By Spencer On the conservative/ libertarian blogs our friends keep telling us that increasing the minimum wage causes teenage unemployment to rise. They base their argument on the basic economic principle that if the price of something goes up the demand will go down. That is a basic principle of economics but as with all […]
OSO and the fires in Australia. He does not live in the area in the news. quote: “…it is also possible that weather conditions were so severe and sounique that no amount of preparation or skill in command and control orcommunication could have saved the 107+ (rdan here…now 128) confirmed dead. In this case,the disaster […]
These statements caught my eye in Mankiw’s article in the NYT on trade relations between the US and China, cautioning against protectionism, whatever that actually means: Critics of China say it is keeping the yuan undervalued to gain an advantage in the international marketplace. A cheaper yuan makes Chinese goods less expensive in the United […]
rdan Again I apologize for simple links, but my time is being held hostage to circumstances. No one in the hubbub of today linked to Guerby’s post, so I thought it worth a look, along with AB thought on the matter, from Kash and Angry Bear. Maybe another Bear can add more. Kash who provides […]
I hear from a friend that some of my posts have not been warmly welcomed by economists with PhDs from the economics department of the University of Minnesota. I thought I would share more of my impressions of economic research that has been done over there after the jump For one thing, there is this […]
The U.S. Conference of Mayors presents a (by no means all-inclusive) list of shovel-ready projects, including $11 billion in Public Transit(over $600 million in demand from Charlotte alone, which recently passed NYC in drive-time to work and has seen its drivers vote with their train passes) and over $30B in Energy projects. Search through it. […]
Via Mark Thoma, Uwe Reinhardt* hits one out of the park on economist’s research abilities: Evidently, in the mind of economists, Lone Ranger C.E.O.’s can make truly astronomical contributions to a firm’s market capitalization, ceteris paribus, which justifies high bid prices for them. Why Lone Ranger C.E.O.’s who have trashed their firm’s market capitalization should […]
by Bruce Webb What do these three things have in common and what possible relevance do they have to the debate over the Stimulus Bill? The short answer is belief systems. Over at Krugman’s blog there was a certain amount of baffled debate over issues connected with the Treasury View. From the outside in these […]
After the first round, I was convinced that Microsoft’s songsmith was at best, a way to produce mash-ups for the tonally impaired. Kieran Healy has convinced me otherwise, with this piece: capitalism in action, set to music: I believe this is what we meant when we talked about “creative destruction,” back in the days when […]
by divorced one like BushUpdated comment at end So, now that the Democratic Party has the majority and the White House, why am I not hearing about the use of the Nuclear Option? I mean, it occurred to me that if there was a way to end the partisan old ways, the Nuclear Option is […]