Brad DeLong : Noted for February 28, 1943

February 27, 2013

Noted for February 28, 1943

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Marco Del Negro and Mary Tao: Historical Echoes: Cash or Credit? Payments and Finance in Ancient Rome: "Imagine yourself a Roman citizen in the 1st Century B.C. You’ve gone shopping with your partner, who’s trying to convince you to buy a particular item. The thing’s pretty expensive, and you demur because you’re short of cash. You may think that back then such an excuse would get you off scot-free. What else can you possibly do: Write a check? Well, yes, writes the poet Ovid in his Ars Amatoria…. And since your partner knows it, you have no way out:… 'But when she has her purchase in her eye,/She hugs thee close, and kisses thee to buy;/'Tis what I want, and ‘tis a pen’orth too;/In many years I will not trouble you.'/If you complain you have no ready coin,/No matter, ‘tis but writing of a line;/A little bill, not to be paid at sight:/(Now curse the time when thou wert taught to write.)'"
John Schmitt: Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment?: "The employment effect of the minimum wage is one of the most studied topics in all of economics. This report examines the most recent wave of this research – roughly since 2000 – to determine the best current estimates of the impact of increases in the minimum wage on the employment prospects of low-wage workers. The weight of that evidence points to little or no employment response to modest increases in the minimum wage."
Paul Krugman: Another Attack of the 90 Percent Zombie: "Mark Thoma points me to a post by Miles Kimball… all I found was yet another invocation of the Reinhart-Rogoff claim that bad things happen when debt goes about 90 percent of GDP. Look, this is just not an established result. It’s a correlation; but it could just as well reflect a pathway from slow growth to high debt, or from third factors like political and institutional dysfunction to both slow growth and high debt. This last possibility becomes especially persuasive when you look at the full list of advanced countries that have exceeded the supposed 90 percent threshold in the past 50 years: Japan, Italy, Belgium, Greece. That’s it. So yes, Japan and Italy have had high debt and slow growth; do you really want to say that debt was the only reason for slow growth, or that the Japanese slowdown of the 1990s had no role in causing the rise in debt? Do you really want to say that debt is the only reason for Italy’s poor performance? If your answer to either question is no, you have just said that you don’t believe in Reinhart-Rogoff’s results…. Is Reinhart-Rogoff itself a zombie? Not quite — it could still be true, although I don’t think so. But the idea that the 90 percent threshold is a definite result, established beyond question, is very much a zombie idea, one that has been killed repeatedly but just won’t stay down."

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Reihan Salam: Yglesias Award Nominee: "Something people who complain about GOP-leaning wonks don’t seem to understand: there is a selection effect at work. Many people who might be GOP-leaning wonks in another universe are now either unaffiliated or, in some cases, D-leaning. So the current universe of GOP-leaning wonks are people who have some reason to attach themselves to the GOP coalition, e.g.: social conservatism, hawkishness, regional identity, etc. Or the GOP-leaning wonk could be unusually patient, i.e., she/he could believe that change takes decades rather than months or even years. People who don’t buy this thesis exit."

Ken Houghton: Europeans Dreaming Up New Ways to Destroy the Global Economy; Republicans Follow Suit | Joe Conason (2003): The case for war [against Iraq] has not been made | Joe White: Roots of Deficit Brinkmanship | Ta-Nehisi Coates: Evolution of Blog Dancing | Evan Soltas: Five More Graphs on Finance |

On February 27, 2013:

