Why Buying Local, Frontier House, and the Trade Deficit are All Silly

Russ Roberts’ EconTalk is consistently interesting and engaging podcast covering economics as a perspective and a practice.

I spent the first half of this week listening to his hour long conversation with colleague Don Boudreaux on the economics of buying local for the sake of buying local.

Boudreaux and Roberts expand on many of the same points as Roberts’ conversation with Mike Munger on the division of labor and boil it all down to: the division of labor creates wealth. Trade is simply an extended division of labor and a trade deficit with another country is as silly a notion as having a trade deficit with another state, town, or the local grocery store.

RE: MinneBar 07 Schedule Is Out

This is a test of posting through the feedseeder project. Something I’ll be demo-ing @ Minnebar, check the schedule for when.

MinneBar 07 Schedule Is Out – J Wynia

Update:

“…or an information architect saying things like the browser is dead, I’m looking forward to catching up on your version of crazy.” – Aaron Mentele

Aaron – I’ll see you tomorrow, my crazy’s all warmed up.

The Need for Nichér Yellow Pages

Inspired by a pre-MinneBar conversation, I’ve been thinking more about websites and advertising.

Back when I was a kid on family trips – whether to the grandparents or elsewhere – one of the first things I would do at our destination is pull out the Yellow Pages.

After comparing its size against the thin leaflet back home, I’d page through and find the nearest bike, record, or skate shops. In hopes of having one cross our path in our forthcoming travels. Some of the places I found would just have a listing, others purchased a larger presence.

Google is the new Yellow Pages. Has been for a while. That doesn’t mean that it’s the best Yellow Pages – just that it’s good enough for most everything.

This is where a domain-specific directory (aka “vertical search”) comes in. Something so small, so niche, that it completely misses Goo’s radar.

Say, a directory of places that serve Juicy Lucy’s.

Now three questions:

  1. Can use of this directory be tied to more hamburger sales?
  2. How does the directory publisher get compensated to maintain the directory?
  3. What isn’t an ad in this directory?

Bringing Me-dia to Rural America

For a few weeks in the early 80’s the town 30 miles down the road had a broadcast TV station. The only TV broadcaster in the county.

In the 20 years that follow, it’s only been Eau Claire, LaCrosse, or Minneapolis TV. Communities at least another hour away (if not 2) with no incentive to regularly report on far more rural areas aside from the occasional tornado, hunting, or farm accident.

Nothing banal. Nothing important.

So, what happens to the analog TV spectrum when all over-the-air television goes digital in two years?

Microsoft, Google, HP, Intel, and Philips have plans to re-purpose it for delivering high-speed internet.

This means, if you’re out in rural American and can pick up a network affiliate, that’s now an internet connection.

While it does raise the question of how the broadcast towers would be supported with broadcast TV’s ad dollars, it sounds like a much needed Rural Internet-ification program.

The thought of rural America getting reliable high-speed internet excites me. The thought of kids living out on our dirt roads blogging, podcasting, and videoblogging, publishing brings me to tears.