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2011-09-29

As I was leaving campus last night, I saw a deer in the bushes. It proceeded to run into the street and nearly got hit by a pickup truck. Oh deer.

My chair just broke. Yes, the one I've had for five years since TAMS. The piece on the right-hand side that holds the chairback up snapped. It's served me well for quite some time now. Time to search for a steelcase think on craigslist.

Thanks to xkcd, I learned about the tragedy of the commons. It seems to me the idea applies to our banking industry, where the marginal value of the addition of a new banker (or quant, or speculator, etc.) is great for the banker, but we've already surpassed the percentage of GDP at which point finance ceases to contribute materially toward GDP. But since the benefits are privatized and the costs are borne by the public, any rational actor will do what's worse for society. You could probably make the same argument about any similarly "saturated" industry.


Comments:

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Dad | 2011-10-01T11:40:46.101662

Sorry to hear about your chair. Its logged a lot of miles and rear ends. I hope you give it a proper funeral.