Ken Houghton lowers the level of discourse at AB by discussing the career of a porn star other than Adam West. One of the primary tenets of economic theory is that corporations believe in nothing other than profits. Well, it’s not quite that stark—we use phrases such as “utility maximization,” “cost minimization,” and the like—but […]

By Spencer Industrial production fell 1.5% in March, the same as in February. From the peak industrial production has now fallen 13.4%. This makes it worse than the 13.0% fall in the 1974 and 1958 recessions and the 9.3% drop in the 1982 recessions. This measure says this is now the deepest post WW II […]

Robert Waldmann WILLIAM D. COHAN has a rather harsh op-ed in the New York Times about Goldman Sachs’s reported $ 1.8 billion in profits in the first quarter. Ah op-eds about accounting in the New York Times. He notes, as many have on the web, that Goldman Sachs lost December 2008 when they switched from […]

Robert Waldmann William Saletan covers new bold, to him alarmingly extreme, frontiers of public policy. Here he shows he hasn’t quite figured out Smith’s insights on public finance and that he considers “On Liberty” by John Stuart Mill to flirt dangerously with paternalism. Saletan is unique (thank God). New York City’s health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, […]

Robert Waldmann This is getting alarming. Two very smart bloggers — Matthew Yglesias and Ezra Klein argue (using the term broadly) against soaking the rich. The bizarre thing is that they don’t present an argument that it would be bad policy and they certainly don’t present the argument that it is politically impossible. My good […]

IN a comment to a post a while ago, someone asked me to explain the phrase “money metric welfare” and why I hate it so much. It is, in fact, the element of economic theory which I like least, at that is saying something. A good explanation is given by a non Socratic dialogue reposted […]

One of my favorite charities, StreetwisePartners, is ringing the closing bell. For those who aren’t loyal watchers of business news channels, you can watch the event live via this link. Those who live or work in or near one of the city’s where the program is offered (currently, NYC; Jersey City, NJ; and Washington, DC) […]

Ken Houghton’s Loyal Reader directed my attention to this WSJ blog entry, commenting on, and attempting to provide cover for, the management and actions of The Old Firm. I’m sympathetic to the general argument—Ace Greenberg’s naming of Jimmy Cayne to succeed him was incredibly bad judgment that had real consequences, but not malice aforethought—but the […]

by Bruce Webb Commenter and blogger Arne (whose largely SS Blog is found here) asked in comments whether it was time to move beyond “Nothing” and propose to policy makers some alternative plans to address future discontinuities. Which is a very sensible question, because if and when the Social Security Trust Funds (DI and then […]

by cactus Megan McArdle Knows Galileo Was Waaay Over-rated As many long-time readers know, I’m working (with a co-author) on a book that looks at a bunch of different series – from abortion to crime to the unwed motherhood – and how they evolved over the administrations from Ike to GW. Since both I and […]