This long post by Steve Randy Waldman has been getting attention in the econ blogosphere and is a slamming bit of writing that's also clear and coherent and seems to explain a lot.

http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/5965.html

The two money quotes, so to speak:

With respect to ( Read more... )

Emailed this to Dave and Mark the day after the election:

As for yesterday's election, it went even worse than I'd feared (though so far it looks as if the Dems held onto the governor's office in Colorado, though just barely). My only thought, which is not necessarily correct as far as winning elections goes, but ( Read more... )

Always meaning to post more, and also need to comment on a shitload of things (three Mark Sinker threads need more input from me - Inuit tech, Oasis, hallway-classroom [UPDATE: Sinker links added] - not to mention what I owe Mark behind the scenes). In the meantime, here are links to four five blogposts from Paul Krugman on the use of models. ( Read more... )

Say I want to understand human financial behavior. The behavior is actually complex, but if I make the following simplifying assumptions I can at least have a place to start, and can make some calculations, predictions, etc ( Read more... )

It's out of the U.S. headlines, but news from Cyprus keeps getting worse.

Cyprus forced to find extra €6bn for bailoutThis is all a stratosphere beyond my understanding, but is there any reason whatsoever for Cyprus to stay in the eurozone?* All the banking disruption that such a move would precipitate has already happened anyway. If the ( Read more... )

Damned if I know ( Read more... )

Here are the first two paragraphs of an AP article by Pan Pylas and Frances D'Emilio ("Italian election inconclusive; global markets drop") on the market response to the Italian election results. I've bolded the text that I find questionable, my question being how do the writers know that what's worrying investors is that the next government won't ( Read more... )

In endorsing the work of this guy (though Krugman probably has a stronger technical basis in economics for his endorsement):

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3885

Dave over on Tumblr:

I like voting in it - stayed on board for the Jackin’ Pop year (voted in both polls) and have thought about staying on this year, since for better or worse it’s the only huge critics poll. Glenn McDonald is still doing stats, which alone kind of makes me want to participate. Just wondering if anyone is staging a parallel poll ( Read more... )

I just posted these Krugman links on the "Persuade An Atheist" thread, where they're tangential. Krugman is quoting and floating ideas about technological advances making workers superfluous in some areas and thereby increasing income inequality. I decided this needed more attention - that is, Krugman says it needs attention ("it's important stuff ( Read more... )