Little Feat

I loved Little Feat. Lowell George is one of my favourites.

Here they are live.
First  Fatman in the Bathtub

and then Willing

Around the Traps 30/8/2013

It is time again for Around the Traps. We again have some riveting articles. Noah Smith has eventually taken his extended blog holiday BUT his guests have been prolific and Noahlike in quality.
I do not have anything under David Giles as I thought there weren't any articles this week suitable for we people who do not specialise in econometrics. Sorry Dave. ( Has sounds of 2001!)

Football is finished and Cricket yet to start and batching on sunday so updating over the week-end.
done and dusted



Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• John Quiggin on time for Rudd to give a full-throated defence of keynesian stimulus
• Grog's Gamut on wages-breakout-or-lack-thereof-graphs
• The Piping Shrike on adwatch-labors-negative-ads
• Andrew Elder on all-in-good-time
• M0nty on and-down-stretch-they-come
• Tim Colebatch on why-we-should-not-trust-tony-abbott-
• Brian Banisch on budget-strategies-conundrum,king-hit-or-own-goal
• Paul Frtijers on paid-maternity-leave-part-ii
• Ross Gittins on parties-sameness-hides-big-difference , forest-logging-propped-up-by-conservationists
• Rodd Tucker on can-australia-afford-the-coalitions-nbn Thanks Steve from Brisbane!
• Kevin Bonham on poll-roundup-and-seat-betting-watch
• Mark the Ballot on weekly-update, midweek-update, betting-market-update_31,sunday-update
• Pottinger on model-update-26-august-2013
• Simon Jackman on poll-averaging-model-shows-coalition-in-lead, the-betting-markets-are-posting-prices-i-ve-never-seen
• Australian Political Betting on election-betting-from-bookmakers
• Mumble on better_pm_myth, the_expectations_game, how_low_can_numbers_go, another_53_to_47_poll
• Oh dear Neither Judith Sloan nor Samuel J understand the role of Treasury nor 'remember what Costello asked ( correctly) of them during his tenure. Very embarrassing.
• Steve from Brisbane gives us an-upset-possum which make Judith and Samuel look even more stupid. Helps to read documents!
• Matt Cowgill on has-the-unemployment-rate-been-manipulated. Deary me I remember when the CIS put out quality work.

Northern America

• Menzie Chinn on two_approaches_to_fiscal_policy, 2013q2_faster_gdp_growth
• Calculated Risk on the-future-is-still-bright, comment-on-house-prices-real-prices etc, freddie-mac-mortgage-serious-deliquency-rate
• Kruggers on news-flash-the-cbo-isnt-stupid
• Mark Thoma on whither-the-consumer, medicare-spending-growth-slowdown
• Steve Roth on ryan-avent-agrees-demand-inflation-now
• Mark Thoma on how-stimulatory-are-large-scale-asset-purchases, on Greg Mankiw on a-carbon-tax-that-america-could-live-with
• Macroblog on still-waiting-for-takeoff

Asia

• Kruggers on he-asian-crisis-versus-the-euro-crisis,the-baht-and-the-bubble-excuse
• Kevin O'Rourke on thailand-without-the-baht

Europe

• Brad De Long on mark-blyth-end-austerity-now
• Kruggers on the-gloire-to-come
• Jared Bernstein on a-quick-note-on-austerity-in-the-eurozone

Wonk

• Yichuan Wang on macroeconomics-illustrated-edition and then Steve Roth on walras-and-the-carpenter
• Brad De Long on balazs-egert-the-90-public-debt-threshold-the-rise-fall-of-a-stylised-fact
• Simon Wren-Lewis on banks-economists-and-politicians-just-the-money, macro-workers-and-macro-wars with Kruggers as well macroeconomists-at-war and Brad De Long as well.Back again with Simon on the-new-keynesian-model-in-grad-school
• Mark Thoma on The-Great-Lesson-from-the-Great-Recession
• and gives us Daniel Little on poverty-and-economics
• Nick Rowe on banks-and-the-medium-of-exchange-are-both-special-or-neither-special, the-two-james-tobins, how-can-you-get-an-economy-into-a-liquidity-trap
• Carola Binder on forecasting-profitability-new-study-of-uncertainty-and-investment
• Owen Zidar on fiscal-stimulus-the-open-economy-relative-multiplier
• Kruggers on the-arithmetic-of-fantasy-fiscal-policy

General

• Josiah Neeley on religion-and-monetary-policy-is-there-a-difference
• Kruggers on unnatural-models-of-the-labor-market-wonkish, the-real-trouble-with-economics
• Robert Waldeman on contra-hall
• Frances Woolley on will-the-textbook-industry-go-the-way-of-the-music-industry
• John Quiggin on a-note-on-the-ineffectiveness-of-monetary-stimulus
• Philip Lane on imf-on-fiscal-adjustment-construction-cycles
• Yichuan Wang on popping-bubble-bubble
• Lord Keynes on non-ergodicity-and-trends-and-cycles
• The hot and married Carola Binder on perceiving-job-insecurity
• Harry Clarke on merits-demerits-of-markets 
• Tim Harford on time-for-bankings-petulant-toddlers-to-grow-up
• Chris Dillow on signaling-problems

Brian Banisch (climate)

• soil-carbon-and-direct-inaction
• sick-seas
• Peter Dorman on more-mental-clutter-on-climate-change

Andrew Gelman( statistics)

• a-new-bem-theory
• bayesian-model-averaging-or-fitting-a-larger-model
• why-during-the-1950-1960s-did-jerry-cornfield-become-a-bayesian
• Kaiser Fong on an-ignored-issue-in-big-data-analysis, these-journal-editors-probably-forgot-to-drink-their-morning-coffee
• edgar-allan-poe-was-a-statistician
• blogging-2
• stan-project-continuous-relaxations-for-discrete-mrfs

Dave Giles ( Econometrics)
See above. Bad Bad Dave!!

