From the NY Times today:
… They are out there, hiding in library stacks, whispering in lecture halls, armed with dangerous textbooks and subversive pop quizzes…
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Ed Lazear Comments on Government Forecasts
Or, the self-rehabilitation effort continues. In a WSJ op-ed entitled “Government Forecasters Might as Well Use a Ouija Board”, he writes:
My analysis of 1999-2013 reveals that the CBO’s real GDP growth forecasts for the next year were off, on average, by 1.7 percentage points, either too high or low. Administration forecasts were similarly off by a slightly larger 1.8 percentage points on average, also to high or too low. Given that the average growth rate during this period was only 2.1%, errors of this magnitude are substantial.
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Determines $7.25/hour Is a Living Wage
From Jason Stein in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
The state law requires that Wisconsin’s minimum wage “shall not be less than a living wage.” …
A living wage is defined under the law as “reasonable comfort, reasonable physical well-being, decency and moral well-being.”
Thank Goodness Wisconsin Turned Down High Speed Rail!
From “Fast trains, supply networks, and firm performance” in VoxEU:
We find that sales and measured productivity rose substantially for firms near the new (high speed rail) stations after the opening. Firms in industries with greater purchased input shares outperformed firms in industries with lower purchased input shares.
So Wisconsin dodged the fate of having higher firm productivity.
The report is authored by Bernard, Moxnes, and Saito.
Update, 10/1 12:26PM Pacific: And here is the IMF’s assessment of the role of infrastructure investment. Not that I expect it to convince all the folks who think we should privatize all roads, airports, harbors, and train service…
Interpreting the Yield Curve: Some Pictures
Recently Jim highlighted the odd behavior of the various Treasury term premia. Here are some additional thoughts.
First, from “Debt market goes off script” in the WSJ:
Wisconsin Employment Trends in Context
Following up on last Thursday’s post, here is a depiction of how Wisconsin and Kansas — ALEC darlings — fare against Minnesota and California.
Kansas Downgraded
From WaPo:
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On Perusing the Comments Sections
On the Characteristics of Those Covered under Some Government Programs
“…SNAP and Medicaid. These are programs for People Who Do Not Work.”
Is this statement true?
Deployment of Forces: Ukraine
From WaPo based on a Royal United Services Institute paper: