Policy and Regulation

Tontines, Viatical Settlements, Rent Control, and Girls, Girls, Girls!

Economists say that tontines create perverse incentives.  A tontine is an investment pursuant to which each participant puts a certain amount of money into a pot.  The money in the pot is invested in whatever the participants want it to be invested in (biotech companies say, or swamp land in Florida).  The money stays in …

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Slow News Day

I had planned on posting this morning, but the Supremes have stolen my thunder by coming out in favor of school shootings and back-alley abortions. I will wait until the news cycle calms down to post about crazy get-rich-quick gurus and lazy, dishonest maintenance personnel. Watch this space.

Corruption at its Best

This week, the New York State manufactured housing industry association sent a bunch of people to Albany for the annual lobby day.  I had never attended previously.  In fact, I had never set foot in downtown Albany, let alone inside the legislative buildings.  Here’s what I learned, as our group traveled from State Assembly Member …

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Buyaolian!

There is an expression in Mandarin, Buyaolian (pronounced boo-yiauw-lee-en, with emphasis on the ‘yauw’).  Literally, it means ‘does-not-want-face’.  The closest English translation is ‘shameless’, but that does not quite do it justice.  It usually means ‘shameless-in-the-way-a-management-consultant-steals-your-watch-and-charges-you-to-tell-you-the-time’, but it can also mean ‘hogging credit when credit is not due’, ‘lazy’, ‘benefiting from other peoples’ work without …

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Arbitrage, the STAR Exemption, and is there a “K” in “Knucklehead”?

Our oldest son’s first word was deng.  That means “light”, in Mandarin.  When he said it, he was looking at – you guessed it – a light bulb. He’s a smart kid.  He takes after his mother. For some time, I liked to tell people that his first word was “arbitrage”.  That was a good …

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Wacka Wacka

Yes, hello I was reading a craigslist ad in the ad it said that uh, park applicants have to be vaccinated?  That goes against Geneva Convention Article 6 Section 3.  So you might want to read up on your history.  All you people.  You people are weird.  You people are sick.  You people have mental …

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