J. Bradford DeLong's Blog, page 2294

Merrill Goozner Is Unhappy with Abelson and Harris of the New York Times

Goozner:

Dartmouth Analysis Again in the Cross-Hairs: Reed Abelson and Gardiner Harris in the New York Times are questioning some of the key assumptions behind the Dartmouth Atlas of Health... they write:

For all anyone knows, patients could be dying in far greater numbers in hospitals in the beige regions than hospitals in the brown ones, and Dartmouth's maps would not pick up that difference. As any shopper knows, cheaper does not always mean better....

...

Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps?

The only reason to have a New York Times is if it exercises quality control over those it prints in its pages. And it doesn't. Judy Miller ethics rule.

The big lie from Abelson and Harris's story about the Dartmouth study of health care costs comes in paragraph 6:

Data Used to Justify Health Savings Effort Is Sometimes Shaky: (6) For all anyone knows, patients could be dying in far greater numbers in hospitals in the beige regions than hospitals in the brown ones, and Dartmouth’s maps...

Are Reed Abelson and Gardiner Harris as Big Tools as Their Attempted Trashing of Dartmouth Suggests? Yes. Time to Shut the New York Times for Good

The only reason to have a New York Times is if it exercises quality control over those it prints in its pages.

And it doesn't. Judy Miller ethics rule.

The big lie from Abelson and Harris comes in paragraph 6:

Data Used to Justify Health Savings Effort Is Sometimes Shaky:

(1) In selling the health care overhaul to Congress, the Obama administration cited a once obscure research group at Dartmouth College to claim that it could not only cut billions in wasteful health care...

Erwin Rommel Liveblogs World War II: June 3, 1940

Erwin Rommel: June 3, 1940:

The Fuehrer's visit was wonderful. He greeted me with the words: "Rommel, we were very worried about you during the attack." His whole face was radiant, and I had to accompany him afterwards. I was the only division commander who did.

links for 2010-06-02

What Not to Say When Your Company Is Ruining the World

"On April 29, The New York Times reported that Hayward, apparently exasperated, turned to fellow executives in his London office and asked, "Hayward: "What the hell did we do to deserve this?" (A possible answer might be the company's 760 safety violations over the last three years. ExxonMobil, in contrast, has had just one.)"





R.G. Hawtrey: The Art of Central Banking

There Is in Economics a Peculiar Tenacity of Error--a Perpetual Principle of Resuscitation in Slain Absurdity...

The Economist is setting up a tourney-ground for economists at: http://www.economist.com/economics/by-invitation

The Economist asks: "Is inflation or deflation a greater threat to the world economy? Should policymakers focus more on structural adjustments or aggregate demand?"

I am invited to contribute. But I am going to retire from the lists and, instead, turn over my lance and my destrier to one of my teachers--a man who I think has the very best answer to this question.

Here is...

The Rhetoric of Economic Policy

There are two ways to read David Leonhardt's latest column. One is that he is being Sokrates with blue-dog Democrats and moderate Republicans as his interlocutor-stooges--starting out in apparent agreement with their "slash the deficit now!" point of view and gradually leading them, via the Sokratic method, to a better understanding that the right economic policy is: bigger deficits now, smaller deficits and surpluses later.

The other is that David buries what should be his lead, and so...

Federal Reserve Is Economical with the Truth...

Gillian Tett:

FT.com / Global insight - Future in doubt for New York Fed chief with a ‘scarlet letter’: Is William Dudley, the doughty president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, going to be pushed out? That is a question that could soon be bubbling in the markets. For as US Senate and House committees scurry to harmonise their two different financial reform bills, one bone of contention is the future leadership of the New York Fed. Most notably, as my Financial Times colleague Tom...

Where Does the Pain Caucus Come From?

Paul Krugman meditates on the Pain Caucus:

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/interests-and-ideas/: Lambert has a righteous rant about my Monday column.... Fair enough.... Now, none of those people [leading the Pain Caucus:] are... likely to find themselves... among the long-term unemployed. So class is certainly a factor. But I find myself in conversations with people I don't think have a deep urge to inflict pain and/or safeguard the rentier class who nonetheless ask, "But...

HP Shareholders Owe Us All: They Need to Open Their Pockets for Campbell Bigtime Right Now

For the record, Tom Campbell would be a much much much much much much much much much much much much better senator for America and California than Carly Fiorina.

Helett Packard shareholders who gave her the cash to make her run need to open up their pockets and fund Campbell in the next week big time. They owe it two America.

Maeve Reston:

With a week before the primary, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell has pulled his television advertising and is relying on web ads...