George Magnus, senior economics adviser at UBS and the person responsible for bringing economist Hyman Minsky to the public’s attention, invokes him again in a good piece in the Financial Times. In keeping with his affinity for the world view of the dour economist, Magnus depicts our current credit crunch as a Minsky moment and […]
Read more...Normally, I have the highest regard for Martin Wolf, the Financial Times’ lead economics writer. He is forthright, data-driven, articulate, sober, and insightful. However, I take issue with his current article, “The Federal Reserve must prolong the party,” and see its failings as symptomatic of the state of economics. In brief, Wolf argues that the […]
Read more...Aah, there is so much good stuff out there that I can’t begin to do it justice. Hopefully you will enjoy these items: VoxEU features a very good international study on the gender income gap. The Boston Globe tells us that negotiating courses don’t address the fact that people lie. APEC is set to issue […]
Read more...John Authers of the Financial Times thinks the markets got a lucky break this week, and deferred a so-called Minsky moment, which he discussed in a noteworthy piece earlier. By way of background, economist Hyman Minsky observed that creditors become more lax about lending standards during times of stability. He divided borrowers into three types: […]
Read more...This piece is from Tyler Cowen, and as a contrarian and a cat owner, of course I find it to be terribly clever: Many people have been clamoring for this topic over at the secret blog. My views are simple: we have too few cats in the world, relative to dogs. Dogs, for reasons of […]
Read more...A little weekend levity, courtesy Economic Investigations: That recessions are always and everywhere caused by the government. (That’s because they mostly know only one theoretical account/scenario for such an event.) That the seigniorage caused by a 3% annual rate of inflation plays a big role in politics and that it’s big enough to motivate a […]
Read more...We’ve been skeptical of inflation targeting, no doubt as a result of seeing Paul Volcker use monetary targets very effectively. Witness the proof of the pudding, namely, asset bubbles, deteriorating credit quality, and increasing inflation (at least in overall CPI, although core CPI is better behaved). But serious economists have only started looking into this […]
Read more...The notion that markets need rules, and therefore rulemakers, which generally implies some form of government oversight, is anathema to libertarians. But as we have stressed before, the markets that the public at large thinks of as well-functioning, like the US stock markets, are in fact highly regulated and would not exist without it. So […]
Read more...A neat little analysis by Ross Eisenbrey at the Economic Policy Institute may be difficult for union foes to explain away. It shows the proportion of workers covered by collective bargaining agreements in major European countries and the US and then shows productivity growth country by country in the same group 1979-2005. Despite being the […]
Read more...Faithful readers, I hope you’ll forgive the comparatively skimpy posts this early morning. I had to spend some time with a buddy who had just learned that one of his closest friends is dying. Generally, I give trade economics a wide berth, because once you get past simple two-country, two factor models the discussion gets […]
Read more...We have only occasionally commented on the lively debate on the serious economics blogs on heterodoxy in economics (basically, the loyal opposition is a beleaguered minority). However, Mark Thoma on his blog, Economist’s View, picks up and elaborates on an insight by Steve Waldman that has much larger implications. Waldman argues that neoclassical economics has […]
Read more...Can you tell who is who on this test? Now admittedly there is sample bias (I’m sure they had to cherry pick the Unabomber’s saner moments). But I scored only 25%!javascript:void(0)
Read more...More test fun. Dani Rodrik pointed to this test (which he found via Greg Mankiw). The test measures your views on the right/left and authoritarian/libertarian axes. The results section plots where you stand and you can see where you stand relative to contemporary and historical figures. The contemporary grid below:Full disclosure: I’m located pretty close […]
Read more...The most puzzling element in the recent set of economic releases and revisions on GDP growth is the disconnect between overall growth and consumer spending. The initial release for the first quarter showed GDP growth of 1.3% despite a rise in consumer spending of 3.8%; the revisions released last week reduced GDP growth to a […]
Read more...A few days ago, Chris Hayes’ article in The Nation, “Hip Heterodoxy,” set off a huge chatter among economics blogs raising the question of heterodoxy in the profession (which by all counts is very much in retreat). The article below, “Life Among the Econ,” by Axel Leijonhufvud on the culture and ritual of the Econ, […]
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