Sam and Pan Ke . Com

Hi there! It's been a while since I posted here. Since Pan Ke and I got engaged in January, I've been busy! Anyway, we now have a new website for our upcoming wedding.


We've added wedding details, photos, info about us, etc. Be sure to sign our guestbook too! (By the way, the website was created by me. It was a lot of work!) So go visit www.SamAndPanKe.com today.

Filibuster Nostalgia?

Think the Republicans don't like the filibuster now? Remember last year when Majority Leader Frist and other Republicans supported the idea of the "nucler option" but they were foiled by that McCain guy? Now that Republicans are in the minority, McCain looks like a genius to Republicans. The Democrats have only 51 seats, and will need 9 Republican senators to join them in cutting off debate to block a filibuster -- and that is only if no Democrats defect to supporting the filibuster. The Gang of 14 is now the Gang of 12, since Republican senators Mike Dewine and Lincoln Chaffee were defeated Tuesday. Of course, with the new situation, I'm sure the Republicans will easily find 2 more members to join the group if need be!

In other news, Dennis Hastert will no longer be among House leaders...

Visit my Math for Economists class!

Here is a short video from tonight's Math for Economists class. Here the professor is working an example of an optimization problem with multi-variables and multiple constraints using Lagrange Multipliers. Most of the class is usually theoretical and derivations of theorems, with a few numerical examples. This is one of those cases.



Last week, I mentioned my professor's statement that many mathematicians believe in God or some higher power. Well, tonight as he scrolled up the chalkboard, we found writing from the prior class. This time several Old Testament books of the Bible were recorded: I Kings, Judges, etc. He then told us about a law in Tennessee where they have legislated that pi be equal to 3 (and not 3.14159..) because the Bible states in I Kings that it should be 3. Actually, I Kings 7:23 says the following: "Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference." So based on this verse it seems the circumference divided by the diameter is 30 / 10 = 3. The professor also referred to a law in Indiana where there was a law setting pi to be 22/7 based on their belief in the Bible. Out of curiosity, I did some searching on the web. This is what I found about the law:

It appears the Tennessee pi law is an urban legend which began as an April Fool's joke in 1998. As for the Indiana law he mentioned, a Pi Bill was proposed in 1897 but never passed. However, it does not appear to be religiously based at all. I couldn't find any evidence of it, anyway. It seems the law proposed either using 3.2 or 4 for pi, not 22/7.

One website I found defended the Bible in I Kings. It says that because pi is 3.14159 that since the circumference was really 30 cubits then the diameter mentioned in I Kings should have been 30/3.14159 = 9.54, not 10. That website claims that the circle's circumference was measured on the inside of the circle but its diameter was measured from the outside of the circle. It says that if the circle had a width of 0.23, the inner diameter would have been 9.54 but the outer diameter would have included the width on both sides, adding 0.46. This would result in an accurate measuremment in the outer diamenter of 10. "Evidence" for this is found in I Kings 7:26 - "It was a handbreadth thick." I'm not sure I buy this explanation though. My guess is that during that time measurements were not so exact plus they probably weren't trying for an exact figure but one that is rounded. Anyway, "pi laws", as far as I know, have never been passed in America. Stories stating so are just urban legends.

Donald is gone...

Why did Donald Rumsfeld wait until now to resign? Why not do so 6 months ago? Perhaps he and Bush want it to appear as if they are in control and his leaving was not due to criticism from Republicans and Democrats. But had he left earlier, it might have saved several seats in Congress.

Well, the voters have spoken in yesterday's midterm election. It looks like the Democrats will control the house by a 232-203 margin and will control the Senate by a 51-49 margin. There were some surprising upsets as well as some races where an upset appeared likely and the incumbent held on.

I calculated these numbers assuming that the candidate currently with the most votes will win. CNN still has not called 11 races yet. I think 7 of those are callable, but I will admit that these 4 are still very close....
Connecticut 2 - Courtney (D) leads incumbent Simmons (R) by about 170 votes.
North Carolina 8 - Hayes (R) leads his opponent by about 450 votes.
Wyoming 1 - Cubin (R) leads her opponent by about 900 votes.
Pennsylvania 8 - Murphy (D) leads incumbent Fitzpatrick (R) by about 1,500 votes.

