Interesting Tidbit

Russia (population 140,000,000) has roughly the same GDP as the US state of Texas (population 25,000,000). Imagine that, a country that was formerly regarded as the worlds number two power has the same GDP as our second most populous state. It's amazing how quick things can change.

Along those same lines, Shanghai in 1990 and 2010 (you can guess which is which):



And Afghanistan from 2010 and. . . 2010

It's Been a Long Time

So I know I haven't blogged in a while, and I'm not quite sure what that's a function of. School was ridiculously busy towards the end of last semester, and then I wanted some time off in between school and anything academic, and then the days just kept dragging on with no blogging, and more no blogging. It became the kind of thing where every day I would tell myself "I'm going to blog tonight", but it never happened. So now I'm back, and I believe I'll be back with a vengeance, perhaps blogging as much as 2 (two!!!) times a week. On Thursday supposedly there's an alumni panel/meet and greet with the next flock of MBA students, so I'll post a little about that, and we'll see how far down the rankings we'll fall thanks to this new inept batch of students (I kid. . . maybe, we'll see). I don't really have much to say right now, but I'll end it with something I discovered on my favorite economics blog (yeah, I have one of those, I also have a favorite finance blog and a favorite business blog if you're interested) Marginal Revolution, tip-o-the-hat to MR who thanked the blog Apollo for the post:


"The state of Wisconsin has gone an entire deer hunting season without someone getting killed. That’s great. There were over 600,000 hunters. Allow me to restate that number. Over the last two months, the eighth largest army in the world – more men under arms than Iran; more than France and Germany combined – deployed to the woods of a single American state to help keep the deer menace at bay. But that pales in comparison to the 750,000 who are in the woods of Pennsylvania this week. Michigan’s 700,000 hunters have now returned home. Toss in a quarter million hunters in West Virginia, and it is literally the case that the hunters of those four states alone would comprise the largest army in the world."

I know gun control is in the news after the unfortunate events this weekend, but I can't help but think having all these armed people roaming the countryside will keep our neighboring countries (I'm looking at you Canada!!!) at bay in the event of a diplomatic breakdown.

More to come later in the week!!