by Joseph Joyce (is a Professor of Economics at Wellesley College and the Faculty Director of the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs) Too Much of a Good Thing? Global banks do not have much to cheer about these days. Earnings are falling, and the banks are responding by cutting jobs. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has […]
It’s always the same map. Here from Brad Delong is the map of the percentage who were slave by county in 1861 here is the corresponding area of a map of intergenerational relative income mobility by county from R Chetty 2014 (warning pdf) update: link updated thanks to Amanda. thanks
by Robert Waldmann What is the Opposite of a Weasel Word ? I need a metaphor and no one is answering at metaphor customer service. I need a nuancing partner for weasel word. A weasel word is a qualifier which makes a statement so weak it is unfalsifiable without making it sound like “I don’t […]
There are quite a few shifts happening in the global and domestic economy. I have been observing for the past week. So many people are getting confused. Here is a list of concerns… China is slowing down. Some emerging markets are facing capital outflows and are tempted to raise their central bank interest rates. Argentina […]
The misconceptions embodied in this post’s headline sow more confusion in economic discussions than any others. “Saving” and “Savings” seem like simple concepts, but they’re not. They have many different meanings, and their different usages (often implicit or unconscious) make coherent understanding and discussion impossible — even, often, in writings by those who have otherwise […]
by Spencer England Last week Kevin Erdmann at the idiosyncratic whisk blog published this chart to demonstrate how minimun wages have caused teen employment to suffer. It is an interesting chart, but it suffers from the sin of omitted variables. I constantly see similar charts from those opposing the minimum wage were they seem to […]
John Quiggin provides an excellent discussion of macroeconomics. It is much too good to summarize. Just click the link and read. Paul Krugman is also (as usual) brilliant. In particular, I fear he understands the sociology of the profession. I have some comments on Quiggin.
Many of us have talked about bending the healthcare cost curve by changing the services for fee healthcare cost model to a model of better outcomes for those fees. This is precisely what the PPACA does. Phillip Longman based his book “Best Care Anywhere” on how the VA brought about such a change in the […]
Enjoy this Christmas because next year Christmas may not be as Merry… As real GDP nears the effective demand limit, we should see some signs of the economy turning the corner toward a contraction. So, do we see any signs? … Well, yes. This graph plots the aggregate profit rate against the savings rate of […]
Boeing is America’s Most Wanted Corporation in two senses. First, now that the Machinists’ union in Washington state has refused the company’s contract demands, it is shopping production (h/t Pacific Northwest Inlander) of the 777x aircraft nationwide and lots of states are making offers for it. Second, it is emblematic of everything the 1% is […]