Economics

Archive for Economics

Immediate Reaction to the Latest IPCC Report

I will be writing tons on this topic in the coming weeks, but my immediate reaction to the IPCC AR5 Working Group II report that came out Monday is now up at IER. An excerpt: Now the reader should understand the hole into which the climate alarmists have dug themselves. They can’t have the IPCC […]

Krugman Elaborates on His Alien Invasion Thought Experiment

I have never said, “Paul Krugman thinks it would be good for the authorities to fake an alien invasion, ha ha what an idiot.” I knew from Day One that he was trying to be cheeky and provocative, and was merely saying that such a policy would be better than the status quo. Hence, if […]

Data Confirm: Earthquakes Not Good for Boosting Output

Tyler Cowen links to a paper by Johannes Wieland. The following excerpt from the paper should give you some insight into the state of formal economics: Standard sticky-price models predict that temporary, negative supply shocks are expansionary at the zero lower bound (ZLB) because they raise inflation expectations and lower expected real interest rates, which […]

Privatize Outer Space!

Such is my rallying cry at Mises Canada. An excerpt: Notice too that the tradeoff doesn’t have to be between something cool and exotic on the one hand (like exploring Europa), versus something lame and boring on the other hand (like giving everybody an extra pair of dress socks). The oceans on Earth are hardly […]

It Begins: Tyler Cowen Pepper Sprayed in Class

This is on Reason so I’m guessing it’s legit? I see no mention at MarginalRevolution but presumably that’s because Tyler Cowen is too suave to seek sympathy. Anyway, according to Reason: Economist, author, and George Mason University professor Tyler Cowen was pepper sprayed in his classroom today by a man trying to place him under […]

Medium-Term Treasury Yields Rising Quickly

On a conference call today with some people in the financial sector I made sure everyone was aware of this: I think a lot of casual observes (i.e. not the bond traders obviously) just think about the fed funds rate, and maybe the really short maturity Treasuries. But as the chart above shows (from here), […]

Two Great EconTalk Interviews

I highly recommend the following podcasts with Russ Roberts: ==> David Epstein discusses “the sports gene,” but more generally the nature/nurture controversy in Olympic sports. ==> Nassim Taleb discusses “skin in the game.” These EconTalk podcasts are long and involved; you can’t really listen to them while you’re doing other work. They’re great for listening […]