Robert Waldmann I usually try to be semi polite. I especially don’t usually deliberately write rude things about smart economists. However, here goes. Evidently Tyler Cowen* wrote In a strict rational expectations model, we might expect some people to overtrust others and one view of rational expectations is that investors’ errors will cancel one another […]

Robert Waldmann Casual discussion of macroeconomics suffers from the fact that one can get any result one wants by playing with lags. I’m not saying that I think formal econometrics adds much. However, things could be worse. Discussion of the ups and downs of the stock market is even weirder. Courtney Schlisserman at Bloomberg seriously […]

Robert Waldmann Everyone is commenting on how, according to the New York Times, critics of the health care public option claim that it will provide the same health insuranceas private plans at lower cost to consumers and that this is a problem “unfair competition”. (simple rule when they say “unfair competition” they mean “competition”). As […]

By Spencer. I recently ran across an interesting example of how looking at an economic series from different perspectives creates very different conclusions. The original demand collapse at the start of this recession created an inventory problem across virtually all sectors of the goods economy. We now seen to be in a position where the […]

rdan Square footage or even volume Per Capita/house is a measurement of what? Taking part in the comment conversation on a couple of posts I have written led me to consider the way we think about home size. Typically, as one reader complained, homes are merely judged by their square footage and disregard the number […]

rdan Micahel Winship in Perspective asks: And remember Halliburton, the international energy services company of which Cheney used to be the CEO? After the fall of Baghdad, Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR were the happy recipients of billions of dollars in outside contracts to take care of the military and rebuild Iraq’s petroleum industry. Waste, […]

lifted from comments, written by reader Jack Tom said: “Some of the reported sales methods sound like they’re somewhere between ‘bullshit promises’ and mild deception. Then again, it’s car dealers on the other end of the transactions.” “I probably shouldn’t underestimate Congress’s inclination to protect those undeserving of protection, but remember these are car salesmen, […]

by reader ilsm A lot of debate going on about the 2010 defense budget in general and the national missile defense programs in specific. The administration is cutting the star war fantasy drill by $1.6B from what some think was needed. I found a quote Center for Defense information from a Lt Gen Campbell: “On […]

rdan Bears will be tackling different aspects of the debate, one of which is the Mass Health Plan (watching Kennedy’s office) and other states. Basic plans and costs, decreasing the numbers of uninsured, dealing with the cost structures and power centers in the state, quality of care and such will be examined. Below is one […]

This is my first official posting on Angry Bear. Let me start with a “thanks and delighted to be here.” I look forward to a productive interchange and expansion of the work I have been doing through ataxingmatter, my blog on tax and economic issues. I will continue to maintain the tax blog, and post […]