Russell Roberts's Blog, page 1540

"Measuring" the impact of the stimulus

John Taylor on the Blinder-Zandi attempt to analyze the impact of government intervention.

Taylor vs. Zandi on the PBS NewsHour.

Arnold Kling critiques here and here.

My take is summed up the by the quotations marks I've put around "measuring." Blinder and Zandi don't really measure the impact of government intervention. They measure what the model says is the impact. The model is based on past relationships that were unable to predict where we are now. This quote from the CBO explaining why...

Undertaxed?

Here's a letter to the Washington Post:

E.J. Dionne argues that rich Americans are "undertaxed" ("In American politics, stupidity is the name of the game," July 29).  He quotes the Congressional Budget Office to explain why: "the gaps in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest fifths of the country more than tripled between 1979 and 2007."

Mr. Dionne's view of "undertaxed" is odd.  The IRS reports that in 2007 (the latest year for which data are...

Seen and Unseen

Here's a letter to the New York Times:

I appreciate the sub-headline, appearing on your website, to a report on the BP oil spill: "The oil is clearing much faster than expected, but concern remains over the unseen effects" ("On the Surface, Gulf Oil Spill Is Vanishing Fast; Concerns Stay," July 28).*  Being an economist, I'm accustomed to looking beyond the visible effects of economic and political actions in order to take account also of unseen effects that often swamp that which is...

Some Links

The always-vital-and-vibrant Institute for Justice hits another home-run.

My former GMU student Alex Nowrasteh writes wisely on immigration in today's Wall Street Journal.  Here's a key 'graf:

Worse, deputizing all of Arizona's police officers as federal immigration agents will make their jobs more difficult and dangerous. This is because unauthorized immigrants would be all the more reluctant to report crimes or work with police as witnesses. As William Bratton, the former police chief in Los...

Choose to Save

Here's a letter to the New York Times:

Bob Herbert is impressed with a new Rockefeller Foundation study by Yale's Jacob Hacker and others that finds that Americans have become increasingly economically insecure over the past quarter century ("Long-Term Economic Pain," July 27).  I read the study and, for several reasons, cannot accept the authors' (and Mr. Herbert's) conclusion that this measured insecurity reflects a failure of public policy.

For example, among the critical findings – as...

There Ain't No Such Thing As Free Energy Independence

Here's a letter to the Wall Street Journal:

Like New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Gilbert Mathis wants government "to launch a Manhattan-type project to make our nation energy self-sufficient" (Letters, July 26).  Even if such an achievement is possible, and even if it would prove to be worth its costs – two big 'ifs' – "energy independence" is unlikely to allay one of the chief concerns of its champions.  Americans would still be critically dependent upon foreigners for other things...

Exporting Trade Fallacies

Here's a letter to the Wall Street Journal:

Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade, Francisco Sanchez, boasts about the Obama administration's efforts to boost U.S. exports (Letters, July 24).

Alas, there's nothing special about exports – which is to say, there's nothing special about the geographic locations in which products are sold.  Economic activity serves the public interest best when competition drives firms to produce those outputs whose sales yield the highest profits. ...

Plural Pronoun Confusion

Here's a letter to the Wall Street Journal:

Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade, Francisco Sanchez, applauds U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk for "negotiating tough bargains, ensuring that when America gives other countries the privilege of free and fair access to our market, U.S. businesses will get the same treatment in theirs" (Letters, July 23).

Question for Mr. Sanchez: What is this "our market" to which Uncle Sam allegedly holds the keys?

There is no single "our market"...

Some Links

Bob Higgs ruminates on a recent essay by Angelo M. Codevilla.

City Journal's Nicole Gelinas wrote this remarkably powerful essay.  Here's a slice:

Over the past year, hundreds of authors have published books on the crisis. What becomes clear—often despite the authors' own intentions—after reading ten of the most significant of these works is that the mainstream narrative is wrong. Over the two decades leading up to 2008, financial markets were anything but free. The nuts-and-bolts government...

Monopoly-Privilege Agents are Skilled at Verbal Legerdemain

In this letter in today's Wall Street Journal, Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez praises "[U.S. Trade:] Ambassador Ron Kirk's commitment to negotiating tough bargains, ensuring that when America gives other countries the privilege of free and fair access to our market, U.S. businesses will get the same treatment in theirs."

Translation: "Ambassador Ron Kirk is committed to holding the interests of American consumers hostage to the interests of American...