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Economics

Interesting Times

John Reilly manages to keep some perspective [I'm looking at you Scheske] on the recent quantitative easing announced by the Federal Reserve: Far more interesting in recent weeks is the expedition of President Obama to Ind and the Isles of Serendip; accompanied, it is said, by a locust

Where you Born on the Wrong Continent?

Good quotes from Thomas Geoghegan's new book, Where You Born on the Wrong Continent?, examining the continuing strength of the Germany economy. The Germans still manufacture a lot of things, and export a lot of things. They chose a different path than the US, and Geoghegan thinks we

I thought I was hard on economists

Why I turned against economics Throughout the 2000s, until some weeks after the 'credit crunch' crisis around September 2007, I was *extremely* interested in economics. In fact, for several years I was reading a lot of economics blogs every day without fail (about ten of them?), plus their

Beer per Capita

Beer per Capita

h/t First Things

Rational Economic Man is a Bastard

Also known as Homo Economicus, rational economic man is the staple of economics, game theory, and libertarian fantasies. And you should be glad you don't know him. Or maybe you do. Rational economic man, that construct beloved of many economics textbook authors, is hardly a superhero. Indeed, a

Economics is Confusing

Super Economy has a good bit on the Laffer Curve and Tax Rates. Ezra Klein writes an interesting article asking some economists what the revenue maximizing tax rate is. The answer from the conventional wisdom of public-finance economics is about 60-70%. This is based on relying on current estimates of

Italy Annoys Economists

Steve Sailer has a good bit on Italy today via the New York Times. Italy mystifies economists by refusing to embrace the conventional wisdom Economists said that Mr. Barbera had a point, but they also said that worrying about this issue was like fretting about the head cold of a