Paging Charlie "Curious Yellow" Stross: Silent email filtering makes iCloud an unreliable option: "Last November, our friends at Infoworld reported that Apple’s iCloud email system silently blocks emails containing certain phrases…. Granted, the phrases in question may not be the kind that you’re likely to exchange with your correspondents…. [W]e’ve managed to confirm that emails containing the phrase 'barely legal teen' are simply never delivered to iCloud inboxes. In fact, we found that even emails with the offending phrase contained in an attached PDF—even a zipped PDF—were blocked. Even if you, like us, would almost never receive a legitimate email with such a phrase…"
Joan Walsh: Trashing Sheryl Sandberg: "The Facebook exec’s [pseudo-]feminist critics seem to say that if you can’t solve everyone’s problems, don’t solve anyone’s"
Paul Krugman: Austerity, Italian-Style: "Consider how things were supposed to be working at this point. When Europe began its infatuation with austerity, top officials dismissed concerns that slashing spending and raising taxes in depressed economies might deepen their depressions. On the contrary, they insisted, such policies would actually boost economies by inspiring confidence. But the confidence fairy was a no-show… austerity hasn’t even achieved the minimal goal of reducing debt burdens… countries pursuing harsh austerity have seen the ratio of debt to G.D.P. rise, because the shrinkage in their economies has outpaced any reduction in the rate of borrowing… the European economy as a whole — which never had much of a recovery from the slump of 2008-9 — is back in recession…. [O]ne might have expected some reconsideration and soul-searching…. Instead, however, top officials have become even more insistent that austerity is the one true path. Thus in January 2011 Olli Rehn… praised the austerity programs of Greece, Spain and Portugal and predicted that the Greek program in particular would yield 'lasting returns'… in December 2012'Mr. Rehn published an op-ed article with the headline “Europe must stay the austerity course.' Oh, and Mr. Rehn’s response to studies showing that the adverse effects of austerity are much bigger than expected was to send a letter to finance minsters and the I.M.F. declaring that such studies were harmful, because they were threatening to erode confidence."
Claudio Borio, Piti Disyatat and Mikael Juselius: Rethinking Potential Output: Embedding Information About the Financial Cycle: "This paper argues that incorporating information about the financial cycle is important to improve measures of potential output and output gaps. Conceptually, identifying potential output with non-inflationary output is too restrictive. Potential output is seen as sustainable;yet experience indicates that output may be on an unsustainable path even if inflation is low and stable whenever financial imbalances are building up. More generally, as long as potential output is identified with the non-cyclical component of output fluctuations and financial factors play a key role in explaining the cyclical part, ignoring these factors leaves out valuable information. Within a simple and transparent framework, we show that including information about the financial cycle can yield measures of potential output and output gaps that are not only estimated more precisely, but also much more robust in real time. In the context of policy applications, such “finance-neutral” output gaps are shown to yield more reliable estimates of cyclically adjusted budget balances and to serve as complementary guides for monetary policy"
Thers on Josh Trevino: Whiskey Fire: Oh! Integrity!: "I'm sorry; it appears that, on the Internet, I have quite personally been given hectoring, self-righteous shit by someone who has accepted several hundred thousand dollars to make the despotic government of Malaysia seem not so bad in the United States. Incidentally -- Josh [Trevino]? 'One investor has complied a list of reasons why Malaysia is an attractive travel and investment destination. He prefers a hands-on approach, and came up with this list while on a personal walking tour of Malaysia --'Slurp slurp. What the f#%@ is wrong with you? And what precisely do you imagine has ever disappeared from the Web? Oh, I got a lotta these: Randomly (MAS) 'Malaysian royalty has already stepped in to ensure that MPs retain a proper decorum while the parliament is in session…' (The things some people think they've flushed... omigod.)"
Greg Mitchell: Pressing Issues: Friedman and His 'Popcorn' War of Choice | Krugman on Sequester and Deficit Obsession: 'We're Having the Wrong Conversation' | David Gregory To Boehner: ‘Mr. Speaker, That’s Just Not True’ | Robert Kuttner: The Sequestering of Barack Obama | The Passing Tramp: "The Artistic Superstructure of the Epoch of Labor Unionism and Socialization" |
On March 3, 2013:
- NOTED FOR MARCH 3, 2013 http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/03/noted-for-march-3-2013.html
- Liveblogging World War II: March 3, 1943
- EZRA KLEIN: THIS IS WHY OBAMA CAN’T MAKE A DEAL WITH REPUBLICANS http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/03/ezra-klein-this-is-why-obama-cant-make-a-deal-with-republicans.html
- LUDWIG VON MISES THOUGHT THAT DETECTIVE STORIES WERE COMMUNIST BY NATURE?! Twitter / emmetmatheson: @HeerJeet Ludwig von Mises called detective fiction part of "the artistic superstructure of the epoch of labor unionism and socialization" http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/03/ludwig-von-mises-thought-that-detective-stories-were-communist-by-nature.html
