Yes, potential output is lower than people thought, much lower. I have been saying for almost a year that potential output is lower. (link 1, link 2) Commentators on Mark Thoma’s blog thought I was nuts. Mark Thoma himself did not agree with me. Mark Thoma now offers one explanation to his class that the […]
Paul Krugman also comments on healthcare horror stories hooey: by Robert Waldmann More on Julia Boonstra Glenn Kessler noted that the latest ad presenting an alleged Obamacare victim doesn’t add up right. Koch funded “Americans for Prosperity” broadcast an advertizement in Michigan in which Julia Boonstra complained that her old insurance was cancelled due to […]
by Robert Waldmann What is the Opposite of a Weasel Word ? I need a metaphor and no one is answering at metaphor customer service. I need a nuancing partner for weasel word. A weasel word is a qualifier which makes a statement so weak it is unfalsifiable without making it sound like “I don’t […]
by Joseph Joyce Group Therapy Pop quiz: which U.S. policymaker said last week: “We can’t solve everyone else’s problems anymore” in response to foreign criticism of U.S. handling of what issue? a—Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, responding to criticism by foreign central bankers of the Fed’s tapering of its asset purchases; b—Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, […]
Despite the UAW’s attempt to do for the South what it has done to Detroit, the South can continue to practice entrepreneurial federalism. Capital is mobile. It goes where it is welcomed and stays where it is well treated, so states compete to create tax and regulatory environments conducive to job creation. Liberals call this […]
They say sample size matters. A handful of sample points in a study doesn’t tell you much, because they could just be showing random variation. This is also true not when you’re looking at many studies. You need to look at lots of research that uses different methodologies and data sets to get a confident feel […]
Congratulations, Republicans. You’ve finally found a case in which the failure of the federal ACA website amounted to the failure of Obamacare itself. At least for what turned out to be a very difficult two months for one particular woman, Julie Boonstra, a resident of Michigan Republican Rep. Tim Walberg’s district. Which, contrary to your […]
Dan Crawford emailed me this morning with a link to Linda Greenhouse’s op-ed in today’s New York Times, titled “Law and Politics,” and asked me to post about it. A more apt title for the op-ed, which a headline writer rather than Greenhouse (whose bailiwick is the Supreme Court) titled, would be “The Supreme Court […]
There is a bedtime story of a young boy who put all his eggs into one basket and when that basket fell, all the eggs broke. It is risky to put your eggs into one basket. Investors overcome this risk by diversifying their portfolio. Even the colossal derivatives market is said to lower risk through […]