J. Bradford DeLong's Blog, page 2247

links for 2010-07-23

Matthew Ingram: Flipboard Wades Into Murky Copyright Waters Where Google Lives







Ezra Klein: Sen. Kent Conrad: 'The immediate threat is not the debt. It's weak aggregate demand.'







Tim Duy's Fed Watch: Bernanke Post Mortem

TD: "Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's Congressional testimony should leave little doubt about the stance of monetary policymakers. Swift reaction came from...

Only Wonkette Can Deal with Today's Really Existing Republican Party

Josh Fruhlinger writes about Republican House leader John Boehner:

Wonkette: The Christian Science Monitor held some sort of confab on unemployment, and John Boehner insisted that... he does not want the unemployed ground up into hamburger per se. He made the following bumbling attempt at relating as a fellow human to America’s many unemployed, none of whom, we assume, were invited by the CSM to this little meeting:

I’ve got real empathy for those who are unemployed, as most of...

Can This Possibly Be True?

David Goldman:

Most iPhone users love AT&T: 77% of iPhone owners say they'll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they'll buy another Android phone...

Unbelievable.

Europes Depression Is too Large

Paul Krugman writes:

Europe’s Gap: a huge gap has opened up between a reasonable estimate of potential output and actual output. Even if you believe that growth in Europe has picked up since the first quarter — and that the pickup will continue — it will take years to close that gap. The only way you could justify not doing more to promote growth is to assume that potential output has been drastically reduced by the crisis — and if you believe that, you should be working day and night...

Hoisted from Comments: "With Four Parameters I Can Fit an Elephant...

Joe Smith tells us about Johnny von Neumann on theory-mining:

Jean-Claude Trichet Rejects the Counsels of History: Joe Smith said...

Economists have none of that. The "economic principles" underpinning their theories are a fraud--not bedrock truths but mere knobs twiddled and tunes so that the right conclusions come out of the analysis.

John Von Neumann said: "With four parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk."

...

"There Is Little Debate in Asia About How Well [the Economic] Stimulus Has Worked..."

David Pilling:

Asia’s Keynesians take pride in prudence: [Asian:] governments have been as bold as any in opening the fiscal sluices. One reason is the bitter memory of the 1997 Asian financial crisis when the International Monetary Fund imposed fiscal austerity on several Asian countries.... According to Fitch Ratings, fiscal stimulus packages as a percentage of gross domestic product amounted to 6.9 per cent for Vietnam, 7.7 per cent for Thailand, 8 per cent for Singapore, 13.5 per...

American Businesses Fear Not Taxes or Regulation But Rather a Lack of Demand

Ezra Klein:

Ezra Klein - Why businesses aren't hiring in two graphs: The National Federation of Independent Businesses -- a small-business trade association that is considered the most right wing of the major business groups -- continually polls its members and releases the results.... As you can see, sales -- that is to say, demand for their products -- dominate the chart, while fear of taxes is lower than in the '90s. The concern over sales is understandable. Not only is the...

Can't Anybody Play This Game?

David Dayen:

Twitter / David Dayen: Aron: Obama has confirmed ...: Aron: Obama has confirmed less judges in first year than at every time since 1952 #nn10

Is Nothing I Ever Wrote on Ezra Klein's Journolist Worth Pulling Out of Context and Misrepresenting?

I am somewhat offended...

Surprise, Surprise!

Dana Goldstein:

Twitter / American Prospect: RT @AdamSerwer: That study ...: RT @AdamSerwer: That study on college admissions really didn't say what Douthat said it said http://bit.ly/ckhN9Y