Old Hong Kong

In 1946 the photographer Hedda Morrison, acclaimed for her 1930s and 1940s images of China, arrived in Hong Kong. During about six months there she photographed virtually every aspect of local life, which was little changed from decades earlier -- yet destined soon to be transformed.This book presents Morrison's compelling, intimate documentary images of Hong Kong, its people and patterns of life, with narrative essays by Edward Stokes that vividly describe the postwar years. These unrivalled photographs, superbly printed at Harvard University from Hedda Morrison's original negatives, hold up a mirror to a vanished world.

1930 至40年代以拍攝中國景象為世知名的攝影家Hedda Morrison，於1946年居港六個月期間，以鏡頭如實記錄本地風土人情豐富多姿的面貌。本書照片精采紛陳，震懾人心；加上Edward Stokes 翔實生動的說明文字，圖文並茂，讓讀者盡覽香港戰後的人情世態。無與倫比的照片，由哈佛大學以Morrison的原底片精心沖印，為逝去的人與事留下耐人尋味的影蹤。
http://www.hkupress.org/asp/bookinfo.asp?PD_NUM=9622097545

I am attracted by the description, but not the photo. And I do think the chinese version is written better.

P.O.W. Camp

Quite boring these days, (only me stay at hall), so read:
"The Economic Organisation of a P.O.W. Camp" R.A. Radford. Economica, New series, Vol.12, No.48(Nov., 1945), 189-201.

P.O.W. stands for Prisoner of War. This article disclosed the working of economic instutitions in that Camp. Several topics are discussed, Development of Market, Money, Inflation, Price Control, Public Opinion. Each is provided with anecdotes observed by the writer, most are interesting, let see some of them:

1. Red cross supply food parcels --- tinned milk, jam, butter, biscuits, bully, chocolate, sugar, etc., and cigarette, for free! Economists may call them endowment or simply, land.
2. There is production of sevices, although with a limited range.(you know what it implies.)
3. A notice board is setup for exchange. Just like the primitive shares exchange center,however not centralised, each bungalow has its own board, when a transaction is made, the price is crossed out.
4. Some people have monopoly power, because they can speak several language.
5. Cigarette acted as money, and followed Gresham's law.
6. Paper currency(BMk) existed for a restaurant with food, hot drinks and performance.
7. Interesting phenomenon of having two money --- Cigarette and BMk. One good with two prices.
8. Medical officer fixed the price of good in order to avoid malnutrition, initially supported by majority, nevertheless, finally removed. Once again showed the doom destiny of price control.
9. People usually act against his words. Damn the middleman at the meeting, and trade with them everyday.

While reading, I imagine a nice picture in that camp, it seems they had much more choices, at least in eating. I can hardly find a restaurant nearby, damn the middleman, why don't come here?

(The answer has already given in the first line.)

New Home

Let see:

BEcon

A letter received several days ago:

"I am pleased to inform you that your application for program transfer has been successful, and that you be admitted to the BEcon Year II in the first semester of the academic year 2005-2006."

Actually, I planned to be BEcon in Year I, however, I cannot submit the application form before the deadline last year. So a sadly E&F Year I passed with an awful GPA.

I have asked by my friends why I insist on changing major, anyway, I can freely choose any economics courses. My reply is simply, no core (compulsory) finance courses. My grade of the finance course clearly tell me that I am not capable of handling it. However, in a subjective sense, it is better to say I have no interest in that.

"Don't be silly, who cares what courses you have taken or the name of your degree. They just look at your score, or whether you are first-hon." JC shouted. This is what he replied when I asked for his advice. For all those who have warned me, sorry that I buy his idea more.

For those hate econ or question about it

read this: http://www.ksyss.edu.hk/~kwng/s6_readings/eco_arrow.mht

Whenever people ask me what do I study, I find it hard to tell them the truth. If I just say economics, they would reply, "Which shares do you think will rise?". If I try to explain it is a science about human behaviour, objections come naturally as what suggested in the text (link provded) above.

Hope those people understand what I am doing after reading it.

The article is short and clear, what do you think?

Some good news

I have given a single room (701) in the coming sem.

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Yesterday, I met a HKU Econ Phd, Wong Kwan To, in the tea gathering for the Morrisonians. He know Byron! Certainly, Byron know him also (I check that with Byron in icq). To (his nickname) told me something about his day of UG, C.D. Hall and N.S. Cheung are his teachers, Wing Suen is his supervisor. Oh my god, how lucky he was, and it is really a good chance to me. Although I cannot attend all those masters' lecture, at least now I have an indirect way to approach, and even better is, if he can put all of their ideas together, then I can save a lot of effort to combine them. Missed one point, Silberberg and Barzel are his teacher too! To told me that silberberg's book, "The structure of economics : a mathematical analysis", does not cover all of his 'skills'. I am going to read through it and then ask To what is the "hidden" technique.

It seems the coming year is much more interesting than the last, and my dream of entering US postgrad school is become clear.

Human behavior

J. Viner:

The economist is concerned with human behavior, and with human psychology only in so far as it is necessary for an explanation of human behavior in its economic aspects. In order to learn how men will act in a given situation, or how a change in the situation will modify their behavior, it is surely more practical to observe their behavior than to attempt to discover by introspection or otherwise what they might be supposed to do if actuated by a certain motive operating alone. Both methods are inductive, but the former seems to meet the canons of induction much more satisfactorily than the latter. Even the psychologist as such is beginning to rely less and less upon abstract, speculative propositions, and to explain human psychology by the acts of men under given circumstances rather than by the mental processes behind these acts, which are not subject to inductive examination. The modern trend in psychology is decidedly away from introspection and the attempt to explain behavior by rational motives revealed by introspection. The psychologist looks rather to the systematic observation of behavior as the source of psychological generalizations, and uses the inductive method—experimental only in part—as a means of obtaining his general principles. The part which consciousness plays cannot be so revealed, of course, and here the method of inference from specific observation fails, but the economist as such is concerned only with the external aspects of human psychology, and can well afford to leave the analysis of motives to the speculative psychologist. The bonds which tie political economy to an out-of-date rational hedonistic psychology and its appropriate logical method of investigation are not indissoluble.

A paragraph from "Some Problems of Logical Method in Political Economy", JPE, Vol. 25, No.3, 1917.

Yesterday after the meeting (for discussing Coase's "Nature of Firm"), on the way home, Question ask me why I choose to study economics but not psychology, as I am interested in human behaviour. The answer provided is not satisfactory, and I believe the quotation above is much more better.

p.s. The first half of the article talks extensively about the logical method --- Induction and Deduction, which is one of the many interested topics of my friend, I sent him a copy long ago, don't know whether he has read it, I guess no. If you want a copy in doc form, leave a word.