At this time, it looks like the GOP will win OH-2 Schmidt (+2,300), WA-8 Reichert (+2,700), PA-6 Gerlach (+3,000), OH-15 Pryce (+11,300), and TX-23 where Congressman Bonilla faces a December runoff. He received 48% yesterday. I think Democrats will win GA-12 Barrow (+3,300) and the winner of LA-2's runoff in December. Scandal-plagued William Jefferson received the most votes yesterday, but it will be interesting to see if he can survive the runoff.

Other interesting news....in Michigan, voters approved restrictions on affirmative action, basically reversing the Supreme Court's 2003 ruling. And in Arizona...voters rejected a ban on gay marriage (the first state to do so), while making English the official language in its state. The funniest of all ballot initiatives? Arizona proposed giving a random voter $1 million for voting in future elections. That failed.


I hope to comment more later when I have time.

Visit my Applied Stats class!

While Democrats were anxiously watching returns and celebrating Northup's defeat and shocked at Shays' win tonight, I was in class at NYU. Interested in econometrics? Here is a short video of my class tonight. Here the professor is talking about a one-tailed test in hypothesis testing. If you want to learn more you can visit this UCLA website.

Chinese Monetary Policy

On Friday, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the equivalent of the Fed in the US, raised the bank deposit reserve ratio from 9 to 9.5%, increasing reserves at banks. This is the 3rd time this year China's central bank has performed this kind of monetary policy, and it will, in effect, decrease the amount of excess liquidity. Interest rates have also been hiked twice since April.

Game Theory Midterm Exam

Tonight I had a game theory midterm exam. Here are the first two questions (which were also the two easiest)...

1. "Competitive Bidding" Suppose two identical consulting firms (McKinsey & Boston Consulting Group) compete for the same client (Coca-Cola, Inc.) for which they propose to provide advisory services related to a possible merger. Each firm has an equal and constant marginal cost to provide the consulting services, c. Firms make competitive bids, simultaneously, to the client indicating the price at which they will provide the consulting work, b. The client will choose the lowest bid. If firms offer the same bid, assume they both expect to win the client with equal probability of 1/2 each. (a) Depict a strategic form game for this scenario. (b) Draw the best responses for both firms on one graph. (c) Identify all Nash equilibrium outcomes. (d) Now assume that firm one is more efficient than firm two so that if it wins the client, it will receive c1 < t="0,1,2,....">5, and
Q=q1+q2.
C1=1 and c2 = 3.

(a) Depict this industry in Extensive Form as a dynamic game. (b) Find a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium for this game. (c) In your equilibrium, which firm will exit the industry (produce no product) first? What is the logic behind this result?

Now suppose the firms face the same declining demand and have the same marginal cost c1 = c2 = 1, but each can only either produce a fixed quantity (firm 1's q=2, firm 2's q=1).

(d) Find a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium for this game. (e) In your equilibrium, which firm will exit the industry first? How does the result compare to that in (c) above?

Math & Religion

Tonight I had my Math for Economists course. It begins at 6:20pm each Wednesday evening. A sociology class meets in the classroom before we meet. Tonight, after the professor had filled up one board with mathematical formulas, the professor pulled down the sliding chalkboard to use the one underneath it. That board mentioned Jehovah, God, Elohim, priests, etc. Our professor said (paraphrased) "well maybe this does have something to do with economics.....actually, you know, a lot of mathematicians love math because it is so pure, so exact, and it is so beautiful....many mathematicians do believe in a higher power or God simply because math exists and it is so perfect." This quote was paraphrased but was very close to what he said. Despite being at a liberal northeastern university, I guess there are still teachers who break from the liberal mindset. I do not know for sure how my professor feels about religion, but I can tell that he is more conservative. From his discussions about economics, I do think he is more a follower of the Chicago school of thought rather than holding a purely Keynesian view. As far as what he said about God, I couldn't agree more. Mathematics is a truly amazing discipline, and I agree that it in itself proves the existence and reveals the glory of God.

All Saints Day

Hope you have a happy All Saints Day! (November 1).

Trick or Treat? Deluge!

Today is Halloween. I came home from class tonight to find neither a trick nor a treat. I found water pouring out of the ceiling in the hallway.



That's not good, because I live in the basement! Fortunately, my apartment was not that wet -- only the first foot inside the apartment by the door and the kitchen area. My napkins, paper plates, oatmeal, and towels were drenched in water. I called the landlord's maintenance guy and he came over right away. After searching for about 15 minutes and making several phone calls, he was able to get the water cut off. We also discovered the problem -- an upstairs toilet inside the Phobia Life Line had a leak:



My apartment does not really have any damage, but it is inconvenient to have the floor wet but no water in the pipes!