• just for nerds new-econometrics-journal
• right-tail-augmented-dickey-fuller-tests-in-Eviews
• Francis Diebold on heteroskedasticity-econometrica-and-the-greeks

Dianne Coyle & Frances Woolley (Quirky + book reviews)

• Peter Dorman on way-more-heat-than-light 
• Tim Harford on a-lesson-from-the-other-sage-of-investing,do-you-believe-in-sharing
• Chris Dillow on tattoos-options-cognitive-biases
• Dianne on indians-turks& home-economicus, what-works, cities-triumphant, new-books-on-migration
• John Aziz  on-legalisation-of-marijuana-war-on-drugs 
• Brad De Long on 1996-review-of-john-maynard-keynes-a-tract-on-monetary-reform
• Kaiser Fong on round-up-of-book-news

voxwonk

• why-does-capital-flow-poor-rich-countries
• new-age-uncertainty-measuring-its-effect-uk-economy
• downsizing-dilemmas-european-employers
• market-based-bank-capital-regulation
• new-taxonomy-sudden-stops-which-sudden-stops-should-countries-be-most-concerned-about
• identifying-conventional-and-unconventional-monetary-policy-shocks
• india-and-emerging-market-crisis
• dilemma-not-trilemma-global-financial-cycle-and-monetary-policy-independence

Simon Wren-Lewis absolutely brilliant again

Simon Wren-Lewis is on fire with this article.


I will not comment but merely copy it for every body to read. It is long but so very worth it to read and understand..

Macro workers and macro wars

A long post I’m afraid, even with extensive use of footnotes. But I really think it is much more productive to try and understand someone’s opposing point of view than just be rude about it.

Most academic macroeconomists are just trying to advance the discipline by getting their papers published, and are certainly not consciously trying to defend some ideological viewpoint. As a result, there are lots of macroeconomists producing high quality work in a wide variety of diverse areas. There are many interesting new ideas being explored. Furthermore this work can be appreciated by most fellow researchers. Unlike the 60s and 70s, where members of different schools of thought talked across each other, we now have a shared language as a result of the microfoundation of macro. My own view is that as a result macro today is much more interesting than macro was back then. Furthermore, this work can be useful to policymakers, as Paul Krugman outlines in the case of monetary policy here.

Ahh - that may have made you pause for thought. Isn’t that the same Paul Krugman who says there is something “deeply wrong with economics”. Who talks about how ideology and politics distort the advice that economists - and perhaps particularly macroeconomists - give to policymakers. And who suggests that in many cases policymakers would be better off thinking about good old IS-LM than any of this more modern stuff.

One of the problems when Paul Krugman does this is that it gets on the nerves of many academic macroeconomists, who would much rather identify with the sentiments I express in my first paragraph. Economists like Tony Yates, for example. I suspect they see Paul Krugman’s attacks on the state of macroeconomics as akin to a personal attack on their own and colleagues work, and as a result they can go way over the top in reaction. I think this is understandable, but it is wrong.

As I see it both points of view are correct. As Stephen Williamson argues, in one sense macroeconomics is flourishing. Take the example of financial frictions. There is now a wealth of papers out there exploring different types of friction, in large part responding to events of just the last five years. This is hardly the response of a moribund, out of touch discipline. And as Krugman says, sometimes this work can be useful to policymakers. But that is not the acid test for the integrity of a supposedly scientific discipline. In days of old, policymakers made much use of astrology. The acid test is when the discipline tells policymakers something they do not want to hear, and unites behind this implication of its models and the data.

Nearly fifteen years ago I began working with DSGE models looking at monetary and fiscal interactions. [1] Doing this work taught me a lot about how fiscal policy worked in New Keynesian models. Iunderstood more clearly why monetary policy was the stabilisation tool of choice in those models, but also why fiscal policy - appropriately designed - was also quite effective in that role if monetary policy was absent (individual countries in the Eurozone) or impaired (the ZLB). Why New Keynesian models? Because if you were interested in business cycle stabilisation, that is the framework that most involved in that area (academics and policymakers) were using. So when we hit the ZLB, the reaction of policymakers in using fiscal stimulus seemed logical, entirely appropriate and fully in line with current theory.

I also found that in these models the basics of Barro’s tax smoothing hypothesis continues to apply, so if you needed to reduce debt, you should do so as gradually as possible. This also seemed like as robust a result as one can get in macro.

