by Peter Dorman (originally published at Econospeak) Where Should We Put Economic Empiricism on the Hubris-Humility Spectrum? A bit of a kerfuffle has broken out over the claim that, as economics gets more empirical, it also gets more reliable. Russ Roberts says that, in the name of empiricism, economists are trotting out contested results to […]

NDd and I thought this one was “funny”. Not sure how to attribute:

by New Deal democrat A thought for Sunday: for now the economy remains on automatic pilot –and that’s good How much, if any, of the economy, has been influenced by the Trump/Ryan GOP government in Washington to date?  With one exception, not much I think. First of all, while the jobs report was certainly good, […]

Via Econospeak from Sandwichman:

by Barkley Rosser  (originally from Econospeak) Should The Complacent Class Be Called The Fearful Class? Tyler Cowen has published his most successful book yet, The Complacent Class, now on the Washington Post nonfiction bestseller list and getting reviewed by everybody from The Economist to the New York Times and on.  It is the Book de Jour […]

by Barkley Rosser  (originally from Econospeak) Trumpcare Saves Social Security By Killing People! Yes, there it is in black and white in Table 3 footnote f on p. 33 of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) official report on the proposed American Health Care Act, aka Trumpcare. Between now and 2026 spending by the Social Security […]

by New Deal democrat Measures of underemployment continue to show improvement The unemployment rate, at 4.7%, is generally acknowledged to be decent, although not great.  But what of the underemployed? Typically as an economy expands, the U6 (unemployed + underemployed) rate has declined more than the U3 (unemployed only) rate, as shown on the below […]

by New Deal democrat February jobs report: hitting on all cylinders but wages HEADLINES: +236,000 jobs added U3 unemployment rate down -0.1% from 4.8% to 4.7% U6 underemployment rate down -0.2% from 9.4% to 9.2% Here are the headlines on wages and the chronic heightened underemployment: Wages and participation rates Not in Labor Force, but […]

 by New Deal democrat A quick primer on interest rates and rate hikes With increasing speculation that the Fed will again raise interest rates this month, I thought I would take a look at how long term rates, and the yield curve, react. As most everybody who follows this stuff knows, in the last 60 […]