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

Pitiful, Contemptible . . .

Holding young musicians accountable for their race, color, etc., not allowing them to express themselves in music. The United States Marine Band was founded in 1798. Thomas Jefferson gave it its nickname, “The President’s Own.” Today, 135 Marines still perform the score of the White House from parties to inaugurations. So, there was excitement, last […]

On the Effect of the Gender Composition of the Editorial Boards for Top Economics Journals

Here’s the abstract of a discussion paper from the IZA Institute of Labor Economics by Felix Bransch and Michael Kvasnicka: Using data on articles published in the top-five economic journals in the period 1991 to 2010, we explore whether the gender composition of editorial boards is related to the publishing success of female authors and […]

Not So Dumb as Economists, Part 1

I was going to point out that finance people are not so dumb as economists,* but Echidne’s takedown of Gary Becker is so divine it deserves your attention more: This argument was initially made by Gary Becker, an economist who spent years working at the best offshore casino in the Caribbean, a very long time […]

Systemic Discrimination is Legal as long as you are Large

Welcome to the New United States. Trust that Jared Bernstein (if this one shows up, instead of this one) will have more on how much future damage can be done to the economy. UPDATE: Scott Lemieux weighs in, correctly seeing it as worse than any reasonable examination of the facts would have permitted*: Systematic discrimination […]

The Supremes did us a favor with Citizens United regarding Rand Paul et al

By Daniel Becker Ok, if you have not heard, Mr Rand Paul made quite the impression during an interview with Rachel Maddow. The short of it: businesses should be free to discriminate as they see fit. It’s their right, though he’s not for discrimination. You know, citizens and all having equal rights. Well, there is […]

McMegan, Discrimination, and Inappropriate Loans

Susan of Texas has an immortal post on the housing crisis, McMegan’s ratiocination, and the persistence of ignorant memes. The money quote: McArdle doesn’t refute facts, she hen-pecks at the methods used to gather information. That way she doesn’t actually have to prove anything, she just casts enough aspersions on the data to confuse the […]