Lindsey Wilson writes:
Please look over your comment and make revisions (or let me know if everything is okay). The transcript wasn’t in good shape this time so we had to guess on some of the comments; therefore, please review your remarks carefully.
Bradford DeLong argued that the [...]
The Copenhagen climate summit is in disarray after developing nations walked out of the conference early Monday, reports BBC. At issue: Whether Copenhagen will ditch the old Kyoto Protocol. That means the climate confab is temporarily suspended.
A walkout by poor countries was always an option, The Guardian notes, [...]
Sadly, my freshman seminar is now over. Above is a group shot from our last meeting, held over dinner at my house. (Note the shirts, which the seminar participants arranged.)
I am bit embarrassed to admit this, but the answer is Lady Gaga. Her music reminds me Blondie, which I enjoyed back in my student days. I particularly like the Lady Gaga song Bad Romance.
The fact that the ARRA was not big enough to put the unemployment rate on a downward trajectory is unfortunate. But now CBO joins in with its assessment that it is indeed working.
Menzie Chinn writes:
Econbrowser: CBO's Assessment of ARRA's Impact on Q3 Output and Employment: From CBO's just' [...]
From CBO's just released Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output as of September 2009 :
...Economic output and employment in the spring and summer of 2009 were lower than CBO had projected at the beginning of the year. But in CBO's judgment, that outcome reflects greater-than-projected weakness [...]
Suffolk University’s Ben Powell — a GMU economics PhD — reminds us why the pilgrims had reason to be thankful: they got rid of a turkey of an economic arrangement. Here’s a selection from Ben’s short essay:
In 1620 Plymouth Plantation was founded with a system of communal property rights. [...]
I've had many readers emailing me, asking what I think of the "trove" of emails unearthed from climate change researchers. I'll admit I haven't read through the rather embarrassing revelations, I've only read a few media summaries and excerpts. I see a few lessons:
1. Do not criticize other [...]
Here.
The narrative is more important than the facts. People like the narrative because it pleases them. Not because it’s true. Truth is elusive.
But evidence and facts do matter.
So when someone says the TARP was central to preventing disaster, don’t disagree. Don’t talk about how evil and anti-democratic it was [...]
In Jeff Tucker's superb article If You Believe in IP, How Do You Teach Others?, he notes Rand's increasing focus on exalting the creator and elevating "intellectual rights" to such a height that they totally trump real rights. This is no exaggeration. As I noted in Against Intellectual [...]
All too often, pundits, financial writers and commentators look at markers, they try to create an “If Then” causation narrative.
This typically creates a false impression that X caused Y. It is difficult to disprove, because we lack the counter-factual, i.e., where the X event did not occur under the exact [...]
Michael Fletcher and Neil Irwin are an embarrassment to the Washington Post.
Think of that.
Let's turn the mike over to Tim Fernholz:
TAPPED Archive | The American Prospect: President Obama has announced his intention to hold a Jobs Summit at the White House, reacting to the high unemployment rate and [...]
Heebee-Geebie reports:
Unfogged: I don't know when exactly it started, but NPR now uses the word "torture" without qualifications to describe the activities at Guantanamo. That is critically important in shaping the narrative we tell, as a society, about our actions post-9/11.
' [...]"You men will come to no Christian end!" Rutgers vs. Princeton 140 years ago on Nov. 6th 1869, Allen Barra lays out a nice story on the first college football game ever played.
Note how the rules of the game were set.
Here's something I didn't know. Mr. Magoo, in a [...]
Due to an unexpected outbreak of rationality (and perhaps embarrassment), the Treasury department has rejected requests of Goldman Sachs and Berkshire Hathaway to purchase Tax Credits from Fannie Mae.
This paper transaction would have provided precisely zero value to the taxpayers, and allowed these firms to add to the piles of [...]
