Author Archive

Charity Auction: “Love Is All Around” Music Video

The opening text explains it…

Read more

If the New Testament Merely Teaches Us Moral Lessons, Then Standard Christianity Collapses

Gene Callahan recently had an interesting post in Biblical inerrancy. (Loosely speaking, this is the claim that the Bible is literally true because it is the inspired Word of God. Go look at the Wikipedia entry if you want to see a subtler treatment, which contrasts Biblical inerrancy with infallibility, for example.) Here’s Gene: [T]he […]

Read more

My Thoughts on Formalism in Economics

Recently many econobloggers have offered their thoughts on what is often called “mathematics in economics,” but I think is really more about formalistic model building in economics. Here’s a very interesting post that has links to some of the other people in this dispute. For my part, just some scattered observations with no necessarily overarching […]

Read more

Yes, There Are Indeed Two Scott Sumners

In a recent post, Scott whimsically wondered whether there were two of himself. But actually, there are, in the sense that he will hammer home a particular perspective, then apparently violate it himself. One example is that he constantly says that interest rates are a poor indicator of the stance of monetary policy, yet then […]

Read more

I Knew This Would Happen: Minimum Wage Shenanigans

Remember back when we were arguing about the minimum wage? One of the things I pointed out–here’s a post on the topic but unfortunately I can’t find myself making this specific point–is that even if you conceded that “modest” increases in the minimum wage wouldn’t lead to significant drops in employment, that that had no […]

Read more

We’re #75! We’re #75!

According to a new ranking of the “most influential economics blog,” Free Advice weighs in at #75. I couldn’t have done it without both of you. I have to say, though, that I wonder about the method used here to calculate “influence.” According to the site, they use an “input output model” to generate the […]

Read more

MIT Economist’s Audacious Paper on Economic Climate Models

I’ve been traveling so much I just realized I haven’t blogged about this yet. I have two IER posts summarizing some of the key points from a forthcoming paper (in the September issue of the Journal of Economic Literature) that is surprisingly scathing in its treatment of the “social cost of carbon” estimates coming out […]

Read more

News Flash: The Non-Stupid CBO Proves DeLong Was Wrong

I am traveling all week and have to keep this short and sweet. Here’s a chronicle of what happened in yet another exchange of blogfire with my favorite Keynesians: ==> Brad DeLong said, “There are no signs in the pace of technological progress, in the level of investment…[or in several other factors–RPM]…to suggest that the […]

Read more