I am too upset to summarize the facts of the case or even choose a link from this google search, but I think that Judge Randall Rogers has just launched an assault not only on the US Constitution but on any limit on his power whatsoever. I think it is vitally important that we resist […]

This is important. Amazingly, socialist Sweden attempted radical partial privatization of its schools with about one fourth of students now attending publicly financed privately managed schools (roughly charter schools). This daring reform was followed by a dramatic decline in scores on the PISA international standardized test including the largest decline in math scores of all […]

I will try again to answer Larry Summers’s question “”What wouldn’t be a Dynamic-Stochastic General-Equilibrium model?” I won’t present a formal macroeconomic model in a blog but will try to describe what I might do if I got down to work. I think the first step back to not DSGE starts with the simplest standard […]

In Which I Try to Answer a Question asked by Larry Summers as a Joke The LSE held a discussion on Reconstructing Macroeconomics. Brad DeLong posted a transcript , the video is here. Larry Summers opened with a joke Larry Summers: You know I was tempted to blast off at Dynamic-Stochastic General-Equilibrium models. That is, […]

Pulled back from comments. (bolding mine) Marko July 20, 2015 7:01 am These days , more people may own stocks , but the vast majority own trivial amounts. Look up Edward Wolffs stuff on wealth distribution and try to estimate how much stocks would have to go up to tease out any meaningful consumption out […]

Here is an interesting (as always) cyber discussion between Brad DeLong and Dean Baker. DeLong asserted (as he often does) that the great recession was so severe because of finance and “clogged credit channels” Baker argued (as he often does) that the decline in house prices alone was sufficient to explain the downturn. In particular […]

I do not think that the actions of the Troika or of the 18 non Greek members of the Eurogroup are defensible. I am quite confident that, if they can be defended, IMF head economist O.J. Blanchard is the man for the job. He is very very smart and doesn’t just assume that Keynes was […]

I think that the Greeks would be wise to abandon the Euro and introduce their own currency. Very few Greeks agree with me. Also many very smart economists around the world strongly strongly disagree with me. I will try to explain the case for a new Greek currency. 1) ECB blackmail is a crucial consideration. […]

Paul Krugman uses elementary Keynesian Macroeconomics to argue that the austerity demanded by the Troika would reduce the Greek debt to GDP ratio, if at all, only by causing deflation and increased Greek net exports. This means that it would take a very long time (or forever) to reduce the Greek debt to GDP ratio […]

Via @mattyglesias I learn that David Scutt just reported that “Japan just blew past forecasts for unemployment and household spending” The unemployment rate is 3.3% and there are more vacant jobs than unemployed workers. Overall, Abenomics has worked very well indeed. I feel obliged to discuss this, because I was an extreme skeptic. More exactly, […]