Month: May 2015

…to a very significant extent as having one primary objective – low and stable inflation (with some countries in addition including a broad employment mandate) – and one policy tool, the policy interest rate. I think that this definition involving a very small set of objectives and one policy tool was fundamentally mistaken…

…the kind of inequality discussed is almost always that of income or wealth. But when it comes to economic wellbeing, wealth and income aren’t the only shows in town. Consumption is also important, especially considering consumption is the primary reason to earn income and acquire wealth. Unfortunately, trends in consumption inequality aren’t as well understood as trends in wealth and income. But what we do know is quite interesting…. [Derek] Thompson sees consumption and income inequality moving together. But… consumption inequality hasn’t increased nearly as much as income inequality…. It looks like the rich are saving at a higher rate compared to the rest across the income spectrum than in the past. Yet there appear to be flaws in the CEX data…

…Has he really read nothing about TPP? Is he completely unaware of the nature of the argument Personally, I’m a lukewarm opponent of the deal, but I don’t see it as the end of the Republic and can even see some reasons (mainly strategic) to support it. One thing that should be totally obvious, however, is that it’s off-point and insulting to offer an off-the-shelf lecture on how trade is good because of comparative advantage, and protectionists are dumb. For this is not a trade agreement. It’s about intellectual property and dispute settlement; the big beneficiaries are likely to be pharma companies and firms that want to sue governments. Those are the issues that need to be argued. David Ricardo is irrelevant.