Tips for Interns

Interning is a big deal here on Chinese university campuses, will most seniors spending a sizable portion of their final year in university working instead of taking classes, at least at the universities I'm most familiar with.

These tips for law student interns, in my view, are worthy of consideration by students interning for all kinds of organizations.

If You Say Something Often Enough, That Does Not Make It True

Enough already with the "Chinese term for crisis comprises of two words: danger and opportunity."
I recommend the New York Times to my students but stuff like this makes me wonder, "Where have the editors gone?" All those layers of fact-checkers...

Saying the "Chinese term for crisis comprises of two words: danger and opportunity" is a like saying "the English term understand is comprised of two words, under and stand, meaning if you understand something, you have something to stand on solidly, but there are still new things to learn above you." Or some other silliness.

The Chinese term for crisis truly is composed of two characters. One is associated with the idea of danger, among other things. The other is associated with the idea of chance or crucial point. Not opportunity per se.

It just so happens that since the idea of "crisis" and "opportunity" both share in the idea of "crucial point," both two-character words share one character. That's it. No deep meaning here.

Wanna play this game with other Chinese characters?

• "The Chinese term for common cold comprises of two words: feel and careless. See the ancient wisdom! You can catch a cold from being careless!"
• "The Chinese term for economy comprises of two words: to manage and to cross a river. See the ancient wisdom! You can't grow an economy without innovation!"
• "The Chinese term for invest comprises of two words: to throw and expenses. See the ancient wisdom! The fees of a good mutual fund manager are justified!"

Worst of all, the author of this article is a professor at MIT. Of international management. Ugh.

Why Oil Prices Fell

Pretend it's a multiple choice question. Oil prices fell yesterday to about $95/barrel. What caused the decline?

a) A slowdown in manufacturing growth in China.
b) Concerns about euro debt.
c) Plans for an interest rate hike in China.
d) Could be all of the above, or none of the above.

My money's on D. Coming up with plausible reasons for a price change, and actually being able to prove the reason for the price change, are two so very different things.

Heading to 10 Billion

I won't be around to see it, but the U.N. says we're headed to a world population of 10 billion by 2100. I suspect they are wrong, and hope that this estimate is not agenda-driven.

There are many indications that growth is slowing in almost all countries of the world, and that as living standards go up, fertility goes down.

It's easier to deliver health than wealth, but once a country has health, wealth seems to follow, and with it, lower fertility. So high rates of growth are just an inevitable phase--the "poor and healthy" phase--between "poor and sick" and "rich and healthy."

Silliest Statement award goes to John Bongaarts: "Can we feed 10 billion people? Probably. But we obviously would be better off with a smaller population."

Really? Obviously?

Last I checked, "we" are much better off than we were 100 years ago, or even 25 years ago, in terms of poverty, health, literacy, and access to education.

How can anyone be so sure that more people are necessarily--obviously--a bad thing for "us?"