Hong Kong

I fly from Singapore to Hong Kong on Sunday morning.  I will spend my time at HKUST.    Two of my UCLA colleagues (Rui Wang and Cameron Campbell) are visiting professors there and I'm eager to hear about their new life.  I will miss NUS.   This place is hiring huge numbers of young faculty and there is a sense of excitement and momentum that I don't experience in West LA.  The Dean of the NUS Business School has a clear vision for how to build an excellent institution.  Such leadership is rare.   I have greatly enjoyed talking to the NUS faculty and being exposed to a variety of new ideas about the economies of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China.  I keep an active file on my computer called "research agenda" and I find that I've been writing pages of new ideas after listening to people here.  After spending several weeks, I'm no longer burned out.  I will return to UCLA a new man with a sharp focus on educating students about the benefits of free markets.