Let's get this show on the road, and such.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

any particular road? or do you just want us out on the street with the laptop?

Give a politician an inch, and he'll think he's a ruler

rockin' Spock in the Tardis

keep to the Fen Causeway

The Long Tail - Wired Blogs

Guest post: Acting as a non-monetary economy

Adam Gurri wrote in with this excellent observation:

"When I think of something that is so abundant as to be available for free, I think of acting.

It's no secret that are are more actors in New York than there are productions to put them in.  Economics helps us understand the consequences of this to a certain extent; obviously a gigantic supply will result in lower wages per actor.  What interests me, however, is how this works in practice.  People think that a gigantic sector of a specific workforce could not possibly work for free, because they need to feed themselves and pay their bills, and so forth.

The thing about acting is that the labor force (actors) actually value the ability to do work in that field that they are willing to take on work for nothing and take on other jobs as a sort of cross-subsidy.  There is a sort of demand for employment in theater, which makes competition among actors so fierce as to actually drive down wages (at time of entry at least) to zero or near zero.

There is a parallel between this old story and what's going on in the content industries today, I think.  It used to be that professional economists, physicists, statisticians, historians, and software programmers were too busy doing their jobs to write about it for the general public.  As a result, newspaper and magazine writers--the majority of whom had no technical training or experience in these areas--none the less had a comparative advantage when it came to writing about these topics for broader audiences.

Today, the cost of writing on a blog that is out in the public to be seen by anyone interested in it is nearly nothing.  Russ Roberts can blog about economics, Google employees can blog about their projects, and so on.  The internet has made it possible for the content industries to look more like the acting industry: people giving away content for free because they enjoy it, while making money with a paying job."

Haven't seen any report in English language media: The official census figures for the French population were published yesterday:

• By the end of 2006 (so two years ago), the official population figure in France stood at 63,185,925 people, a little short of the previous estimate of 64+ millions - still the second largest European population after Germany. A new census on January 15 and results should be available early next year.

• Population increases have been strongest in Southern and Atlantic coast regions, also in the Rhone-Alpes (including Lyon & Grenoble) and Paris regions. Northern and Northeastern regions have grown much less; one region - Champagne-Ardennes- has even registered a population decrease.

• Since 2000, the population average annual increase rate is slightly higher than during the 1990's.

• The main cause to the population increase is a higher fertility rate: French women have now 2 children on average, making France the only country in Europe to come anywhere close to the US figure (2.1 children per woman).

One interesting point: the number of children seem to be rather well distributed among women of different ethnic groups. Even our own Justice Minister is happily contributing. The availability and affordability of child care and kindergarten are probably playing a big role, allowing women to have children without stopping their work life.

This will do little to stop the recurrent phantasms of Eurabia - a French (and European) population whose increase is only due to runaway immigration with Arab and African people "breeding like rabbits".

Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.

Alright, I can take or leave much of the city, but I'm definitely loving Greenwich Village.  I really must travel more.

Lotta good local brews, if you're ever in NYC, Helen.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

It's cryin' time again:

Deutschlands Superreiche - Ein Krisenminus von 30 Prozent - Finanzen - sueddeutsche.de		Germany's superrich down 30 percent in crisis - Finance
Joachim Paul Schäfer, einer der dienstältesten Vermögensbetreuer für reiche Privatleute, schätzt die Verluste der reichsten deutschen Familien seit Sommer 2007 auf "durchschnittlich 30 Prozent", wie die WirtschaftsWoche berichtet.		Joachim Paul Schäfer, one of the most experienced asset managers for high-net-worth individuals, estimates the losses of Germany's richest families at "an average of 30 percent" since summer 2007, Wirtschaftswoche reports.
Allein mit ihren börsennotierten Großbeteiligungen hätten die 20 reichsten deutschen Familien in der Krise rund 40 Milliarden Euro verloren.		Germany's 20 richest families lost around 40 billion euros on their major shareholdings in listed companies alone.
"Damit ist schon jetzt klar, dass die aktuelle Krise viel tiefere Wunden in großen Familienvermögen hinterlassen wird, als die letzten vier, fünf Rezessionen zusammen", sagte Schäfer dem Magazin und fügte hinzu: "Manche seit Generationen gewachsenen Vermögen sind ähnlich bedroht wie zuletzt in der Hyperinflation der 20er Jahre oder in der Depression."		"Thus it is already clear that the current crisis is leaving much deeper wounds in large family fortunes than the last four, five recessions put together," Schäfer told the magazine and added, "Some fortunes that have grown over generations are threatened in a manner not seen since the hyperinflation of the 1920s or the depression."

Does anyone want to join me in taking up a collection?

(Seriously - if this site had an obscenity policy this post would be way out of bounds.)

"Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease." - Kurt Vonnegut

You can't be me, I'm taken