The acid test for macro came in 2010. Policymakers, for a variety of reasons, went into reverse with fiscal policy. Austerity replaced stimulus around the world. If academic macroeconomists had been true to their discipline, they would have been united in saying that our standard models tell us this will reduce output and raise unemployment. They would have said that if markets allow, the time to reduce debt is when the ZLB comes to an end, and then it should be done gradually. Many did say that, but many did not. This division at least encouraged policymakers to continue with austerity.

So macroeconomists as a collective failed this test, repeating errors made in the 1930s. But unlike the 1930s, it did not have ignorance as an excuse. 

This is a crucial point that many on both sides tend to ignore. In 2010, the standard business cycle model was the New Keynesian model, and the implications of that model for the efficacy of appropriately designed fiscal policy are clear. So to blame the failure of 2010 on the current dominant macro model is just wrong. You may not like that model, but it cannot be blamed for the widespread adoption of austerity, or the ambivalent attitude of many macroeconomists towards that policy change.

So in my view macroeconomists, not the dominant macroeconomic model, failed. Why? The easy answer is to say that macroeconomists were too influenced by ideology, but I think for most (not all) it is the wrong answer, as I said in my opening paragraph. I think for most (not all) it is not simple politics, so in that respect I agree with Stephen Williamson. [2] So what is it?

Here is one possible answer. First I have to appeal to macroeconomists who learnt their trade after the New Classical revolution to consider where the now dominant methodology in macro came from. If you start your history of macro thought in 1980, then everything can seem nicely progressive. First there were RBC models, applying basic micro to macro. The data showed that this framework could not explain how monetary policy appeared to work, so to resolve this puzzle New Keynesian theory was developed.

But it was not like that at all. [3]

Macro started well before 1980. Its theoretical basis may have been shaky, but it was a scientific discipline in the Popperian sense. The New Classical revolution attempted to kill off Keynesian ideas, and deny the importance of aggregate demand. In that respect it now seems clear, because of the dominance of New Keynesian theory, that this was regressive rather than progressive. 

 

Yet in many who were part of the New Classical revolution, or who were taught by its leaders, there remains a deep antagonism to Keynesian ideas. This was not enough to prevent the emergence of New Keynesian theory, but the NK model built upon rather than challenged the RBC framework, and it could always be dismissed with an assertion about price flexibility. As a result, in certain places NK theory was tolerated rather than embraced, or was quietly marginalised.

This attitude was facilitated by another aspect of the revolution. Although it failed to kill Keynesian economics, it did succeed in changing how macro was done. Microfoundations macro did not just become an important way of explaining the economy, it became the only acceptable way. Now we can debate the wisdom of that. But I think it is very difficult to deny that this methodological revolution reduced the discipline that data can provide on model proliferation. It becomes far too easy to say ‘but in this model something different happens’, even if there is compelling empirical evidence that said model is not applicable. [4] [5]

I think this may help explain why a good proportion of macroeconomists failed to advocate fiscal stimulus in 2009 and call the consequences of subsequent austerity. [6] Now you may disagree with my view that this represented a failure for macroeconomists as a whole. What I want to convince you of here is that my view that it did, and perhaps similar views of others, does not amount to an assertion that modern macro is fundamentally flawed, and that those working within it are wasting their time. While the New Classical revolution may have moved macro many steps forward, in condemning Keynesian ideas it took one large step backwards, and the consequences of that mistake are still with us.

[1] In part this was a reaction to a different policy decision. The work of various economists before the formation of the Euro had suggested that countercyclical fiscal policy should be a key stabilisation tool for individual Eurozone members. That work was ignored by policymakers, and they were backed up by a significant number of macroeconomists, in part using other models that focused on free rider problems and fiscal dominance. How this all turned out is another story, but once again the collective of academic macroeconomists hardly covered itself in glory.

[2] Personally, I do not think the actions of some eminent economists who ignore their economics when batting for their favoured politicians is critical here, regrettable though it is. Nor on its own were the comments of other eminent macroeconomists who appeared not to have kept up with the literature, although as I suggest here I think this was indicative. Both could have been isolated examples, quickly brushed aside. More revealing is this survey, where although 46% of economists agreed that the US stimulus was a good policy, a large 40% were uncertain or did not answer. That is just one survey, but it reflects a similar division amongst the macroeconomists I know, and the views you find on the web. See, for example, the quote from Tom Sargent in Stephen Williamson’s post. Now I think some of this 40% are equivocal about fiscal stimulus (and therefore not too worried about austerity) because of a deep distrust of government intervention or the state. Whatever the merits of this mistrust, this is exactly the ideology and politics that Paul Krugman and I complain about. I think some others of this 40% take a view that monetary policy is still up to the job, even at the ZLB. I have talked about this most recently here. This post provides a third possible explanation, although I am sure there are others. (I tried to be comprehensive here.) 

[3] Getting the history of macro thought right is important for other reasons as well. As I suggested here, the structure of NK models may owe as much to the need to work with rather than against the then dominant RBC paradigm, as to any intrinsic empirical merits of that structure.

[4] I have tried to argue that economists working in central banks take more notice of the data, which helps explain why the NK model is dominant there, but Stephen Williamson disagrees.

