Barcelona, Spain

I've been in Barcelona for almost a week now and I just got my computer connected. I'm now a student in the MSc. Economics program at Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.

I'm finding the first week very taxing. I couldn't attend math camp or brush-up courses to review the math and statistics necessary to do well in the program, so I'm trying to catch up as best I can and I'm finding it extremely taxing as it's also been a couple years since I graduated from college.

Looks like I won't be locked out next year

I have blamed being locked out of grad school for my thoughtless climbing accident last winter. It led to being in the hospital for four months and probably the most boring time of my life this year. However, this year to ensure I wouldn't be locked out I applied to more than a half dozen terminal master's programs in economics, albeit also largely out of a desire to use one of these programs as a proctor to see if I'm fit to move onto a doctoral program. Strangely enough, as I was on the web checking to see if civil war erupted in North Korea over Kim Jong Il's much anticipated death, I received the strangest offer from Barcelona Graduate School Of Economics at Universidad Pompeu Fabra. While this is a terminal master's program not too different from LSE's MSc. Economics(Research) program in that it is possible to move onto the doctoral program at Universidad Pompeu Fabra after completing the MSc. with distinction, I was surprised by being offered both a partial fee waiver and a TA-ship. As I'm on blogger still trying to see if I can gather anything from Kim Jong Il's death, my mind keeps giving way to thoughts about when a decision from LSE will come. No, I don't think I'll be going to Barcelona without an unfavorable decision from LSE, but I sure do prefer Barcelona over another climbing accident. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Korea needs soccer to beat out Japan ?

Japan must again be absolutely furious at Korea again being closer to the center of the world that just happens to not just be the center of Asia.It must be Japan's fate that a powerful farm lobby was the one that pushed the KORUS(Korea United States Free Trade Treaty) forward and from the view of misguided nationalists of Korea (Democratic Party of Korea) one that was not powerful enough in South Korea to prevent the ratification of American Beef to South Korea or Japanese capital and American machinery sales into and to South Korea(KORUS) rather than the opposite way around as has come to characterize the Korea-United States relationship in or, equivalently, small car expertise for China, has come to symbolize.

The Telegraph:

Some officials have had had McDonald's hamburgers delivered to their homes from China through North Korea's Air Koryo. While North Korea has no McDonald's franchises, its neighbour has 850.

Perhaps South Korean speakers in 2012 could blast that there are more than 240 McDonald's "restaurants" in South Korea to show which country  is really the "rich and prosperous nation"

Unable to Post

I went climbing and fell pretty bad to the point it required surgery and a long stay in the hospital. I will not be able to blog again until after the follow up surgery some time in Apri.May.

One of the reasons as to why I have viewed the Sunshine Policy to be so ideologically bankrupt

The widening income gap between South and North Korea continues. One of the prime reasons as to why I viewed the Sunshine Policy to be ideologically bankrupt was the widening income gap between North and South Korea even as proponents of the Sunshine Policy stated the policy would prepare the two states for unification by closing the income gap.

Note that the statistics for the size of South Korea's economy as reported in the article/blog posting are in nominal terms as procured by exchange rates. Considering South Korea to have been the second worst performing currency in the globe in 2008 after the disaster that Iceland faced, the wealth gap has grown to actually be much greater between South and North Korea.The article reports South Korea's GDP to have been 837 billion dollaars in 2009, whereas in nominal rates
CIA World Factbook:

GDP (official exchange rate):
$832.5 billion (2009 est.)

Arirang News via North Korean Economy Watch:

DPRK-ROK income gap reaches record in 2009

The income disparity between South and North Korea has widened by close to 40 times.

According to figures released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday South Korea’s Gross National Income reached 837 billion US dollars in 2009 about 37 times more than North Korea’s 22 billion dollars.

South Korea’s GNI per person posted 17,175 US dollars roughly 18 times more than North Korea’s 960 dollars while in annual trade the South saw 686 billion dollars in 2009 which is 202 times larger than the North’s 3 billion dollars.

As for economic growth that year the South saw a [0.2%] expansion in the wake of the global financial crisis whereas the North posted a contraction of 0.9.

Economists say such figures show that it is almost impossible for North Korea to catch up with South Korea anytime soon.

An official with the finance ministry in Seoul says South Korea’s overall economic strength is about 40 times that of the communist regime adding that such power provides the foundation for South Korea to stay ahead of North Korea in every field including defense.

Read the full story here:

Income Gap Between South and North Korea Records 37 Times Differences in 2009

After 2009 and 2010, It's high time the United States began exporting F-22's to Japan...

In light of the United States Air Force ending procurement of additional F-22's and with the Chinese still manipulating its currency amidst years of trade surpluses with both the United States and Japan, it's high time the United States began exporting the high tech F-22s to the super loyal Japanese. The Chinese have sped up plans to procure an aircraft carrier and are deep in their development of a counterpart to the U.S.A.F.'s F-22.

Global Security:

Chinese Stealth Fighter

J-X / J-XX / XXJ

J-12 / J-13 / J-14 / J-20

(Jianjiji - Fighter aircraft)

On 29 December 2010, the right estimable China Defense Blog published the first no-kidding photographs of the long rumored J-XX Chinese stealth fighter. Unambiguous confirmation of the existence of this program will require re-evaluation of aircraft modernization efforts in a number of countried, including Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Chinese combat aviation has made remarkable strides in recent years, moving from a collection of obsolete aircraft that would have provided a target-rich environment to potential adversaries. Today China flies hundreds of first rate aircraft, and even flies more Sukhoi Flankers [the aircraft the American F-22 was designed to counter] than does Russia. The Chinese stealth fighter has arrived right on schedule. Chinese military technology is generally rated about two decades behind that of the United States. while the advent of a Chinese counterpart to the F-22 fighter might be disconcerting, the first flight of the prototype American F-22 stealth fighter came on September 29, 1990.

 

January 1st, 2011 brings a new year after China has condoned North Korean acts of aggression against South Korea, bullied Japan over the Senkaku Islands, and driven the United States to defend Vietnamese interests over the Spratly Islands.

To ensure both the security of the United States and our East Asian ally, Japan and keep highly skilled Americans employed as unemployment and underemployment rates remain sky high, F-22s should be made for our super loyal Japanese allies by our countrymen.