Paul Krugman's Blog, page 621
July 25, 2009
More ketchup
I blogged recently about an interview with Eugene Fama in which he declared that people engage in careful comparisons of home prices, so the housing market should be more or less efficient. And I cited an old Larry Summers paper that mocked finance theorists as "ketchup economists", who say that because 2-quart bottles of ketchup [...:]
Why markets can't cure healthcare
Judging both from comments on this blog and from some of my mail, a significant number of Americans believe that the answer to our health care problems - indeed, the only answer - is to rely on the free market. Quite a few seem to believe that this view reflects the lessons of economic theory.
Not [...:]
Not [...:]
July 23, 2009
DeMinted Republicans
It's no secret that the reaction of a significant number of Republicans to the presidency of Barack Obama has been a bit, well, insane. And don't start making false equivalences by talking about some video someone once posted on MoveOn's web site, or some comment someone once posted at Daily Kos. Did any U.S. Senators [...:]
Pop culture allusion FAIL
Reading various reactions from the commentariat to last night's presser, I had a horrible insight: many of them had no idea what Obama was talking about with the red pill-blue pill thing.
What's in a name?
OK, so let me get this straight. The initial reaction of the cable talking heads was that Obama blew it because he didn't couch his argument in terms of personal anecdotes, Reagan-style. Then, when it was pointed out that he did, in fact, offer a number of specific examples of people harmed by our current [...:]
July 22, 2009
Professor in chief
I found Obama's health care presentation so impressive - so much command of the issues - that it had me worried. If I really like a politicians' speech, isn't that an indication that he lacks the popular touch? (A couple of points off for "incentivize" - what ever happened to "encourage"? - but never mind.)
Seriously, [...:]
Seriously, [...:]
July 21, 2009
Is the threat of speculation a reason to shun cap and trade?
There are many obstacles to taking action on climate change. Most of those obstacles have deep roots: there are powerful interest groups that don't want market prices to reflect true costs, and there are ideologues - financially supported by these interest groups - who don't want to admit that sometimes the government has to intervene.
But [...:]
But [...:]
July 19, 2009
Ketchup and the housing bubble
I'm working on the relationship between economic theory and the current crisis, and one thread obviously involves the role of efficient market theory in breeding complacency. So I ran across this revealing late-2007 interview with Eugene Fama. In it, Fama dismisses the whole idea of bubbles:
Well, economists are arrogant people. And because they can't explain [...:]
Well, economists are arrogant people. And because they can't explain [...:]
Morning Joe
I think this Michael Hirsch piece on Joe Stiglitz somewhat misses the point.
Yes, Joe should be playing a bigger role - he's an insanely great economist, in ways you can't really appreciate unless you're deep into the field. I'd say that he's more his generation's Paul Samuelson than its John Maynard Keynes: as with [...:]
Yes, Joe should be playing a bigger role - he's an insanely great economist, in ways you can't really appreciate unless you're deep into the field. I'd say that he's more his generation's Paul Samuelson than its John Maynard Keynes: as with [...:]
Carbon tariffs
The Times editorial page says they make sense, done right. I agree on both the economics and the legal aspects.