[5] Another arguable consequence is that modelbuilding became too conformist. The charge that some element of a model is ad hoc and lacks microfoundations hangs like a Sword of Damocles over modelbuilders. Probably too much intolerance of alternative methodologies came with this revolution as well. I think this is part of any explanation of why so little work was done on financial frictions before 2008, as Mark Thoma suggests. Again I am not arguing that the methodology is wrong, but instead that it may have certain perhaps unintended and unfortunate consequences. In my own experience if you talk to many microeconomists about DSGE in macro they can be quite critical: for example about how narrow the micro used is, or how obsessed with technicalities the analysis can become. Sometimes they can be downright dismissive. 

[6] You could argue that ideology lay behind the New Classical revolution’s attempt to kill off Keynesian economics, and I do not really know enough to agree or disagree. What I do think is that most of those involved in the revolution thought that they were just exposing deficient theory, which in many cases they were.

The election or another rant on why the ALP will lose

Two articles yesterday show why the ALP will lose this coming election.

First John Quiggin in a pretty good piece argues that the ALP should be aggressively defending their record and pursuing the Howard record because Keynesian economics has been vindicated through the GFC.
I wholeheartedly agree of course since I have written about this previously. Only mad people and liars think otherwise. The evidence is quite simply overwhelming.

However John misses the point. Even if Rudd and Bowen were at a Keating type level of economic persuasion ,and they are not, it is far too late to make a large dent in the economic debate. If you have withdrawn from the debate for 4 or 5 years you cannot make up for it in 3 or 4 weeks.

Grogs Gamut examines whether there has been a wages breakout or not.Again in this debate only airheads and madman have argued that there is one occurring.
 The RBA would be raising rates if this was happening and would be extremely vocal about it.
As it is they are almost mute on the subject and for good reason. Wages are simply doing what they normally do when the economy weakens. There has not been a skerrick of evidence around to suggest the labour market has become more regulated and that wages are behaving differently now than in the past.

The point here is a half decent political party should be ramming these points home. That they are not show how poor  political operators they have been.

Poor political operators with little to no political smarts in them do not deserve to win elections and never ever should complain.

The election- Do I have a problem?

I have stated previously I always vote against the incumbent government after two terms. This is enough time to embark on any major reforms. Any time after this and the government gets stale and becomes lacklustre. The history of Australia bears this out convincingly.

However I am in the electorate of Bennelong. The two major candidates are like chalk and cheese.
 Jason Yat-Sen Li , the ALP candidate,is as impressive a candidate as I have ever met. He is a local, quite personable, is very good on the subjects he understands and is honest about subject areas he is less than comfortable with.
John Alexander, The Liberal member, is the complete opposite. He is easily the most unimpressive candidate I have ever met. Let us just say as a candidate he makes a great tennis player.

This I appear to be in a quandary. I believe in a change of government but if I vote in such a way I vote for a very unimpressive person.
Yes in actual fact the decision who to vote for  is easy and no I want be changing my voting policy at all.

Eric Clapton

I have never been a great fan of Eric Clapton. A bit too slow for my liking but I do like this song and the Late Donald 'duck' Dunn plays bass.

Motherless Children. Enjoy

Around the Traps 23/8/13

It is time yet again for Around the Traps. I try to put articles in subject order as much as possible. hence this week there is a small debate on maths in economics and another on Keynes and  Kalecki. Noah Smith has yet to take a break and the Fifth Test is on.

updates tomorrow and sunday but my youngest son is in the grand final on Saturday!! ( alas his team lost!)

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• John Quiggin on reading-the-economic-theories-of-rudd-and-abbott, nbn-we-would-have-been-better-off-without-privatisation 
• Ricardian Ambivalence on rba-tries-again-with-easing-bias
• Ross Gittins on why-election-campaigns-have-become-so.-vacuous
• Nicholas Gruen on fascinating-chart
• Andrew Elder on full-of-promise , all-in-good-time
• Club Troppo gives us guest-post-by-philip-clarke-on-the-price-of-medicines
• Brian Banisch on checking-the-facts-and-no-fibs
• Ken Parish on lies-dam-lies-and-politics-restraining-political-porkies
• Katesy shows he has no dies of what an EBA is
• Gordon's Thoughts on thoughts-on-the-election-campaign-so-far
• Mumble on opposition_leader_net_satisfaction_rating , half_time_whistle
• Simon Jackman on australian-election-2013-polls
• The Piping Shrike on momentum
• Mark the Ballot on monday-update, betting-market-update
• Pottinger on model-update-19-august-2013
• Kevin Bonham on poll-roundup-and-seat-betting-watch, reachtel-state-same-story-told-many-times
• Australian Political Betting on perhaps-stop-in-coalition-momentum
• Tony and the boys with the filth-test-the-oval ( Mind the language)

