With the American daily news having transformed itself into an incessant trumpeting of economic Armageddon, it might seem the height of escapism, not to mention irrelevance, to contemplate a vanished Japanese mathematical tradition known as temple geometry.  Escapism it surely is; irrelevant, maybe.

Daniel A. Bell discussed China’s changing political landscape this past October at the United Nations University.   Communism has lost its capacity to inspire the Chinese. But what is replacing it? And what should replace it? Clearly, there is a need for a new moral foundation for political rule in China, as well as a new philosophy that can provide moral guidance in everyday life.  You can watch the interview here.

Daniel’s excellent position as one of the few Western professors at a major Chinese university (Tsinghua University in Beijing) gives us a unique, unbiased look at Chinese society.

We have been very pleased with the international interest Ray Fisman and Ted Miguel’s ECONOMIC GANGSTERS: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations has received–from Hong Kong to the UK to Australia–and now to Shanghai.  The Shanghai Daily ran this review in their pages today. 

Fisman and Miguel’s claim-to-fame was a fascinating study they did in 2006 that measured corruption based on the the traffic tickets diplomats in NYC received.  Chris Shea for the NY Times wrote about it here