Midterms - Infrastructure in China and Stuff
Well, working on grading some midterms, giving some midterms and lecturing so I'm a little sporadic at blogging at the moment!
I also had hoped to transfer drewparkes.com to Go Daddy and then use that as an Economic/Finance blog but Network Solutions, the registrar, is preventing me from doing ANYTHING!!! Never use Network Solutions!!!
They are an interesting case study in Monopolies. Network Solutions was the first and only registrar for Domain Names in the beginning. If one wanted a Domain Name one had to register through the company! Now there are zillions (a lot)!! So competition is fierce. However, Network Solutions customer service was so bad, many switched immediately (or set up a company because of the problems). Network Solutions service still is not the best, by any means, and *I* have a problem with them but they won't let me change. So I may just have to let my subscription expire, but we will see. Anyway, Monopolies which do not provide what customers want, usually are supplanted, replaced, or competition arises to provide what the customers DO want. Monopolies do not usually exist forever, especially in the digital realm!
On another topic, I found the following article in the Shanghai Daily (linked) that I though portrayed the infrastructure system in China extremely well:
I also had hoped to transfer drewparkes.com to Go Daddy and then use that as an Economic/Finance blog but Network Solutions, the registrar, is preventing me from doing ANYTHING!!! Never use Network Solutions!!!
They are an interesting case study in Monopolies. Network Solutions was the first and only registrar for Domain Names in the beginning. If one wanted a Domain Name one had to register through the company! Now there are zillions (a lot)!! So competition is fierce. However, Network Solutions customer service was so bad, many switched immediately (or set up a company because of the problems). Network Solutions service still is not the best, by any means, and *I* have a problem with them but they won't let me change. So I may just have to let my subscription expire, but we will see. Anyway, Monopolies which do not provide what customers want, usually are supplanted, replaced, or competition arises to provide what the customers DO want. Monopolies do not usually exist forever, especially in the digital realm!
On another topic, I found the following article in the Shanghai Daily (linked) that I though portrayed the infrastructure system in China extremely well:
Coal trucks bring highway to a standstill
MORE than 2,000 vehicles, mostly heavy trucks carrying coal, have been stuck in the latest traffic jam to hit a highway in north China.
They've been at a standstill since Monday in a tailback stretching more than 50 kilometers on the 60km Shenpan Highway, which links Xingxian County in Shanxi Province and coal-rich Shenmu County in Shaanxi Province.
By yesterday afternoon, the situation had only eased a little and dozens of traffic police officers were dispatched to keep order.
"I have been stuck here for more than three hours. There are too many vehicles," said a truck driver Wu Yongqing from Linxian County in Shanxi yesterday.
Since September, traffic tailbacks involving thousands of coal-carrying vehicles have been a common sight.
"It usually takes drivers two or three days to struggle along the road," said Mao Yongdong, a traffic police officer in Shenmu.
"Poor road conditions and traffic management as well as a drastic increase in coal trucks this season are mainly to blame," he said.
The highway is only 8 meters wide. It is peak season for coal trading now, and every day about 8,000 trucks are on it, compared to its designed capacity of 1,260. [My emphasis]
"Once a traffic accident happens or a truck breaks down, then there's a massive traffic jam," said Hu Yinbao, of the road transport office in Xingxian County.
Zhang Zhichuan, deputy director of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Transport, said: "We will renovate the highway and improve its condition and capacity to resolve the issue of gridlock."
Too many cars are being sold in China (sales up 78% - article linked here too) and the transportation system cannot keep up. Now don't forget, transportation is a DEMAND driven good, that is demand increases and so more transportation is provided (eventually, if the U.S. is much of an indication, because transportation is a public good and only provided by the government). Remember too that China is still a developing economy (and so is the U.S.A. but the U.S. is developing more slowly, as happens when countries become more advanced economically - see Japan, for the most recent example).
End of examples and lessons - grin!
End of examples and lessons - grin!
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