rdan To begin the conversation now over the next few years. What do we stand for? What is our story? A great start. Update: h/t MG for the transcript of the speech.

By Spencer. We are getting an interesting debate between different economic bloggers today and I thought I would put in my two cents worth. Casey Mulligan at economix began it with an argument that the current recession is not as severe as the 1981-82 recession because that recession was really two recessions and if you […]

Robert Waldmann lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts From Scotusblog via Hilzoy. In Pappas v. Giuliani, 290 F.3d 143 (2002), [judge Sotomayor] dissented from the majority’s holding that the NYPD could fire a white employee for distributing racist materials. OK so the reverse racist Latina wasn’t quite so intollerant of white racism as the majority of […]

rdan The blog Name Wire poses a potent question on perception of value and who builds a product: The recent news that China has surpassed the US as the world’s second largest exporter — now making more cars than Detroit — has got me thinking about what “Made in China” means to US consumers. Nowadays, […]

Robert Waldmann So I’m reading “Aid Ironies” by Jeff Sachs and nodding my head vigorously. “The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, and the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunizations are both saving lives by the millions, and at remarkably low cost.” Yes “Americans … overestimate the actual aid from the US by […]

rdan James Kwak of Baseline Scenario asks an important basic question concerning the statement that ‘big cars are inherently more profitable for car companies, so smaller is bad for profits’, and comes up with this part answer: because we think they do in America, so we can charge more. Anything else you can think of […]

by cactus The Pro-Life Position and Good Business Practice Around the time of the Schiavo affair, Angry Bear (the blogger himself!) wrote a post which discussed, among other things, the case of Sam Hudson, a comatose boy who died after his feeding tube was removed by the hospital. That was done against the wishes of […]

Robert Waldmann Brad DeLong wrote a brilliant little essay on “The Hidden Purpose of High Finance” This is a “project sindicate” project, so I think fair use requires me to only quote Brad when he is quoting Keynes except for 3 words, 2 in the quote below and “eggplant.” He dismisses the efficient markets hypothesis […]

by Bruce Webb In comments Andrew Biggs claims that the NW Plan does not actually eliminate $15.4 trillion in unfunded Social Security liability but instead leaves a 1% payroll gap over the Infinite Future. I have no reason to suspect his math but do suspect he doesn’t fully understand the mechanism. The Northwest Plan ultimately […]

Robert Waldmann I noticed that Robert Samuelson wrote this Op-ed in the Washington Post. I knew I couldn’t stand to read it (I haven’t). However, I did encounter it’s echos at Matthew Yglesias’s and Ezra Klein’s. After the jump my denunciation of a paragraph quoted from a column which I haven’t read. In the Post […]