The Kings of New York

The Newsies kick was in full-swing at Halloween time.  These boys were excited to be the New York newsboys for trick-or-treat time.  

Aren't they the cutest little Newsies you've ever seen?

Admittedly, Henry was getting a bit tired of Newsies by the time Halloween actually came around.  He decided to be one of the Delancey brothers - a Newsies bad guy.

Sam idolizes David - the one who sings the "Seize the Day" solo.  So that's who Sam dressed up as.

And Ellis was Race Track, one of the best Newsies of all.  Can you tell which boy is absolutely, entirely delighted to be living the Newsies dream?

Shug and Paul come to town!

One of our favorite things that happened this fall was when Shug and Paul came to visit us, all the way from Alaska!  It was kind of a surreal week.  

And yes, I stole most of these pictures from Shug's blog, if you feel like you are having deja vu.

First thing first: we went apple picking in Wisconsin! 

Paul thought it would be fun to show the boys how to feed goats at the farm.

Some call Paul the goat man (you may notice that Paul grew a beard since our last visit with the Riggs).

Paul decided to get a little closer for a more intimate goat-feeding experience.

And of course, the real reason we went apple picking was to get the freshly made donuts from the farm!

We spend a good amount of time doing what we do best: hanging around at home.

Paul entertained us on his harmonica for many hours.

We had a pizza taste test, buying four pizzas, only to discover that we had a split vote between Lou Malnati's and Giordano's (which I don't understand, because Lou's is clearly the best).

Jam session by Paul and Ben

Shug enjoyed the light and warmth from the window.

We did our thing - and Shug kindly took pictures.

We made the essential Fall leaf-shaped sugar cookies.

One day, we headed to the Art Institute of Chicago.  It is a glorious place.  Ellis and Sam really loved it, and I will say it was a high moment on the spectrum of parenting satisfaction for me, as the boys and I enjoyed the artwork and talked about the artists that they like and recognize.  The stars aligned, and they were in good spirits, and yes, complete strangers came up to me and told me what a good mom I am.  Doesn't happen every day (usually the complete strangers are annoyed with my lack of parental control)!

Here is Sam helping himself to a piece of candy from one of the pieces (taking a piece was part of the exhibit).

We all loved these Chagall windows!

And Paul appreciated this portrait of himself!

I succumbed to the temptations of the gift shop (verdict three months later: definitely worth it!)

We walked around Millenium Park and acquainted Paul and Shug with Cloud Gate.

They found "the bean" to be romantically inspiring.

Paul and Shug did a really good job of being amused by our boys (and also entertaining them).  They loved watching Sam play in the fridge and ask to have his drinka milk made BIGGER!

Paul and Henry made brownies, using four eggs borrowed from the neighbors I had never met until that night.  Nothing gets between Paul and brownies, apparently.

We went to the zoo, where the boys got a true kick out of the kangaroos.

And we played with Becky and Brian - enjoying a fun adventure downtown for tapas.

And of course, we played Catan.

We gave Paul and Shug a little tour of our town.  We all enjoyed stalking the house where Home Alone was filmed.

And Ben gave a rousing tour of Northwestern's campus.

As you can see, we had a fun-filled week!  It was really lovely, and we were sad to go back to our regular lives at the end of it.  Henry remarked that he was REALLY going to miss Paul and Shug, "because they are just so good to have around."  We wish they would come and live with us ALL the time!

September happened

So . . . I fear that I am about to commit the unpardonable sin of playing blog catch up.  I don't know what happened to me!  Our fall was amazing but went by SO fast, and before I knew it, it was Christmas!  I want to say two things: First, that I have full intentions of being better at keeping up with this blog again!  I will not desert this little spot . . . even if we have no more than two readers left.  Secondly, I want to say that this school year has been CRAZY for me, schedule-wise.  I have Henry's school drop-offs and pickups (we walk every day), plus Ellis is in preschool or Joy School five days a week, as well as a theater class on Thursdays.  Sam and I are constantly on the go, getting the big brothers to their places . . . and home from their places.  I would say that we should drop something, but after much evaluation, I have decided that this busy schedule keeps Ellis happy.  And when Ellis is happy, the rest of us are happy!  So we press on.  The blog may suffer, but there is happiness (amid the madness) here.

