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Assorted links
1. Critical Review blog; CausesoftheCrisis. Vernon Smith and David Colander have posts up.
2. Boston Globe article on Hyman Minsky.
3. Arnold Kling: "One could argue that this country is on the verge of a crisis of legitimacy. The progressive elite is starting to dismiss rural white America as illegitimate, and vice-versa. I see the chances of both sides losing as much greater than the chance of either force winning."
4. 1990-2007: In which countries were health care costs rising the fastest?
5. Women with masculine names have better shots at judgeships.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on September 14, 2009 at 02:14 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
Don't bother reading Causes of the Crisis. The authors didn't even bother to comment on or even critque Shiller's second edition of Irrational Exuberance. Some items were dismissed with paragraphs of prose.
Looks like a blog which is set up as flypaper to attract like minded folks.
Posted by: Bill at Sep 14, 2009 2:43:27 PM
"Don't bother reading"? Great advice for open minds!
Posted by: reader at Sep 14, 2009 3:02:54 PM
Masculine names don't seem to help women get elected to Congress. The women now serving in the Senate are Barbara (x2), Dianne, Patty, Kay (x2), Olympia, Susan, Mary, Blanche, Maria, Debbie, Lisa, Amy, Claire, Jeanne, and Kirsten. Not a masculine-sounding moniker in the bunch. The same is true for almost all of the women in the House. Governorships too; the women now serving as state governors are Linda, Jennifer, Jodi, Christine, Beverly and Jan.
Posted by: Peter at Sep 14, 2009 3:10:07 PM
Jan?
Posted by: Vernunft at Sep 14, 2009 3:13:52 PM
What I mean is read it, and ask yourself what data they offered to support their position.
When you read there was no irrational pricing in the housing market because Ben Bernanke said there wasn't, and everyone thought the prices were right==da, what should I say. Great empirical observation...And, if it really is from Vernon Smith, where is the data. He's not Jesus Christ. I do not believe in miracles, and you do have to show me the data. I didn't sacrifice my mind on the altar of belief in someone just because they supposedly wrote a blog. They need to prove it.
Posted by: Bill at Sep 14, 2009 3:14:48 PM
4. Zimbabwe, no?
Posted by: Cyrus at Sep 14, 2009 3:17:40 PM
I think Kling is mistaking novelty of feelings with novelty of awareness of feelings. The two parts of America he speaks of have always thought the other illegitimate, what has changed is the ease of the communication of these feelings, given that we have this internet thingy now.
Posted by: bartman at Sep 14, 2009 3:21:36 PM
I would love to see the growth rate for health care expressed in these countries own currencies.
In other words I have no idea whether these changes represent changes in health care spending or changes in exchange rates.
That is particularly true when I see the Scandinavian country with large oil output going one way and all the other Scandinavian countries going in opposite directions.
Posted by: spencer at Sep 14, 2009 3:39:41 PM
I don't think rural white America is being dismissed. I do think there is a segment of the right that behaves in illegitimate ways - birthers, "death panel" types, those who claim Obama is planning concentration camps, who wish for his death, etc. I wish that sensible conservatives would do more to separate themselves from this group, rather than defending them.
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov at Sep 14, 2009 3:43:09 PM
I was thinking the same thing as Bartman...that these feelings of animosity have always existed, but only now due to technology do they get a chance to really magnify and collect, ala Cass Sunstein.
The question that pops into my mind: how do educational levels and location affect use of the technology that brings people together like this, both now and in the future?
Posted by: JackTrade at Sep 14, 2009 3:57:03 PM
Vernon Smith did not write the article in Critical Review referred to in this post as Causes of the Crisis. It was written by the editor. Whew. I thought he was losing it. You can look at the comments to the article to see some of its flaws.
Posted by: Bill at Sep 14, 2009 4:06:42 PM
The regressive elite is starting to dismiss urban black America as illegitimate. The obsessive elite is starting to dismiss suburban beige America as illegitimate. The aggressive elite is starting to dismiss metro pink America as illegitimate. The depressive elite is starting to dismiss idyllic yellow America as illegitimate. The oppressive elite is starting to dismiss central blue America as illegitimate. The possessive elite is starting to dismiss wilderness buddhist America as illegitimate. The dismissive elite is starting to dismiss everyone.
Posted by: efp at Sep 14, 2009 5:04:42 PM
The comments on the link on health care is an economists nightmare. One person says just print money to pay. Of course the only response was that "we can print money because of the gold reserves". Very Depressing.
Posted by: Rich at Sep 14, 2009 5:04:58 PM
Should be can't not can.
Posted by: Rich at Sep 14, 2009 5:05:34 PM
Regarding Vernon Smith's own comments, people should keep in mind that he has been studying bubbles
in laboratory experiments for over 20 years. He is very pro free market, but he also says that
bubbles are ubiquitous, almost impossible to avoid. Even when people are in markets that will last
only a short (and known) time with a known final return, they often engage in bubbling, although
repeated involvement in such experiments tends to lead them to do so less often.
Regarding the generally pretty good article in the Globe on Minsky, there is at least one minor flaw.
