I was in DC over the weekend for an excellent IHS workshop on "Liberty and the Art of Teaching." A couple of quick observations about Julian Simon, iPods, and commerce are below the fold.

The Ultimate Resource in Georgetown: I took a walk through Georgetown on Saturday afternoon and saw a sign at a frame shop reading "the possibilities for creativity are endless." True dat: we discussed the famous Simon-Ehrlich wager in econ 101 last week. Here are Google results for further inquiry. Simon's genius was twofold. First, he offered Ehrlich the opportunity to profit from his apparent higher wisdom. Second, he derived the testable implications of Ehrlich's theory and determined the kinds of evidence we would need to see to know whether Ehrlich was right or wrong (Ehrlich was spectacularly wrong).

iSolitude: I bought an iPod about a year ago, and I think it will ultimately be one of the better purchases I've ever made. First, it offers a chance to tune out background noise (a Godsend in airports). Second, you can carry the cultural, spiritual, and intellectual achievements of the world around in your pocket. Watching Sheila Patek's TED Talk on mantis shrimp made my 2.5 hours in the center seat of the next-to-last row of a packed flight yesterday much more bearable, if not outright enjoyable. Critics have sniffed that the iPod has created a subculture of socially disconnected "pod people." I don't buy the claim that we're somehow culturally impoverished because we can listen to Rachmaninoff on the DC Metro (if you've read the "pod people" link, I also happen to think Nickelback's "Rockstar" is a great song). People are fundamentally social beings, but I think we're better off because we have a greater ability to choose the "who, what, when, where, why and how" of our engagement with the social environment. I'll take my iPod playlist over loud, pre-recorded exhortations to keep up with my carry-on baggage, and the people next to me can have a private conversation with the assurance that I'm probably not listening. We're all better off.

Commerce = Community Service: Saturday was beautiful, but the sun was really bright. And yet there was a group of benevolent souls ready and willing to provide me with a pair of sunglasses for the low price of $9.99 plus tax. God bless them.

Coase on the Family: Finally, I did some reading on the economics of the family in grad school, but to tbe best of my knowledge I never came across an explicitly Coasean transaction-cost based theory of marriage and the family. Comments are open if someone can provide a link.