Finance and Good Society

Finance and good society seems to be an oxymoron - that is why Prof. Robert Shiller (economics professor at Yale http://lectures.princeton.edu/?p=822) had to use it to attract attention while he was giving the public lecture at Princeton.

I don't think I learned anything about the Dodd-Frand Act or Basel III. However, I did learn a few interesting things:

-The term "good society" first appeared in 1800-1830 when the new Americans had to convince the native population of the Western notion of civil society.

-The lake Carnegie right behind where I live is indeed dug out using the funds provided by Andrew Carnegie (Duh). Obviously, I have heard that the lake was artificially created so that the Princeton crew team would have a legitimate practice and competition place, but, not having any American common sense, I would have never associated the name of the Lake with its donor. I mean, I don't know any lake, river, or even famous building in China that are named after the donor - it is just not the norm in my mind.

-The tax exemption clause does not exemption charitable givings to foreign countries - you can't donate to school in Canada or buy vaccines for African countries. This is essentially nationalistic and rather upsetting. Even though we get tired of hearing about the international nature of humanistic values that should go beyond national boarders, the IRS does not encourage that at all. Maybe, in the future, I have to really think about how I want to allocate my money - if I ever have extra money to donate at all.

-The Forbes top 400 riches has only two entertainers; Oprah Winfrey is one of them. At the same time, the 100th wealthiest celebrity made $6.5 million last year.

Other than these rather entertaining facts, by providing a fair amount of personal accounts, Prof. Shiller is truly addressing to the general public, without the bookish sense of the typical academic research. I can't deny that he is a very good and engaging speech maker. And I guess that is about it.