Re-Reading My Weblog: April 2005

April 2005 found myself arguing with a bunch of students who thought that there must be a there there somewhere deep in Karl Marx's economics, and me trying to clarify my thoughts on why I really didn't think there was much to the argument--a lot of promising starts that then petered out as Marx got himself confused:

A Short Dialogue on the Labor Theory of Value
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/a_short_dialogu.html
2005-04-06
Lire le Capital: Mail Call
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/lire_le_capital.html
2005-04-05

The Bush Administration Social Security privatization effort degenerated into a Clown Show:

It's the Circular Firing Squad of Flying Attack Monkeys!
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/its_the_circula.html
2005-04-29
"Asset Returns and Economic Growth": The Econ 1 Version
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/asset_returns_a_1.html
2005-04-15
The Bush Administration Clown Show Continues...
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/the_bush_admini.html
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/the_bush_admini_1.html
2005-04-07

April 2005 saw me becoming increasingly worried about the possibility of a big financial crisis and a "hard landing":

Hard Landings II...
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/hard_landings_i.html
2005-04-20
Some Simple Analytics for a Hard Landing
http://delong.typepad.com/some_simple_analytics_for_a_hard-landing.pdf
2005-04-20
Our Twin Financial Puzzles: The Long Run May Come Like a Thief in the Night
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/our_twin_financ.html
2005-04-13

A short meditation on artificial birth control and the AIDS crisis:

When the Morning Stars Sang Together
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/when_the_mornin.html
2005-04-04

A short meditation on the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences--how the math physicists used knew about quantum mechanics for a decade (and about special relatively for a generation) before the physicists realized what their equations meant:

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/the_unreasonabl.html
2005-04-13

A long review of Richard Parker's very nice biography of John Kenneth Galbraith:

J. Bradford DeLong (2005), "Sisyphus as Social Democrat: A review of John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics, by Richard Parker," Foreign Affairs May/June 2005
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/foreign_affairs.html
2005-04-20

And in praise of the life of the mind:

Estranged from One's Species Being
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/adam_kotsko_is_.html
2005-04-04

The feel-good thing to read is the Parker-Galbraith review:

J. Bradford DeLong (2005), "Sisyphus as Social Democrat: A review of John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics, by Richard Parker," Foreign Affairs May/June 2005
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/foreign_affairs.html
2005-04-20

The feel-bad thing to read is the AIDS and artificial birth control squib:

When the Morning Stars Sang Together
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/04/when_the_mornin.html
2005-04-04