Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Mashup Post: Two Marks

No original content here, just two posts that make even more sense together: Mark Thoma proves he’s an economist (not just an econometrician) by reminding everyone of the Opportunity Cost of the Oughts from a long-term perspective*:((Rdan…Attribution of the quote is in error due to a format error at Mark’s…the original is from Joseph Stiglitz […]

If You’re Marking a Curve, you need to identify an equilibrium point

Via the must-read Susan of Texas, Ezra Klein finally comes to some of his senses: couldn’t get an answer to a very simple question: What level of spending on health care was optimal for innovation? Should we double spending? Triple it? Cut it by 10 percent? Simply give a larger portion of it to drug […]

$295 Million Would Buy A Lot of T-Shirts

Ken Houghton notes that the first thing anyone learns from Pietra Rivoli’s The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade is how pernicious the U.S. subsidy of its cotton industry is.* Now the WTO has discovered the obvious: American goods will face [$294.7] […]