Tuesday, October 7, 2003 Crushing the Would-Be Governator Long-Distance Okay, a bit of hyperbole, but it looks like I may be voting in the ridiculuous circus that is the California gubernatorial recall election, despite the fact that I'm typing this in Tokyo. MXG mentioned to me--and I confirmed at the US Embassy Tokyo website--that the California Secretary of State has ruled that given the short timeframe for the election, faxed ballots would be accepted. So I checked at the Federal Voting Assistance Program website, downloaded a PDF of the Federal Post Card Application for an absentee ballot to be sent to me. Normally it's mailed, but in this case I faxed it to the FVAP via a toll-free number (toll-free numbers available in 59 countries!) to be forwarded to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, and if I'm still on the voter rolls and the Registrar is willing, they should be faxing me in Tokyo a ballot that I can fax back. I have to sign a waiver of secrecy (obviously, it's not a secret ballot anymore) and get it back to them by twelve noon tomorrow Tokyo time, but if the ballot is in the fax machine tomorrow morning, I WILL do it. I'm crossing my fingers. 11:58:29 PM    Comment on this post! [] Macroeconomic reading; or, I'm going cross-eyed Still rereading Paul Krugman's The Accidental Theorist, and I think I'm getting a better handle on macroeconomics. Of course, some of what he says doesn't apply any more: Krugman's advice in the book for solving Japan's economic woes by increasing the money supply and therefore stimulating demand (in other words, printing money) has changed in his more recent writing, because thanks to the Japan's near-zero interest rates, it's in a so-called liquidity trap. Of course, I'm still at the point in my economic education where I can barely keep straight to most basic concepts, never mind the more subtle and sophisticated theories. Back to the books. 11:39:35 PM    Comment on this post! []