Category Archives: Economics

The disparity of oil prices

From Business Week:

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Public sector pension plan problems

From Institutional Investor: The Big Public Pension Squeeze 10 Jun 2009 Steven Brull U.S. public sector pensions are facing massive budget shortfalls. Vallejo, a working-class community of 120,000 northeast of San Francisco, has long been a strong union town. Like … Continue reading

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Paging peak-oil theorists…

Let’s run a simple thought experiment. The peak-oil theory says that over time, production of crude oil should stabilize and then begin to decline. Since we still expect the demand for oil to increase over time, we must conclude that … Continue reading

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Paul Krugman on the problems of common currency

The pain in Spain… …isn’t hard to explain. Spain was basically Florida, with a housing bubble inflated by both resident and holiday purchases, and now the bubble has burst. But Spain is in worse shape than Florida, for two reasons … Continue reading

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Eugene Fama should know better

Brad DeLong blasts Eugene Fama for his manifest failure to understand the investment-savings identity: Fama… thinks that “investment” means “growth in the value of the capital stock.” He simply does not understand what the NIPA investment concept is, or that … Continue reading

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Dani Rodrik on stocks vs. flows

Dani Rodrik writes: Suppose you read the following statement: In 2006 the measured economic output of the entire world was around $47 trillion. The total market capitalization of the world’s stock markets was $51 trillion, 10 percent larger…. Planet Finance … Continue reading

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Objective measurement of subjective well-being

Justin Wolfers writes on Freakonomics: Let’s see how it checks out, updating my earlier analysis of daily data on life satisfaction through 2008, courtesy of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index… Not only has happiness declined during this recession, it has declined … Continue reading

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Of ignorance and knowledge

Shamelessly copied from Obsidian Wings: What Do You Mean ‘We’, White Man? Robert Samuelson has an infuriating op-ed in today’s Washington Post. It’s called “Humbled By Our Ignorance”: “It’s the end of an era. We know that 2008, much like … Continue reading

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Brad DeLong on Keynes and terminology

But Keynes Is Saved by Walras’s Law Tyler Cowen writes: Keynes’s General Theory, chapter six: in part ii the bombshell comes, unannounced. Keynes decides that he will declare savings to be a “mere residual.” Consumption and investment alone will determine … Continue reading

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Dani Rodrik in Ethiopia

Dani Rodrik writes: Self-discovery in practice It is remarkable to see something in theory work so well in practice. Ricardo Hausmann and I wrote a paper several years ago called “Economic Development as Self-Discovery,” where the idea was that entrepreneurship … Continue reading

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