Persuading our Peers
Soren asked why I don’t think predictive accuracy is necessarily the best way to test whether someone is a good economist. First let me point out that economic theory itself predicts that it should...
View ArticleDon’t get your hopes up
I haven’t had a chance to fully digest yesterday’s Fed action. However since I have received many comments from people who think I should be enthused, I feel obligated to throw a little cold water on...
View ArticleKrugman on negative insider trading
If markets are efficient then the expected loss on Fed purchases of long term debt is roughly zero. On the other hand if the Fed has inside information about its future policy, then the Fed could use...
View ArticleRichard Rorty and the efficient markets debate
I use the efficient markets hypothesis in my research and in my blog. Once I started looking at the world through the EMH lens, I found it much easier to understand the relationship between policy...
View ArticleWhy is economics so counterintuitive? (Part 1)
[I should first explain the “part 1.” The hope is that you will read this before the political art post which follows. They are separate issues, but the second is easier to understand if you read...
View ArticleIs the term ‘political art’ an oxymoron? (Part 2)
[I call this “part 2,” because if you plan on reading the previous post, do that one first.] I’ve always had a cynical attitude toward overtly political themes in art. Some of this comes from reading...
View ArticleThe history of an idea
I was originally going to entitle this entire post “Why me?” But I thought that would be too self-indulgent, even by the standards of this blog. What I would like to do here is trace the development...
View ArticleSome graphs
This has been a very busy week. But I’m not complaining, as I got what I wanted—lots more people paying attention to my views. I’d like to correct one thing I said in my previous post, it is not true...
View ArticleHarmgart and Huck on Dogville
There were a lot of interesting comments on my political art piece, and since I don’t have time to do a new topic today, I thought I would develop the idea a bit further, and also comment on a very...
View ArticleI shouldn’t do this but . . .
. . . I couldn’t resist. This is from Krugman’s March 1 post: A quick response to Scott Sumner OK, I see that Scott Sumner has written an open letter to me. But I’m puzzled. He writes: “I think you...
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