Victor V. Claar's Blog, page 8

Testing the Fed's Ability to Stimulate the Economy While Keeping Inflation in Check

In this Paul Solman report for NewsHour back in August, he discusses the inflationary risk courted by the Fed's recent cutting of target interest rates, as well as additional quantitative easing.

George Frideric Handel: Musical and Financial Entrepreneur

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), best known for his Messiah, is credited with writing the first English-language oratorio.

Not only was the oratorio a savvy business move for him; Handel also enjoyed remarkable financial success as well. This holiday segment from PBS illustrates both.

"I will honour Christmas in my heart"

Christmas night is a night of new birth. Significant, unstoppable, world-changing new birth.

And if old Ebenezer Scrooge can choose a new path at Christmas, indeed there is hope for us all.

God bless Us, Every One.

'Spirit!' he cried, tight clutching at its robe, 'hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been . . . . Why show me this, if I am past all hope?'

For the first time the hand appeared to shake.

'Good Spirit,' he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before ...

That's a Rap: We're All Keynesians Now

As many of you know, for several summers I've given a lecture at Acton University with the title, "Why Keynesianism Failed." I'll be giving an updated version of the talk again this summer.

By the way, Acton U is a fantastic program, and I would encourage anyone serious about bringing good intentions together with sound economics to consider attending.

At any rate, each summer that I give the talk it gets more and more interesting, given that Keynesian ideas appear to be winning the fiscal-pol...

Acton University 2010

Here's a video promoting Acton University 2010:

Monkey Business: Trading among the Other Primates

This new piece from CNN features the unwritten economic laws of some lower-order primates. Turns out monkeys pretty much behave in the same ways we economists would predict--and they do it based on instinct alone.



Reminds me of my Hope College math colleague Tim Pennings and his Welsh Corgie, Elvis. Tim examined whether dogs act as though they know calculus when they play fetch along the West Michigan lakeshore. You can read the paper here, or just check out this video:

A Paul Solman 'Blast from the Past': 'Animal Spirits' and Consumer Confidence

From way back in the spring of 2001, Paul Solman filed this report for PBS's NewsHour on 'animal spirits' and consumer confidence measures.

I'm no Keynesian, but it was a great segment.

GDP Melee

From CNN:

Journalists scramble for a first glimpse of China's GDP report, interested in how much growth was from stimulus money.

(If only more students were this interested in learning about GDP.)

Embedded video from CNN Video

'This American Life' Takes on Health Care Costs

In cooperation with NPR News, This American Life considers the explosion in health care costs in a first-time-ever two-part series.

The first week, "More Is Less," covers rising costs.

The second week, "Other People's Money," takes on the insurance industry--in a very entertaining hour. (In fact if you listen to just one, this is the one.)

And they do a nice job of getting at the source in nearly every case: fairly basic micro-decision-making based on the incentives and institutions at work.

So...

NPR Reports on the Abuses of the Tax Credit for New Home-Buyers

Apparently about a half-billion dollars in tax credits for "new" homebuyers are fraudulent, according to the inspector general who oversees the IRS.

But it may not be that easy to catch the cheats: it requires a full audit, and the IRS has flagged over 100,000 suspicious returns so far.

A key piece of the puzzle: you don't have to prove you actually bought a house to claim the credit.

NPR's Morning Edition has a report: