Market Power

Just Desserts?

I had two reactions when I read this article abou a sociology professor at Hamline who received complaints from students about his teaching and classes.  First, I thought, this could happen to me or one my colleagues;  But then I read this (italicized emphasis is mine):

One evening in early December of 2004, a missive written by undergraduates Maisue Xiong and Colin Smith was posted on office doors around Hamline. It laid out criticisms of the "Racial and Cultural Minorities" course as taught by veteran professor Martin Markowitz. The critique also appeared as an op-ed piece in the student newspaper, the Oracle, under the headline, "Professor ignoring diversity, students." It accused Markowitz of disrespect toward minority students and unwillingness to allow open discussions of racism in his class.

The issue largely lay dormant until the beginning of February, when Markowitz's 1,400-plus-word rebuttal was published in the Oracle. As Markowitz described the dispute, it began when Xiong approached him after class and questioned his curriculum and teaching style. Specifically, she thought that the course was "too Jewish" and that the professor was "oppressing her voice."

...Markowitz closed the letter by excoriating those who had criticized him. "We might want to examine very carefully the obvious satisfaction derived by a sanctimonious few who seem to always know what the university should do regarding, for example, matters of ethnicity, equality, and diversity," he bristled. "Claimed certitude can be and too often is a thin disguise for misguided zealotry."

"Claimed certitude" is the sort of thing such profs have espoused for 30-40 years:  they know what is best for society, whether the issue is the minimum wage, smokers' rights, etc. and their job is to use their pulpits to set things straight, and now some are getting a taste of their own medicine.

My colleague, Bob Simonson, had this to say in an email to me (which I post with his permission):

The last thing anyone should attempt in an educational institution today is education. Students are now under the impression that education is simply an “exchange” of opinions and feelings – with “understanding and celebration” as the final result. No idea or feeling, no matter how ridiculous, is without merit. Students are entitled to honor roll status and certification of their intellectual abilities (through graduation) because they shared their opinions with each other.

The liberals started this slippery slope on college campuses. I’m happy to see them beginning to get caught in the web that they so meticulously weaved over the past 45 years.

HT to King.

Gas Price Volatility

The Wall Street Journal reports that gasoline prices could be very volatile this summer:

Many analysts worry that there will be spot shortages of ethanol, which could slow gasoline deliveries to some U.S. markets, particularly in the Northeast. In a report issued yesterday, Credit Suisse Securities predicted volatile gasoline prices in the summer, singling out the Northeast and Texas. The report said that concerns about shortages "have permeated the market."

"I don't think there's anybody out there that thinks there's really enough ethanol to go around," says John Kilduff, senior vice president for energy risk management at Fimat USA Inc., a brokerage firm. "We're talking about a very strained refining industry that's in the process right now of rebuilding and retooling from Katrina."

Not everyone agrees:

Some analysts say that U.S. gasoline inventories are high and that European refiners and U.S. traders have had sufficient lead time to adjust to the blend change. An EIA official said that summer gasoline supplies could be tight in some places because of possible ethanol shortages. But the agency said in its report last week that the recent price trend doesn't point to additional large retail-price increases soon.

What I Did during Spring Break

It would be funny if it were in the Onion.  But it's not from the onion.  It's real:

Skyler Bartels kept looking over his shoulder. It's a habit he picked up living at the Windsor Heights Wal-Mart for three days.

Really living there. Eating, sleeping, checking out the DVDs, never leaving. The plan was to spend his entire spring break there. Under the radar.

Now, who in his right mind would do this?

This was part sociology experiment, part school project. Bartels is a writing major. Maybe he'd put it all down on paper and pick up an independent study credit, or even sell it to somebody someday.

O.  I get it.  He wasn't in his right mind.

HT to, need I write it, Fark.

Wonderlic Test Scores

Here is a link to Mac Mirabile's compilation of Wonderlic test scores.

I'm Negotiatin', but Nobody's Payin'

In negotiations, if your asking price is too high and you want to get rid of your stuff, you lower your asking price.  This works for cars.  This works for kidnap victims:

Gallatin police are investigating a kidnapping in which the adult victim was dropped off near a Nashville police precinct after ransom demands were not met, Gallatin Police Chief John Tisdale said.

"They asked for several thousand dollars, then reduced their demands as the night wore on," he said.

I'd be scared... and maybe insulted.

