Funny thing this morning

I have been reading Krugman's book "The Conscience of a Liberal" the last couple of days. And a funny thing did happen this morning.

Disobeying the law of diminishing marginal utility

The Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility (DIMU) will be found in any undergraduate text in economics within the first few pages. The law stems from everyday experiences - the second serving of sesame chicken at a Chinese Buffet is not tasty as the first was (the reason buffets thrive), the first gulab jamun (those into Indian desserts would attest) after a meal is heavenly, each one after brings one back to earth. After a dozen jamuns, I am willing to bet, even a sweet toothed aficionado would rather eat his words. In sum, DIMU means that each additional intake is less good than the one before.

Some of my friends would point a finger at me as a standing (more apposite, binging) exception to the rule, when I am out drinking beer. Downing each pint of New Belgian "1554" seems to make it crispier, spiced deeper, darker and subtler - or so they charge I claim. And they are right. But there is truncation here - there is probably a point after which I cant tell between beer and batter (~ 15 pints) and a threshold when I call it a day (in other words - pass out, > 25).

I am straying again, my point was to accord the aberration accolade to music. Albums, songs, scores... Anyone spending a few hours listening to music would have experienced how Jimi Hendrix playing Voodoo Child sounded sweeter as you replayed it more. Or how Wagner's Tristan und Isolde got sublime as you tab on replay. Bob Dylan's new album Tell Tale signs is available to be heard entirely (both CD's) on NPR. The website says it will be available for listening until the CD release in stores and online. Wisely so, the label manager has is economics right - the assumptions in economics are just that, assumptions.

I am waiting to see how the album fares. Alas, I have to identify the counter factual.