Political blogger David Frum did a quick wrap-up of “Weinergate”, the latest political “scandal”: Did or did not a New York congressman send a photo of a man’s crotch to a Seattle college student? That’s the question the American political elite has spent the past half-week debating. Silly? Degrading? Check and check. Frum spends most [...]
I was originally going to post as if the world were “business as usual”, but it seemed too flippant and disrespectful to do so given what’s happened in Japan over the past week. This particular crisis hits very close to home not only because my employer has a significant presence in Japan, but because of [...]
There’s a recent Slate article which is making the rounds, especially amongst those who believe that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies need to make less money and be more heavily regulated. The core conclusion is that the cost of R&D for a drug is not ~$1 billion as a widely cited study from 2003 established, but [...]
On my flight back from Tokyo, I finally watched The Social Network, Hollywood’s depiction of the founding of Facebook. While at least one of my good friends is going to be appalled by my opinion here, I actually liked the movie. Does it paint an unrealistically evil/status-obsessed/backstabbing-prone portrayal of Harvard students and hence is kind [...]
I got back from my trip to Asia late last week. Like all my trips abroad (well, except that one trip to Cancun, but lets not go there…), it was very eye-opening, and I am definitely very grateful for my fund’s cross-Pacific approach for giving me a chance to build a more international perspective on [...]
I have mixed feelings about the current political preoccupation with illegal immigration. On the one hand, I’m a legal immigrant from Taiwan. That means my family and I followed the rules, did the necessary waiting and paying of fees and taxes to come here legally and attain citizenship. If anybody has the right to be [...]
The Republicans have interpreted the results of the recent US midterm elections as a mandate for their deficit reduction platform. Ignoring the oddness of pursuing a deficit reduction during a recession when US government solvency has not been conclusively established to be in danger (and the oddness, in this blogger’s humble opinion, of believing elections [...]
Its difficult to imagine America without “American exceptionalism” – that combination of “can-do” attitude, assurance of one’s own destiny, and cockiness that has characterized the “American” spirit. A recent Economist commentary elaborates: Greatness is part of America’s birthright and lexicon. Its 18th-century founders had no doubt that they were embarking on a daring experiment inspired [...]
One of my favorite comic blogs is CBR’s Comics Should be Good. In a recent post, the blog pointed out something which I hadn’t realized before: Okay, this is just a weird thought that struck me after I got the news that Smallville had been renewed yet again. I suddenly realized that there are almost [...]
One of my favorite RSS feeds is Business Insider’s Chart of the Day. This chart came up a few weeks ago and made me think. It’s quite staggering to imagine that college tuition has outpaced inflation as rapidly as it has (~10x vs. ~4x over 30 years). The graph made me think: Has the value [...]