Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Off to Singapore

I leave in a couple of hours for JFK Airport, flying to Singapore to teach Tax Policy over 2 weeks at the NYU@NUS program.  The topics for the 8 classes are (1) public economics, (2) horizontal equity [and lots of related stuff], (3) vertical equity, (4) income versus consumption taxation, (5) corporate taxation, (6) corporate tax shelters, (7) international taxation, and (8) deficits and long-term budgeting.

I had a very good experience teaching this class in Singapore last year.  The students came in knowing virtually nothing about tax law, tax policy, or public economics, but were otherwise strong students and highly motivated, also with a great esprit de corps.  And we pretty much hit it off - among other reasons, because they could see I cared.  Every year is a completely new vibe, however.

Tourism is admittedly a significant part of the motivation for doing this.  We (I'm traveling with my family) will definitely return to Arab Street, the Zum Zum Restaurant, Little India, Chinatown, the Night Safari, the zoo, and the aquarium.  Then, in Vietnam, we'll be staying in Hanoi, Sapa (mountains and hill tribes), Halong Bay (beautiful limestone caves), and Hoi An (resort).

I may post pictures from the trip here from time to time.

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