With no further ado, I present to you some random pictures from September:

Sweet Ellis and Sam-o posing for a birthday picture

A few presents for the birthday boy

Darth Vader!  The brothers approve.

Especially this brother!

In Henry's class, he frequently has to make lists.  90% of the time, the lists are about penguins.  Not regular penguins, like the ones you find at the aquarium, but penguins from Henry's fantasy world: The Army of Penguins.  Yes, the obsession continues.

Sam likes sugar.  And why eat the healthy part of anything when you can just bite the yummy part off?  Yes, we often let him get away with this type of behavior.  I blame my parenting techniques on the madness and reality of raising three children.

A Christmas Message From Barack Obama

The boys have been getting a kick out of this one:

Thanksgiving Party Mix

This stuff is fun, festive, and very hard to stop eating! I came up with the recipe by combining a few others.

THANKSGIVING PARTY MIX

6 cups Corn Chex

7 cups Golden Grahams

6 cups Bugles

2 large boxes (or one bag) Boston Baked Beans candy

1 bag Brach's Caramel Candy Corn (or regular candy corn - but caramel is WAY better)

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup sugar

1 cup Karo syrup

3/4 cup butter

Combine first five ingredients.  Boil sugar, Karo, and butter for two minutes.  Then pour over cereal mixture. Add white chocolate chips after the mixture has cooled a bit.  Spread on wax paper to cool.  Enjoy!

The Ramble: Does Studying Economics Breed Greed?

My good friend Brittany passed on this article that asks whether studying economics makes you more greedy.  She did make it very clear that she didn't think I was greedy, so I guess I'll try not to take offense and see if I can provide some useful thoughts about this subject.

You should read the article that I linked above if you can; it's got some interesting facts and details in there.  The main gist, though, is that people who study economics:
- Are less likely to donate to charity
- Accept greed in others more willingly
- Aren't as fair when dividing money with peers
- Are more selfish in terms of free-riding off of others

Reading through that list of facts, things look pretty bleak for economists.  We're all a bunch of self-centered jerks, apparently.  :)  But seriously, after thinking about this for a few days I've settled on three main points:
1. There's no reason that studying economics should make people greedy.
2. There are several alternative explanations for the above facts that suggest that the above findings are a bit overblown.
3. Even so, I bet it is probably true that studying econ breeds greed to some extent.  I think this is likely due to a couple of key misunderstandings about econ in general, and it reflects poor teaching of econ at the introductory level.

If you're interesting in my take on each of these points, keep reading:

1. Should studying economics make you more greedy?
There's a common misconception (held by economists and non-economists alike) that economics teaches that "greed is good."  This concept comes from a basic principle of econ taught by Adam Smith himself: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."

But you have to be very careful with this idea.  Let me try to state exactly what economics teaches as clearly and cleanly as I can:

In a market where everyone pursues their own self interest, and in which no other frictions are present, assets will be allocated to their most efficient uses.

This is a remarkable statement that demonstrates the amazing power of markets, but if you read it carefully it never says that pursuing self interest is what one should do.  It just says that if we assume that people will pursue their own self interest, then assets will be used in the most efficient way possible.  Also, the idea of "acting in your own self interest" is actually quite broad and could easily include donating to charity if that makes you happy or better off in some way.  In some cases, economists will explicitly include charity or service in their models when they feel that those items are important.  For example, if you're modeling retirement savings, the desire to leave an inheritance for your kids is important and must be taken into account.  But most academic studies ignore charitable acts and make the simplifying assumption that everyone strictly acts in their own self interest.  This is not because this is what economists think everyone should do, nor is it because economists think that everyone does act in this way.  It's a simplifying assumption to make the model simpler, and most of the time it's close enough to be quite useful.

One other quick point:  Note that the above statement says nothing about fairness or ethics at all.  In this hypothetically efficient market that we're thinking about there could very well be people who die of starvation, despite the fact that everything is allocated to its most efficient use.  Clearly, no one thinks this is right or is what should happen, but this basic principle doesn't have much to say about fairness.  Each economist is going to have a different opinion on what is fair, and in most cases you can't prove that one opinion is better than another when it comes to ethics.  Because of this, most of economics steers clear of moral issues and tries to just focus on things that unambiguously make everyone better off.

