30
Jun
2020
Potpourri
==> Scott Sumner nails it: It’s my fault the Fed has been engaged in tight money, and the coming socialism is also my bad.
==> SlateStarCodex has been taken down, because the NYT was going to report the blogger’s full name. This is a complex issue. I’m sure the outcome is crazy, but I don’t know exactly what to blame.
==> Regarding MMT, the issue of, “Can the Treasury bounce a check?” is more nuanced than I originally could find in my research. Check out this post from Selgin on it.
This is a complex issue. I’m sure the outcome is crazy, but I don’t know exactly what to blame.
Really? It seems pretty obvious to me…
The vast majority of the blame rests with the NYT author/editor, who refused Scott’s very simple request to omit his real name. His real name is not germane and does not add anything significant to the story, and the notion that it’s some sort of inflexible policy has been proven to be obviously false. He even told them that if they didn’t honor the request he’d delete the blog, and they said “fine, do it.”
There’s also some blame that resides with the general left-wing progressive mob that Scott (accurately) believes will threaten his career and his physical safety (and that of his friends, family, and patients) if his real name is more easily available.
Although the notion that the NYT and the general woke mob are somehow two separate entities strikes me as somewhat suspect…
Agree with M M. This issue does not seem complex at all. Bob, do you want to elaborate on the nuance that you’re seeing here?
My first reaction is that the NYT is being daft. Unless the identity of the blogger is central to the story, there is no good reason to publish it. The anonymous source policy is a good one, as these sources are unaccountable and one could publish virtually anything citing anonymous sources. Requiring senior level sign off is a good policy in general. This story does not seem to be the same as this, abd Scott Alexander is not an anonymous source, but the author of the blog.
If the article is about the blog, then Scott Alexander is sufficient – his reputation for the blog is based in this identity, so when this name is used everyone knows who we are talking about in the context of the blog.
Unless the story is much more than a report of SSC, and the story really does require his name to be included. It is hard to see how this is the case, but if the story is ever published we may find out.
Bob,
Re Scott Sumner’s charge, you can’t say he didn’t “warm” you.
Scott Sumner is pushing a psychopathic view of reality and is attempting to target libertarians like Robert Murphy for HIS OWN FAILURE to ‘convince’ the Fed to ‘adopt’ his preferred rate of pressing CTRL-P. My goodness does that guy need help.
He is projecting his own failures onto others. “It’s your fault the Fed isn’t doing what I want them to do.”
Who in their right mind would blame the victims of a serial killer (who say works at McDonalds) for failing to send McDonalds a demand to give their employees a pay raise to ‘quell’ the employee’s evil ‘urges’?
That the serial killer is not to blame for his own actions, but those who wouldn’t ‘tame the inner beast’ of the killer by doing more to put more dollars in their pockets?
“If you only just speak up and give the killer just one more dollar, then we wouldn’t be seeing the Democrat Party try to impose socialism.
This is a totally bankrupt philosophy that puts evil as the ‘default’, and you and everyone else who failed give the evil enough money are all guilty for the evil getting more angry.
God help him.