Friday assorted links
1. Do lenders of last resort really make financial systems that much safer? And the bullfighting economist and Federal Reserve governor.
2. Disney negotiating with Carrie Fisher’s estate for more Princess Leia.
3. Seoul opens a bookstore with no employees and no prices.
4. “Virginia man spends $1,000 to deliver 300,000 pennies to Lebanon DMV.” (The penny, and wheelbarrow, as rent-seeking behavior…):
Still, Stafford had one final act planned. After collecting the hundreds of rolls of pennies he needed, he hired 11 people to help him break open the paper rolls with hammers Tuesday night. It took four hours and he paid each person $10 per hour, costing him $440.
Stafford also purchased five wheelbarrows to deliver the pennies. The wheelbarrows cost $400, and he wasn’t going to dump the coins on the DMV’s floor, so he left the wheelbarrows there, bringing his expenses to $840.
He also paid $165 for the three lawsuits, which means he spent $1,005 to get 10 phone numbers and the satisfaction of delivering 300,000 pennies.
Via Annie Lowrey.
5. Maybe the AIIB is better after all:
William Faulkner’s novels in particular stuck with Mr. Jin, now the president of China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a major force in the country’s rush to secure a leading role in the world’s financial architecture. An underlined copy of “Absalom, Absalom!” is on his office bookshelves, along with Shakespeare and the Bible. He said he found inspiration in Faulkner’s complex human relationships.