Russell Roberts's Blog, page 1586
February 21, 2010
Ungovernable
There's a debate going on in the punditsphere about whether America is ungovernable. We can't seem to get anything done. On one side people argue that the failure of health care legislation and cap and trade prove that America is ungovernable. On the other side are those who argue that those are unpopular and America is as governable and ungovernable as ever.
I think it's the wrong debate. Thomas Friedman in the New York Times unintentionally illustrates why:
A small news item from Tracy...
DeLong update
Brad has revised his post. I have been upgraded from "liar" to "gullible" for believing the Daily Mail article. I will let readers decide for themselves whether this charge is accurate.
The bottom line on the facts is that according to Phil Jones, for the last 15 years, there has been a warming trend of .012 C per year, a trend that is not statistically significant. Whether 15 years is a short time is something of a judgment call. That may turn out to be irrelevant in either direction as time ...
February 19, 2010
Finally, Brad DeLong calls me a liar
What took him so long? And not just any liar, the "lyingest economist alive."
Details below the fold as well as my defense, if it interests you. It's a bit long, but when you're called the "lyingest economist alive" I think it's worth a careful response.
Brad doesn't like this post where I wrote that Phil Jones, climate scientist, says there's no warming trend over the last 15 years. I had read (and linked to) this article from the Daily Mail that began:
The academic at the centre of the...
February 18, 2010
Protectionism Makes People Poorer. Period.
Here's a letter that I sent yesterday to the Wall Street Journal:
Uncle Sam argues that China unjustly gains economic benefits by keeping the yuan undervalued ("U.S. Expected to Press China on Yuan," Feb. 17). Bad argument.
When I was a boy, my school held fund-raising fairs. Using dollars, my classmates and I purchased as many fair 'tickets' as we wanted. We then used these tickets to buy whatever foods and toys were sold at the fair. Of course, some items cost more tickets than other...
February 17, 2010
The Great Stimulus Hoax
David Leonhardt writes in the New York Times:
Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody's Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative.
Sounds pretty reassuring. The...
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