Utopia, you are standing in it!

Finance Minister  Grant  Robertson   could not disguise the rapture that had seized him, when   he was questioned this week in  Parliament  on reactions  to   the budget.

He  was  excited,  apparently,   because  the government  had received  an  “overwhelming”  response from the people of  NZ to the  wellbeing budget.  There had  been a   vast  amount of  correspondence.

He cited   the  Salvation Army as  seeing the budget as   “a step on the path towards lifting New Zealanders out of poverty”  and the Children’s Commissioner  likewise  believing  it “takes seriously the need for a step-change in the way we support the wellbeing of NZ children”.

Good stuff, then, even though it  may  sound a bit  weird  to Kiwis   who  had believed their  country’s living standards  rank  reasonably   well  against  those of  other  developed  nations. 

Fantastic and well-deserved news this morning with the Clark Medal being awarded to Emi Nakamura, who has recently moved from Columbia to Berkeley. Incredibly, Nakamura’s award is the first Clark to go to a macroeconomist in the 21st century. The Great Recession, the massive changes in global trade patterns, the rise of monetary areas like the Eurozone, the “savings glut” and its effect on interest rates, the change in openness to hot financial flows: it has been a wild twenty years for the macroeconomy in the two decades since Andrei Schleifer won the Clark. It’s hard to imagine what could be more important for an economist to understand than these patterns.

Something unusual has happened in macroeconomics over the past twenty years: it has become more like Industrial Organization! A brief history may be useful. The term macroeconomics is due to Ragnar Frisch, in his 1933 article on the

From the Wiki entry on the 2007 Troop Surge in Iraq. Notice that troop level start declining in 2007, then stabilize at 40,000 and then 20,000.

When I tell people about Party in the Street, they are often puzzled. They think that the antiwar movement de-escalated because Obama pulled troops out of Iraq. They do not believe that the Obama administration actually pursued a lot of pro-war policies. In other words, people often hold the common view that Obama was clearly the anti-war president and Bush was the pro-war president.

The empirical facts that motivated Party in the Street are two: First, the collapse of the antiwar movement begins during late 2006/early 2007, the point at which troop levels in Iraq were at a high point. If activism were driven solely by facts on the ground, you’d see the Surge lead to an increase in anti-war activism until…

In recent days certain government backbenchers have proposed a new avenue to deliver a “no deal” Brexit. As Sir Edward Leigh put it:

“There are only two choices given the EU won’t change the deal and there’s no chance of parliament passing it. One is cancel Brexit: an intolerable denial of democracy. The other is leave without a deal on WTO terms on 31 October. But MPs, assisted by the Speaker, will block this. Solution: End this failed session immediately within a few hours of a new government and prorogue Parliament. Leave the EU on 31 October…”

While several Conservative leadership candidates have disavowed this course of action, Dominic Raab, one of the front runners, appears to have declined the opportunity to do so. It further appears that Andrea Leadsom, whilst Leader of the Commons, explored the implications of taking a similar course of action. The Speaker, John…

Introduction

The 42^nd Parliament of Canada and the 57^th Parliament of the United Kingdom have something in common: both of these current parliaments (as of 9 June 2019) are still on their first sessions. In Canada, no one but me and perhaps 20 other pedantic nerds toiling in obscurity have even noticed that the 1^st session of the 42^nd Parliament started on 3 December 2015 and will end on 21 June 2019. For the first time in the history of Dominion and Province of Canada (1841-present), a majority parliament will have lived out its entire life on one session alone. When this 1^st session of the 42^nd Parliament ends on 21 June 2019, it will have sat for 1,297 days. However, the 1^st session of the 32nd Parliament will still hold the record of longest single session, living for 1,335 days from 14…

Columbo was enjoying a little sojourn south of the border on 1st February 1976, hanging out with legendary matador Luis Montoya in A Matter of Honor.

Featuring no less a talent than Ricardo Montalban as the villainous bullfighter, how will the Lieutenant fare on foreign soil this time round, four years after the London-sized debacle that was Dagger of the Mind?

Or to put it another way, is this a prize bull of an episode, or a pathetic wannabe matador destined to be gored to death? Let’s wet our muleta, down a bottle of mescal and don our comedy sombreros to find out…

Dramatis personae

Lieutenant Columbo: Peter Falk
Luis Montoya: Ricardo Montalban
Comandante Emilio Sanchez: Pedro Armendariz Jr
Curro Rangel: A. Martinez
Hector Rangel: Robert Carricart
Nina Montoya: Maria Grimm
Miguel Hernandez: Emilio Fernandez
Jaime Delgado: Enrique Lucero

Teppo

This weekend I read Leszek Kolakowski‘s 1974 essay “My Correct Views on Everything” (well worth the read) – a response to British historian E.P. Thompson, who took Kolakowski to task in a scathing article (titled “Open Letter to Leszek Kolakowski”) arguing in effect that Kolakowski had sold out his Marxist ideals. While Marxism undoubtedly is highly influential theoretically, it is hard to dismiss the practical of it all (particularly if we believe Lewin’s epithet of [roughly] ‘nothing is quite as practical as theory’). As Kolakowski notes – the practical outcomes of Marxism, theoretical ideals and potential misconstruals aside, have been devastating.

My reading of the Kolakowski essay coincides with a recent translation of his 1,283-page tome Main Currents of Marxism, published by Norton. The book is reviewed by Tony Judt in the NYRB here (also recommended). On the Kolakowski essay mentioned above, Judt notes:

During February, Vice News released a very good and revealing documentary about the animal rights terrorist group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE). At first it seems to be favorable to DxE, but (fortunately) the reporter and producers of the film seem to have done their best to be even handed in their presentation. The events surrounding DxE’s activity involve their trespass and theft of chickens at a Petaluma, California poultry farm.

Ultimately, what counts is the interview with the poultry farm owner. Despite the changes made to some of their procedures resulting from what DxE did, he still has fear that they will be back and the hoodlums are still terrorizing Sonoma County farmers. Ultimately, as DxE’s leader Wayne Hsiung implies, their mission is to get animals legal recognition the same as humans to not only stop using animals for food but also to destroy the meat and dairy industry built…