Today in "Economists Are NOT Totally Clueless" (Part 3 of 3 or 4)
This is taking longer than it should. For now, here is a “teaser” graphic, which I suspect is worth much more than 1,000 words:
Meanwhile, other (mostly related) thing you may want to read:
- Brenda Rosser find that everything new is old again.
- Steve Randy Waldman tells the truth about banks, and Shames the Devil, not to mention Tim Geithner
- Menzie Chinn discusses types of unemployment, and, implicitly, suggests that those who are arguing that structural unemployment (and, therefore, NAIRU) has risen are incorrect.
- James Hamilton notes that TARP was not the only program of support for financial institutions, nor will it likely be the last.
- Linda Beale finds Amartya Sen discussing “Rational Choice.”
- Rick Bookstaber raises a point Brad DeLong made a while back: inflation can be a very good solution to a true macro disaster.
- Mark Thoma finds David Cay Johnston’s examination of marginal rate data and economic growth.
ken,
I am walking through each link and resulting comment section. The collection is interesting.
http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/309.html Great comment section as well btw!!
yes, i think rortybomb had a post like this a while ago.
it’s an interesting point, but i’d like to see data with some of the “forced” acquisitions taken out.
for instance, take WAMU and CFC and Wachovia’s portfolios out of the huge banks (and treat ML as a separate entity) and see if that makes a difference to the graph.
also, it will be interesting to see this series again after CRE is finished blowing up.
(i’m not saying you’re wrong — i think the large institutions acted more pro-cyclically — so they have more 2006/2007 vintage loans on their books and they are extreme crap — and a lot of them were stuck with garbage in 2007 they intended to sell to others but couldn’t.)