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

Financial Regulation

Robert Waldmann Just to post about something other than health care reform, I will type my vague thoughts on financial regulation after the jump. Much is similar to stuff I posted when financial regulation was the hot topic. I want to take a long look at financiar regulation starting with generalities very far from possible […]

Discussing a Quotation

Robert Waldmann “Nobody else gets hurt if you buy a lousy mortgage pool,” Cochrane said. “The government doesn’t need to write a new rule every time someone buys a rotten tomato. Investors will demand the right amount of transparency, complexity, and risk-sharing – or monitoring of mortgage pools – unless they all get bailed out […]

Snowe Job

Robert Waldmann I am not questioning Senator Olympia Snowe’s integrity. The Snowe job in question was my attempt to convince myself that Senator Snowe agrees with me. When reflecting on the question I discover that she strongly disagrees with Senator Snowe. I can see that the problem of health care reform has caused her to […]

Have Macro economists explained any patterns during my lifetime

Robert Waldmann I am trying to read John Cochrane’s comments on Paul Krugman’s article on why economists got it so wrong. I tend to get upset while reading. I have managed to get through the first paragraph in which Cochrane compares Krugman to someone who denies that HIV causes AIDS and compares developments in economics […]

Comments on Calormiris’s Comments on Krugmans Comments on the State of Economics

Robert Waldmann I am actually commenting on a snippet with a useless link here. Professor Krugman’s article, like much of his journalism, was hastily drafted and factually incorrect. [skip] One of the most humorous aspects of the article was its view that the efficient markets hypothesis was at the heart of the inability to see […]

You Fold

Robert Waldmann I can’t believe this “Illegal Immigrants Could Not Buy Insurance on New ‘Exchange,’ White House Says” So a rude idiot shouts “you lie” and Obama decides he has to punish undocumented aliens. This is not about subsidies which were clearly not on offer yesterday. This is about making it harder for them to […]

Huffington Post Editorial Standards II

Robert Waldmann In response to a critical comment, I have decided to actually read the article which I stopped reading when it said the Journal of Monetary Economics was a must publish journal for young economists. Ryan Grim asserts that economists don’t criticize the Fed because the Fed has bought control of the economics profession.I […]

The Leaky Bucket Fallacy

Robert Waldmann It appears that the worst tax ever TM is the brainchild of the normally sane Olympia Snowe. How could a sensible intelligent person come up with such a terrible idea ? What is wrong with the leaky bucket metaphor for the economics of redistribution ?What is the leaky bucket metaphor for the economics […]

Huffington Post Editorial Standards

Robert Waldmann The Federal Reserve, through its extensive network of consultants, visiting scholars, alumni and staff economists, so thoroughly dominates the field of economics that real criticism of the central bank has become a career liability for members of the profession, an investigation by the Huffington Post has found. [skip] at the Journal of Monetary […]

In Partial Defence of Joe Wilson (R-Crazy)

Robert Waldmann OK not really. Really I’m semi disagreeing with Steve Benen’s denunciation of Rep[rehensible] Wilson. The guy who shouted “you lie” when Obama said something true. He does seem to be a very special piece of work, but the consensus reality which he rejects is rather distorted on one particular topic — US arms […]