In Today’s News …
Posted in Methodology on Sep 20th, 2017
Even in a casual conversation, 2, 3 and 6 happened today and yesterday. Joy.
Category Archive for 'K-O'
YCHIBW: Cherry Picking Data Edition
Posted in Disingenuous, Environment, labor markets, Tribalism, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Sep 20th, 2017
My eyes tend to gravitate toward climate and labor market issues, so I encounter the following two “arguments” all of the time. (1) There are those who present global temperature data in the following way: “if you look at global temperature records, the rate of temperature increase around the planet has either slowed or paused […]
Wintercow’s Iron Laws of Climate
Posted in Disingenuous, Environment, Methodology, Tribalism on Sep 7th, 2017
To appreciate the state of the “debate”, replace every use of the term “climate change” in a debate with “Genetically Modified Organisms.” If an economist dares to speak on climate change, lighting bolts will descend upon her from the heavens and the fires of Hades will engulf her from below If you see the word […]
On Politico-Macro Theorizing and Climate Change
Posted in Environment, Macroeconomics, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Aug 30th, 2017
Many of you are well aware of the Keynesian push for boosting aggregate demand when an economy is slumping. Indeed, we rarely are told when the economy is doing well enough to not need a shot in the arm. That suits many of our political biases. So, I ask this question in all seriousness. Don’t […]
If Economic Models Were Like Climate Models
Posted in Methodology on Aug 21st, 2017
We would evaluate their success based on how well they could be fit to past economic observations. To the theory nerds out there, do you know of ANY economic models that have not, ex post, been able to back-forecast what has already happened?
Top Notch History and Political Economy Analysis Everywhere
Posted in Methodology, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Aug 15th, 2017
My faith in humanity is being regularly rocked, but perhaps that is just too much of an overreaction to current events. But for the sake of intellectual consistency, will those folks delighting in the tarring of the entire classical liberal program through dark and nefarious long arcs of the work of James Buchanan now be […]
Pondering Government Spending
Posted in Macroeconomics on Aug 15th, 2017
I’m too lazy to extract the data, but roughly speaking, in the mid-1950s, the federal government spent between 17% and 20% of GDP. Of that percentage, between 80% to 85% of that spending was discretionary. What this means in an 8th grade sort of way was that there was lots of money to quibble over and to […]
Should I Scream?
Posted in labor markets on Aug 14th, 2017
So, within a short bicycle ride or car ride from where I live there are five (probably more) ice cream shops that I like to visit. I was going to say that my kids like to visit, but I am driving the proverbial bus on this one. I won’t name their names, but if you […]
Saturday Pro Tip
Posted in Methodology on Aug 12th, 2017
As you are chugging your Hatorade … just because someone is providing a commentary on the means, that is not synonymous with a commentary on the ends. Enjoy your weekend.
Well, is that fair?
Posted in ethical foundations, Methodology, Voluntary Society on Mar 4th, 2017
In our measures of welfare in economics, we pay careful attention to the impacts an exchange has not just on those parties who are involved in the exchange, but also to third parties who may be receiving benefits or incurring costs as a result of Person A exchanging with Person B. What economics tends to not do […]
