Month: May 2005

How Things Fit – Microeconomics and the OODA Loop

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It occurred to me that we tend to see the same economic thinkers

associated with each other. Sometimes it is because of membership in a

particular school of thought (Chicago, Austrian, Neo-Classical), sometimes

due to the political implications of their economics, other times as a

result of direct citation and elaboration of each other’s work. Often the

connection is unclear but the association is strong. In these cases, it

might be that the writers were describing different aspects or phases of

related economic processes. As a practical man of business, I was

interested in seeing what long-dead economist actually owned me, and I was

pretty sure it wasn’t Keynes. It turned out that I am in thrall to more

congenial proprietors, and some of what they say is of immediate interest in

understanding what is going on around me and what I’m doing about it. These

thinkers can be arranged in a sequential format to help describe economic

decision-making.

Col. John R. Boyd (USAF) developed a model of the decision cycle in war.

It is called the Boyd Cycle or the OODA Loop, for Observation,

Orientation, Decision, and Action.

Boyd cycle illustration

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This is News?

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So what’s the most successful plant on the planet? Which species has the greatest biomass?

Trick question. The answer is a few types of sea-growing algae.

Okay, so what’s the most successful land-based plant on Earth? The answer is rice. It’s not only the single species with the greatest biomass, but it also has the greatest growing range. With the rather notable exception of Antarctica, it’s being cultivated right this minute on every continent.

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Mineralogy and Economics

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According to this story, a woman’s weight has an adverse effect on family income. The effect is attributed largely (so to speak) to the marriage market and the ability to attract high-status, high-income mates. There is no corresponding difference in family income based on men’s weight (as originally formulated by Prof. Joe Jackson, “looks don’t count for much”). The study failed to credit Townsend’s Law of Mineralogy, which states that the carat weight of an engagement diamond varies indirectly with body mass index.

Update

The study’s authors get a sypathetic hearing in today’s Boston Globe, where they describe men’s preference for lighter-weight wives as “discrimination” and “objectification.” Leaving aside the voluntary nature of marriage (see Nozick), the authors do not see a corresponding problem with the converse: “discrimination” against men of slender means. It is not clear whether whatever redistribution scheme they would use to overcome this injustice would involve the transfer of money or avoirdupois.

Danish Wartime Photos

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Erik Petersen, a Danish press photographer whose career began around 1939 and who died in 1997, left an archive of hundreds of films he had taken during the war but had never shown to anyone. Now some of these photos are available online and they are well worth a look. Not only do they provide new information and perspective on an important period, many of them are also quite beautiful as images. They are obviously products of someone who had an unusually good eye.

(This online discussion provides some background info. A book of Petersen’s work is also available.)