Winter wonderland

So the weather changed here, and it's now bitterly cold, with the daytime temperature today in Glasgow below zero degrees. I was struck by the beauty of the freeze while walking through the Botanic Gardens this afternoon. The light is so clear without clouds, and brings with it a sharpened edge. Unlike the wet winter days, people are wrapping up in many layers, and taking to the outside to enjoy strolling in the short daytime. The dark winter is far more bearable with clement days. I remember as a child strongly hating the winter due to the weather and darkness, so I'm not sure my new-found appreciation would endure if I was living in Glasgow full-time again, or was back at work and incarcerated for the hours of light.

The Bleak Midwinter

Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, all the more shorter in this part of the world (I'm back in Glasgow) with "night" beginning at 4pm this afternoon. It's wet and windy, although not too cold. My dad and I were debating whether wet and mild or dry and cold is better winter weather, and we resolved that equal measures of each are as good as it gets.

The Scottish enthusiasm for celebrating the New Year is no surprise, with the depression brought on by the long dark days. The ill health in (the west of) Scotland has recently been associated with a lack of daylight in the winter. While I don't dispute that, the climate in general is not conducive to good health. The inclement weather is not encouraging of outside exercise nor healthy eating. Glasgow has become the closest Scotland gets to a sprawl, with outlying suburbs and poor public transport, so people are inclined to use cars. The hills of the city make cycling only for the most athletic. It's no wonder we turn to deep-fried Mars Bars.

I read the Sunday Times today for the first time in a while, and it was dire. Plenty of articles about the recession involving rich people unable to afford maids anymore, Euro-Pound parity forcing rich Brits out of rural France and a patronising piece in the Style section about neo-feminism. I think I was more offended by the anti-intellectualism of the pieces in what holds itself out to be a "serious" newspaper, rather than their actual substantive content. Not worth the paper it's printed on.

Didn't expect this of Posner

On the Columbia Law School website I came across this article about a recent lecture there by Richard Posner.

Posner is one of the most famous proponents of the law and economics/economic analysis of law theory associated with the University of Chicago, and for the duration of his career has advocated free market-based approaches to making law.

According to the article, Posner blames the free market system for the current economic crisis, admitting that it is indeed a "painful acknowledgement" for him, and I will admit that it is something of a surprise for the rest of us, given he has spent his career propounding as little regulation as possible, and (perhaps somewhat facetiously) markets in goods such as human babies.

Nevertheless, his critiques about rational actors could well be accommodated in a welfare economics based theory like that of Louis Kaplow which could still support competitive markets, albeit with more regulation than Posner may have supported up until now. I don't think that the disproval of rationality as a benefit to the system necessarily leads to the thesis that capitalism as a whole has failed.