Nick Cohen on Noam Chomsky and the Far-Left’s Anti-Semitism, narcissism and bigotry
04 Jul 2019 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: political correctness, regressive left
Redline thinks I’m a racist scumbag for not feeling sorry for gang member behind bars
03 Jul 2019 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, politics - New Zealand
From https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/05/29/a-response-to-jim-rose-on-maori-prison-population/ in response to https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/104107156/extra-prisoners-are-nearly-all-gang-members–thats-hardly-a-crisis
@paulkrugman on @ProfSteveKeen
01 Jul 2019 Leave a comment
in macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand
From https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/oh-my-steve-keen-edition/ and see https://creditwritedowns.com/2012/04/banks-matter-krugmans-barter-mysticism.html for the text of broken link
Why am I reminded of Neoclassical Economics? Let me count the ways…
Firstly, there are similar underlying principles to the DSGE models that now dominate Neoclassical macroeconomics, and as with Ptolemaic Astronomy, these underlying principles clearly fail to describe the real world. They are:
- All markets are barter systems which are in equilibrium at all times in the absence of exogenous shocks—even during recessions—and after a shock they will rapidly return to equilibrium via instantaneous adjustments to relative prices;
- The preferences of consumers and the technology employed by firms are the “deep parameters” of the economy, which are unaltered by any policies set by economic policy makers; and
- Perfect competition is universal, ensuring that the equilibrium described in (1) is socially optimal.
If that were actually the real world, then not only would there not be a crisis now, there would never have been a Great Depression either—and recessions would simply be minor statistically unpredictable but inevitable events when the majority of shocks hitting the economy were negative, and they would rapidly be resolved by adjustments to relative prices (wages included, of course).
So economists like Krugman—who describe themselves as “New Keynesians”—have tweaked the base case to derive models that “ape” real-world data, with “sticky” prices rather than perfectly flexible ones, “frictions” that slow down quantity adjustments, and imperfect competition to generate less-than-optimal social outcomes.
This is Ptolemaic Economics: take a model that is utterly unlike the real world, and which in its pure form can’t possibly fit real world data, and then add “imperfections” so that it can appear to do so.
Unintended consequences of @eugeniesage’s #plasticbagfascism
01 Jul 2019 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, environmental economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: offsetting behaviour, recycling, The fatal conceit, unintended consequences
The environmental curse of @eugeniesage’s #plasticbagfascism
01 Jul 2019 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, environmental economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: offsetting behaviour, recycling, The fatal conceit, unintended consequences
End of Life Choice Bill – Second Reading – @dbseymour @actparty
26 Jun 2019 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - New Zealand
Is everything the left and unions say about labour shares and inequality a measurement error or just a bad theory
26 Jun 2019 Leave a comment
in econometerics, economic history, labour economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: pessimism bias
Need help on how to dumb down this information request for @mfe_news. Previous responses suggest that they have never heard of Nordhous
25 Jun 2019 Leave a comment
Why you should tolerate intolerable ideas | Nadine Strossen
25 Jun 2019 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: free speech
John Stuart Mill’s big idea: Harsh critics make good thinkers | Keith Whittington
24 Jun 2019 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of information, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: free speech, moral psychology, political correctness
Former ACLU President Nadine Strossen on offensive and dangerous speech
24 Jun 2019 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: free speech
So @ProfSteveKeen understands neither rational expectations nor rational maximising! @Chris_Auld; @NZTreasury wasted taxpayers’ money on his visit too
24 Jun 2019 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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