Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Start from Silliness and the Product is…?

Begin with a Really Stupid Assumption: Assume Tom Friedman is correct. Not about the brilliance of cab drivers, or the flatness of the Earth, or even that AGW is the route to revitalize the U.S. economy.* But assume as valid his claim that the “global economy” makes war less likely; that Pakistan and India won’t […]

Capital, Labor, and Modernization

Many years ago, I had a Cultural Anthropology professor who discussed the glories of the mechanical cherry-picker. The only catch was that (1) it had upfront and maintenance costs and (2) it performs less well than experienced cherry-pickers. In short, it would be useful if you have a shortage of labor and an excess of […]

The Economics of History, Douthat-Style

I try not to pay attention—and not provide a direct link—to the NYT’s Stupidest Conservative. It’s one of the greatest advantages of having Susan of Texas around: you can go there and see anything I might write, done better, and (in this case) with cute graphics. But when Brad DeLong falls down on the job—dealing […]

Can Either James Kwak or Mark Thoma Build This Model?

Update: Brad DeLong looks at the data and suggests that the problem may be that the current President is as innumerate as the previous one. Mark Thoma quotes James Kwak: So no, I don’t think Obama is abandoning his principles for political advantage; I think these are his principles. And while I’m upset at him, […]

Steve Randy Waldman Explains It All to You

Not certain this link will work, but at Interfluidity, SRW replies to Karl Smith, closing with a sentiment with which I am very much in sympathy: It is not technocratic economists who will win the day and pull us out of our cul-de-sac, but angry Irishmen and Spaniards who challenge, on moral terms, the right […]

Everything Old is New Again, The "Value" of Active Investment Managers Edition

First, there was Fred Schwed’s Where are the Customer’s Yachts?, which is still the standard bearer for why Money Managers are overpaid. Now (via the NYT) there is The Investment Answer (preface here [PDF]). The Prologue opens more Matt Taibbi than Jason Zweig: Wall Street brokers and active money managers use your relative lack of […]

The Class war summed up in quotes

By Daniel Becker I just want to lay out the debate going on in our economy right now. There are 4 debaters. President Obama/Geithner et al, President Obama 2008, the rich (or capitalist, those who make their money from money) and the rest of us. From President Obama’s 60 Minute interview: PRESIDENT OBAMA:…And it turns […]

In Which I Worry about the swimming pools of Casey Mulligan and Greg Mankiw

Tim Duy takes a gracious lead pipe to silly analysis: It really makes one understand why the public often dismisses academics as out of touch in their ivory towers. One has to imagine that neither Mulligan nor Mankiw ever held a real summer job. Nor, apparently, have they looked at any other nonseasonally adjusted data. […]

I resemble those remarks!

By Daniel Becker (DOLB) Following up on Robert’s post which at it’s core is discussing the article: Economic Enlightenment in Relations to College-going…. I find it interesting (not alarming at all, at least not regarding the data) that the following combination is the ultimate economically enlightened member of society if you are: very likely to […]