North Korea has the potential to generate about 7,800 megawatts of power, but fuel shortages have reduced output to less than a third of this. The shortfall in turn has kept more than two-thirds of its industrial facilities idle.

North Korea’s electrical grid still relies on facilities built by Japan during its 1910-1945 colonial rule over the peninsula.

I mention a similar empirical data point in a footnote regarding North Korea’s dependence on Japan… Imperial Japan.

It truly is a bastion of greener pastures.

But that is a story for another day.

Most people are usually trying to sell necklaces, food, photos, movies, cell phones, bus rides — in short, if it can be sold, someone is trying to sell it. But don’t let that stop you from visiting or moving here. In fact, this metro is pretty cool so far.

Nothing to see here

One of the econ professors I had back in undergrad was a guy by the name of Svetozar Pejovich (see his book here). He grew up in Yugoslavia during the Tito regime and told all sorts of colorful stories during class.

One of the stories that he repeated a couple of times during the semester was a debate he had with a socialist that was pro-central planning, let’s call him Ivan. So one of Ivan’s complaints was that in existing market economies, theft and pilfering are big problems. Pejovich would retort, “because there is so much stuff to steal!”

So while some tourists or Westerners may be annoyed at the endless hounding, I see it as a healthy indicator of their livelihood. First, they actually have something to sell. And this probably means they are allowed to personally own and profit from their sale. As a result they can accumulate wealth, live for another day and possibly reinvest their capital in future growth.

So the next time you hear “sir, would you like a watch?” instead of scowling at the guy hawking the fake Rolex, smile and be glad that they have something to sell. Because each voluntary, consensual trade amounts to a win-win scenario that helps drag people out of poverty.

Heroic!

Or would you rather have them lying down prostrate begging for change or living off the taxpayer dole? Besides, it’s not like you can be too self-righteous. After all, don’t you technically haggle something in order to live? Or do you own a nanofactory and have a life of non-scarcity?

See also: Defending the Undefendable

Two examples, both involving public TV.

In my hotel room I found a couple of English-speaking channels. One is Bloomberg and the other is CCTV #9.

I watched a lot of Bloomberg in Seoul and Kaohsiung and one of the day-time hosts is Bernard Lo. In one segment that was aired last night as well as today, he interviews Christopher Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong.

Guess what they talked about for 15 minutes? Every touchy political subject known to man, including that uber god, Mr. Democracy. To the horror of the hippie SDS, none of the words were bleeped out. Nor did a floating Big Brother insignia replace the image of Lo’s head. My door was not busted down and I have thus far gone unmolested by men in grey jumpsuits with red armbands.

Exhibit B, Yang Rui is the host of Dialogue, an interview format show on CCTV channel 9. Today’s episode involved a discussion with two people from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Jessica Matthews (its president) as well as a VP were on the show.

And they also talked about every controversial topic relating to the Bush legacy. In fact, this was actually an entertaining interview because Rui would word things very strongly, like “will Bush be remembered as the worst president?” and better yet, he called out the hypocrisy or as he said “the double-sided nature” of non-proliferation policy the Bush administration has had towards Iran and how the administration ignores Israel’s nuclear stockpile altogether.

And while critical of Bush, Matthews is a bit of an establishment partisan, refusing to blame the neocon agenda for a slew of other quagmires. But that is neither here nor there as nothing was bleeped out or obviously censored. Though, maybe I’ll come home and find my TV rearranged in pieces on the ground.

Extra-credit for extra-horror

Sites not blocked at my current location:

LewRockwell.com
Antiwar.com
Mises.org
The English-version of Wikipedia
My webpage (obviously)
Facebook
Drudge
isoHunt
Google Reader
Youtube
All of the financial sites I listed on Wednesday

Be sure to check out some thought provoking pieces from Spiked Online as well as Professional Protesters and the Political Class. Oh, and maybe The God that Failed is germane here too.

The car won’t work properly during the race, so the main driver literally crawls beneath the hood and sits above the engine to manually control the throttle while the co-driver takes the wheel and finishes the race.

Determination… from Axis Of Oversteer on Vimeo.

Via Peter Canning

Heroic compilation of Peter Schiff:

I still think he is a badass and refer you to my interview with him this past spring. Check out his site daily.

Other recommendations:

- Clusterstock - fantastic coverage with spot-on commentary from John Carney. Joe Wiesenthal has some interesting things to say as well (he does stuff with TechDirt and the Stalwart) and even Henry Blodget lays down the ‘bows from time to time.
- DealBreaker - Bess Levine is very witty. Make her a writer for Colbert or maybe her own segment on Wall Strip. Good stuff.
- Bloomberg Breaking News - best micro news bar none. Plus they have the balls to heroically sue the Fed for disclosure of $2 trillion in loans.

Independent analysts:
- Bob Murphy
- Robert Wenzel
- David Shvartsman
- Paul Kedrosky

See also: Who do you Listen to for Strategic Investment Advice?

Plus, if you’ve seen any of the war movies it parodies, then you’ll like it that much more.

Also, Tom Cruise did a really good job (intentionally) being a dick producer. Totally makes up for Lions for Lambs (though, not others like craptastic War of the Worlds).

Verdict: 4.5 out of 5. Stiller is of course top-notch and Downey is the personification of method-man extraordinaire. How’d he do research on it? Watch Cosby Kids?

For a comparison, be sure to watch the infamous question/answer from Miss South Carolina:

Based on the stories coming out of the GOP campaign, it appears that Palin shrugged off any help or prep work for the interview:

Jon Stewart discussed this too last Thursday in a great episode of The Daily Show.

Brilliant, right?