Potpourri
Three great pieces for ya…
* The definitive free marketeer blog post on how to think about the mark-to-market controversy.
* Bob Higgs rolls up his sleeves and blows up (what he calls) vulgar Keynesianism. I warn you that there are a few equations in here, but this is top-flight stuff. Higgs really nails the conceptual problems in the standard policy prescriptions coming from today’s gurus.
* Mario Rizzo adds yet another post on the problems with Keynesian “stimulus.” He links to this graph:
Now I’m not 100% sure, but I think what this image shows us is that the job losses during this recession are fairly concentrated in a few specific industries, particularly those in the manufacturing sector. (Note that I think the chart is not saying, “The job losses are mostly concentrated in manufacturing.” Rather, I think the chart is saying that within manufacturing, job losses are focused in very specific areas. But I could be wrong about that interpretation.)
UPDATE: Mario Rizzo sent me this clarification from the original site; they are saying the graph above means the opposite of what I claimed. My smart-butt response was, “So they should rename this the anti-diffusion index?” I will have to go the BLS and figure out exactly what this thing measures.
