Some conservative commentators are like Uncle Theodore, a character in Evelyn Waugh’s comic novel, “Scoop,” who sings “change and decay in all around I see,” as he looks out his window every morning. They are so sure that “fast falls…
Category: Other
Statistics can be truthful but entirely misleading
Many people who found that their college statistics course was a burden to be endured might remember “How to Lie With Statistics” by journalist Darrell Huff. Often assigned as a supplemental text, this classic little book was the only intelligible…
Four critical issues Romney, Obama have skirted
We are right up to the election, so it is a good time to review how the two presidential candidates stand — or refuse to stand — on some important economic issues. Trade: Neither candidate is wholeheartedly for trade and…
FEMA debate obscures huge issue
How the federal government responds to natural disasters may not be the most pressing issue on the national agenda, but it is one we should address. Unfortunately, a politically shame-based overreaction to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina pushed back the issue rather…
Economic data don’t lie, but interpretation can be tricky
As an economist, I don’t like the adage that “figures don’t lie, but liars can figure” because it implies that no quantitative data can be trusted. But, having worked with economic data for some three decades, I know that even…
Issue of currency manipulation really isn’t new
A lot of economists and corporate leaders who are involved in international business have dinged Mitt Romney for his repeated pledge to name China a currency manipulator on his first day in office. The criticism is being blown out of…
Government data is by its very nature sacrosanct
There are few things our federal government does that are more important than tabulating how the economy is performing. And there are few things it does better. Yet, reflecting what historian Richard Hofstadter called “the paranoid style in American politics,”…
Nobels go to two who helped solve everyday issues
Wherever the soul of British economist John Maynard Keynes is, it must be warmed by this year’s award of the Bank of Sweden’s prize in memory of Alfred Nobel. This went to two Americans, Lloyd Shapley of UCLA and Alvin…
Financial success is like cabbage
October is harvest time, and the results from our cabbage patch illustrate something that is as true in economic life as in horticulture. Environment has a great deal to do with outcomes. Identical plants performed very differently because of one…
Individual autonomy has a high price tag
The quasi-libertarian idea that we would be much richer if we had very minimal government is becoming more popular, especially among some young people. When I hear this asserted, I always ask myself, “Where are all the rich libertarian countries?”…