Krugman is not as naive as you all think he is

This is a great example. I'm glad he spelled out the Hayek point.

His blog is kind of like a mini-NY times column. There's not the interaction with readers that other blogs have, so it's a way of posting quick thoughts. That's not the dynamic on my blog, for example.

That means he'll write quick dismissals of Hayek and The Road to Serfdom sometimes - he's sharing his view after all.

The usual suspects cry bloody murder and just assume Krugman is in the dark. He's not that naïve, and this is a good example. He knows there are counter arguments. He's read them. He evaluates them to be weak, and the point of "well what was his point?" that Krugman makes is a good one. "Welfare states will go Stalinist unless people keep them from going Stalinist" is a pretty vacuous statement as an analytical statement (if it's a call to action or something like that it's less vacuous, but RTS is usually treated like an insightful analytic statement about the modern welfare state).

I for one try to avoid talking about RTS because I honestly don't feel like I can get a straight answer from anyone. When they are arguing against critics they it doesn't argue welfare states go Stalinist, but when talking amongst themselves that always seems to be what they think it does say. And it's impossible to discuss the book without getting accused of arguing in bad faith by someone, so I avoid that and talk about other things Hayek has written that don't raise quite the same hackles.

Add this to his discussion the other day about price distortions, and I think people need to start accepting he's not as naïve as some people suggest.

He just thinks you're wrong.

*facepalm* part deux

Why do miracles "happen with great frequency in Africa, and not here in the USA?" asked a 700 Club patron Ken. "People overseas didn't go to Ivy League schools," Robertson replied with a chuckle."We are so sophisticated, we think we've got everything figured out," the Christian Broadcasting Network chairman continued. "We know about evolution, we know about Darwin, we know about all these things that says God isn't real, we know about all this stuff." According to Robertson, it's the "skepticism and secularism" that is being taught at "the most advanced schools" around the country that is keeping God's miracles at bay.
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Let's not even get into whether miracles are real or not. Let's say they are absolutely real for the sake of argument.

Given that they are real, you can't maybe think of a better explanation of why miracles are more prevalent in Africa than in the United States than that we are being smarty-pants about evolution and that scares God off from doing miracles?

You have all the building blocks right there in front of you, Pat!

Just put it all together a little differently!

*facepalm*

Please-let-this-be-an-April-Fools-joke-so-I-don't-have-to-lose-some-respect-for-Bob.

Please-let-this-be-an-April-Fools-joke-so-I-don't-have-to-lose-some-respect-for-Bob.

Please-let-this-be-an-April-Fools-joke-so-I-don't-have-to-lose-some-respect-for-Bob.

When you outlaw guns, only the outlaws have guns

And when you make ill-advised, non-deliberative, across the board "let's get serious about the debt" cuts to the federal budget, only the politically connected get money.

It's really getting hard to express how monumentally stupid this whole thing is. And that sad thing is, it's not rocket science. It's not like any of this was particularly hard to foresee.

Horwitz and Carden on "Market Failure"

Here.

I don't have time to comment on it right now, but I will say I'm of mixed feelings on it. I disagree with little of the positive claims they make but a lot of the normative claims they make. I'll try to elaborate later.

Market failure is in quotes in the title because the term always bugs me. I've pointed out before that it's kind of a misnomer. A market isn't failing, really. The problem in most applications is that there is no market! It seems silly to say the market fails in that case. The term is pervasive so there's no fighting it really - but I try to use terms like "externality" or "asymmetry", which are more descriptive of what's going on anyway.

David Henderson has thoughts on the post here.

I need to get this paper out before David Neumark notices Georgia...

Interesting looking working paper here. Can't access it and I'm not going to bother signing in right now. He talks about credits instituted during the Great Recession so I'm guessing he's not looking at Georgia (although I believe they expanded it).

I noticed the opportunity for an RDD application years ago but never got to write it up until last fall. I'd spend time submitting it somewhere now except I've got this mountain of end-of-semester work.

Gender roles and some stay at home dad blogs

My gender macro professor shared this post by Nancy Folbre on changing gender roles today. Folbre - an economist at U Mass, Amherst - is always worth reading. But what I enjoyed about this post was that she linked to some blogging by stay at home dads embracing their role as child-raiser-in-chief.

I haven't discussed this specifically but I talk often enough about home life that many of you could probably infer that I'll be taking on a lot of the parenting for our baby in the fall. Kate works (except for furlough days now - thanks Congress), and I am at school, but only two evenings a week. My research grant work sometimes requires me to be on campus to work with the confidential data, but I can do a lot of the work from home. That means at least for the next two years I'll have primary stay-at-home dad responsibilities. When I graduate and go back to work, which oughta be around the time we have kid #2, Kate is interested in part-time work and staying at home more, or even staying home full time. But for the next couple years this is the plan. We have some local family, and there are other child care opportunities for the times I will have to go into AU.

So, not surprisingly, I'm really glad to see these daddy bloggers that Folbre links to! Here they are, if anyone else is interested:

www.daddydoctrines.com

www.dadsbehavingdadly.com

www.bloggerfather.com

www.dadoralive.com

I'm following them now, and will share anything interesting that gets posted.

Spin-off opportunities for CERN

Feel free to comment on this funny post on the more serious issue of North Korea, if you like. I find recent developments disconcerting, not for the U.S. directly so much as for the South. Economists generally get skittish if they feel reason to doubt that they're dealing with a rational actor, and that's the source of my doubt in this case.

"Rational" is a very low bar - both in economics (it does not mean we're dealing with perfect calculators) and in this case. Kim Jong Il was rational in the sense that we had a sort of kabuki with him that followed its own logic, and under those circumstances saber-rattling was just part of the game of pursuing concessions. That may be the case here too. What worries me is that there seems to be a unique level of escalation by a leader that is under a lot more pressure. This might meander into a new kabuki, but with 50 million living in a modern democracy to the south and about half that essentially being held hostage in the north I reserve the right to be nervous until it does.

I know LOTS of people that need to deeply acquaint themselves with this post

Nine things that Progressives (i.e. - turn of the last century Progressives) are not.

There's no way of identifying a libertarian with an extremely lazy mind operating on bad faith quicker than asking him what he thinks of the Progressive movement.

There is also no easier way to illustrate why people associate libertarianism with Glenn Beck. Calling yourself "BHL" or complaining about the youngsters in the movement is really missing the point.

Grade compression is potentially far more important a problem than grade inflation

This is the subject of my next summer fellowship application (a much shorter application process). Less lucrative, more likely to get it, and potentially more interesting and with more direct applications to my Sloan work and my dissertation than the other fellowship I applied to.