Northern America

• Mark Thoma gives us Adam Posen on why-has-the-fed-given-up-on-americas-unemployed
• Calculated Risk on lawler-washington-post-and-reuters-get-it-wrong-on-GSEs-again 
• James Hamilton on california_econmist_says_US REal Debt _is_ $70Trillion actually Jim didn't say that!
• Liveo Di Matteo on canadian-macro-performance-better-than-the-g-7-but
• Philip Lane on wapo-can-ireland's-celtic-tiger-roar-again, em-storms-could-spread-to-europe
• Mark Thoma on yellen-vs-summers It's comprehensive  with plenty of links.
• Brad De Long on and-i-do-not-understand-the-federal-reserves-current-thinking-at-all
• Kruggers on 54-years-of-real-interest-rates
• Matt Yglesias on obamacare_health_care_spending_how_it_s_working Thanks Brad
• Kenneth Thomas on republicans-market-oriented-health-care-reforms-wont-work-part-1

Europe

• John Quiggin on the-failure-of-austerity-in-europe 

Asia

• Kruggers on rupee-panic

Wonk

• Robert Waldeman on quibbling-with-quiggin
• John Quiggin on krugman-keynes-kalecki-konczal
• Kruggers on keynes-kalecki-konczal-etc
• San Francisco Fed on monetary policy expectations at the zero bound
• Noah Smith on learn-to-stop-worrying-and-love -(moderate)-inflation , can-you-solve-debt-problem-with-more-debt
• Menzie Chinn on asymmetries_in_Aggregate_Supply_in_two_Frameworks
• Simon Wren-Lewis on measuring-the-cost-of-austerity and missing-point-at-imf
• Kruggers on the-macroeconomics-of-sisyphus
• Pro-Growth Liberal on on-michigan-survey-of-inflationary
• Brad De Long on genuinely-new-ways-of-understanding-is-lm-watch-karl-smith-is-really-smart-and-thoughtful-wednesday-hoisted-from-the-archive
• Nick Rowe on is-money-exogenous-or-endogenous
• The marvelous David Glasner on why-hawtrey-and-cassel-trump-friedman-and-schwartz 
• Menzies Chinn on a_forensic_analysis_of_global_imbalances
• Kruggers on the-monetary-base-is-lm-and-all-that-very-nerdy
• Edward Lambert on behavior-of-capital-income-as-precursor-to-a-recession

General

• Kruggers on anna-karenina-and-the-business-cycle
• Brad De Long on paul-krugman-prepare-for-alien-invasion-and-spend-our-way-to-economic-recovery
• Kruggers on coalmines-and-aliens-again
• Tim Harford on how-the-rich-are-making-sure-they-stay-on-top
• Lord Keynes on the-broken-window-fallacy-and-wwii, horwitz-on-post-wwii-boom, why-did-wwii-lift-america-out-of-the-depression
• Noah Smith on a-few-words-about-math
• Kruggers on the-point-of-economath, more-economath
• Robert Waldeman on whats-wrong-with-economath 
• Our own Nick Gruen on krugman-and-maths
• Simon Wren-Lewis on left-right-and-centre-some-recent-observations, new-keynesian-models-and-labour-market
• Harry Clarke on bruni-sugden-defend-capitalism
• David Madden on health-and-recessions-again
• Antonio Fatas on teaching-about-inflation-is-fun-but-dangerous  Thanks Mark
• Kruggers on generation-b-for-bubble
• Noah Smith on small-states-proposal
• Nick Rowe on what-steve-keen-is-maybe-trying-to-say
• Menzie Chinn on what_should_emerging_countries_should_do

Brian Banisch ( Climate)
Nuttin, Bad Brian

Andrew Gelman ( Statistics)

• a-lot-of-statistical-methods-have-this-flavor-that-they-are-a-solution-to-a-mathematical-problem-that-has-been-posed-without-a-careful-enough-sense-of-whether-the-problem-is-worth-solving-in-the-first-place
• bda3-still-i-hope-at-40-off-and-a-link-to-one-of-my-favorite-papers
• correcting-for-multiple-comparisons-in-a-bayesian-regression-model
• the-comment-section-is-open-but-im-not-going-to-read-them  Andrew reads his comments!
• i-mean-what-exact-buttons-do-i-have-to-hit
• all-inference-is-about-generalizing-from-sample-to-population
• Kaiser Fong on a-letter-to-reporters-on-the-economy , the-case-method-and-statistics

DaveGiles ( Econometrics)

• knoema-data-site-update
• forecasting-from-log-linear-regressions

Diane Coyle & Frances Woolley ( Quirky + Book Reviews)

• Tim Harford on pay-what-you-want-pricing-playing-tag-with-price-tags
• Dianne with economics-and-authoritarianism, moartgages-mayhem-murder, the-quantified-victorian-life, municipal-grandeur, where-to-start-learning-about-economics, the-internet-of-stuff
• Frances on flea-market-economics

Vox wonk

• removing-deadweight-loss-economic-discourse-income-taxation-and-public-spending
• who-becomes-a-top-politician-china
• informal-or-formal-financing-first-evidence-co-funding-chinese-firms
• immigration-diversity-and-economic-prosperity
• what-shadow-banking
• creativity-cities-and-innovation
• article/there-future-international-banks

A strong caveat on it doesn't matter who wins

I have said previously It matter who wins the election as they will have to put very similar policies in practice anyway.
Just on the political front, in particular economics see John Quiggin and Ricardian Ambivalence. They view things differently of course and favour the ALP and the Coalition respectively to win when push comes to shove.

