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 Economists on Feb 13th, 2010
It is always a delight to read Bob Fogel’s work. He ends this 2004 paper with the following story: I close with an anecdote from Simon Kuznets. He used to give a one-year course in growth economics both at Johns Hopkins and Harvard. One of the points he made was that if you wanted to [...]
Posted in Economists on Oct 12th, 2009
Congratulations Elinor Ostrom! She shares the prize with Oliver Williamson. I am delighted to see the work that Elinor does be recognized because understanding commons problems and institutions is an overlooked and extremely important part of economics from the standpoint of non-economists. Williamson, by all accounts, is a deserving winner as well. My prediction was [...]
Posted in Economists on Apr 3rd, 2009
Daron Acemoglu (some say a future young Nobel Prize winner) explains conditions when labor scarcity and high wages encourage technological innovations and when they do not. My quick take, wonks will try to use this theoretical piece to justify interventions in labor markets that artificially push up wage rates –> arguing that doing so will [...]
Posted in Economists, Politics on Nov 10th, 2008
Pay attention to the government’s budget constraint. The nation faces a long-term imbalance between government spending and tax revenue. The fundamental problem is that the federal government has promised the elderly more benefits than the tax system can support. This fiscal imbalance will become acute as more baby boomers retire and start collecting Social Security [...]
Posted in Economists, Politics on Oct 16th, 2008
WHAM TV here in Rochester wanted to know what I thought about the President’s ability to impact the economy. Read the Hayek quote at the top of this website to understand what I was trying to say. Real economics is not conducive to 30 second news-bites, but Elizabeth Schubert did as admirable a job as [...]
Posted in Economists on Aug 24th, 2007
I just received my membership renewal form from the American Economic Association. I’ve never bothered to look to closely at it, but just noticed that membership fees to the AEA are means-tested! To be a regular member, they ask: Annual income of $47,000 or less →$64 Annual income of $47,000 to $62,000 →$77 Annual income above $62,000 →$90 I [...]
Posted in Economists on Jul 23rd, 2007
Becoming a Federal Reserve Bank President from outside of the FED system is a bit like the Vatican naming a rabbi to become a Cardinal. Source will be protected.
Posted in Economists on Jun 28th, 2007
The middle part of this podcast with Nassim Taleb (author of Fooled by Randomness and the Black Swan) has an interesting discussion on the distinction between what most economists are actually doing, and those of us who have respect for the Hayekian view of the world. It all mainly boils down to the traditional economists [...]
Posted in Economists on Aug 12th, 2006
Over the past decade there has been a proliferation of “pop-economics” books. Many are terrific, but many are not. Please see me if you would like recommendations for additional reading, in addition to some classic works in economics that might help you in your journey to being able to think like an Economist. Some old [...]
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