R Davis spends a whole lot of words (and numbers) explaining why Arthur Laffer’s latest WSJ editorial is false and ridiculous, but those who think about data — at all — really only need to read one line. Laffer’s key error — which a high-school statistics student could spot — is to: compare growth in […]
My small effort to ameliorate the disparity in Andrew Gelman’s headline: 1.5 million people were told that extreme conservatives are happier than political moderates. Approximately .0001 million Americans learned that the opposite is true. Andrew is commenting on a Jay Livingston’s great takedown of David Arthur Brooks’ recent column asking “Who is happier about life […]
by Rebecca Wilder It’s the Exchange Rate, Stupid Eurostat released trade figures today, where the trade balance (exports less imports) surged €3.7 bn in the month of June (link to the .pdf release). The current figures imply a 2012 annualized trade balance of €66.9 bn, which is a meaningful boost to the -€7.4 bn deficit […]
Lifted from Robert’s Stochaistic thoughts is a post that comments on Italian political/economists and government policy. There are some ‘in the know’ names for US readers: Simon Wren-Lewis asks. I answer. In real authentic East of the English Channel Europe, economists don’t endorse candidates, because elections don’t matter. Neither do they endorse gymnasts, because our […]
An comment worth noting on an interesting post Where Are You in the Economic Strata? by Barry Ritholtz is the following (hat tip Mike K.): In my opinion, aspirational voting is the consequence of a rationaldedication to ethics based upon false assumptions of what is ethical.As I see it, there are two forms of income. The first […]
Mark Thoma takes a poke at Joe Biden’s guarantees on SS in No Changes in Social Security: I wish I could believe this. Biden guarantees: ‘There will be no changes in Social Security’, by Michael O’Brien, NBC News: …”Hey, by the way, let’s talk about Social Security,” Biden said…”Number one, I guarantee you, flat guarantee […]
I can’t help but compare Yves Smith’s appraisal of SEC performance and either party’s political attitude to the previous post by Peter Henning: If you merely looked at the SEC’s record on enforcement, you’d conclude that it suffered from a Keystone Kops-like inability to get out of its own way. The question remains whether that […]
The NYT reported that: Standard Chartered, the British bank, has agreed to pay New York’s top banking regulator $340 million to settle claims that it laundered hundreds of billions of dollars in tainted money for Iran and lied to regulators.(Dan here…We do not know how much remained with Standard Charter as various kinds of fees, […]
James Kwak offers a take on the election campaign so far, on how information is offered and accepted, and how ‘voters’ choose to respond: …Democrats should be worried, because Romney and Ryan have the better debating position. Their position is simple and superficially compelling: Government is bad. (Cf. the DMV—it’s state, not federal, and the […]
Peter J. Henning, a colleague of Linda Beale, poses the question in the NYT: Is That It for Financial Crisis Cases? Last week turned out to be a good one for Goldman Sachs. The Justice Department closed a criminal investigation of the firm and its chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, and the firm disclosed that […]