However last night I was reminded by a friend of a possible scenario which would involve something different to the above.
To outline this we must go back to the last years of the previous Government. Without a GFC to distort revenue flows the Government could only have surpluses. However Peter Boxall, then Head of Finance, came up with a variation of the classical theory in economics. He said the Government should merely aim to regularly have the surplus at 2% of GDP. Ken Henry and most at the RBA argued against this saying if you merely kept to that target it meant a de facto easing in fiscal policy.
Howard and Costello were assured this was the best policy to follow. We then got to an overheated economy because easing fiscal policy when there is no output gap will naturally lead to inflation.
Even when this was occurring the Government was told by Costello the RBA would not raise rates in an election year.Ken Henry believed Glen Stevens would act no matter whether there was an election or not . Anybody who knows Glen would have known that and he even said so in Parliamentary testimony. So it is amazing the Coalition was taken so much by surprise when the RBA did raise rates during the 2007 election campaign. John Howard is still very bitter about this decision despite being told by Ken Henry this was likely when the budget was being drawn up.

Now imagine a coalition victory but a bloodbath amongst the public service alah John Howard 1996.  Let us say Peter Boxall or some-one similar is appointed to head of Treasury.
What if we see austerity measures introduced now. By that I mean the public sector detracts substantially from growth in a significant way. This  article then becomes very interesting reading.

Austerity measures introduced when nominal GDP is well below trend and expected to remain there for some time is highly likely to exacerbate the domestic slowdown perhaps even bring on a recession  UNLESS lower interest rates and a lower exchange can offset fiscal contraction. World economic growth might even recover to assist as well.

HOWEVER these are all simply hopeful outcomes. None of them appear to have any legs at present.
Adopting austerity when all three are occurring is very sensible. Adopting them when very few if any are occurring is simply ignoring the European experience.

It remains to be seen what will occur.

Castle- Beckett , Watershed , DC Job and the rest

I have had another debate with the dear lady at  Writing on the Castle Walls.
Here is what she says.
( Just for historical brevity here is what I have said about the Watershed episode and Job in DC here and an update on Kate Beckett here and here.)

I do have a lot of time for this lady and her views and I like her a lot however I find myself in disagreement over these issues.

What I am going to attempt to do is show how Kate Beckett cannot go to DC and cannot get engaged YET!
First of all let us examine the DC job from a number of perspectives and in no particular or importance.

1) Relationship. Both Castle and Beckett realise you cannot have a relationship and this job. It involves long hours ( without the pay to 'compensate'). Imagine Castle comes to DC. He does little during the day and waits for her to come home. When she does come home she is physically exhausted and emotionally spent. Now remember two things. They are very bad at talking to each other and the only thing they have gong for them is a healthy sex life. Beckett would be irritable coming home. Castle a tad too as he is waiting for her company. She just wants to have a bath and go to bed. He wants more. This leads to arguments and tension.
Moreover Beckett is not likely to be in the mood for sex. She needs rest.The workday is very exhausting. Castle already knows about this from his experience with Gina. She was in a high paying executive publishing job at Black Pawn. However the long hours of work meant very little sex!

We should also take into account how important the professional relationship is for Caskett. They both thrive on it as they are partners. They need each other to solve crimes. This interlinks and is vital for their emotional relationship. Without the professional relationship the whole relationship would deteriorate if not dissolve!

There is no need to say having children is totally out of the question with this job but I said it anyway.

The choice is Caskett or DC. Both agree on that or is Beckett being portrayed as that silly she can have her cake and eat it too.Shades of Demming?


2) Experience. Beckett's only experience of the Agency is Stack. The man is a transparent liar, arrogant, willing to go outside the law, incompetent and a braggart.He asks one of the most stupidest questions one ever hears. Where do you think you will be in five years time. Also remember her team solves a murder in a day that the super  agency couldn't in a year!  After such an experience why would any sensible person go near the Agency?

3) Ambitions A person who is ambitious and career driven is easy to spot. Kate Beckett is not such a person. We learnt this in the very first episode. We learnt further in the second series she gets her kicks from putting murders behind bars. Moreover after Castle's birthday  she agreed with him in looking forward to solving another 100 more murders. Suddenly out of nowhere Beckett has changed. Why?
What has occurred that would mean her idealism has ended and she wants a new career? It rarely if ever happens in a very short time. This is a gradual thing but not here!

4) Networking. Beckett goes into the interview having done no preparation at all. She could have rung up both Will Sorensen and Jordan Shaw to find out about the interviewer and the job but didn't. If they didn't know personally they probably did know someone who could have helped her. No-one but no-one goes into an interview so ill prepared. She probably didn't ask many questions because of this. This is not the action of an intelligent woman. It speaks volumes about the interviewer as well!

5) Job. She keeps on saying that this is a great job but only talks in banal generalities. Most people can easily point to a lot of specific reasons why a job is a great job. Not Beckett. Why?

6) Hypocrisy Beckett rejected Sorensen because he was transferred to Boston yet she expects Castle, who earns a lot more money than she will ever do, to follow him no matter what or she expects the relationship to break up. either way it is not a good look for Beckett.

