Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
Dan from Madison In the comments to this post, commenter JP left a link for an article Mr. Lewis wrote in October of 2005. I think this article needs a little more publicity than to be buried in a comment thread. The link JP left was for Times Select, but you can find the article for free here.
The essay is truly outstanding if you are interested in Katrina and the aftermath. I recommend you print it out, take a few minutes out of your day and read it.
Thanks to JP for leaving the original link.
I run a relatively simple business. I am a middle man, in wholesale distribution of heating, ventilation and air conditioning parts and equipment. We sell exclusively to tradesmen and facilities. It is a very competitive business (aren’t they all?) but I do pretty well all things considered. My vendors expect certain things out of me (market share, paying my bills on time) and I expect certain things out of them (good delivery, good pricing, leads, etc.). It really is a two way street. They need distribution, and I need their goods to mark up and make money on.
The tragedy in Minneapolis of a few days ago underlines something I have written about before and will no doubt have to write about again. I never really thought about it much until Katrina hit and I saw the images that all of you saw. Those were images of people standing in what seemed like endless lines for food and water or to be evacuated.
First and foremost I would like to thank Jonthan for inviting me to become a part of Chicago Boyz. I have admired this blog for a long time and am looking forward to being a contributor. I have written for a while over at my “home base”, Life In The Great Midwest. We have three contributors over there and write on a variety of topics. I will keep most of my “cat blogging” over there and try to post some of the more serious issues that I write about here.
One of the topics we spend a lot of time on at LITGM is energy. My co-contributor Carl is what I would consider an expert in the field, having spent many years in various roles that have had to do with energy. My post here about the current situation in Wisconsin is in response to his recent post about the woes of Illinois.
