Category: Travel

Plato visits Sicily and Siracusa

With these thoughts in my mind I came to Italy and Sicily on my first visit. My first impressions on arrival were those of strong disapproval-disapproval of the kind of life which was there called the life of happiness, stuffed full as it was with the banquets of the Italian Greeks and Syracusans, who ate to repletion twice every day, and were never without a partner for the night; and disapproval of the habits which this manner of life produces. For with these habits formed early in life, no man under heaven could possibly attain to wisdom-human nature is not capable of such an extraordinary combination. Temperance also is out of the question for such a man; and the same applies to virtue generally. No city could remain in a state of tranquillity under any laws whatsoever, when men think it right to squander all their property in extravagant, and consider it a duty to be idle in everything else except eating and drinking and the laborious prosecution of debauchery. It follows necessarily that the constitutions of such cities must be constantly changing, tyrannies, oligarchies and democracies succeeding one another, while those who hold the power cannot so much as endure the name of any form of government which maintains justice and equality of rights.

The link is here, hat tip goes to Yana.

Does Brasilia work?

That Brasilia is a monstrosity of a planned city, reflecting all of the worst excesses of rationalist constructivism and other Hayekian bugaboos, is a common cliche.  But the evidence does not support that picture.

Here is one eloquent paean to the livability of Brasilia (short pdf), it’s worth the quick read.

Admittedly, Brasilia does not work as well as Curitiba (also quite planned), but I would rather live here than in most other parts of Brazil, including Rio de Janeiro.  The Le Corbusier open city plan is wonderful for sunlight and relatively low congestion.  The city made its peace with the automobile a long time ago and it was planned for heavy auto usage.  There is still plenty of room to expand.

No one lives on the Washington Mall either.  The outlying areas feel normal and walking and shopping is easy.  The city’s “bad rap” from the 1970s and 80s seems to be gone.  I am told that the food and cultural scene is much better.  Brasilia is more expensive than most parts of Brazil but that is common for capital cities.  It’s a fair criticism that some of the commutes from outlying areas are too long.

Not everyone likes the architectural style but I would rate it as one of the top ten attractions of the New World and if I lived here I would be proud of it.

There are a few quick lessons:

1. Sorry Jane Jacobs fans, planned cities do sometimes work.  Take a look at postwar Germany too.

2. “Planned” cities are often less formally planned in their entirety than you think, and that is true for the greater Brasilia area.  Brasilia is a mix of planned and unplanned elements, and it’s the mix which (mostly) works.  We should not demonize either the “planned” or “unplanned” aspects of that blend per se.

3. Even when matters are quite screwed up from the policy or optimality side, mobility enforces an equality of average rates of return.  This is one of the most neglected insights of economics.

I thank Leonardo Monasterio for a useful conversation on these topics; here are his tips for visiting Brasilia.

China arbitrage story of the day German flight attendants arrested in quantitative easing scheme

Six Lufthansa employees, including four flight attendants, have been arrested after sneaking in more than 63,000 pounds of out-of-circulation, €1 and €2 coins from China back to Germany over the last four years.

Euro coins have two color tones, gold and silver, and when the German Central Bank takes the coins out of circulation, the two colors (see picture to the left) are separated then sent to China to be melted down into scrap metal.

A wily group in China reassembled the coins rather melting them, then sent them back to Germany with four LH flight attendants serving as “mules.”…The FAs would then take the coins to the Bundesbank (only the central bank in Germany accepts damaged coins) and turn them in for bills.

The story is humorous throughout, and for the pointer I thank none other than Air Genius Gary Leff.  Here is further detail (NYT) as to how the arbitrage worked and relied on low Chinese wages to reassemble the coins in a cost effective manner.

Costa Rica bleg

Michael A. asks me:

As always, appreciate all your prodigious information output.  I am traveling to Costa Rica this summer and was wondering if you might be able to give me any info about Best of Costa Rica — specifically foods, wines, etc. to hit as well as music and books to check out beforehand, sights to see, the usual Tyler Cowen treatment.

I haven't been to Costa Rica in a long time, but here is what lodged in my memory:

Monkeys and birds, hanging sloth is hard to see, excellent dialect on Caribbean coast, eat palmitos [hearts of palm], like it or not beans and rice for breakfast, cross the country by taxi in a day, if you mispronounce the volcano it rhymes with the last name of David Boaz, Spanish paella in the capital, "Tica," music is mediocre, worst Chinese food anywhere, the least interesting locale in Central America but the best trip for most Americans.  Glad I went but won't return.

The economics of travel visas

Bob Lawson and Jayme Lemke write:

This paper examines travel visa restrictions in 188 countries. We measure travel visa requirements (1) facing foreign visitors into a given country and (2) facing citizens of a given nation traveling abroad. Our analysis shows that countries are more likely to impose visas on foreign visitors when they are large, but less likely when they are rich and economically free. Citizens from richer and more populous countries face fewer travel visa requirements when traveling abroad. Countries are less likely to impose visa requirements on similar nations.

Os_Candangos 

Better than the filibuster?

To avoid a vote on a proposal to limit collective bargaining rights in the state of Wisconsin, 14 legislators have fled the state, to an undisclosed location. I am not sure if there is a precedent for this. The reason they crossed state lines was to dodge the Wisconsin police.

It turns out that "Republicans hold a 19-14 majority, but they need at least one Democrat to be present before voting."  The link is here and for the pointer I thank Brian Hooks.

How do Maryland and Virginia differ?

