The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems, Economists on Mar 16th, 2012
So this is what the vigorous and free exchange of ideas has come to? Our dear friend is running around with a blowtorch in a hayfield … As a result, U.S. oil production has risen significantly over the past three years, reversing a decline over decades, while natural gas production has exploded. Given this expansion, [...]
Posted in Economics Problems, Economists, Macroeconomics on Mar 14th, 2012
I am sure my readers would wrinkle their eyebrows upon utterance of the name Brad DeLong. After all, this is a guy who regularly calls all Republicans hacks and does not shy away from throwing his opponents under the ad hominem bus. But that does not mean you ought not read some of the things [...]
Posted in Economics Problems, Economists on Mar 9th, 2012
Mark Thoma points us to a Krugman column that basically says the Republicans are trashing American values by questioning the value of higher education. In fact he explicitly makes the argument that Republicans want people to NOT go to college because that will keep lots of Americans ignorance, and therefore keep mobility low and therefore [...]
Posted in Economists on Nov 12th, 2011
I wished we’d see more of this, not just for an academic journal, but in the major press and blogosphere.
Posted in Economists on Jun 20th, 2011
When a world class economist makes a comment like this: But even building bridges to nowhere would create jobs, not destroy them, as the congressman from nowhere knows. To be sure, that is not a valid argument for building them. Dumb public spending deserves to be rejected—but not because it kills jobs. I am sure [...]
Posted in Behavior, Economics Problems, Economists on Mar 18th, 2011
I recently waded through Veblen’s famous Theory of the Leisure Class. I found it tough reading, far more of a slog than reading Hayek, and on par with reading some of the great philosophers of the late 19th and early 20th century. In an essay that you simply must read, HL Mencken describes the writing [...]
Posted in Competition, Economics Problems, Economists, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Mar 16th, 2011
I’ve just finished reading Joe Stiglitz’s account of the financial crisis. In it he makes the following comment: Competition, in this case, had a perverse effect: It caused a race to the bottom — a race to provide ratings that were most favorable to those being rated. Ughh. I guess being a Nobel Prize winner [...]
Posted in Economists on Feb 5th, 2011
Nobody can be a great economist who is only an economist — and I am tempted to add that the economist who is only an economist is likely to become a nuisance if not a positive danger. – Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Posted in Economists, Flotsam and Jetsam on Oct 30th, 2010
“Many advocates of free trade claim that higher productivity growth in the United States will offset pressure on wages caused by the global sweatshop economy, but the appealing theory falls victim to an unpleasant fact. Productivity has been going up, without resulting wage gains for American workers. Between 1977 and 1992, the average productivity of [...]
Posted in Economists, Education on Oct 2nd, 2010
Now, at age 36, I am at a stage of intellectual development that I should have had as a 22 year old. In other words, all of the stuff you read on this site is really of no better quality than any well-educated person in the old Western tradition would have been able to produce [...]
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