Paul Krugman's Blog, page 634

Epistemological combat

On my recent Asian swing, one of the books I read was Charles Stross's The Jennifer Morgue, part of his Laundry novels series. The conceit in these novels is that performing certain calculations opens up doors to other universes, where unpleasant things lurk - you didn't believe the cover story about Alan Turing, did you? [...:]

SCOTUSblog roolz!

So I did This Weak with George Stephanopoulos this morning; knowing that Sonia Sotomayor would be on the agenda, I studied up with SCOTUSblog, which did the unthinkable - it actually looked at Judge Sotomayor's judicial record. It turned out that my study wasn't necessary, however - George had read it too!
I think blogs are [...:]

But no sharks!

Yglesias, discussing the woes of right-wing think tanks, alerts us to quality Heritage research: "Pentagon Should Battle Pirates and Terrorists with Laser Technology".
But the research is sorely lacking - not a mention of putting the lasers on sharks.
You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with [bleep:] laser [...:]

What you don't know …

No comment:
The focus these days is on the mismatch between China's electricity consumption and a key measure of industrial output.
For most of the past decade, China's industrial value-added growth (IVA) -industry output less input costs - has moved broadly in step with movements in electricity consumption. But the relationship's broken down recently: electricity use is [...:]

Same as they ever were

Obama is a socialist/fascist; Sonia Sotomayor is a racist, and La Raza is the KKK; there's an evil plot against Republican car dealers. The GOP is sounding a bit, well, demented these days.
But here's the thing: it always did. A few trips down memory lane:
Senator Tom Coburn:
In a tape recently released by Brad Carson, Coburn's [...:]

Changing recessions

So I'm giving the Robbins lectures in a couple of weeks, which means that I have to actually think a bit. And one thing I've been thinking about is the changing nature of recessions. Here's one bit of that: looking at interest rates.
First, let's look at short-term interest rates in the first month of recessions, [...:]

A note on identity politics

The attacks on Sonia Sotomayor are getting crazier by the minute. The pronunciation of her name is unnatural. Her fondness for Puerto Rican cuisine - sorry, her "claimed" fondness (you never know) - may cloud her impartiality. She doesn't have enough money in her retirement account.
But is this any crazier, when you come down [...:]

Medicare and the VA

So we've been treated to lots of opinion pieces declaring that Medicare is doomed, doomed I tell you, and entitlements are out of control. And I had a thought.
You see, we actually have a real live case of impressive cost control in health care: the VA system. The CBO reports:
Adjusting for the changing mix of [...:]

Center for American Regress?

Douglas Holtz-Eakin wants a conservative version of the Center for American Progress. But as Matt Yglesias points out, there are plenty of think tanks on the right, funded at levels beyond the left's wildest dreams. If CAP is running rings around right-wing think tanks intellectually - which it is - it's not due to [...:]

Sun, sand, and surgery

Everyone knows that lots of Canadians come to America in search of medical care. But what everyone knows is wrong: a careful study concluded,
The numbers of true medical refugees-Canadians coming south with their own money to purchase U.S. health care-appear to be handfuls rather than hordes.
On the other hand:
Driven by rising health care [...:]