Annual Migration

Sat on the porch of the Village Gallery yesterday afternoon overlooking Oriental harbor. A steady stream of boats, some sporting Canadian ensigns, but all with northern hailing ports, entered the harbor for the night.

The annual migration of those seeking warmer climes has begun.

Welcome to Oriental.

On Economics And Writing

I have mentioned before that Paul Krugman is my favorite economist.

He is my favorite not only because I admire his analysis and find his insights insightful. He is my favorite because his writing is clear and usually to the point. Sometimes I think he misses a point or overemphasizes one issue over another, but usually find him not only on target, but illuminating.

How does he do it?

One of today's blog posts explains:

Paul Krugman

October 22, 2011, 3:02 pm

But, And, Why

Every once in a while I get correspondence from someone chiding me for the way I write — in particular the informality. I received one the other day complaining about sentences that begin with “but” or “and”. There is, however, a reason I write this way.

You see, the things I write about are very important; they affect lives and the destiny of nations. But despite that, economics can all too easily become dry and boring; it’s just the nature of the subject. And I have to find, every time I write, a way to get past that problem.

One thing that helps, I’ve found, is to give the writing a bit of a forward rush, with a kind of sprung or syncopated rhythm, which often involves sentences that are deliberately off center.
More broadly, the inherent stuffiness of the subject demands, almost as compensation, as conversational a tone as I can manage.

My bible in all this is George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language. I recommend, in particular, reading his translation of good English, from the King James Bible, into bad modern English. The original:

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

The translation:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

Economics writing can all too easily end up sounding like the second version. You might even say that it wants to sound like that. So you have to make a real effort to ensure that it doesn’t.

On Wall Street and Bailouts (Calvin And Hobbes)

Economist Antonio Fatas brings us to an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip illustrating the thinking of Wall Street titans:
 

 Image from http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EkIzFqdRPBs/TqFbBQXFnXI/AAAAAAA...

Early Voting

One-stop/early voting opened yesterday at the Pamlico County Board of Elections office for the towns of Alliance, Bayboro and Oriental. Ten voters cast their ballots - eight from Oriental and two from Bayboro.

Hurricane Volunteers

Last night we met a very fine group of young Lutheran students from UNC who have come to Oriental to help in hurricane recovery. We're fortunate to have high quality volunteers like these. They wasted no time getting to work and accomplished a lot. They are staying at the Methodist recreation hall and will be going out to work at Goose Creek Island tomorrow.

Voting Starts Today

Voting in municipal elections starts today at one-stop for towns that have authorized absentee balloting. In Pamlico County, the towns are Alliance, Bayboro and Oriental. Pamlico County's one-stop location is the Board of Elections office at the court house annex in Bayboro.

Oriental's Mayors Race Forum

Last night's forum of Oriental's mayoral candidates proved quite interesting.

I won't comment on the performance of individual candidates. As a member of Pamlico County's Board of Elections, I am prohibited from publicly supporting or opposing the election of any particular candidate. I want to avoid even the appearance of support or opposition. Even with that limitation, I think there are useful observations to make.

Interest in the election seems higher than any of us expected. Eighty-eight interested citizens attended the forum. That represents about a third of the expected turnout for a municipal election in Oriental. That's a lot.

A number of the questions from the audience concerned preparation for and recovery from hurricanes. That was to be expected, as recovery from hurricane Irene dominates every resident's daily life and will continue to do so for months.

What was unexpected was a large number of questions on past issues that had been settled or seemed to have been settled. Among the themes:

1. What are the plans for Oriental's police force?;
2. The firing of town manager Randy Cahoon and the disposition of the report that cost the town $21,000;
3. Should the town have zoning? (All three candidates supported the need for zoning);
4. Do the candidates support outdoor amplified music?;
5. What about pool halls?;
6. Closed meetings;
7. Circumstances of the town's non-renewal of flood insurance (I was one of the deciders, and after Irene, I posted a comment on the decision).

All three candidates emphasized that we have a council-manager form of government, meaning that the board hires the town manager. The manager, in turn, is in charge of managing, hiring and firing staff, including police officers.

I think everyone who attended learned a lot about the candidates and about town government.

A Really Long Graph of 9-9-9

Economist Jared Bernstein today comments on candidate Cain's 9-9-9 plan and shares a graph that illustrates clearly the answer to "who benefits and who pays."

Here's the graph: