Stand-up Comedy Brightens Up a "Dismal Science"

Here is a couple of jokes from the economists:

ROBERT GORDON, Northwestern University: The fastest way for a billionaire to become a millionaire is to invest in airline stocks.

CAROLINE HOXBY, Stanford University: An economist, a sociologist and a psychologist are golfing together. And they are golfing behind a guy who is blind. And the psychologist said, you know, I really am trying to understand what must be going through this man's mind. And the sociologist says, oh, but, you know, think about the interesting social interactions that he's having with other people on the golf course. And the economist says, this is so inefficient. He should be playing at night.

in reference to: Stand-up Economist Finds the Light Side of a 'Dismal Science' | PBS NewsHour | Feb. 4, 2010 | PBS (view on Google Sidewiki)

GMU Economics Student's Journal Becomes Hollywood Movie

In April 2004, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl, USMC, came across the name of 19-year-old Lance Corporal Chance Phelps, a young Marine who had been killed by hostile fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Strobl, a Desert Storm veteran with 17 years of military service, requested that he be assigned for military escort duty to accompany Chance’s remains to his family in Dubois, Wyoming. Strobl, who is now a PhD student in Mason’s economics program, recently had his journal turned into a movie called “Taking Chance.”

in reference to: Economics Student Strobl's Journal Becomes Hollywood Movie (view on Google Sidewiki)

Human Trafficking in Ukraine

The US State Department publishes a Trafficking in Person report annually. Ukraine is ranked on the Tier 2 Watch List. Amanda Kloer discusses this situation in details.
To read more, click on the link below.

in reference to: Human Trafficking in Ukraine: The Origin of a Stereotype | End Human Trafficking | Change.org (view on Google Sidewiki)

Fact of the Day

It's a very interesting fact that almost 80 percent of Ukraine's mass media is owned by only four entrepreneurs (oligarchs, tycoons): Dr. Pinchuk, Mr. Akhmetov, Mr. Taratuta, and Mr. Kolomyisky.

FOX Covers Ukrainian Holodomor

The Glenn Beck Program covers Ukrainian Holodomor in its The Revolutionary Holocaust series.

in reference to: YouTube - Part 3| Glenn Beck Documentary: "The Revolutionary Holocaust: Live Free...Or Die" - 01/22/10 (view on Google Sidewiki)

Stealing Popcorn

Today HQ of Mr. Viktor Yanukovich's presidential campaign showed Stealing Popcorn that was originally presented in LA more than a month ago. I've not seen it yet. But it seems that the movie represents a mix of documentary and fiction. It's about corruption in Ukraine, the Lazarenko case, and Mrs. Yulia Tymoshenko who is allegedly associated with Mr. Lazarenko's embezzlement. Btw, Stealing Popcorn features a well-known Columbia University's Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy Tymothy Frye, Ukrainian-born Emeritus Professor of Economics at University of California - Berkeley, John Letiche, and UCLA's Associate Professor of Political Science Richard Anderson.

Mr. Pavel Lazarenko was Ukraine's PM between 1996 and 1997. He was accused of fraud and embezzlement of $200 million. He escaped Ukrainian justice by flying to USA where he was arrested and convicted by the American justice system. Mr Lazarenko was sentenced to nine years in federal prison. In 2004 Mr. Lazarenko posted $86 million bail to remain under house arrest at an undisclosed location in California. The Transparency International named Mr. Lazarenko the eighth most corrupt political leader in recent history.

Here is a link to a screening of Stealing Popcorn in LA, Jan 21, 2009.

Here is a link to the movie.

Mr. Viktor Yanukovich Won the 2010 Presidential Election

According to all exit-polls, former PM Viktor Yanukovich defeated the incumbent PM Yulia Tymoshenko in the 2^nd round of the 2010 Presidential election.

Here is a link to all exit-polls.

Ukraine's Central Election Committee (CVK) counted 99% of votes. Former PM Viktor Yanukovich received 48.69% of votes and the incumbent PM Yulia Tymoshenko received 45.73% of votes. Though Mr. Yanukovich's lead over Mrs. Tymoshenko dropped from 10% to 3%, Mrs. Tymoshenko still lost the 2010 Presidential election.

Here is a link to a map that shows a distribution of votes across provinces. An ideological difference between Eastern and Western Ukraine seems to persist.

Is the 2010 Presidential Election a Repeat of the 2007 Parliamentary Election?

Dear readers,

How many difference can you find between the results of the 2007 Parliamentary election and the 1st round of the 2010 Presidential election?

From UkraineWatch

From UkraineWatch

The 2010 Presidential Election in Ukraine: It’s a Final Countdown

I really love this 80's rock song. Yeah, it's the final countdown for the 2010 Presidential Election in Ukraine. This Sunday Ukrainian voters will chose their next president. Will it be an odious former PM Viktor Yanukovich who was officially backed by the Kremlin in 2004 and tarnished his political reputation by using his de jure political power to rig the 2004 presidential election? Btw, the law suit against Mr. Yanukovich never made it to the Supreme Courte. Will it be another nevertheless odious incumbent PM Yulia Tymoshenko who drove Ukraine's economy to the brink of collapse by using command-control approach and choking individual economic freedom? Btw, the Kremlin considers Mrs. Tymoshenko the second BFF (after Mr. Yanukovich) since she can take all credits for the recent gas deal between Russia's state-owned Gazprom and Ukraine. According to the newly signed gas contract, among all European countries, Ukraine will pay the highest price for the Russian gas.

From UkraineWatch

Anyways, whoever wins this election should make it in a true democratic process! Nobody wants to repeat the Orange Revolution. Moreover, Ukrainians are not really psyched about the upcoming 2^nd round because very few voters can tell a difference between candidate Y and candidate T. Honestly, what's the difference? Mr. Yanukovich never disguised his pro-Russian political and economic preferences. PM Yulia Tymoshenko's economic policy did not leave much of a choice for Ukrainian business. At the present moment, Ukraine has the largest number of international trade restrictions. Russia does not really care about it because the Kremlin still apathetically negotiates its WTO membership. I am surprised that the WTO has not addressed the Ukrainian situation yet. Well, it's understandable because the Sino-US trade war is much more fun to watch. Plus, the global economic crisis is not over yet. And some countries kind of overreacted with their own trade policies. All this together keeps WTO busy.

Honestly, the previous presidential elections were much more interesting because there was always something at stake (see figures below). The 1991 presidential election was important in terms of state-building. The newly independent state needed a democratic leader such as Mr. Leonid Kravchuk (1991-1994). However, the incumbent president Kravchuk catered more to the nationalist constituency in the Western Ukraine so that the 1994 presidential election allowed the Eastern Ukraine to bring pro-Russian technocrat, Mr. Leonid Kuchma, to the power.

From UkraineWatch

The 1994 presidential election played a seminal role in the emergence of the region-based division among Ukrainian voters. In 1994 it became clear that the Western provinces held a strong preference for nationalist pro-Western politics, while the Eastern and Southern provinces strongly supported technocratic pro-Russian politics. Another interesting observation was that the Central provinces turned out to become the potential swing constituencies.

The 1999 presidential election also spiced up the Ukrainian politics. That year the Ukrainian voters had to make a crucial choice between two antagonistically ideological candidates: a left-wing pro-Russian Mr. Petro Symonenko, a leader of the Communist Party, and a right-wing incumbent president Kuchma (1994-2004) who learned to balance out his foreign policy between both EU and Russia. The leader of the Communist Party failed to capitalize on nostalgic political preferences of the Soviet-generation constituency. By receiving only 37.8% of votes, Mr. Symonenko succeeded in swinging only several Central and couple Southern provinces. In the meanwhile, most of the former Kravchuk constituency located in the Western provinces and the stronghold pro-Kuchma constituency in the Eastern provinces came united against the ghost of the communism. Since then the left-wing politicians witnessed a tremendous drop in their popularity. The communist front-runner Petro Symonenko received only 4.97% and 3.54% of votes in the 2004 and 2010 presidential elections, correspondingly.

