The Political Economy of Effective Altruism by Peter Dorman @ EconoSpeak Back in the day, I used to give talks on child labor. I would always begin by saying that boycotts and shaming of corporations, while understandable as an emotional response, were unlikely to do much for the world’s children. This was because very little […]
Peter Dorman, Econospeak, A Racist Screed in the New York Times Really bad, misguided, even malicious writing serves a purpose, showing in extreme form the faults that, more subtly expressed, can pass under the radar. That’s my reaction to this execrable column from today’s New York Times on the violation the author felt when her front lawn […]
by Peter Dorman (from Econospeak) Child Labor Defended by the Left Well, some of the left, but they probably represent the main currents of progressive thought among intellectuals. Those who not part of the charmed circle of researchers, activists and policy-makers in the realm of child labor may not know that a storm has been […]
by Peter Dorman (from Econospeak) Pet Peeve: An America that Sees Only Itself This is a small but typical example: the New York Times today ran a story about frictions in the switch to embedded-chip credit cards. The process has been bumpy, and retailers think the banks and payment processors have been exploiting them, while […]
by Peter Dorman (originally from Econospeak) Good Jobs for Non-College Grads It’s good to see that Katherine Newman has spoken up for really investing in kids who aren’t going on to college, which will always be a substantial chunk of them, no matter what. If there’s any sort of social contract worth defending, it has to […]
Peter Dorman at Econospeak writes a gem of a post asking readers to ask simple questions when offered a morality tale by journalists, or an implied cause and effect tale, and how it takes no special skill to ask simple business questions that the journalist should at least ask, even if not o tanswer all […]
Peter Dorman at Econospeak takes a look at economics and models. (Re-posted with authors consent) How to Think About Aggregate Labor Markets The remarkable Tyler Cowen has me scratching my head again. Here he is at the beginning of a critique of minimum wage laws and sticky-price Keynesianism. (The latter is an oxymoron, as anyone […]
Peter Dorman at Econospeak speaks to the current selling of big idea models of the world (re-posted with permission from the author): There’s a review on the Dissent website by Steve Randy Waldman of Freaks of Fortune: The Emerging World of Capitalism and Risk in America by Jonathan Levy. The book sounds interesting, but it […]
Peter Dorman at Econospeak discusses problems with microfoundations, and in a more thorough paper at Association Economique politique explores the Political Econonomic Outlook for Capitalism. Mark Thoma had pointed to this Business/behavioral science can help guide economic-policy view notion of looking at incentives in an empirical way.
Peter Dorman at Econospeak brings us another reminder about policy decisions on the economy. Reposted from Econospeak: The Main Point Macroeconomics is complicated and political economy is devilish, so it is easy to get lost in the details. From time to time, it’s good to come up for air—to remember what the fundamental issue is. […]