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Assorted links
2. Review of Barry Cunliffe and also here.
3. Anti-semitism and the economic crisis.
4. When do gender role models matter?
5. In case you missed this one.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on May 16, 2009 at 09:40 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
Chrysler is getting tons of free advertisement by being in the news all the time. They should save a few bucks on their stupid commercials.
Posted by: David at May 16, 2009 10:16:58 AM
"Alas, economists and policy makers got cocksure. They thought they had consigned depressions to history. As a result, they missed warning signs and failed to prepare for the worst. “We are learning,” Posner writes, “that we need a more active and intelligent government to keep our model of a capitalist economy from running off the rails.”
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The problem here is that government wasn't a bystander of the crash, but a key participant whose activities helped create and exacerbate the problem (easy money policies, Freddie and Fannie's shenanigans). And the idea that a few technocrat-philosopher kings will, in the future, detect and prevent this from happening again is highly dubious. Which politicians had any hope of getting elected in 2002 or 2004 on a platform of popping the housing bubble before it got any bigger (thus, in all probability, triggering an immediate, but milder recession)? Forget about it -- it wasn't going to happen. We didn't miss a chance to head this off -- politically speaking, there was no chance.
Now, while memories of the crash are still raw, yes, it may be possible to get elected promising bubble-prevention measures. But right now, the population is sadder-but-wiser and mania proof. Anti-bubble measures aren't needed. But in a couple of decades, there will be a new generation with no personal memory of the crash (as, already, there are college students who weren't even born when the Berlin Wall fell). Restrictions will be relaxed, and warning about bubbles will sound archaic as our grandparents' tales of bank-runs and Hoovervilles. So it goes.
I'm just not convinced that it's possible to enact policies that will prevent all bubbles and still preserve the dynamism and great benefits of market economies. It may be the best course is to accept this happening every couple of generations or so (knowing that as we get wealthier, even depressions get easier to live through).
Posted by: Slocum at May 16, 2009 5:59:40 PM
not to mention that commodities and currency bubbles probably aren't really addressable through government action / credit tightening / loosening.
debt bubbles are probably the big issue though.
Posted by: babar at May 17, 2009 8:44:43 AM
Not only is there a lack of blame on the Jews, but nobody is blaming it on the Almighty. We believe we did it to ourselves, which is quite different from historical behavior of a religious people. http://2cobe.com/blog
Posted by: Ted Chu at May 17, 2009 5:04:51 PM
Democrats were especially prone to blaming Jews: while 32 percent of Democrats accorded at least moderate blame, only 18.4 percent of Republicans did so (a statistically significant difference). This difference is somewhat surprising given the
presumed higher degree of racial tolerance among liberals and the fact that Jews are a central part of the Democratic Party’s electoral coalition.
It is obvious that brain-dead writers were traveling in outer space for the last 20 years and have no idea where the Jew-hater resides nowadays.
Not only is there a lack of blame on the Jews
Quarter of population and third of the ruling party grass-roots blame Jews.
You are obviously right, 25% and 33% are rounding errors.
American Education Product: Even when they are smart, they are stupid.
Posted by: Mick at May 17, 2009 7:36:53 PM
