Lars P. Syll

London ist eine Partnerstadt von Berlin. In Gedenken an die Opfer des Terroranschlags von London ist das Brandenburger Tor in Berlin deshalb in den britischen Nationalfarben angestrahlt worden. Wir stehen zusammen gegen den Terror. Solidarität besiegt den Terror. div{float:left;margin-right:10px;} div.wpmrec2x div.u > div:nth-child(3n){margin-right:0px;} ]]> Advertisements

Economics textbooks transmogrifying truth — growth theory  [embedded content] The above vidoe is one in a series of videos where Alex Tabarrok and Tyler Cowen present their economics textbook Principles of Economics. In a later video, ‘ideas’ are introduced into the Solow growth model. But, not with a single word does one acknowledge that this in total contradiction to the Holy Grail of their mainstream economics — the “iron logic of diminishing returns.”...

Still the best TV series ever made  [embedded content] Brideshead Revisited — television’s greatest literary adaptation, bar none. Eleven episodes and actors like Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Diana Quick, John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier. Absolutely fabulous. div{float:left;margin-right:10px;} div.wpmrec2x div.u > div:nth-child(3n){margin-right:0px;} ]]> Advertisements

Tax cuts won’t do it Stuck in the present ‘secular stagnation’ looking situation, politicians and economists have to make some choices if they want to get the economy going. From a Keynesian perspective one could perhaps contemplate (A) central banks lowering interest rates and doing some quantitative easing (B) governments cutting taxes and increase budget deficits (expansive monetary policies) (C) governments expanding through spending of their own...

Swedish housing bubble soon to burst House prices are increasing fast in EU. And more so in Sweden than in any other member state, as shown in the Eurostat graph below, showing percentage increase in annually deflated house price index by member state 2015: Sweden’s house price boom started in mid-1990s, and looking at the development of real house prices during the last three decades there are reasons to be deeply worried. The indebtedness of the Swedish...

A couple of years ago Michel De Vroey felt the urge to write a defense of Robert Lucas’ denial of involuntary unemployment: What explains the difficulty of constructing a theory of involuntary unemployment? Is it, as argued by Lucas, that the “thing” to be explained doesn’t exist, or is it due to some deeply embedded premise of economic theory? My own view tilts towards the latter. Economic theory is concerned with fictitious parables. The premises upon which it is based have...

What is Post Keynesian Economics? John Maynard Keynes’s 1936 book The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money attempted to overthrow classical theory and revolutionize how economists think about the economy. Economists who build upon Keynes’s General Theory to analyze the economic problems of the twenty-first-century global economy are called Post Keynesians. Keynes’s “principle of effective demand” (1936, chap. 2) declared that the axioms...

Speech by the British Prime Minister to the American President  [embedded content] Looking forward to hear Theresa May deliver something similar to Donald Trump … div{float:left;margin-right:10px;} div.wpmrec2x div.u > div:nth-child(3n){margin-right:0px;} ]]> Advertisements

Every dollar of increased government spending must correspond to one less dollar of private spending. Jobs created by stimulus spending are offset by jobs lost from the decline in private spending. We can build roads instead of factories, but fiscal stimulus can’t help us to build more of both. This form of “crowding out” is just accounting, and doesn’t rest on any perceptions or behavioral assumptions. John Cochrane What Cochrane is reiterating here is nothing but Say’s law,...

[embedded content] Today is Mother’s Day in Sweden. This one is in loving memory of my mother Lisbeth, and of Kristina, beloved wife and mother of David and Tora. Those whom the gods love die young. 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. div{float:left;margin-right:10px;} div.wpmrec2x div.u >...