7) Gates  Gates gives Beckett her highest recommendation. This makes no sense at all. She has suspended Beckett from duty. Furthermore it was only recently Beckett broke several regulations when 'guarding' Vaughn. Thus either Gates is very devious or incompetent! We have no evidence she is devious.

Engagement
Although we all want to see Castle and Beckett married getting engaged now is madness.  The couple have pretty basic communication problems. These have to be worked out before one even contemplates marriage.
Being unable to talk to each other is pretty common amongst divorced couples.

Beckett has yet to experience her watershed moment. Hence her attempt to run away from the relationship could occur again when her silly and irrational fears present themselves again as they must.Beckett doing a runner when they are married would be curtains ,emotionally, for both as neither would or could recover.

Although people would say both are in love with each other you need more than just being in love to get married. One might ask how a person in love could contemplate doing a runner or  a pursue  job which must end any relationship.

When Castle proposes he says 'whatever you decide'. There is a big problem. This means they are not a couple. Both He and She are merely two individuals who have sex. They do not go out for fear of being seen together.If they were a couple then they would decide not her! They need to become a couple before getting engaged. They clearly are not a couple yet. Joint decisions mean sacrifices and compromises. It is all about OUR life it is NEVER about MY life. Thus if Cattle had said 'whatever WE decide' then that would have indicated they were indeed a couple  as it is they are merely two individuals in a relationship

Therefore Beckett cannot go to DC and they need to wait before contemplating marriage. Beckett has been portrayed as an unintelligent woman. This needs to be rectified quickly. We need answers to pretty basic questions . We need to know why the series has become so contradictory and inconsistent and it all needs to be done in the first episode of series 6.

Marlowe has a lot of work to catch up on!

Time for Coldplay/Castle video. This is fabulous. This is for the wonderful lady from Writing on the Castle Walls. May you live long and prosper!

Wordpress has declared war on me!

Early last week I saw Harry Clarke had written something and so made a comment on his blog BUT the comment went into the ether. I thought little of it until I wrote something at John Quiggin's blog and the same thing happened. with my suspicions now well and truly at a high level I then attempted to congratulate Ken Parish on a number of thoughtful pieces at Club Troppo and then  attempted a comment at Lavatus Prodeo. all comments went into the ether. I then went to a few different blogs overseas but all wordpress and the same thing happened. This never happened at blogs that were not om Wordpress.

I then contacted Jacques Chester dictator of Ozblogistan to see if he knew how to fix it. The short answer was no he didn't have an answer but to contact all blogs to see if they could overcome the problem.

John Quiggin is the only blog here where you can contact a person so I sought out John to see if he could help me at least comment on his blog.

Alas after several conversations and several theories the same thing was occurring all the time.  He suggested trying a new name but I am not going to do that. I rather like Not Trampis ( even though Tony the Teacher is the ONLY person to pick up the deliberate mistake in spelling).

I actually do not comment a lot these days. not enough time, reading all the articles I put up on Around the Traps on Friday is time consuming in itself and
I find in my free time I am reading , writing and commenting on Castle a lot so ab present I am not all that bothered.

So what is it with Wordpress?

Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones was at one time seen as the 'new' Joni Mitchell. Alas she fell from grace.

I really only liked one song of her and here it is.

Enjoy Pirates

Around the Traps 16/8/13

It is time for Around the Traps.

Interesting week yet again. David Giles has a great linked article on elementary statistics which is a must read so we do not get into bad habits. do not forget Kaiser Fong or Good Stats Bad Stats for easy to understand statistics articles. There are debates over Milton Friedman and the Pigou effect as well.
Ken Parish has  thoughtful articles on the refugee debate in Australia.
It is all happening.


wow Noah Smith is taking a break BUT has some people writing in his place

no Refereeing and Cricket doesn't start until 14/9 so I can update all week-end.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• Mumble on adjusting_the_pendulum, coalition_far_ahead_on_economy, can_beattie_win_forde, enough_with_the_nation_building, some_of_my_election_bets
• Kevin Bonham on a-field-guide-to-australian-opinion
• Pottinger on model-update-12-august-2013
• John Quiggin on were-only-doing-it-tough-out-of-envy
• Ken Parish on real-problem-or-race-to-the-bottom-part-i, real-problem-or-race-to-the-bottom-part-ii, bogan-sheilas-and-stupid-men-with-beer-guts
• Simon Jackman on polls-easy-coalition-win-could-they-be-wrong, updated poll averaging,lindsay-poll-labor-disaster-sydney
• Brian Banisch on are-they-liars-and-clunkheads-still
• Andrew Elder on tony-abbotts-full-support
• New boy M0nty on turnbull-and-albanese-talking-nbn-on-lateline, red-centrism-its-new-black
• Ross Gittins on  budget-forecasts-for-adults-only
• Drag0nvista on costings-schmostings
• Mark the Ballot on  update-newspoll-48-52-and-morgan-485-515, what-punters-are-thinking

