I return to the U.S today after a one month absence. I have been to 5 major cities in Europe and Singapore over the last 30 days. We started in Budapest where I made several new friends with economists at the Central European University. I had a great time giving a plenary talk as part of the GDN Conference. From Budapest, we took a nice train to Vienna. We toured two of the Emperor's palaces. He lived well.. We took another train to Salzburg, Austria. We enjoyed the old city and made two great day trips to Germany. One took us to a great lake where Hitler used to vacation and the other brought us to a cable car that took us up into a snowy mountain. While I was in shorts, my blubber allowed me to thrive in my colder future. From Austria, we crossed into Munich and lived quite well for 4 days. We ate, and toured and walked. From there, my family went back to LA and I went east flying over Pakistan and Kabul to land in Singapore. While in Singapore, I was happy to see the posting of my Reason TV video. My Reason TV talk appears to be popular (85% of people like it). Thousands of folks are watching it and this gives me some hope that the basic ideas in my book will receive some attention. Greens must be willing to think about the benefits of free markets.
Turning to Singapore. I have had a great 6 days here. I sense that the smart government leaders seek to build a "green city" to compete with Hong Kong. The people are polite and kind. I was amazed by the Marina Bay Sands hotel. It is really classy. There is a great shopping mall next to it and there is a new park to walk around next door. At night, there are fireworks and a laser show. On the 57th floor of the building there is a huge outdoor swimming pool with a view of the entire Singapore CBD. Very cool!
I enjoyed taking taxis on roads featuring congestion pricing. There was very little road congestion. The food was outstanding. It was hot and humid but I adapted by eating less and drinking more water. I walked around for about an hour each day (going to the botanical gardens and the new bay gardens) so I wasn't merely hiding out in air conditioned rooms.
I made many new friends at the National University of Singapore. Bernard Yeung, the Dean of NUS Business School, was kind enough to meet with me and we had a great talk. After I gave a seminar on "Sustainability" for the NUS Business School's Strategy Department, Sea-Jin Chang took me out for a great Thai dinner.
NUS is a major research university which is growing. Such growth offers a very different impression than what I'm used to at the shrinking University of California. I am pro-growth! For a 46 year old, it was exciting and rejuvenating to talk to a large number of junior scholars who are doing interesting things. These folks know my work and several of them are working on related topics with an Asian focus. Folks who know me know that I'm very enthusiastic about active scholars and try to help them. I have made many friends at the NUS Business School, Real Estate Department and Economics Department and am making plans to return here often. NUS has also made a big investment in sustainability research and this of course fascinates me.
The conference that Yongheng Deng and Yuming Fu organized was great fun and strong papers were presented. My co-author Siqi Zheng was there and we got a lot of work done. Last night I attended a great dinner that kicks off the AsRES & AREUA 2012 Real Estate meetings. It was great to meet so many real estate scholars from Asia. Professor Deng is building one of the world's top real estate research institutes.
Now, I sit in the business class lounge by myself and think about what awaits in LA. I'm eager to see my family but there will laundry to wash and referee reports to write and several deadlines loom.
