National Product, Domestic Product, and Debt
Earlier today Matt Yglesias borrowed a chart from Thomas Piketty’s new book noting that public assets remain above public debt. This chart actually underestimates the strength of our balance sheet. A...
View ArticleSome Myths of the Economics of Climate Change
Tyler Cowen links to a brief, frank symposium on the economics of climate change. Many of the responses, particularly from Lomborg and Tabarrok are fascinating. But, unfortunately, there are a few big...
View ArticleMore Notes on Inequality of Wealth
I’ve been thinking a bit about why wealth inequality really doesn’t matter – but I think the argument is a little more nuanced than I presented. In particular, what I wrote yesterday is concerned...
View ArticleDeclining Consumption and Secular Stagnation
Brad DeLong notes that lack of consumption is not especially responsible for currently low levels of aggregate demand. I am not so sanguine. At first approximation, this is hardly surprising. There is...
View ArticleAre Student Loans Holding Back Housing?
A lot of people seem pretty sure that student loans are behind a slow economy. Elizabeth Warren got there first. Then Vox posted a few charts confirming that, yes, those with student debt are less...
View ArticleInequality Will Resurrect Concorde
There’s a series of posts by Stephen Smith pondering Concorde’s premature death: @MarketUrbanism: Isn’t it kinda crazy that there used to be regularly-scheduled supersonic passenger flight, but there...
View ArticleThe Sharing Economy is Great – Don’t Listen to the Naysayers
I agree with Dean Baker most of the time, but find his oddly strong distaste for the “sharing economy” puzzling. The focus of his concern is the regulatory limbo under which many of the services in...
View ArticleThe Europe Issue
Update: Mark Schieritz writes in the comments: Thanks for reporting on my interview! I believe however you are confusing my role as a journalist conducting an interview with my own view on things. I do...
View ArticleThe Problem with Pessimism
A number of people have commented on a new paper from Robert Gordon, professional pessimist. Many people have identified the specific issues with the logic in this essay. But I think it’s important to...
View ArticleElephants and Economics
One of the biggest skills I’ve gained writing an economics blog is dispassionate writing and thinking. Sure, we all have ideologies and spirit, but a common thread across good writing is relatively...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....