Northern America

• Kruggers on what-people-dont-know-about-the-deficit, the-great-recession-test
• Stephen Gordon on the-national-household-survey-has-lost-the-benefit-of-the-doubt
• Calculated Risk on key-measures-show-low-inflation-in-july 
• Mark Thoma gives us Tim Duy and fed-watch-fall-tapering-in-the-air
• Daniel Becker on oh-no-walmart-is-not-doing-well-danger-danger-economy-sucks-not-according-to-the-flower-shop
• Spencer England on is-fed-policy-inconsistent
• Mike Konzal and guest-post-of-canada-and-its-housing-market
• Barkely Rosser on why-are-we-rushing-to-get-rid-of-fannie

Asia

• Menzie Chinn on the_yens_progress
• Noah Smith on the-neoliberal-choice ( possibly his last for a while)

Europe

• Calculated Risk on greece-primary-budget-surplus
• Simon Wren-Lewis on the-centre-cannot-hold, the-wrong-sort-of-recovery
• Philip Lane on austerity-special-report
• Kruggers on a-tale-of-two-flat-countries, the-soft-bigotry-of-low-european-expectations,ireland-is-the-success-story-of-the-future-and-always-will-be, ireland-is-the-success-story-of-the-future-and-always-will-be
• Dan Crawford on ireland-krugman-kenneth-thomas
• E Philip Davis on how-should-policy-respond-credit-bust  wonkish papers in here
• David Wilkinson on graduates-boost-productivity 

Wonk

• Kruggers on synthesis-lost, banks-and-the-monetary-base-wonkish,stagflation-stagnation-and-intellectual-asymmetry
• Robert Waldeman on ricardo-and-his-followers
• David Glasner on sumner-sticks-with-friedman, leijonhufvud-on-friedman, friedmans-dictum
• Nick Rowe on the-strong-monetarist-dark-force-of-macroeconomic-self-equilibration, paul-krugman-ricardian-equivalence-and-the-pigou-effect, new-keynesians-really-really-need-the-pigou-effect
• Noah Smith on  the-cruel-trick-played-by-history-on-Milton-Friedman ,
• Brad De Long on correct-predictions-and-the-status-of-economists
• Dan Crawford on correct-predictions-and-the-status-of-economists
• Mark Thoma on never-channel-the-ghosts-of-dead-economists-as-a-substitute-for-analysis
• Simon Wren-Lewis on why-pigou-effect-does-not-get-you-out-of-a -liquidity-trap
• Edward Lambert on extending-the-preliminary-circular-flow-model-with-labor-share, business-tax-cut-or-increased-govt-spending, been-tinkering-in-the-circular-flow-laboratory
• Mark Thoma on fatas-and-mihov-from-recession-to-normalcy-recoveries-as-a-third-phase-of-the-business-cycle

General

• Tim Harford on why-diversity-pays
• Noah Smith on how-successful-are-jews-really
• Harry Clarke on professional-ethics-for-economists-notes-on-demartino , social-insurance-against-kidney-failure
• David Altig on myth-and-reality-the-low-wage-job-machine
• Brad De Long on that-friedrich-von-hayek-was-not-consistent-or-coherent-does-not-redound-to-his-benefit-daniel-kuehn-smacks-down-larry-white
• Lord Keynes on hayek-was-originally-liquidationist,hayek-stable-mv-theoristl
• Mark Thoma on friedmans-legacy-the-new-monetarists-view
• Nick Rowe on bob-murphy-george-orwell-me-and-the-meaning-of-inflation
• Mike Konzal on keynesian_economics_fdr_once_thought_stimulus_spending_was_something_for_nothing
• Frances Woolley on the-tale-of-the-auto-quota-fact-or-fiction

Brian Banisch ( Climate)
nutting bad Brian wrong

• direct-action-examined-and-found-wanting
• Menzie Chinn on some_economic_implications_of_Global_Climate_Change

Andrew Gelman ( Stats)

• fixing-the-race-ethnicity-and-national-origin-questions-on-the-u-s-census
• test-scores-and-grades-predict-job-performance-but-maybe-not-at-google
• convincing-evidence
• the-robust-beauty-of-improper-linear-models-in-decision-making
• blaming-scientific-fraud-on-the-kuhnians
• more-on-aic-waic-etc
• learning-about-correlations-using-cross-sectional-and-over-time-comparisons-between-and-within-countries
• somebodys-looking-for-a-book-on-time-series-analysis-in-the-style-of-angrist-and-pischke-or-gelman-and-hill
• Good Stats Bad Stats on do we need more college graduates, education and unemployment, education and income
• Kaiser Fong on no-use-crying-over-2-milk, baseballs-steroids-problem-wont-go-away, attribution-in-online-marketing-big-data

Dave Giles (Econometrics)

• large-and-small-regression-coefficients
• a-must-read-post-for-econometrics-students

Dianne Coyle & Francess Woolley ( quirky + book reviews)

• Liveo De Matteo on wealth-religion-and-inequality  doesn't he sound like a footballer!
• Tim Harford on the-times-reviews-the-undercover-economist-strikes-back
• Kruggers on the-good-web
• Harry Clarke on inside-job
• Dave Giles on on-value-of-econometric-training

voxwonk

• immigrants-reduce-geographic-inequality
• lessons-history-thought-poverty
• recoveries-missing-third-phase-business-cycle
• is-it-time-international-supply-chain-agreement
• boom-bust
• inclusive-growth-revisited-measurement-and-evolution