Month: April 2010
-
Mankiw: Do Equity Analysts Create Prosperity?
In my peregrinations I just came across an old 2006 post by Greg Mankiw. He describes the situation of: …a Harvard PhD in economics who left an academic job for a better-paying one in private equity. Based on the article, he seemed a bit wistful about leaving an academic job behind. At a higher tax…
-
Another Reaganomics Inflection Point
The solid line (left scale) is the ratio of financial sector wages to private sector wages. The dotted line (right scale) is an index of financial regulation. From: 13 Bankers In 4 Pictures Related posts: The Global Great Depression: Then and Now Public vs. Private Debt: The Long View If Interest Rates Rise, We Can…
-
Does Unemployment Insurance Make People Lazy?
Short answer: Yes. Slightly longer answer: Not very many people, and not much lazier. Rob Valletta and Katherine Kuang of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco just released a new study of unemployment insurance and unemployment. This graphic stands out: People who quit their jobs or are just entering the job market aren’t eligible…
-
Where Did the Deficits Come From? From “Conservatives” of Course
You already know this, but: Click image for source. Related posts: Yeah Right: Supply of Credit to Businesses Is a Big Problem 520 Traffic is Declining — Despite 15 Years of WSDOT Projections to the Contrary Did I Mention Mentioning that It’s the Health Care Costs, Stupid? More American Exceptionalism: Drowning the Baby in the…
-
Should the Financial Sector Shrink?
The financial services industry seems to be x times larger than it needs to be to effectively service and lubricate the real economy that produces useful goods and services. (Arnold Kling is one of many that agree with me.) This suggests that the market is misallocating resources (both capital and human). It is also failing…
-
Pubs and Economic Opportunity: Not
I’ve blogged about this before, but I need to pass on another piece of proof, courtesy of Matthew Yglesias. Adopting one of the free-marketers’ favorite mantras: a good economic system allocates resources to create the greatest prosperity for all. (It’s a sum function.) That includes human resources: people’s talents are directed where they’re most effective…
-
Tea Partiers: Old, White, Rich, Educated Men
That’s not the whole tea party, of course. But tea partiers skew strongly on each of these dimensions, according to a new NYT/CBS poll. I just think it’s worth pointing out that that group has benefited more than any other from the government policies that were put in place before their births and while they…
-
Do Experts Know Better?
My friend Steve likes to proclaim the value of casual intuition — based on one’s day-to-day observations over the course of life — and downplay the value of expertise, analysis, and data in making good judgments. Among other things, he defends Sarah Palin and other less-thinkerly politicians on these grounds. He also points to Robert…
-
Change Your Goddam Voice Mail Message! (Pass It On)
Starting today, your outgoing voice mail message should start (and quite possibly end) with: Hi this is [insert your name here]. Press [star or pound] to leave a message. I probably don’t have to explain why. But I will. 1. Everybody hates waiting through your message, and they really hate waiting through the instructions on…
-
Stockman: Was It Reagan’s Fault?
I finally got around to reading (large chunks of) David Stockman’s book on the rise of Reaganomics. Having done so, I realize I could have learned everything I needed from the back cover: There’s only one thing I disagree with here: “…it had not been his fault. He had been misled by a crew of…
-
Incarceration and Unemployment: U.S. and Europe
Ever since Bryan offered this bet on future unemployment rates in the U.S. and Europe, I’ve been wondering: how do incarceration rates affect those numbers? Europe has consistently higher unemployment than the U.S., but the U.S. has far and away the highest incarceration rate in the world — .75% of the population. (World Prison Population…