Piketty

Archive for Piketty

Revisiting Piketty’s Summary of the U.S. Minimum Wage

The good news is that one person responded to my labor of love (i.e. my long comment) on Scott Alexander’s post on Piketty. The bad news is that the guy’s response contained stuff like this: If that’s the worst, most partisan error in Piketty, then I’m not too concerned. If anything I’m more concerned about […]

Potpourri

==> At IER, I discuss Doug Ford’s election (in Ontario). He ran on a platform promising to roll back cap-and-trade. ==> Sorry if I already pushed this: In the latest Contra Krugman I go solo and talk about the economics of climate change policy. ==> FEE’s Blinking Lights award, given this year to Nelson Nash. […]

Maybe Piketty Will Fix His Basic Facts in the Third Edition

For the context here, Piketty’s bestseller totally botched the history of the US minimum wage in the post-1980 era, in a way that conveniently praised Democrats and excoriated Republicans. (Phil Magness and I documented it in our paper, but Veronique de Rugy–I think?–was the first person who flagged this one.) Anyway, someone sent me screenshots […]

Murphy Twin Spin (Kinda Sorta)

==> Here’s my recent IER post on the Fed and oil prices. And here’s a comparable one from David Beckworth. ==> I’m a scholar contributing to the marketplace of ideas. First Phil Magness and I get published, and now we get cited in another economist’s article! Quick somebody get me a pipe and a smoking jacket.

Potpourri

==> Blimey Cow on “there should be a law.” ==> A new Fraser Institute collection (edited by Don Boudreaux) on (the decline of) economic freedom and entrepreneurship in the US. ==> I liked this post by Bryan Caplan, on how “econ melts your brain” (and not in a good way–he doesn’t mean, “It’ll blow your […]

Solving the Great Piketty Minimum Wage History Mystery

My latest at Mises CA. For the quick version, Phil Magness showed me a data table from Piketty that makes it clearer what the heck happened with Piketty’s erroneous “history” of the U.S. minimum wage. Specifically, Piketty came up with annual values by looking at the minimum wage as it stood on January 1 of […]

Translate Piketty?

Do we have any fluent French speakers who can translate these two paragraphs, taken from an August 2014 Piketty column (HT2 Magness)? La croissance perpétuelle de la population, le dynamisme de ses universités et de ses innovations ont pour l’instant préservé le pays de cette dérive. Mais cela ne suffit plus. Une première fois déjà, […]

Potpourri

==> My co-authors at the Fraser Institute and I have a new book out that explains economic principles to the layperson. The ideas are universal but the book is aimed at a Canadian audience. ==> When Tyler Cowen goes head-to-head against Scott Sumner, I side with Cowen. ==> Phil Magness has some fun with the […]