Asymptosis: Always Approaching

Category: Politics

  • Modern Monetary Theory and New Monetary Economics

    Elevating and rewriting this from what I wrote in the comments. Thanks to bkmacd for prompting it by coming back at me on some issues. Are long-term government bonds a gift to bankers? Paying them interest to hold risk-free assets? His key points, and my replies: Whether or not you personally feel that taking on…

  • The Real Return on Treasuries Should be Zero. They’re Risk-Free.

    If the modern monetary theory folks are right, there’s no reason the government should be paying interest above inflation on bonds and bills. It’s an artifact of the gold standard, utterly unnecessary (and economically destructive) in a fiat-currency economy. This realization courtesy of a February policy note by Jamie Galbraith that I just came across:…

  • Did I Mention Mentioning that It’s the Health Care Costs, Stupid?

    Yes. And yes. Krugman agrees: Its the Health Care Costs, Stupid – NYTimes.com. The key graphic: For those who don’t click on links that say “Source,” click here: Medicare Versus Private Insurance: The Data – NYTimes.com   Related posts: What’s Wrong with Vouchers? Medicare: Government Does It Right We Should Make Janitors Work Longer Because…

  • Government Debt Increases Interest Rates: Yeah, Right

    This is one of those graphics that speaks volumes about how right-wing economists are completely divorced from reality. They point to the sun rising in the east and say, “You see? I told you sun rises in the west.” Traders Crucible shows you the pictures: And he runs the numbers:   I’m not making any…

  • Demand Inflation Now! Up the Real Economy.

    I know it’s hokey: “Make a DIN!” (Hat tip: Gerald Ford.) Paul Krugman and others have been raising this issue front and center of late (notably today), which prompts me to post this, which I’ve been poking at for a while. I intended to make it much longer, with many more references, but I’ll give you…

  • Economists Aren’t Rational

    Well at least that’s true of freshwater economists and their saltwater outliers (no names, just initials: Greg Mankiw). Here’s how those economists think: People are rational economic actors. “Rational” means thinking like an economist. Rational (read: freshwater) economists know that government spending is (deferred) taxation. So when government spends, these rational people think and act…

  • How Corporations Became People

    Most people don’t know this fascinating and appalling little bit of legal history. I first learned about it back in 2003, from my friend and colleague Ted Nace’s Gangs of America. Accounts of it are all over the web, but I’ll try to give you the short story here. In casual discussions from the bench prior…

  • Libertarianism is Just an Instance of the Naturalistic Fallacy. Neoclassical Economics is its Enabler.

    If everything is left to take its natural course — without intervention by humans — everything will be just peachy. Twirl finger in cheek. The monumental constructs of neoclassical economics are a tissue of circular definitions and self-contradictions (as demonstrated by its own practitioners, on its own terms) assembled to provide post hoc rationalizations for…

  • Why Libertarians Should Love Government

    Three assumptions: 1. We want to maximize aggregate individual liberty. Person A has 5 zlots of liberty, Person B has 12 zlots of liberty, etc. Add them up: sum(people:liberty). 2. Individual liberty is a function of wealth. If you have more money you have more liberty to do what you want day to day, year…

  • Government Gets the Lead Out, Crime Plummets

    No, this is not about lead-footed Starsky and Hutch-style car chases by law enforcement. Rather, it’s about damned convincing evidence that unleaded gasoline (introduced in the U.S. in the 70s) is largely responsible for the huge decline in crime rates since the early 90s. (Update: it continues.) Even more convincing than (but not precluding) Levitt’s Roe…

  • Why We Have Such a Wacko Health Insurance System

    Conservatives love to point out that our employer-based health insurance system is a result of wage controls under FDR. Since employers weren’t able to attract workers with higher wages, they started offering benefits instead — notably health insurance. I recently read Frank Freidel’s biography of FDR, and the whole story became clear. The post-Pearl Harbor…

  • Economists Vote for Democrats

    Those who perceive economists as being clear-eyed Sowellian realists, the benchmarks of “objective” (or objectivist) rationality, should — to be consistent with their own beliefs and admonitions — probably pay more attention to economists’ political choices, as revealed here in a survey of economists: The “liberalism” score here refers to what libertarians like to call…

  • Liberals, Conservatives, and Libertarians: Who’s More Economically Clueless?

    Some of my readers may have seen the Zogby-based study a year or so ago suggesting that liberals are economic boneheads compared to conservatives. As it turns out — according to the researchers who did that study — not so much, really: “One year ago, we reported the results of a 2008 Zogby survey that purported…

  • Staunch Conservatives Hate Trade, Prefer Chest-Thumping

        Section 9: Foreign Policy and National Security | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. Related posts: Demilitarize U.S. Foreign Policy: Mullen Agrees with Gates (and Me) A Lean, Mean Fighting Machine: Radical Plan for Cutting the Defense Budget and Reconfiguring the U.S. Military It’s Unanimous: Cut Spending! (As long as…

  • Proofiness!

    I love this usage. Lies, damn lies, and… Proofiness – Charles Seife – NYTimes.com. HT: Kitty Related posts: David Frum Savages Charles Murray — And Rightly So Koch Brother Lures Hayek to America With…Social Security! Religious “Indoctrination”? Conservatives Love to Point Out that Personal Incentives Matter Must. Make. Gubmint. Smaller.

  • The (de)merits of meritocracy

    …elite education is structured not only to replicate the status quo but to find a way to collect the best minds across society and dedicate them to the replication of that status quo. … the best working-class minds … would be scooped up by the meritocracy and become the foot soldiers for management… If you view entrepreneurial…

  • No Kidding: Loan Demand, Not Credit, Is the Problem

    Alert the media. William Dunkelburg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) since 1971, tells us what we already know: If lending is picking up, it is because customers are showing up and there is a reason to invest and hire. The reverse doesn’t work – you can’t force feed the credit…

  • It’s About the Money, Stupid, Not Principles

    Dean Baker gets it totally right, as usual: the Ryan plan will transfer tens of trillions of dollars from the middle class to the insurance and health care industries The Republicans are not about small government; Reagan and both Bushes made it larger (and vastly expanded the national debt). Under the vast George dub expansion,…

  • Right-Wing Media Attack Obama For Releasing His Long-Form Birth Certificate Like They Demanded

    I just think it’s kind of unnecessary for me to comment on this… After weeks of demanding President Obama “produce the birth certificate” so it can be “over [and] done with,” right-wing media figures have begun attacking Obama for releasing his long-form birth certificate, claiming it was done as a “distraction” and complaining it was…

  • Barack Obama, Constitutional Conservative?

    I’ve been just as frustrated as other progressives with the Obama administration’s lack of … progressivity. And I’ve been befuddled by why it hasn’t happened. Why didn’t he take the lead on redesigning our health-insurance system, for instance, instead taking the politically bruising months-long course of delegating its drafting to Congress? Here’s a possiblity. Obama…

  • Oh Yeah: Crowding Out Has Been a Huge Problem

    Cross-posted at Angry Bear. Right-wing economists love to claim that government spending “crowds out” private spending, especially investment spending on fixed assets. It’s probably true at some level and in some situations. But if it was true for postwar America, you’d expect to see some evidence in the historical data, right? Not so much: Note:…