I’ve spent a lot of time considering (here, here, here, and here) the notions of technological unemployment and the Luddite Fallacy: the idea that technologically driven productivity — machines — will replace, are replacing, human labor. I’d like to revisit that here. My basic conclusion: the Luddites were obviously wrong at the time. But they’re […]
The NY Times Is Misleading. And Who Is Correct? Eurostat or China Customs? by Rebecca Wilder The NY Times reports quite a dire situation as regards the slump in the value of Chinese exports to the European Union in July: Data published this month showed that China’s exports to the European Union had sunk 16.2 percent […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Hospitals RisingOne of the key operational themes of PPACA (Obamacare) is integration. Almost all models of integration have a hospitals or hospital networks as the hub. Some networks are already highly integrated, others are headed in that direction. (There was a big push for integration at the […]
R Davis spends a whole lot of words (and numbers) explaining why Arthur Laffer’s latest WSJ editorial is false and ridiculous, but those who think about data — at all — really only need to read one line. Laffer’s key error — which a high-school statistics student could spot — is to: compare growth in […]
My small effort to ameliorate the disparity in Andrew Gelman’s headline: 1.5 million people were told that extreme conservatives are happier than political moderates. Approximately .0001 million Americans learned that the opposite is true. Andrew is commenting on a Jay Livingston’s great takedown of David Arthur Brooks’ recent column asking “Who is happier about life […]
by Rebecca Wilder It’s the Exchange Rate, Stupid Eurostat released trade figures today, where the trade balance (exports less imports) surged €3.7 bn in the month of June (link to the .pdf release). The current figures imply a 2012 annualized trade balance of €66.9 bn, which is a meaningful boost to the -€7.4 bn deficit […]
Lifted from Robert’s Stochaistic thoughts is a post that comments on Italian political/economists and government policy. There are some ‘in the know’ names for US readers: Simon Wren-Lewis asks. I answer. In real authentic East of the English Channel Europe, economists don’t endorse candidates, because elections don’t matter. Neither do they endorse gymnasts, because our […]
An comment worth noting on an interesting post Where Are You in the Economic Strata? by Barry Ritholtz is the following (hat tip Mike K.): In my opinion, aspirational voting is the consequence of a rationaldedication to ethics based upon false assumptions of what is ethical.As I see it, there are two forms of income. The first […]
Mark Thoma takes a poke at Joe Biden’s guarantees on SS in No Changes in Social Security: I wish I could believe this. Biden guarantees: ‘There will be no changes in Social Security’, by Michael O’Brien, NBC News: …”Hey, by the way, let’s talk about Social Security,” Biden said…”Number one, I guarantee you, flat guarantee […]
I can’t help but compare Yves Smith’s appraisal of SEC performance and either party’s political attitude to the previous post by Peter Henning: If you merely looked at the SEC’s record on enforcement, you’d conclude that it suffered from a Keystone Kops-like inability to get out of its own way. The question remains whether that […]