Robert Waldmann The absolutely brilliant and almost reliably reasonable Kevin Drum quotes the very smart and usually reasonable Dan Drezner and writes In a speech today in Russia, Barack Obama said that “the pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game.” Dan Drezner isn’t so sure: If he had said, “The pursuit of prosperity […]

Robert Waldmann I almost feel I might disagree with Paul Krugman about international economics with imperfect competition. In particular Krugman confidently asserts that the wild swings in the the price of petroleum are the result of simple supply and demand curves (which are both extremely price inelastic so almost vertical) and not of speculation. He […]

Robert Waldmann Paul Krugman thinks that a US politician is excessively opposed to tariffs. End of days near. I think the president has this wrong: President Obama on Sunday praised the energy bill passed by the House late last week as an “extraordinary first step,” but he spoke out against a provision that would impose […]

Robert Waldmann Suggests that serious readers go read Brad Delong’s comment on Greg Mankiw’s comment on Paul Krugman’s assertion that George Will and Gred Mankiw are “either remarkably ignorant or simply disingenuous.” Totally asking for it, Mankiw also commented on Krugman’s post referring to DeLong and Krugman as a tag team. I just want to […]

Robert Waldmann A good sign of a totally bogus argument is reliance on contradictory presumptions of fact. When one is simply wrong, one can often make a convincing argument by inventing facts. When one is being absurd, one can fall into the temptation to invent inconsistent facts. In this article in the Washington Post Ceci […]

In which Robert Waldmann finds economic theory useful. A question: when does deficit financed public spending cause higher interest rates which cause private investment to be lower than it would be other things (including the spending) equal. Proposed answer, not when we are in a liquidity trap. Depending on the definition of liquidity trap this […]

Robert Waldmann The unexpected increase in US productivity growth in the 90’s and naughties is an economic puzzle. At the time it was widely argued that investments in information and communications technology had finally finally paid off, that computers and the internet allowed vastly improved corporation wide inventory control and the increased output given inputs […]

Robert Waldmann The Washington Post just fired Dan Froomkin. This has caused considerable outrage on the web. Interestingly, my personal reaction was that Froomkin doesn’t need the Post — he will get high traffic with a new affiliation or with an independent blog. After the jump a recollection about how Froomkin has been getting in […]

Robert Waldmann has been playing hooky. Look it’s the end of the semester. My actual job involves some actual work these days (ETA of a Thesis defense 40 minutes). Also, I note no popular demand for my opinions on the Obama administration plan to reform financial regulation, and I still know jack about finance. So […]

Robert Waldmann Will Wilkinson* demonstrates his absolute inability to understand the concept of “opportunity cost” and complete lack of common sense after the jump. * update: spelling Kirrected. Cash for Clunkersby Will Wilkinson on June 10, 2009 OK. Let me get this straight. I can get $4500 toward a new car as long as my […]