Then Ukraine had the Orange Revolution in 2004. The 2004 presidential election will always be a historical landmark of Ukraine's state-building. After all calamities surrounding rigged 2^nd round and its rerun in the late December, a nationalist liberal pro-Western candidate and former PM Viktor Yuschchenko won the election with 51.99% of votes. Once again the same swing Central provinces gave Mr. Yushchenko so needed handicap. The incumbent PM Viktor Yanukovich lost not only election but also his PM position. Furthermore, the authoritarian glitch in the Kuchma administration tarnished former PM's political reputation significantly. While Mr. Yanukovich received 44.25% of votes in 2004, his popularity dropped to 35.3% votes in the 1^st round of the 2010 presidential election. Nonetheless, Mr. Yanukovich received a ten-percent lead over the incumbent PM Tymoshenko. The incumbent president Yushchenko (2005-2010) who became ultra-nationalist closer to the end of his term received only 5.45% of votes. It's actually very interesting fact about the 2010 presidential election that for the first time in the recent political history of Ukraine the incumbent president did not make it to the 2^nd round. On the other hand, the 2^nd round offers Ukrainian voters a cliché choice between two PMs: the former and the incumbent. Once again, what's the difference?

From UkraineWatch

Nonetheless, I am sure that the final results of the 2010 presidential election will give us more fodder for further discussion of Ukraine's political institutional development. The key to a victory in the 2^nd round of this presidential election is a candidate's ability to capitalize on constituencies in the swing Central and Southern provinces. But I guess it's too late to give this piece of advice, ha!

From UkraineWatch

From UkraineWatch

Assorted Links

1. Reuters writes that "Ukraine's Yulia Tymoshenko vowed on Thursday to call people onto the streets in a second "Orange Revolution" even fiercer than that of 2004, if rival Viktor Yanukovich tried to rig Sunday's vote for president". What can I say? First, it's not the first time when the incumbent PM Tymoshenko uses a scare-everyone-to-hell strategy (e.g. the Swine Flu outbreak). Second, how can Mr. Yanukovich rig votes if he does not have the so-called adminresource. In other words, you can't rig votes if you are not in power.
   
2. The Christian Science Monitor's Fred Weir writes that "Ukraine votes Feb. 7 in a runoff between bitter rivals Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych that some say could destabilize the democratic process". Several economists such as Dr. Acemoglu, Dr. Johnson, and Dr. Robinson (AJR) would agree that a status quo change in de jure distribution of political power would cause a status quo change in de facto distribution of political and economic power. So far Ukraine's post-socialist political and economic development shows that de facto institutions cause a change in de jure institutions.
   
3. Finally, here is much more interesting piece of news. The BusinessWeek's Halia Pavliva writes that "Ukraine will seek to borrow $500 million to $1 billion by selling Eurobonds as early as next quarter, Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn said, as Europe's hardest hit economy looks for ways to restructure its debt". That's a great point because Ukraine's current debt is a serious economic problem. But I would respectfully disagree that Ukraine is Europe's hardest hit economy. What about the Baltic trinity? Well, they are at least the consolidated democracies so we can leave them alone for now. What about Russia? It was hit really hard by the global economic crisis. Btw, what is happening to Russia's ginormous stabilization fund?

The 2009 Nobel Prize-winning Economist, Dr. Elinor Ostrom, visits GMU

Yesterday the Mercatus Center at George Mason University hosted an unforgettable evening with Dr. Elinor Ostrom, the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics. More than 300 people came to see her and hear about a new book Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development: The Bloomington School written by George Mason University's Professor Peter Boettke and the Mercatus Center's Senior Research Fellow Paul Aligica. I've already blogged about this book. Once again, I strongly recommend you reading this book. And don't forget to read Governing The Commons. Both books provide invaluable insights in the modern understanding of institutional analysis and economic development. These books have so many ideas that can be easily applied to the transitional experience of post-socialist countries. Btw, here is a video from the event.

And on a final note, I just want to show off a page from my copy of Governing The Commons signed by Dr. Ostrom.

From Drop Box