Wrap Up for August 2020

There is a stark contrast between police departments in the U.S. versus other nations.

Many medical worker deaths are not being accurately reported.

Why aren't entrepreneurs discussed more often in economics education?
"Entrepreneurs are agents of change."

Andrew Sullivan: "During the 1980s and 1990s, this somewhat aimless critique of everything hardened into a plan for action."

A review of Anne Applebaum's Twilight of Democracy

A paper from Scott Sumner and Kevin Erdmann: "Housing Policy, Monetary Policy, and the Great Recession"

Noah Smith is worried about American decline.

The pandemic could change hospitals quicker than anyone expected.

"the debt that we pass on will likely weigh down future incomes."

"Low performers tend to exit public education, while high performers tend to switch to traditional public schools."

Where does the Singapore housing model come up short?

There are three fronts in the war on thrift.

"The politics have been inverted but the fight remains the same."

"you have to first create that space where people can fail, where people feel comfortable failing, and the stakes of failure are not catastrophic and not traumatic."

If he wins, Biden could bring real changes to healthcare policy.

The new conservatives have yet to come up with specific policy suggestions.

Few realize "how many regulations serve to promote special interests."

Turning bricks into batteries.

Some macroeconomic textbook recommendations. From Rafaelle Rossi.
Arnold Kling offers five suggestions for macroeconomic books as well.

"The decision to consume more only causes GDP to rise if it causes production to rise."
More on consumption and GDP from Scott Sumner.

An interview with Paul Graham

Even though the economy is in poor shape, disposable income is quickly rising. People remain reluctant to purchase services including human interaction.

What makes accounting systems different from token systems?

What if government paid people to take the vaccine, to encourage herd immunity?

Google is disrupting higher education.

"about three-quarters of pass-through profits are returns to owner human capital."

Surprisingly, if gold mining should cease, nothing bad would actually happen.

Jayme Lemke offers five essential books on public choice.

James Pethokoukis discusses human progress with Jason Crawford.

Marcus Nunes: "If only monetary policy in 2008 had been what it was in 2020"
And, what would it take to keep the core price level close to 135 in ten year's time?

Brad Delong suggests five books on classical economists.

The Fed's inflation target has been adjusted upward. At the very least, an average inflation target is closer to an NGDP level target than before.
Unveiling the average inflation target is the culmination of a year and a half of Fed review. This "will be the first time a major central bank has implemented make-up policy".

Federal governments are limited in their ability to fully respond to state and local crisis.

"There's been big stretches of mass job destruction in our economy over the centuries. What's different this time is that the economy has not sprung up new better-paying jobs to replace them."

The riots have made our political situation worse. "Given a choice between white nationalism and anti-white nationalism, voters will choose white nationalism."

More on one of "the founders of modern political economy".

Edmund Phelps on "Poverty as Injustice"

25 percent of America's malls may close in the next 3 to 5 years.