Oct 12 2009
On Thanksgiving, Columbus and Economics
Canadians, I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. I wouldn’t mind spacing Thanksgiving and Christmas more than a month apart. Seems that Christmas has already started anyway, at least the minds of marketers hoping for a better retail season than the previous one.
Americans, I hope you liked your Columbus Day. I like the day as a reference point in North American history. I must say “North American” because Christopher Columbus actually discovered part of the Caribbean. He never reached what is now the mainland of the United States.
Part of the Columbus legacy is good because he helped lead the exploration of the New World. Part of his legacy is awful because a lot of Native Americans died through that exploration. No one figure better symbolizes the end of seeing literally half a planet and the start of imagining the entire earth. So I like to remember Columbus.
California state employees, I know you didn’t have as great a time as you wanted. Blame the state budget crisis for being told you couldn’t have the day off as a paid holiday.
A big committee vote on health care is expected Tuesday. We’ll see what happens. Governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia are tightening. There will be a host of state and local elections next month.
Finally, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson shared the Nobel Prize for Economics, which was announced Monday. Ostrom, an Indiana University professor who is the first woman to win the Economics Prize, was recognized “for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons.” Williamson, a professor at the University of California Berkeley, was lauded “for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm.”