2. Are there reasons to think that the evidence that studying economics breeds greed is wrong?
So far, I've tried to make the case that studying economics shouldn't necessarily make people more greedy.  But there is a substantial amount of evidence that suggests that economists are more self-centered than others.  Is there any reason to doubt this evidence?  I think that there are three things to keep in mind, that should at least temper your nasty thoughts about economists:

• First, pretty much all of the studies that are linked in the article above only show a correlation between studying economics and greed.  There is no strong evidence that study economics causes greediness.  In reality, there is likely a lot of self-selection going on.  Lots of people that study economics are doing so because they are business men and women who are naturally focused on succeeding and turning a profit--a.k.a. somewhat greedier than others.  If this is the case, it would make economists more self-centered than others, but it wouldn't be because they studied econ.  They were already that way by nature.  Of course, that doesn't speak well of those who study econ in general, but it does mean that it's not the study of econ per se that's causing the problem.  Also, I have to put in a word of defense for the many MBAs that I know.  While most of them are extra competitive, I would also argue that nearly all of them feel that the best way to help the world is by building strong and vibrant companies that produce good jobs and great products.  They want to do well themselves and do well for the world.  I don't disagree with that notion.
• Second, magnitudes matter.  All of those facts say that economists are greedier than others, but how much greedier are they?  Are we talking huge amounts here?  In most cases, no.  For example, in the study that showed that economics professors donate less to charity than other professors, it turns out that econ professors actually donate more than other professors on an absolute basis.  The authors of the study scale donations by income, and since econ professor earn more than most other academics, this hurts their donation numbers.  But, even scaled by income econ professors donate 91% of what other professors donate.  That's still less, but it's not like they are donating zero.
• Third, some of those studies are sort of specially designed to trip up people who have studied economics, particularly someone who's studied game theory.  One of the most famous games studied in game theory is called the "ultimatum game." In this game, two players are given a small sum of money.  Player 1 gets to propose a way to split the money between the two players.  He can choose anything: 50/50, 80/20, 100/0, etc.  Player 2 can then either accept the proposal and both players keep the money, or he can reject it, in which case neither player gets anything.  This is precisely one of the games in which it is found that economists tend to keep more money for themselves while offering less to the other person.  "How rude!" you think.  But if you've studied game theory at all, when you're put in this situation you recognize right off the bat that if both players are acting in their own self interest then Player 2 should accept any proposal that gives him anything.  Why?  Because if he rejects the proposal, he gets nothing!  Knowing this, Player 1 should rationally choose to offer Player 2 $0.01, and keep the rest for himself, knowing that Player 2 will accept any offer over $0.  So, if you're an economist who has thought through this problem and you're put in this situation, it's natural to gravitate towards offering less, and indeed they do--13% less according to the study.  But that's very different from asking whether economists would do the same thing in a real-world situation.  This is a carefully controlled game that economists are very familiar with, where their brains will switch to "game theory" mode and will lead them directly to a greedier answer.  It doesn't necessarily follow that economists will be that much greedier in real life. 

3. So, why might studying economics breed greed?
Although I've argued that studying econ shouldn't make you more greedy, and that the studies showing that economists are greedy are somewhat flawed, it's still my opinion that studying economics probably does indeed make people somewhat greedier.  And that's a shame, because it doesn't need to be that way.

Here's the problem: in an introductory econ course, pretty much all that students are able to learn is that when everyone is self-interested markets magically set optimal prices and allocate capital in an optimal way.  There's no time in an introductory course to go through all of the potential problems that make that not work out in real life, and it's easy to get mixed up and think that therefore everyone should act purely in their own self-interest.  Well-taught introductory econ would very carefully and very forcefully make clear that market imperfections and issues of fairness make it so that greed isn't necessarily good.  Unfortunately, introductory econ often isn't well-taught, leading to confusion on that point.

