Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Competition, Economic Illiteracy, Market Failures, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 2nd, 2016
DD sends me the following article which suggests that Uber is losing quite a bit of money, is not going to turn profitable, and presumably is the worst thing to ever happen to America. Two quick points, should you care to read through the article. The author argues (and I am not sure I disagree […]
Posted in labor markets, Price Controls, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Nov 29th, 2016
A surprisingly large number of smart people support raising the minimum wage. In two separate conversations this week with very intelligent people, it was argued to me: That there is some research (I once wrote a book review of this) suggesting that labor markets are monopsonistic. And I can draw you a picture of how […]
Posted in labor markets, Price Controls, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Nov 28th, 2016
There is a well-regarded theory in economics (and popular?) that suggests that during slack economic conditions, we should welcome a bit of unexpected inflation from the Fed. Why? Well, for one, if you believe in a sticky wage view of the world, and the psychological and practical difficulties with employers lowering wages to existing workers, […]
Posted in Methodology on Nov 8th, 2016
Of course from the always worth pondering Scott Alexander, easily my favorite blogger on the world-wide-interweb: If a Trump victory tomorrow would convince you that X is true, I suggest that you believe X is true regardless of whether or not Trump wins, because Trump’s victory almost certainly will depend more on noise than on […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Economists, Methodology, Tribalism on Oct 27th, 2016
Arnold Kling relaying Noah Smith relaying the state of the economics profession. I do not disagree. In a related essay, Smith argues that the current debate in economics is between the center-left and the radical left. The New Center-Left Consensus is attractive to academics and policy wonks. It draws on an eclectic mix of mainstream […]
Posted in Macroeconomics, Politics on Aug 1st, 2016
This finding, while not surprising, is hard for me to square with the Political Economy we live in: On the Distribution of the Welfare Losses of Large Recessions by Dirk Krueger, Kurt Mitman, Fabrizio Perri – NBER WP#22458 How big are the welfare losses from severe economic downturns, such as the U.S. Great Recession? How […]
Posted in Market Failures on Jul 25th, 2016
I am a fan of consensual capitalist acts. It would be wonderful if many more transactions people had a chance to engage with in their lives were ones where both parties had some agency about whether and how to enter such transactions. Sadly, and I am going to sound like some dour anti-capitalist nutcase now, I […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Methodology on Jul 12th, 2016
To proclaim that there is no truth, that there is not even a scintilla of objective reality, is to exercise a phenomenal degree of privilege, no? This is to suggest that there is no way to obtain more knowledge about a topic. So when it comes to the workings of the price system and a […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Extended Order, Methodology on Jul 5th, 2016
I tend to think this is a major problem on college campuses, but suspect it is a more general problem. Briefly, if you think about how progressively liberal a college campus is, and the human tendency to want to be accepted, it should not be a shock that you do not often see lots of […]
Posted in Methodology on May 28th, 2016
There was once a collection put together of 100 Authors Against Einstein, meant to criticize his theory of relativity. Einstein’s reaction is wonderful: Why 100 authors? If I were wrong, one of them would be enough!
