by Joseph Joyce The IMF and Ukraine The International Monetary Fund last week announced an agreement with Ukraine on a two year Stand-By Arrangement. The amount of money to be disbursed depends on how much other financial support the country will receive, but will be total at least $14 billion. Whether or not this IMF […]
The following video was posted in Ed’s Post by Marko. I thought it deserved a wider audience. The symposium included a discussion regarding raising the minimum wage to $15. Mr. Hanauer, being an honest to goodness real billionaire talked about what that would mean for his situation. I like the way he put it. He […]
There is so much to reflect upon with Michael Pettis’ new post, Economic Consequences of Income Inequality. I have been in total agreement with the way he looks at income inequality. Yet, he said some things that surprised me… things I hadn’t realized. He restates his view of how changes in labor share, which he […]
I am confused about something Paul Krugman wrote today in his post Dare to be Silly. What he wrote seems… silly. “Before I turn to Syll’s critique, let me summarize my understanding of one of the great turning points in the practice of economics – the turn away from institutional economics in the 1940s and […]
In a recent post, I mentioned a blog post by Nate Silver which I hadn’t managed to google. It is here Models Based on ‘Fundamentals’ Have Failed at Predicting Presidential Elections I think this is a serious effort worthy of publication in a top political science journal (not that anyone asked me). Silver attempted to […]
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century shows us where society is going. Paul Krugman summarizes this future using Piketty’s term, Patrimonial Capitalism, where inherited wealth gains economic power and where hard work returns less money than inheritance. The basic equation underlying patrimonial capitalism is… r – g. r is the investment return to capital. […]
by Joseph Joyce Tapering and the Emerging Markets The response of the exchange rates of emerging markets and their equity markets to the Federal Reserve’s “taper,” i.e., reduction in asset purchases, continues to draw comment (see, for example, here). Most analysts agree that these economies are in better shape to deal with capital outflows than […]
I grab a rare opportunity to criticize Paul Krugman. He is, again, discussing the roll out of Nate Silver’s new fivethirtyeight.com with concern bordering on dismay. Krugman’s concern is that he fears that Silver thinks that data are enough just by themselves without any theory (even the humble kind that calls itself a model). I […]
by David Zetland (is a ‘water’ economist who blogs at Aguanomics) re-posted Self-evident water delusions BB sent this press release from California Congressman McClintock, to which I will give a few reactions… Self-Evident Water Truths (February 27, 2013 to ACWA) Water – particularly in California – has become such a complicated tangle of competing interests […]
Paul Krugman continues his illumination into the significance of a falling labor share, as he reads Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century. Mr. Krugman rarely writes about labor share but that looks to be changing. Piketty describes the growing power of capital income as “patrimonial capitalism”, where an elite gain control through inheritance and […]