Lars P. Syll

Why does someone have to die?​ [embedded content] In memory of Kristina, beloved wife and mother of David and Tora. Twenty-five​ years have passed since the day the unthinkable happened. People say that time heals all wounds. I wish that was true. But in dreams, I can hear your name. And in dreams, We will meet again. When the seas and mountains fall And we come to end of days, In the dark I hear a call Calling me there I will go there And back again....

Aus demselben faulen Holz geschnitzt wie Erdoğan [embedded content] Last week, the German Bundestag debated an AfD proposal asking the German government to publically condemn articles written by German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel, a Welt and taz columnist recently released from Turkish prison after having been detained for more than a year. A heated debate followed … Advertisements

 [embedded content] Bättre än så här blir det inte. Mästerligt! Advertisements

On testing in a non-repetitive world The incorporation of new information makes sense only if the future is to be similar to the past. Any kind of empirical test, whatever form it adopts, will not make sense, however, if the world is uncertain because in such a world induction does not work. Past experience is not a useful guide to guess the future in these conditions (it only serves when the future, somehow, is already implicit in the present) … I believe...

Var tog jämlikheten vägen? Nya data från SCB visar att inkomstskillnaderna i Sverige har fortsatt öka. Gini-koefficienten som år 2005 låg på 0,27 har ökat till 0.32 år 2016. Det är den högsta noteringen sedan mätningarna startade.   Även andelen personer med “låg ekonomisk standard” har stigit från 10 procent år 2005 till 14 procent år 2016. Idag har de 10 procent av befolkningen som har högst inkomster lika stor andel av den totala disponibla inkomsten som...

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The biggest trouble with modern​ macroeconomics The trouble is not so much that macroeconomists say things that are inconsistent with the facts. The real trouble is that other economists do not care that the macroeconomists do not care about the facts. An indifferent tolerance of obvious error is even more corrosive to science than committed advocacy of error. Paul Romer  New-Classical-Real-Business-Cycles-DSGE-New-Keynesian microfounded macromodels try to...

Keynes — en sällsynt fågel Alfred Marshall skrev en gång att “bra ekonomer är sällsynta fåglar.” Det stämmer verkligen. En av dessa sällsynta fåglar var definitivt John Maynard Keynes. Och nu har den norske ekonomiprofessorn Björn-Ivar Davidsen skrivit en bok om denne sällsynt kompetente ekonom, filosof, statstjänsteman, spekulant, utopist, universitetsmecenat, konstsamlare, med mera, med mera. I boken får vi följa med på en resa i Keynes’ biografiska...

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Economics is a science of thinking in terms of models joined to the art of choosing models which are relevant to the contemporary world. It is compelled to be this, because, unlike the typical natural science, the material to which it is applied is, in too many respects, not homogeneous through time. The object of a model is to segregate the semi-permanent or relatively constant factors from those which are transitory or fluctuating so as to develop a logical way of thinking...