An interactive vitality index from the Hamilton Project for states and counties.
Brad Temkin's interest in water treatment infrastructure, led him to highlight important features of our environment which have mostly been taken for granted.
This Five Books interview with Christina Romer re her suggested "best books" on the Great Depression, was done a while back but still has plenty of relevance.
Not only is U.S. debt already quite high in relation to GDP, it continues to rise. This would be an unfortunate historical moment to implement an approach such as MMT. Surprisingly, at least to me since he coauthored This Time is Different, Ken Rogoff appears less concerned than Fed Chair Powell about the rising deficit. I also worry that our government provides extensive funding for many forms of applied knowledge which today's non tradable sectors might largely abandon, in the event of austerity. No one should imagine that the U.S. would be immune from the long term damage that could result if things went wrong. Again, Rogoff: "As a great deal of empirical evidence has shown, nothing weighs more on a country's long term growth like being financially hamstrung in a crisis."
"Diversity of thought makes us stronger, not weaker."
Society feels fragile, when healthcare elites become responsible for revitalizing Main Street.
"Research suggests that the challenges aren't a series of single strands, but a spider web of them."
Miles Kimball promotes co-active coaching. Indeed, coaching could be quite a useful role in the mutual assistance of time arbitrage.
(Christina and David Romer for Brookings) "Fiscal Space and the Aftermath of Financial Crisis: How it Matters and Why"
I'm not quite sure what to make of a map of partisan prejudice!
After reading this article, perhaps I'll be more observant of "rebellious" footpaths in the landscape.
A lack of curiosity about infrastructure innovations and achievements across the globe, also contributes to high construction costs in the U.S.
There's plenty of straw-manning going on in the current neoliberalism debate.
John Williams discusses "the new normal".
"We find that employment is growing faster in thriving places than in struggling places, but it is particularly lagging in struggling rural places." And, "...places in the bottom quintile of employment have a prime-age employment rate of just 67 percent compared to 83 percent in the highest-employment counties."
"Californians will end up like the landed gentry in interwar England. Lovely houses, illustrious history, and no conceivable way to their their bills."
Mankiw: When writing textbooks, it's important to be a faithful ambassador of economic concepts. He introduces welfare economics (consumer and producer surplus) after the basics of supply and demand. The classical models he emphasizes, particularly apply to the long run circumstance of the real economy.
Ryan Avent and David Beckworth discuss "Hyperinflation, Fiscal Capacity, and Credible Government Policy."
At the very least, "humans are underrated".
The Fed will be conducting town halls with the public this year. Will they consider how a "cashless economy" would harm individuals with limited incomes? Scott Sumner has some concerns about the Fed's present course, as well.
Tyler Cowen's Conversation with Raghuram Rajan "Understanding Community"
Time optimization is a moment to moment process for the scarce resource of our attention.
The "Chicago Booth Survey on MMT" wasn't helpful. David Andolfatto stresses that even if governments need not worry about technical defaults, it's the economic default that matters.
And chances are, people would become persuaded by something other than the trade language MMTers versus other economists are inclined to use.
It's too bad Portland doesn't see cottage communities as a good option! Just looking at these pleasant pictures is calming for me. Perhaps that's part of getting old.
"an increasing fraction of people trained as scientists rapidly leave science...the decline in the lifetime of scientists is especially depleting the pool of small groups."
Even though farmer's markets are as popular as ever, the market is actually saturated.
Scott Beyer sums up his three year tour which included 30 cities across the U.S.
Dogmatism isn't helpful if you want to convert others to economic ideas. Scott Sumner provides some examples.
"We need to pay more attention to the people around us who are unloved and try to connect to them."
A map of the river basins of the U.S. in color.
"Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout history."
Pew Research Center: "Looking to the Future, Public Sees an America in Decline on Many Fronts"
As FEMA and NFIP attempt to change the parameters of what it is willing to (still) cover, "The banking and real estate lobbies are pushing back hard against these changes."
IQ as an immoral measure which can put people and groups "in boxes for the rest of their lives."
"The book's key finding is that when an austerity plan relies too much on higher levies it is often self-defeating."
"...printing was one of the first industries in which production was organised by for-profit capitalist firms. These firms incurred large fixed costs and competed in highly concentrated local markets."
What's more dangerous (at least for the U.S.) than an inverted yield curve?
"Stop trying to solve traffic and start building great places."
Or, more generally, when X and other letters become unsolvable, go ahead and build in a new alphabet. For instance, one can't help but wonder: How many might actually prefer to live in places with a walkable core for normal weekday activities?
Doctors, economists, cartels, hmmm....
"The persistence of low inflation has finally become too much for the Fed to dismiss, especially now with the economy decelerating."
"Production labor can be incrementally increased or decreased as needed. But overhead labor is not adjusted strictly according to sales volume." In this essay, Arnold Kling is also concerned that nothing is being done to address long term budgetary concerns and the structural fragility they pose. For one, the U.S. could not be bailed out by other countries.
In spite of their (initial) appeals to left behind areas, populists become "tempted to resist the further devolution of power and funding to regions and communities".
What really defines whether a city is "working" successfully? Scott Beyer suggests a series of indicators.
Time arbitrage is one system possibility. Why should human contact have to become a luxury good? Recently the local news carried a story of a man who - instead of being told by his doctor - found out from a screen that he didn't have long to live. Was it an avatar in this story? Don't use avatars for that.
A quick reference guide for informational value.
"At the state level, all but one of the ten states most heavily exposed to future job market changes cast its electoral votes for President Trump in 2016."
Emily Hamilton advocates for a return of boarding houses. Many years ago one of my great aunts managed a boarding house, here in the hometown I returned to a few years before starting this blog.
Upskilling (task shifting) as a business concept. But can it still turn a profit with Modicare?
Noah Smith suggests increased research funding for second-tier universities in depressed areas.
A Chinese perspective on the American Civil War.
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