!!) I played in a tournament at the Sault St. Marie Country Club in northern Michigan. The weather was cool and windy. From the time I hit the first range ball at 6:30am until I holed my last putt hours after noon various shades of light and dark gray intermingled above. Rain, although imminent, failed to fall.

    I was young and immature – more so then than now – and had a poor putting day. I remember fighting the wind, moping a bit, and wishing I could play better. I don’t remember what I shot, but I can picture the ragged scorecard I turned in, its corners tattered and lead smudged. I remember hitting one very well-struck drive on an open dog-leg right hole. I remember that I was playing as an extra man with the varsity team to get experience. I remember enjoying everything about that day, but wanting to get out of the cold.

    I really miss fall golf.

    Watching the British Open doesn’t help.

  • Cardboard Buns in China

    A week ago it was reported that dumplings (aka – steamed buns) filled with cardboard were being sold in Beijing. Here’s a clip from a recent article rebuking the earlier news:

    Beijing police have detained a television reporter for allegedly fabricating an investigative story about steamed buns stuffed with cardboard at a time when China’s food safety is under intense international scrutiny.

    Now, presented with both stories and with rudimentary knowledge and insight into China’s gastronomical scene, I have the difficult decision of choosing to either believe that the buns actually did have cardboard in them and the Chinese government is spinning propaganda or to believe the Chinese government.

    I think I’ll stay away from the street food either way – I have been in the mood for starfish and scorpions lately.

  • Giffen Goods Study in China

    Giffen goods are “goods for which a lower price decreases the quantity demanded. This occurs when a negative income effect (the good is inferior) exceeds the substitution effect.”

    Greg Mankiw, who authored the textbook I used for my introductory microeconomics class while at the University of Michigan, asks the following question:

    Do giffen goods exist?

    He links to a study of two provinces in China.

    We conducted a field experiment in which for five months, randomly selected households were given vouchers that subsidized their purchases of their primary dietary staple. Building on the insights of our earlier analysis, we studied two provinces of China: Hunan in the south, where rice is the staple good, and Gansu in the north, where wheat is the staple. Using consumption surveys gathered before, during and after the subsidy was imposed, we find strong evidence that poor households in Hunan exhibit Giffen behavior with respect to rice. That is, lowering the price of rice via the experimental subsidy caused households to reduce their demand for rice, and removing the subsidy had the opposite effect. This finding is robust to a range of alternative specifications and methods of parsing the data. In Gansu, the evidence is somewhat weaker, and relies to a greater extent on segregating households that are poor from those that are too poor or not poor enough. We attribute the relative weakness of the case for Giffen behavior in Gansu to the partial failure of two of the basic conditions under which Giffen behavior is expected; namely that the staple good have limited substitution possibilities, and that households are not so poor that they consume only staple foods. Focusing our analysis on those whom the theory identifies as most likely to exhibit Giffen behavior, we find stronger evidence of its existence….

    To the best of our knowledge, this is the first rigorous empirical evidence of Giffen behavior. It is ironic that despite a long search, in sometimes unusual settings, we found examples in the most widely consumed foods for the most populous nation in the history of humanity.

  • CCTV

    The only TV channels legally available in China are via China Central Television (CCTV). Every single channel is CCTV. I’ve heard rumors of people with satellite dishes that can get channels from all over, but these are illegal. Who knows what would happen if you were caught with one.

    I find it mildly amusing that China Central Television (CCTV) has the same acronym as closed-circuit television. A great big national closed-circuit TV system. That’s what they offer over here, and that’s what I have to watch.

    Its news reporting follows parameters directed by the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China.

    I’m hoping that I can see just a little bit of the British Open golf tournament, which starts on Thursday (tomorrow).

  • Future Creep

    There is a NYT blog post titled, “I Love It, It’s Perfect, Now It Changes” that has received over one thousand comments about great products that people love, but have been discontinued due to “feature creep.”

    Feature creep is a “phenomenon generated by market forces, media hype and twitchy retailers [that] creates a cycle in which products are constantly improved even if they don’t need to be.”

    After reading about 100 of the comments, it seems that what people really miss is simplicity, dependability, and familiarity. A lot of the commentators don’t like additional features, whether the feature actually adds value or is purely extraneous.

    I have felt this way at times. For example, camera phones. Until the phones came with a camera that offered one megapixal capabilities, I saw no use for them. The pictures looked grainy, and although they were a novelty that surely sold more phones, they were more of an annoyance than anything.

    This all reminds me of a book I bought, but have yet to read, titled, “The Paradox of Choice.” I saw the author speak and was intrigued by the concept that having more choices often makes out lives more difficult. Instead of choosing between three pairs of jeans, we have hundreds to choose from. One of the pairs will fit perfectly, but at what cost?

  • Walk to School

    This is my walk from Xi Jiao Hotel to Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. These videos are about ten minutes each and nothing exciting happens. There is no sound because I was talking throughout and have no idea what I’m saying. I’ll try to fix that sometime. For now, just feast your eyes on lovely Beijing.

    Update 2009: Video offline.

  • Houses in China

    If you ever ask me if I’ve seen a house in China I’ll say no. I’ve been here three weeks, traveled via train from Beijing to Xi’an and have yet to see a proper house. I have seen what I would term shacks just outside of Beijing. These are decaying brick structures that look filthy and dangerous.

    Inside of the cities that I’ve visited, all I’ve seen are apartments of varying quality. The worst are smaller versions of the shack I just described. The nicest look like dirty versions of condo housing at a theme park like Disney World. Generally, the apartments have bars or windows enclosing back rooms filled with laundry drying, stacks of cardboard, and what looks like garbage to me.

    I’ve heard the apartments are OK inside, but I’m skeptical. There are some pictures up of some of the housing and I’ll post more sometime soon.