J. Bradford DeLong's Blog, page 2195
September 22, 2010
The Final Question I Asked in Today's Econ 1 Lecture
What is the most likely outcome for the U.S. budget come 2060?
1. We will have raised taxes to pay for government health spending.
2. We will have cut doctors' wages and enslaved them by drafting them into a socialist national health service.
3. We will have abandoned our commitment to providing state-of-the-art health care to the sick and not just the wealthy.
4. The health care fairy will have figured out a way for us all to have all the medically-appropriate care we need for a...
Who Can Replace Larry Summers?
My view: nobody. The Obama administration is going to be weaker as a result of his forthcoming departure.
The job of Assistant to the President for Economic Policy has two components:
Making sure that the President hears and considers the arguments, and makes an informed decision.
Making sure that everybody thinks that the president has heard and considered their arguments, and made an informed decision, and that they are valued and respected members of the team who are being given...
Dan Ziblatt In Defense of the Continued Relevance of the Barrington Moore Problematic
Hoisted from Comments: Dan Ziblatt writes:
After Barrington Moore: Draft for September 25, 2010 50th Anniversary Conference - Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Just taught Moore to my PhD students last week.
One amendment: while you are certainly correct that the "Moore problematique" has diminished relevance in the industrialized world of U.S. and Europe, it is very much alive and well in much of the world. Less relevant than his particular dependent variable (communism...
On the Type of Intellect (Partially) Molded by Harvard's Social Studies Major
Hoisted from Comments: Aimai writes:
After Barrington Moore: Draft for September 25, 2010 50th Anniversary Conference - Grasping Reality with Both Hands: This post makes me sad I just gave away everything on my shelves that had the words "Africa" "Peasant" "South America" and/or "economics" in the title. I just broke down and looked at my shelves, and at my life, and said it was holding me back. I hasten to add that thinning the herd by 26 bags only means that I can still not fit the...
Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post Once Again Fails to Do Her Job
Outsourced to Duncan Black:
Eschaton: The Missing View:Here's how the WaPo writes up Summers exit:
Congressional Republicans - and some Democrats - have been more critical of Summers's tenure. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) recently called on Obama to fire both Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, accusing the White House of pursuing misguided economic policies that ran up record deficits without creating jobs or significantly improving the...
Michael Kinsley Falls Victim to the McArdle Syndrome...
He takes a wrong position on an issue he does not fully understand, and then doesn't pull back but doubles down in a way that is painful to watch.
If Deficits Are Totally Harmless, Why Have Any Taxes?
Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?
September 21, 2010
Herodotos of Hallicarnassos
Herodotos of Hallicarnassos, 2500 years ago:
Demaratos answered him:
I knew, O king! at the outset, that if I told thee the truth, my speech would displease thine ears. But as thou didst require me to answer thee with all possible truthfulness, I informed thee what the Spartans will do.... [T:]he Lacedaemonians, when they fight singly, are as good men as any in the world, and when they fight in a body, are the bravest of all. For though they be free-men, they are not in...
links for 2010-09-21
After Barrington Moore: Draft for September 25, 2010 50th Anniversary Conference - Grasping Reality with Both Hands
@delong 's remarks to Social Studies: http://bit.ly/aTjZuA
– Dylan Matthews (dylanmatt) http://twitter.com/dylanmatt/statuses...
...
Very Unhappy with the Federal Reserve, Duncan Black Is
Nevertheless, speak like Yoda, he does not, still:
Eschaton: Everthing's Terrible It's All Our Fault And We're Not Going To Change. The sociopaths at the Fed have spoken.
I've swung around to the view that Barack Obama's decision not to replace Ben Bernanke with Larry Summers was his worst unforced error, and his biggest mistake in governance.
Felix Salmon is equally unhappy with the Federal Reserve:
Monetary policy: Fed next: [T:]he Fed is acknowledging that inflation levels are...
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