"Somebody was calling and making ransom demands," Tisdale said.

The demands were made through the night, with the ransom amount lowered each time, Tisdale said.

..."After he got off the phone, he said, 'Man, I just promised your little sister I wasn't going to kill you.' "

Leave it to an economist to ruin the humor:  either the victim provided 0 marginal benefits to his loved ones or the continued ransom lowering gave the victims family and authorities the kidnappers' private information that they really weren't going to kill him.

Here's the Fark tag.  Here's the Fark headline:

Two masked kidnappers snatch man, demand $20,000. As the night wore on, the demands kept dropping and finally after getting bitched at by the victim's sister they dropped him off with $23 to show for 24 hours of kidnapping.

Most of the comments are quite good.  Here is a good econ one:

You could outsource your kidnapping to some third world nation for that price.

TAGS: farkonomics

We Will Never Run Out of Oil - Another in a Continuing Series

This morning's Wall Street Journal has an article on the extraction of oil from the tar sands of Alberta ($$$).  This type of oil is more difficult to get from the ground and prepare into usable products and, as such, have never been seriously considered to be part of the world's oil reserves.  But nowadays, with prices as they are, the tar sands are now part of the oil reserves.

hese deposits were once dismissed as "unconventional" oil that couldn't be recovered economically. But now, thanks to rising global oil prices and improved technology, most oil-industry experts count oil sands as recoverable reserves. That recalculation has vaulted Venezuela and Canada to first and third in global reserves rankings, although Venezuela's holdings in extra-heavy crude are a rough guess. Saudi Arabia is No. 2. Not including the oil sands, Canada would fall to No. 22. Led by Total, nearly every major Western oil company as well as their Chinese and Indian brethren are gearing up to go after the deposits here. In all, they plan to spend more than $70 billion in the next decade unlocking the oil from the sand.

The surging interest in Canadian oil sands is stark evidence that the world isn't about to run out of oil. Instead, it is running low on readily accessible light, sweet crude -- oil that flows like water, has few impurities and can be easily turned into gasoline. As the good stuff gets scarce, Big Oil is turning its attention and pouring money into extra-heavy crude, such as the giant deposits near Fort McMurray and another similar one in Venezuela.

...Total is making the biggest bet on heavy crude of any of the half-dozen international Western oil giants. Nearly one-fifth of its commercial reserves are in heavy-oil belts, according to oil consultant Wood Mackenzie, a larger portion than any of its Western rivals. Its stockpile of heavy-oil reserves is second only to that of Exxon Mobil Corp., a company that is more than twice as large. Total has spent years developing the complex technology needed to extract oil from tar sands in the frigid environment of Northern Canada. So much heat is required to separate the oil from the tar that Total briefly floated the idea of building a nuclear-power plant there.

The article also goes on to describe the additional external costs associated with the extraction of crude from the tar sands, an issue that will, no-doubt, get ugly. 

The rush into the oil sands also has turned a longstanding belief about fossil fuels and the environment on its head. For years, environmentalists have argued that higher gasoline prices would be good for the Earth because paying more at the pump would promote conservation. Instead, higher energy prices have unleashed a bevy of heavy-oil projects that will increase emissions of carbon dioxide, suspected of causing global warming.

Here is an earlier post on the subject.

So Much for Lego People

I recall seeing a Lego version of Faurot Field, but this soccer arena beats that by a mile!

HT Fark.

Church Sign

That's from Churchsigngenerator.com.  I could have fun with this.

Flavored Ketchup is....

Craig at The Door writes:

Reason #9,256 why business is so freakin' hard: guy takes a look at mustard. Finds out that plain yellow French's used to utterly dominate. Then one day Grey Poupon showed up and took a huge bite out of French's share, and now there are, like, a zillion types of mustard in U. S. stores. So he gets a bright idea: he'll do exactly the same thing, except with ketchup.

Only one problem: turns out "ketchup is ketchup" and nobody, apparently, wants anything different.

I think I know the problem:  there's already tons of competition out there for "flavored" ketchup:  BBQ sauce.

Go Pats!

Awright... who had George Mason in the Final Four?  Don't lie.

Looks like the slipper fits on GMU this year.

Update:  Can anyone verify this about GMU's advancing to the Final Four?: 

George Mason becomes the first ever school to defeat unique National Champions from the previous two tournaments.