Must- and Should-Reads: June 10, 2017

• Kavya Vaghul: Weekend reading: the “real-live experiment” edition: “Monetary policy can help increase consumption through redistributing income across households…
• EPI: The Color of Law Tickets, Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 11:00 AM: “On Thursday, June 8th the Economic Policy Institute and the Poverty & Race Research Action Council present Richard Rothstein as he discusses his new book, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America… https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-color-of-law-tickets-34478748866
• Noah Smith: Actually good Silicon Valley critiques?: “Suppose we did want to criticize Silicon Valley and not end up looking foolish… http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2017/05/actually-good-silicon-valley-critiques.html
• Narayana Kocherlakota: The Fed Needs a Better Inflation Target: “A higher goal, with more public support, would benefit the central bank and the economy… https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-08/republicans-weren-t-smiling-about-comey-or-trump
• Tim Carmody (2010): Stock and Flow: “Stock and flow is the master metaphor for media today… http://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890

Interesting Reads:

• Wikipedia: The Rise of the Meritocracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_the_Meritocracy
• Statement for the BBC on the Disruption of Berkeley Speaker Event on February 1, 2017: http://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/02/statement-for-the-bbc-on-the-disruption-of-berkeley-speaker-event-on-february-1-2017.html
• 2009: Why Friends Don’t Let Friends Step Inside the American Enterprise Institute: “Charles Murray’s recent big AEI speech…. I’d seen quite a few conservatives offer it lavish praise…. His argument is that the problem with a social democratic model is that it makes people too fat and happy, thus depriving them of the higher contentment offered by suffering and misery…” http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/03/why-friends-dont-let-friends-step-inside-the-american-enterprise-institute.html
• Rich Miller: Fed Should Study Higher Inflation Target, Liberal Economists Say: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-09/fed-should-study-higher-inflation-target-liberal-economists-say
• Noah Smith: Summing up my thoughts on macroeconomics http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/summing-up-my-thoughts-on-macroeconomics.html
• Neil Irwin: Of Kiwis and Currencies: How a 2% Inflation Target Became Global Economic Gospel https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/upshot/of-kiwis-and-currencies-how-a-2-inflation-target-became-global-economic-gospel.html?mcubz=2&_r=0
• Charles P. Kindleberger: Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises http://amzn.to/2s5Gadi
• John Kenneth Galbraith: The Great Crash 1929 http://amzn.to/2sUEjEu
• Noah Smith: Authoritarians Flop as Economic Modernizers: “The myth of the enlightened despot who spurs growth endures even though democratic reformers have a better record…” https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-07/authoritarians-flop-as-economic-modernizers?utm_content=view&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic
• “Populism” or “Neo-Fascism”?: Rectification of Names Blogging http://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/06/populism-or-neo-fascism-rectification-of-names-blogging.html: “Fukuyama… has also been smart and lucky enough to have a truly singular achievement in his career…”
• Why the Fed Should Rethink Its 2%/Year No-Lookback Inflation Target http://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/06/why-the-fed-should-rethink-its-2year-no-lookback-inflation-target.html: “The Federal Reserve would be very smart to abandon its 2%/year no-lookback inflation target for a less destructive policy framework…”
• Rethink 2% http://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/06/rethink-2.html: “We believe that the Fed should appoint a diverse and representative blue ribbon commission with expertise, integrity, and transparency to evaluate and expeditiously recommend a path forward…”
• My Sections: As Delivered: Fed Up Rethink 2% Inflation Target Blue-Ribbon Commission Conference Call http://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/06/my-sections-as-delivered-fed-up-rethink-2-inflation-target-blue-ribbon-commission-conference-call.html: “My job here…. is to get all medieval, in the sense of Thomas Aquinas, on you…”
• (Early) Monday Smackdown: Annals of Low-Quality Sociometry: Andrew Sullivan Edition http://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/06/early-monday-smackdown-annals-of-low-quality-sociometry-andrew-sullivan-edition.html: “Really?… There’s no need to give up hope. Here’s what Flynn really said…”
• Weekend Reading: Ralf Dahrendorf on Frank Fukuyama: from “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe” http://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/06/weekend-reading-ralf-dahrendorf-on-frank-fukuyama-from-reflections-on-the-revolution-in-europe.html: “Let me note that the very sharp Ralf Dahrendorf is, I think, pretty much 100% wrong here in his criticisms of Frank—but it is worth noting precisely because Frank’s “The End of History?” struck such a powerful nerve here…””
• Comment of the Day: Charles Steindel: On the Negative Information Revealed by Marvin Goodfriend’s “I Don’t Teach IS-LM”: “Macroeconomics is all about the interplay between the markets for final goods and services and the markets for existing assets (mainly financial)…” http://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/06/on-the-negative-information-revealed-by-marvin-goodfriends-i-dont-teach-is-lm-1.html
• Comment of the Day: Charles Steindel: WHY THE FED SHOULD RETHINK ITS 2%/YEAR NO-LOOKBACK INFLATION TARGET: “I’ve long thought that whatever the target is, they are looking at the wrong index…” http://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/06/comment-of-the-day-charles-steindel-why-the-fed-should-rethink-its-2year-no-lookback-inflation-target-ive-long-tho.html