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 28 5 PM EST: TAKING STOCK WITH PIMM FOX/BLOOMBERG http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/02/thursday-february-28-5-pm-est-taking-stock-with-pimm-foxbloomberg.html
DID BEN BERNANKE JUST SAY HE AGREES WITH DELONG AND SUMMERS (2012)? http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/02/did-ben-bernanke-just-say-he-agrees-with-delong-and-summers-2012.html
YES, THOUGHTFUL ECONOMISTS THINK RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE RIGHT NOW IS A GOOD IDEA http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/02/yes-thoughtful-economists-think-raising-the-minimum-wage-right-now-is-a-good-idea.html
PAUL KRUGMAN: THE FEVER SWAMP OF THE CENTER http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/02/paul-krugman-the-fever-swamp-of-the-center.html
WEDNESDAY HOISTED FROM THE ARCHIVES FROM FOUR YEARS AGO: STIMULUS OSTRICHES http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/02/wednesday-hoisted-from-the-archives-from-four-years-ago-stimulus-ostriches.html
YES, WE MAY WELL HAVE A DOUBLE DIP THIS YEAR. WHY DO YOU ASK? http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/02/yes-we-may-well-have-a-double-dip-this-year-why-do-you-ask.html
LIVEBLOGGING WORLD WAR II: FEBRUARY 27, 1943 http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/02/liveblogging-world-war-ii-february-27-1943.html
NOTED FOR FEBRUARY 27, 2013 http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/02/noted-for-february-27-2013.html
NO, AMITY SHLAES HAS NO IDEA WHAT SHE IS TALKING ABOUT. WHY DO YOU ASK?: WTF!?!?!?!? WEBLOGGING http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/02/no-amity-shlaes-has-no-idea-what-she-is-talking-about-why-do-you-ask-wtf-weblogging.html
AMERICAN CONSERVATISM’S CRISIS OF IDEAS: PROJECT SYNDICATE MONARCHY, PATRIARCHY, ORTHODOXY WEBLOGGING http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/02/american-conservatisms-crisis-of-ideas-project-syndicate-monarchy-patriarchy-orthodoxy-weblogging.html

J. Bradford DeLong on February 27, 2013 at 05:03 PM | Permalink

Comments

Screenshot 2 27 13 6 26 AM

Marco Del Negro and Mary Tao: Historical Echoes: Cash or Credit? Payments and Finance in Ancient Rome: "Imagine yourself a Roman citizen in the 1st Century B.C. You’ve gone shopping with your partner, who’s trying to convince you to buy a particular item. The thing’s pretty expensive, and you demur because you’re short of cash. You may think that back then such an excuse would get you off scot-free. What else can you possibly do: Write a check? Well, yes, writes the poet Ovid in his Ars Amatoria…. And since your partner knows it, you have no way out:… 'But when she has her purchase in her eye,/She hugs thee close, and kisses thee to buy;/'Tis what I want, and ‘tis a pen’orth too;/In many years I will not trouble you.'/If you complain you have no ready coin,/No matter, ‘tis but writing of a line;/A little bill, not to be paid at sight:/(Now curse the time when thou wert taught to write.)'"
John Schmitt: Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment?: "The employment effect of the minimum wage is one of the most studied topics in all of economics. This report examines the most recent wave of this research – roughly since 2000 – to determine the best current estimates of the impact of increases in the minimum wage on the employment prospects of low-wage workers. The weight of that evidence points to little or no employment response to modest increases in the minimum wage."
Paul Krugman: Another Attack of the 90 Percent Zombie: "Mark Thoma points me to a post by Miles Kimball… all I found was yet another invocation of the Reinhart-Rogoff claim that bad things happen when debt goes about 90 percent of GDP. Look, this is just not an established result. It’s a correlation; but it could just as well reflect a pathway from slow growth to high debt, or from third factors like political and institutional dysfunction to both slow growth and high debt. This last possibility becomes especially persuasive when you look at the full list of advanced countries that have exceeded the supposed 90 percent threshold in the past 50 years: Japan, Italy, Belgium, Greece. That’s it. So yes, Japan and Italy have had high debt and slow growth; do you really want to say that debt was the only reason for slow growth, or that the Japanese slowdown of the 1990s had no role in causing the rise in debt? Do you really want to say that debt is the only reason for Italy’s poor performance? If your answer to either question is no, you have just said that you don’t believe in Reinhart-Rogoff’s results…. Is Reinhart-Rogoff itself a zombie? Not quite — it could still be true, although I don’t think so. But the idea that the 90 percent threshold is a definite result, established beyond question, is very much a zombie idea, one that has been killed repeatedly but just won’t stay down."