From Jared Sylvester, a loyal TCEDG reader:

I was reading through your dining guide, looking for a place to go with my father this weekend.  In your write up of Crisfields [http://tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com/?p=561] you said "The accompanying visit to Silver Spring is an object lesson in how Maryland and Virginia differ."  I was wondering if you would mind blogging on that topic.

Let's restrict (most of) this to the adjacent parts of each state.  The food says a lot: Maryland has kosher food and Caribbean food.  Virginia has better Bolivian, Vietnamese, Korean, Afghan, Ethiopian, and Persian food.  (Here is a new piece on minorities in Virginia.)  Both have excellent Sichuan food.  Both have very good El Salvadoran and Thai food.  Neither has real barbecue.  Maryland used to have better Indian food, now Virginia has much better Indian food, including dosas.  Apart from Bethesda, Maryland has virtually no "fine dining."  Maryland has many more Russians, albeit without a decent restaurant. 

Virginia has Tysons Corner, Tysons Mall I and II, The Palm, and a Ritz-Carlton, or in other words a lot of tacky, revenue-generating corporate assets.  Virginia has better and more consistent school systems.  Virginia has better Beltway on- and off-ramps.

Bethesda is better integrated into DC than is any part of Virginia, with Arlington playing catch-up.  Virginia has the airports, the Pentagon, a better business climate, and lower taxes.

The Pentagon and the military are central to my theory of why Virginia is such a well-run state.  Virginia has a major cash cow, to provide employment and taxable incomes, yet unlike Alaska's oil revenue, it is not one that the state government can get its hands on beyond general sources of tax revenue.  The Pentagon, as a natural asset, does not foster corruption or complacency in the Virginia state government.  It is politically untouchable.  It makes Virginia a conservative yet interventionist and technocratic state.  Maryland has more inherited blight. 

Virginia has more ugly colonial houses, and more arches and pillars, Maryland has more tacky old American box houses.  I dislike ugly colonial.

Virginia feels more like an assortment of minorities working within an essentially Protestant framework.  Maryland was originally founded as a Catholic colony.

Looking to the state as a whole, Virginia doesn't have a proper city; Norfolk and Virginia Beach are agglomerations based around what are traditionally non-urban rationales.  I bet people in California, or for that matter Shenzhen, don't even know they are cities at all.  The third largest city, Chesapeake, no one has heard of, or cares about, if not for the nearby Bay.  Other parts of Maryland, such as you find along the Susquehanna, were long integrated into more northerly and westerly trade routes.  Virginia's major waterways lead to the sea.

I've long lived in Virginia, and never wanted to live in Maryland, even if I could equalize the commute.

Zeno’s paradox

I did get stuck in The Great ???? — have they given it a name yet? — last night.  A ten mile commute home took me almost eight hours and from what I have read many people had it worse.  I thought of Keynes and liquidity.  The worst part came at the end when I saw the car crushed by a large, heavy tree, which also fell over the main road and turned four lanes and two directions into one lane and two directions.  For the most part human cooperation held up and people kept their places in line.  Bathroom norms evolved (and were improved), and I now know every station on my radio.  As the trip continued, the number of car corpses rose.

We at GMU are so dedicated they didn't even cancel classes.  And if a nuclear weapon is being launched at DC, I'm simply going down to the basement.

*Monocle* and high-altitude cities

Edition Alpino, for this month's issue.  I had not known there was a periodical called Monocle and now I have a piece in it, next to the ads for fancy watches and articles geared toward the European elite.  (Given the business model of this periodical, I believe the piece will never be on-line.)  There is also an article "Radio: Four modern alternatives to Alpine horn blowing."  And "Monocle goes on snow patrol with the Federal Republic's Gebirgsjägerbrigade, the traditional Alpine troops with a very modern mission."  

My fun but not very scholarly bit asks why so many cities of the far north are so pleasant to travel to, the task the editors set me.  Doing the piece got me thinking why cold, high altitude cities such as La Paz and Kathmandu do not always offer the same virtues.

In high altitude cities it is harder to raise large herds of pack animals, cultivate broad agricultural plains, establish critical mass in terms of size, or trade with heighbouring regions.  There are also fewer sea connections.  If we look in Europe, the largest Swiss cities are near the plain rather than tucked into the Alps.

This may be historical accident, but two of the more successful high altitude cultures came in the New World, namely the Incas and the Aztec alliance.  Is that because domesticated animals were less important on this side of the Atlantic?  That tomatoes and potatoes and corn can do well or better at high altitudes?  In and near Tenochitlan of course, the Nahuas built their own extensive network of canals.

Should we subsidize or tax research into time travel?

Treat this as a balanced budget question, so it's not about fiscal policy.  Alternatively, imagine yourself as a benevolent philanthropist: should you support this area of research if you can do so as a free lunch?  Or should you try to hinder it?

I believe no one understands the underlying science much at all.  But there is some chance that the old science fiction movies are correct and that by time-traveling you alter the course of history, thereby obliterating the universe we used to have.  I'll count that as a net negative, while noting there is some chance we end up with a better universe.

On the plus side, the human race will die out anyway.  Time travel seems to yield a fairly safe haven.  As disaster approaches, keep going back in time a few days, or decades, and that asteroid will never hit you.  This is especially appealing if you are transporting back a body (upload?) which is programmed to be more or less immortal and you can take the technology with you, so as to keep on going back as time progresses.

On one side: immortal life for many of the last humans and thus immortality for the human race.  And with time they may learn how to thwart the asteriod.  On the other side: some probability of swapping universes.

So should we subsidize or tax research into time travel?