Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

The People’s Verdict on Globalization

by Joseph Joyce The People’s Verdict on Globalization The similarities in the electoral appeals of businessman Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders have been widely noted (see, for example, here, here and here). Both men attract voters who feel trapped in their economic status, unable to make progress either for themselves or their children. Moreover, […]

PPACA: United Health Care vs the Public Option

A story that is getting some traction, though mostly lost against the New York primary, is that for profit health insurance company United Health Care is looking to drop its Exchange Plans under PPACA. For example this from Fox: UnitedHealth pulls back on ObamaCare exchanges amid huge losses This is of course presented as some […]

Zero-Sum Foolery 4 of 4: Wage Prisoner’s Dilemma

by Sandwichman Zero-Sum Foolery 4 of 4: Wage Prisoner’s Dilemma Soon after the wages-fund doctrine fell out of favor with economists, it was immediately attributed to trade unionists under the label of the “fixed work-fund fallacy” and then the “Theory of the lump of labour.” In denunciations of the lump-of-labor fallacy, it has become fashionable […]

I’ve diagnosed the problem (with Clinton’s campaign; one of the problems, anyway): She keeps coming up with vapid soundbite lines that in the context of this primary contest are ridiculous. Like “It’s easy to diagnose the problem. You’ve got to be able to solve the problem.”

I’m getting really good at recognizing instantly the latest vapid or ridiculous soundbite that Clinton has settled on and will be repeating again and again.  So I detected her latest one the moment she introduced it at last Thursday’s debate: It’s easy to diagnose the problem. You’ve got to be able to solve the problem. […]

Zero-Sum Foolery 3 of 4: Forecast Factory

by Sandwichman Foolery 1: Games Theory Gamesmanship Foolery 2: Doomsday Climate Machine Zero-Sum Foolery 3 of 4:  Forecast Factory Long before the issue of anthropogenic climate change arrived on the doomsday agenda, Lewis F. Richardson anticipated climate modeling with his failed attempt to forecast weather numerically. His calculations predicted surface pressures 150 times higher than observed: […]

A bit More on Dynamic Inefficiency

I recently asked if increased government debt causes increased welfare if the growth rate of the economy is greater than the safe rate of interest, even if the growth rate is lower than the risky rate of return on capital. With much help from a comment by Nick Rowe, I present an example in which […]

Krugman The Clairvoyant

[Paul Krugman] has a negative view of Bernie Sanders “Why I Haven’t Felt the Bern “ which links to his column on insulting Dixie. The post is brief and a bit odd — Krugman criticizes Sanders for: “… the casual adoption, with no visible effort to check the premises, of a story line that sounds good. It’s all […]

Good Jobs for Non-College Grads

by Peter Dorman  (originally  from Econospeak) Good Jobs for Non-College Grads It’s good to see that Katherine Newman has spoken up for really investing in kids who aren’t going on to college, which will always be a substantial chunk of them, no matter what.  If there’s any sort of social contract worth defending, it has to […]