Category: Economics
-
Did I Mention That It’s the Wealth, Stupid?
No related posts.
-
Did CRA and the GSEs Cause the Housing Crisis? Uh uh.
areas disproportionately served by lenders covered by the CRA experienced lower delinquency rates and less risky lending. Similarly, the threshold tests show no evidence that either program had a significantly negative effect on outcomes. Emphasis mine. via The Subprime Crisis: Is Government Housing Policy to Blame? | The Big Picture. Related posts: Eugene Fama on…
-
Hard-Working Germans vs Lazy Italians? Not so Much.
My buddy Ole has a great line that I’ve been following and quoting as a mantra for businesspeople for a couple of decades: Hire the lazy. By which he means (and I mean), hire people who will figure out how to streamline and automate the boring and repetitive parts of their jobs, so they can…
-
“Riddle me this: did all of these countries have a Fannie/Freddie or CRA?”
The Bonddad Blog: About that GSE/CRA Causing the Bubble Argument ….. Related posts: Eugene Fama on the (Subprime) Meltdown Did Fannie, Freddie, and the Community Reinvestment Act Cause the Meltdown? Uh uh. Did CRA and the GSEs Cause the Housing Crisis? Uh uh. The Poor Get Poorer Explaining the Fed Credibility Argument
-
The Legacy of Reaganomics in Two Graphs
’81. ’90. ’01. ’08. Does anyone else see a trend here? Chart Focus: How high unemployment lingers. Related posts: Length of Unemployment is Worst Since World War II There is Only One Trustworthy News Source: Fox. There is Only One Trustworthy News Source: Fox. There is Only One Trustworthy News Source: Fox. There is Only…
-
Why People Vote: “Doing It” Together
PoliSci folks have been pointing out forever that voting is irrational. The odds that your vote will make any difference are miniscule, so taking the time and effort to fill out the form (much less learn about the issues) is a losing proposition. It seems that people believe in the power of collective action. Or…
-
Monetary or Fiscal, Discretionary or Non? Think: Automatic Stabilizers
Richard Williamson and Lars Christensen are having an interesting discussion on the language of Market Monetarism (a moniker that Lars coined). Lars objects to Richard’s use of “monetary stimulus” because for him as an economist: o “Stimulus” smacks of discretion(ary fiscal policy). o One of the keys to Market Monetarism (actually of monetary policy, period)…
-
Tea Partiers and OWSers: Who Needs to Get a Job?
In fact their employment level is about the same, but a lot more of the OWSers are working for a living. How can that be? Retirement. the Wall Street Journal found: … the proportion of protesters unemployed (15%) is within single digits of the national unemployment rate (9.1%). Professor Hector R. Cordero-Guzman and business analyst Harrison…
-
Winterspeak is Right: Economists Don’t Understand that Debt Matters. And Inflation Does Too.
He’s not exactly right (in this case) that “Economists don’t understand accounting,” but they do have some very odd ideas about it. He quotes Steve Keen: I couldn’t convince several of the academics in the audience of the importance of private debt: they kept coming back to “one person’s debt is another person’s asset, therefore…
-
“Our problem is not that we don’t have enough stuff — it’s that we don’t have enough ways for people to work and prove that they deserve this stuff.”
“Are Jobs Obsolete?” http://www.rushkoff.com/blog/2011/9/7/cnncom-are-jobs-obsolete.html
-
The Poor Get Poorer
Some more eye-popping if localized numbers, these from Seattle’s insanely great local real-estate blog, Seattle Bubble. Single-family home sales, median prices in King County, Washington: Decline from Peak YOY Decline Price Quintile: to Oct. 2011 Bottom 50% 20% Low 42% 18% Median 34% 13% High 28% 11% Top 28% 5% To quote The Tim, the…
-
Well Being Comes from Equality, Not GDP
“If Americans want to live the American Dream, they should go to Denmark.” Here’s the book. Related posts: More on American Inequality and (Lack of) Opportunity Republicans Create Opportunity? Yeah, Right. Guns and Gun Deaths, State by State The Strategic Value of Torture True Conservative Values, and Torture
-
Is it Stupid to Get an English Degree Instead of a Business Degree?
There’s lots of chatter out there these days about how college students are getting degrees in Lithuanian Folk Dancing instead of Mechanical Engineering, and how they should stop whining about their poor job prospects. Point well taken, but I was interested to come across this interactive table, courtesy of a link from Ryan Avent. Here,…
-
Yes: Machines Are Replacing Humans
Q: Does technology complement or replace human labor? A: Yes. I’ve looked at this in some depth — with much thinking help from Robin Hanson — here, here and here. After thinking and reading about it for another year or so, I’m prepared to make the bald statement: Yes, an ever-increasing number of workers in America…
-
Did Fannie, Freddie, and the Community Reinvestment Act Cause the Meltdown? Uh uh.
This meme has been shredded every which way from Sunday, but given that Michael Bloomberg promulgated it yet again just this week, I felt the need to share the facts for those who might not have seen them. Let’s start with a picture: Those two bars on the left are loans that American Enterprise Institute…
-
Does Self-Employment Cause Government Deficits?
I’m not really suggesting it does. It’s just that I found this graphic to be pretty eye-catching: From this CEPR PDF, “An International Comparison of Small Business Employment”. Notice the top (five out of) six. Also that the “America as the land of the independent entrepreneur” meme seems profoundly misplaced. I don’t have much more…
-
Nick Rowe: “If it wasn’t an equilibrium, it would be somewhere else.”
I can’t begin to tell you how much I’ve learned from reading Nick Rowe’s stuff. But still, I constantly feel that his underlying assumptions are wrong. Here’s a great example: The US economy is currently in equilibrium. It’s not a market-clearing equilibrium. It’s not a very good equilibrium. But it is an equilibrium. If it wasn’t an…
-
Why Doesn’t Warren Buffett Give All His Money to the Government?
Psychohistorian’s comment over at Modeled Behavior gives the best answer I’ve seen to this question (a specious rhetorical question that — since it ignores the obvious issue of collective action — Tyler Cowen acknowledges to be worthy of a fifteen-year-old). If I say, “We should all bring a dish so we can have a potluck, 
-
Are Lawyers Getting Cheaper?
Random facts: I got curious, given the glut of lawyers out there (the BLS data people are citing says 44K graduates and 30K job openings a year in the U.S.), whether fees are being driven down. The only data I can find is from Canada, and it suggests that they are — pretty profoundly: (The…
-
Krugman: “while we were arguing about NAFTA, Sauron was gathering his forces in Mordor”
via EPIphenomena – NYTimes.com. Related posts: Must. Make. Gubmint. Smaller. Proofiness! It’s About Bloody Time. Sheesh. Did I Mention Mentioning that It’s the Health Care Costs, Stupid? We Should Make Janitors Work Longer Because Lawyers Are Living Longer
-
Yeah, Right: Government Regulation Is the Problem
Bruce Bartlett points us to this: Where do these numbers come from? The Bureau of Labor Statistics asks businesses why they laid people off, and the businesses tell them. Welcome to the reality-based community. Related posts: Reagan Staffer Bartlett Quotes Conservative Icon Wills, Eviscerating Republicans Choosing a VP For All the Right Reason Drowning the Baby…