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 […]

Via the UN comes a day for us to note the role of potable water and sanitation throughout the world.  We in New England are blessed with an abundance of freshwater, but other parts of the US are beginning to face real shortages where competing interests are clashing. More posts to come on particulars. At […]

Paul Krugman recently wrote two blog posts on monetary policy in a liquidity trap. In “Timid Analysis” Krugman presents a model in which Nash favors the bold But a necessary (not sufficient) condition for this to work is that the promised inflation be high enough that it will indeed produce an economic boom if people […]

Remember the Economic Report of the President? Of course you do. It’s where we get our annual data on real wages (and apparently some other stuff, too). The 2014 edition was released on March 10. As you may recall, I made my first post on the declining real wage trend through 2011 and was literally […]