Lunch with Alex and Bryan

Today, I had the honor of eating lunch with two great economics bloggers: Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution and Bryan Caplan of Econlog. Alex Tabarrok invited me to lunch during the time that I posted Academic Imperialism (Part I and Part II). What did we talk about?

We started by talking about Bryan’s blogging partner, Arnold Kling. Things like, “Do you know the story about Arnold Kling.” I knew he started a company and sold it for a nice profit. Bryan said that the money did not seem to buy happiness in Arnold case. I explained that money does not solve all of you problems, it solves one of your problems. But there are many things to worry about in life. I think one reason why I tend to be happy is that I do not worry enough, but I just don’t see any reason too. My wife worries enough for both of us.

We talked a bit about children. I mentioned that my son hates losing in games. I told them my philosophy that I did not want to contrive to lose games to my son just to make him feel better. Bryan pointed out that maybe I did not like to lose myself. There is no doubt about that. But I will say it gives me the greatest joy to see my son beat me, which happens occasionally in chess because I spot him a rook. I wouldn’t get much satisfaction if I purposefully lost.

Alex was surprised to find out that Marginal Revolution was really big in India. I explained that I read a lot of Indian blogs and notice that MR and Café Hayek is either blogrolled or linked to in many of these blogs. I explained that many Indians have reacted to the many years of socialism and corrupt government by going for the other extreme of anarchic libertarianism. I told them you could not compare India with Finland, although both have mixed economies. I mentioned India Uncut and the fact that I have been writing to Amit Varma since he started blogging. I told them this story about Prakash Karat.

We talked a lot about graduate school in Minnesota. I told them about Nobel Laureate Ed Prescott. They wondered what subject areas he was interested in when I was there. I mentioned his lottery technology and the story that goes with it.

We talked about Alex’s current research into why real estate commissions seem immune to market forces. I thought that maybe it was an example of a Bertrand Price competition. No one wants to start a price war. But that story would be more believable if there were only a few players.

I noticed something interesting when we went back to Bryan’s car: Bryan takes a seat cushion to the restaurant so that he won’t have to sit on a hard chair (we ate outside).

Alex and Bryan were both very nice and unassuming. I would say that it was a nice meal and pleasant conversation.