bad economics

Jobs for the girls

Economic growth may be the best means to liberate women MAN may labour from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done, says the old proverb. To add insult to injury, she gets less out of her...

Obama's fear mongering is hurting America

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123457303244386495.html Obama has been using fear tactics to get his way since he started campaigning, and he's still doing it, and it's driving the country's...

What Dubner and Levitt couldn't do in four years...

Brad DeLong does in less than a weekend. He is as enchanted as Robert was*:My personal favorite is a giant parasol 18,000 miles in diameter at L1 to absorb and then reradiate a chunk of sunlight in...

Coming Soon from Major Economists Near You

Pete Davis, Mark Thoma (who at least has the decency to phrase it in the form of a question), N. Gregory Mankiw, and Brad DeLong explain why there should not be any penalties against providers of...

A/l/a/n/ C/a/r/u/b/a/ Milt Shook Explains It All

Ken Houghton notes the obvious corollary to Bruce Webb's post on the 1st: if you don't "read the bill," the obstructionists will lie about it. UPDATE: And now corrects his misreading (see Bruce's...

Alan Caruba Explains It All

That this post is even necessary is saddening. And that he has to point out fundamentals such as[Annual Limitation] is on how much a patient will have to pay, not a limit on the health care the...

Can the U.S. Government do anything right?

Robert WaldmannI hate to type that headline given the health care reform debate, but I am alarmed by Karen DeYoung's article in the Washington Post about new efforts to get Afghans to stop producing...

Bad Healthcare Cost Models Produce Silly Results (anyone surprised?)

This morning, my good friend Orac sent me a link to an interesting piece of bad math. Orac is the guy who really motivated me to start blogging; I jokingly call him my blogfather. He's also a...

Swimming in the Shallow Part of the Gene Pool

Curv3ball at The Poor Man warms the cockles of this Northeast Philadelphia native's heart.Go Read the Whole Thing.Gary Becker must be rolling over in his grave.

It Looks Like a Great House. Why Does the Basement Always Flood?

Come on, guys, somebody take it to the Next Step.Matt Y comes closer than anyone else to getting to the truth of the problem with Macroeconomics. Following Justin FoxSteven Levitt's summary, Matt...

I Remember When Mankiw was still a Neo-Keynesian

Cassander, writing at Steve Keen's Debtwatch,* puts the hammer to those arguing that the death of the patient had nothing to do with the doctor:What a load of bollocks.The "principles of economics"...

I Do Not Think "Tool" Means What You Think It Does

Dear Brad,Do you want to reconsider the title of this post in the context of this article?An examination of Mr. Geithner’s five years as president of the New York Fed, an era of unbridled and...