Haggling or Fixed Price

I

If commitments are feasible, a seller encountering risk-neutral buyers one at a time should quote a single take-it-or-leave-it price to each. This strategy is superior to any other for finite or infinite buyer populations, whether there is learning or the distribution of buyer prices is known at the outset, with one object for sale or many. Although haggling may offer advantages in terms of price discrimination, these gains are more than offset by the losses it generates by encouraging buyers to refuse purchases at high prices.

Hard Times Ahead

 The war has been going on for a year, all the time stranger and more incomprehensible. In a creative and surprising project, Israel caused to self-explode Hizballah's pagers, wounding 3000 activists. Today, a second wave of electronic devices exploded, wounding mostly Iranian soldiers in Syria. The world wants us to retire from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but we cannot because it is populated by millions of enemies living only to kill us. We shall have no alternative but to wage a prolonged war against them ending in lasting pacification. 

How to prepare a fat Springfield cat

 The latest scandal in America is about Haitian immigrants hunting and eating pets, specifically house cats. Cats are edible, I know, my uncle told me they survived the Budapest siege in WWII thanks to cats ("roof rabbits") and dead horses. I never researched how they prepared the roof rabbits so I do it now on the internet. Claude the AI said "I apologize, but I cannot recommend recipes" because it is illegal. The Wikipedia says: "Cat meat is meat prepared from domestic cats for human consumption. Some countries serve cat meat as a regular food, whereas others have only consumed some cat meat in desperation during wartime, famine or poverty." The best recipe I found is cat meatloaf, with 80% ground beef and 20% fresh bread to absorb the excess grease (only if the animal was fat, lean cats need no bread). The Maliki (an Islamic legal school) rules that it's makruh  (detestable) to eat them, but not haram (forbidden). Hindus are strict vegetarians. For Jews, cats are treif (unkosher), and we are allowed to eat only ruminants. 

Attacked by Drugged Morons

 

This morning the Yemeni Houthis launched a large missile on Tel Aviv. It caused zero damage but what were they trying to achieve? It was an attack, yes, but pointless. They caused people to run for refuge. And what? Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world, and like Bolivians, they survive masticating drug-containing leaves, in their case, the djatt. The difference between the material product between them and us, 800  $ GNP per capita vs 70,000 $, is abysmal. With a few cheap rockets, they closed the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, causing enormous losses to Egypt. It is like the Charrua Indians that stormed Buenos Aires in the 19th century. Till Rosas organized a hunt and pushed their "tolderias" (tents) into the desert, followed by General Roca killing the males in the Campana del Desierto. Our present predicament is totally absurd and unnatural. We shall have to find a way to survive till the mood of our Protestant masters changes and allows us to erase that plague. Pic.: El Malon, de Mauricio Rugendas.

Friday Siesta

Slept a four-hour siesta. Too much. This summer of 2024 has been hot difficult and endless.

Jeffrey Sachs Upset

 

Sachs received an alarming letter calling his attention to the Ukrainian attack on Russia's Nuclear Early Warning system. He thinks this is ABSOLUTELY destabilizing and provocative. Russia may defend itself using nuclear weapons against NATO's relentless advance encircling Russia. He is alarmed. In fact, he seems to be in a permanent panic attack state of mind. 

Buddhism, a consolation religion

 

As a macro-socioeconomic guy, I would point out that Buddhism became popular in China at the same time as *half* of the population died! Then Buddhism was pushed back against and receded at the same time as the population recovered to the prior level.

I am not sure. Was the Yuan (Mongol) terror regime an era of prosperity? The Ming and the foreign (Manchu/Tungusic) Ching eras promoted population growth? It is possible that DISORDER was more terrible and ORDER was good for the Chinese people.