Sure, Samuelson is the father of the neoclassical synthesis and all sorts of things many of us like to
bash for this reason or that, including the random walk theory of asset price movements, more often
attributed to Fama, who wrote on it after Samuelson. However, Samuelson was also always aware of the
possibility of speculative bubbles, writing on them very insightfully in "Intertemporal price
equilibrium: A prologue ot the theory of speculation," Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, 1957, 79, 181-219.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Sep 14, 2009 5:29:16 PM
"I don't think rural white America is being dismissed. I do think there is a segment of the right that behaves in illegitimate ways - birthers, "death panel" types, those who claim Obama is planning concentration camps, who wish for his death, etc. I wish that sensible conservatives would do more to separate themselves from this group, rather than defending them."
I truly don't understand this. After nearly a decade of vitriol I have never previously seen (thanks to the feedback loop that is the internet, in part), wild conspiracy theories, and no end of open glee at the prospect of prominent dead conservatives (including, obviously, Bush, Cheney, Rove and anyone else whose name was in the news), why are people _now_ suddenly concerned about this, and how the bloody hell do they focus their attention on conservatives? It's not like the illegitimate behavior from the left has let up since Obama's election; if anything it has amplified. Yet time and again I see articles on the front page of news portals bemoaning the state of political discourse in this country, and people on blogs making comments like this about conservatives.
I actually voted for Kerry largely as opposition to Bush, but I'm blown away by this.
Posted by: BKarn at Sep 14, 2009 5:29:52 PM
More to the point, I would strongly disagree that "rural white America" isn't being dismissed. Regardless of the sort of site I'm on - economics, chit-chat, general politics, sports, entertainment, even health-related boards - the venom and disdain for anyone right of center drips from every page. It's not just aimed at ideology or politicians, it's very pointedly personal. It's frightening at times in the sense that so many Americans so despise their own countrymen individually, as people, and not just for their politics.
Posted by: BKarn at Sep 14, 2009 5:43:20 PM
Healthcare expendtures are always interesting to note. If you look at OECD statistics, you see that many nations register a very large uptiick in healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP in the 2000-2003 period and a much steadier increase until 2007.
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx
Posted by: Robert Olson at Sep 14, 2009 5:54:48 PM
4. Yes, absolute matters, but 10% compound annual ain't no joke, yo. In 14 years Korea will be paying what we are paying today.
Posted by: Andrew at Sep 14, 2009 6:16:12 PM
1. More examples of where the regulators were less than worthless.
Posted by: Andrew at Sep 14, 2009 6:28:12 PM
no end of open glee at the prospect of prominent dead conservatives (including, obviously, Bush, Cheney, Rove and anyone else whose name was in the news)
I don't think this is accurate. Yes, there was vitriol, though to a large degree it was based on actual policies and decisions, rather than imaginary ones. But I don't recall this "open glee" you claim there was no end of.
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov at Sep 14, 2009 8:35:39 PM
Where does one find "rural" "white" "uneducated" people who represent a homogeneous class of people?
Isn't rural America only about 20% of the population, generally older than average, and except for the retirees and wealthier elites setting up estates, much poorer than average? The better off segment will be pretty well educated, while the poor quite uneducated, and more likely dependent of government aid, and certainly not paying a lot in taxes.
A modern farmer is certain to be very educated with knowledge of all sorts of things but especially derivatives and hedging and insurance.
Perhaps Kling has failed to note the demographic changes spurred by FDRs industrial policy, Eisenhower's highways, not to mention the huge investment in education and manufacturing to beat the commies to the moon, among other things. As an early boomer (1947) my peers all left rural America behind, with only a few of us returning.
Posted by: mulp at Sep 14, 2009 11:36:59 PM
I like all of the five blogs, really all the blogs are interesting and very nice.. I mostly like the blog of Arnold King for "Tea and Sympathy"..
Posted by: achat ordinateur at Sep 15, 2009 3:28:47 AM
Regardless of the sort of site I'm on - economics, chit-chat, general politics, sports, entertainment, even health-related boards - the venom and disdain for anyone right of center drips from every page. It's not just aimed at ideology or politicians, it's very pointedly personal.
That's probably because you are reading blogs catering to liberals. Read ones that cater to conservatives and you will see exactly the same phenomenon in reverse. No real surprise here: those glory days when political discourse was conducted by civilized gentlemen never really existed. When Thomas Jefferson ran for President, he was denounced as an atheist and a pro-Napoleon Jacobin and his opponents started circulating rumors about his indiscretions with Sally Hemmings. Political disputes could and sometimes did end in a fist-fight or a duel. Politics is emotional and can bring out the worst in people, especially when communication isn't face-to-face and when people get to hide behind pseudonyms.
Posted by: Ricardo at Sep 15, 2009 9:16:14 AM
"I do think there is a segment of the right that behaves in illegitimate ways - birthers, "death panel" types, those who claim Obama is planning concentration camps, who wish for his death, etc."
You don't think its conservatives who are making these people the "face" of the conservatism, do you?
There's a reason the "face" of the left isn't demonstrated by the pictures at zombietime, and it isn't because there has been concerted effort to denounce these views.
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621
It's the simple rule of 'pas d'ennemis a gauche, pas d'amis a droit' the latter part of which is followed by both the right and the left.
Posted by: josh at Sep 15, 2009 10:10:15 AM
