May jobs report: excellent news on unemployment, underemployment, and wages HEADLINES: +223,000 jobs added U3 unemployment rate fell -0.1% from 3.9% to 3.8% U6 underemployment rate fell -0.2% from 7.8% to 7.6% Here are the headlines on wages and the braoder measures of underemployment: Wages and participation rates Not in Labor Force, but Want a […]
Rejoinder To Rauch’s Response To Me On The Happiness Curve Overhyped On May 15 I posted here on “Overhyping the Happiness Curve,” a critique of the recent book by Jonathan Rauch, The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50. After it was linked to on Marginal Revolution, author Jonathan Rauch wrote a Response to my post on May 25, […]
More evidence of increasing deflationary pressure on wages One of my pet peeves is that economics as a discipline needs to import the entirety of learning theory from psychology, not just parlor tricks like the endowment effect. For example, learning from models. To wit, once Jack Welch was successful in using a pay scheme at […]
When Big Sur Met Silicon Valley: Remembering The Santa Cruz Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Collective I spent Memorial Day weekend with extended family members in Santa Cruz, near where many of them live, but with none of them right there It was most pleasant, but explaining the nature of the place and the University of California […]
My plan for Europe. In comments, JackD asked me what I thought of Italy leaving the Eurobloc. The problem is that it is easier said than done—the instant it becomes a serious possibility there will either be the mother of all bank runs or a banking holiday. Everyone (including your humble blogger) will want to […]
The extreme conflict between the establishment and the new natonal populist majority in Parliament has spooked investors. The difference between the Italian and German 10 year treasury rates just jumped up about 100 basis points. This isn’t a crisis yet. I recall back when Italia caught a bit of Greek contagion (before ECB president Mario […]
I don’t believe in intellectual property… I don’t believe in compound interest… Nobody believes in the lump-of-labor fallacy. Mr. Nadella is engaging in a game of projection and disavowal that is as old as capitalism. He is affirming the reality of an event that only happens in the imagination — the production of something out […]
Updated, also fixed last link This past weekend, I was in North Adams, Ma. We did some exploring of the area and came across a company started in 1837 that still exists today in Buckland. It no longer produces there, as it has moved to Westfield, Ma. It’s only move in 178 years. […]