In addition, I think there can be a culture among economists that promotes the idea that if you don't act in your own self interest you are being irrational, and therefore you're an idiot.  I don't run into that very often, and almost never among academic economists, but it's out there.  I'm all for thinking rationally, but that's not the same as being self interested.

There's also a more benign reason why studying econ might make someone less charitable: skepticism of how effective charities are.  When you read papers that show that giving someone $150,000 does not help them avoid bankruptcy in the long run, you start to wonder if charity can really make much difference.  That skepticism might very well lead economists to donate less to charity.

The flip side of that, though, is that many, many economists are dedicating their lives to discovering how to help individuals, villages, cities, and countries rise out of poverty.  We really want to know how to help the poor and the disadvantaged!  In fact, at their core essentially all academic papers in econ are focused on improving economic conditions.  In that respect, you could argue that econ is one of the least greedy professions out there.  We just haven't found the magic bullet to solve inequality and poverty.  Yet...  :)

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.  Or, you can answer this related question, which came from a great conversation with Shug and Paul: Does education make you more liberal, more conservative, or more moderate?

Ben's Instagram Jul. - Sep. 2013

Ever wondered what Ellis would look like fat? Here's your chance. Henry's a little concerned for his brother's well-being. #wearingallofhisjammies

Good morning, Boston. Did you miss me? Took me nearly two weeks to make it back here... #viewfrommyhotel #econconference

Successful fishing trip with my dad. #flyfishing #whitefish #youshouldseetheonethatgotaway

This is Ellis, passed out in the back seat, wearing Mardi Gras beads. Draw your own conclusions. #latergram

One of the biggest surprises of this trip has been how comfortable Sam is with the characters at theme parks. In this picture, I'm pretty sure Lego Darth Vader is the one who's uncomfortable, based on where Sam is standing. #betweenthelegs

On day 3 of the family reunion, Henry and Ellis have succumbed to the influence of their heathen cousins.#wrestlingmatch #noshirtsallowed

For a kid who grew up idolizing Maverick and Goose, the tour of the USS Midway in San Diego is totally rad.#childofthe80s #topgun #latergram

Did you know that aircraft carriers have giant steering wheels just like old pirate ships? Here's Henry trying his hand at the helm. #latergram

When someone asks you how many monitors you need, I believe that the correct answer is "more."

We have a new bike rider! So glad to not live on a giant hill so Henry could finally learn! In less than 30 minutes he was completely on his own.

And on the sixth week, Jenn said, "let there be light." And behold, Ben did remove the the ceiling fan, which was full of darkness, and did install a chandelier, and behold, there was light. And there was much rejoicing.#handyman #workedonthefirsttry

Finally hanging pictures! #bostonshrine#missingnewengland

In Tokyo! If the picture looks blurry, that's how it looks after you've been on a plane for 13 hours. #thankgoodnessicanreadthenumbers #econconference

This friendly limousine bus dropped me off right at my hotel. #theydriveontheleft #everythingisfriendly

Gift! #japaneseusingenglish

In the fancy schmancy part of Tokyo. #ginzadistrict

Had sushi at one of the most famous sushi restaurants in Tokyo. It was the real deal: remove your shoes, sit on the floor, only chopsticks allowed, 15,000 yen per person. Turns out, I still don't like sushi. #wastedonme #stillgladididit

Japan: world's leading producer of things that make you go, "huh?"

With only enough time to do one touristy thing before going to the airport, I settled on the Meiji Shrine, a forested area of Tokyo dedicated to a previous emperor of Japan. I think it was a good choice. Super cool place to visit.

Work gloves have sure come a long way since I was a teenager working in my parents' garden. I used to feel like Mickey Mouse with them on, now I feel like Ethan Hunt. #missionimpossible #handyman

If there's any place more soul-sucking than the DMV, I've never been there.

If you're ever in Tucson, the Titan Missile Silo is definitely worth the time. #latergram #bigmissile #coldwar

Adios, Tucson! Thanks @captlogan & @autumniverson for a great weekend!

The Iversons are now a 2-car family. #altima #somedayillgetanaudi #beatstheminivan

Somehow the boys didn't have a hard time coming up with answers to our dinnertime question tonight.