The economy slumbers in its induced coma. Businesses are closed, workers furloughed or laid off. But the astonishing headline falls in economic indicaters such as GDP and PMI conceal a grim reality. Businesses are closing not just because they have been ordered to do so, but because they are running out of money. And people who have lost their jobs or become ill are also running out of money. If businesses fail instead of being mothballed, the eventual economic recovery will be slow. And...
Read More »Doing “Whatever It Takes”
The economy slumbers in its induced coma. Businesses are closed, workers furloughed or laid off. But the astonishing headline falls in economic indicaters such as GDP and PMI conceal a grim reality. Businesses are closing not just because they have been ordered to do so, but because they are running out of money. And people who have lost their jobs or become ill are also running out of money. If businesses fail instead of being mothballed, the eventual economic recovery will be slow. And...
Read More »COVID-19 Crisis: More Like the 1920-1921 Recession
By Ahmad Borazan, Fresno State (Guest blogger)Economic commentators are struggling to find a historic precedent to the current COVID-19 caused economic crisis and the possible path of recovery. Majority of economic downturns are dominantly an aggregate demand driven phenomenon. But with the current crisis there is an imposed constriction in both supply and demand sides of the economy. Looking at the aggregate supply and demand forced contraction there is a compelling analogy between the...
Read More »My talk on the Great Shutdown (in Spanish)
[embedded content] For those that understand Spanish my talk on the crisis (Keynesianism versus Socialism) organized by the university in Puebla (BUAP) by Juan Alberto Vázquez. Link to a piece published in an Argentinian newspaper on the topic here. My part goes up to minute 29 or so, then it's the talk by good friend Ignacio Perrotini on "Milton Friedman and the Plague."
Read More »At the Rick Smith Show on the Corona Crisis
[embedded content] I appear between minutes 39 and 59 approximately. Rick's show is always worth listening to.
Read More »The best coronavirus summary so far — Andrew Gelman
I’d still go with this article by Ed Yong, which covers biology, epidemiology, medicine, and politics. Here’s one bit: Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social ScienceThe best coronavirus summary so farAndrew Gelman | Professor of Statistics and Political Science and Director of the Applied Statistics Center, Columbia University
Read More »“The Evidence and Tradeoffs for a ‘Stay-at-Home’ Pandemic Response – Andrew Gellman:
Will Marble writes: I’m a Ph.D. student in political science at Stanford. Along with colleagues from the Stanford medical school, law school, and elsewhere, we recently completed a white paper evaluating the evidence for and tradeoffs involved with shelter-in-place policies. To our knowledge, our paper contains the widest review of the relevant covid-19 research. It summarizes research from a number of fields, including epidemiology, economics, and political science. I just have a few...
Read More »Virtual Forum: Economics Perspectives and Challenges in the Current Context
Virtual seminar in México, and in Spanish. To attend go to the Zoom page and register. And, yes, it should be Vernengo, with e.
Read More »The Hunt for Patient Zero — Godfree Roberts
Where the COVID-19 pandemic began is still an open question. The Unz ReviewThe Hunt for Patient Zero Godfree Roberts
Read More »Define Rich, part II: Rat Race and the American Dream
I have had this re-posted today because I believe it is as relevant today as when I wrote it in May, 2009. My hope is that this event we are living moves enough new people to realize the society we built is not sustainable. My hope is that one of the basic questions I was trying to answer in a more completely when I started blogging at AB is answered in a manor such that the nation and ultimately humanity becomes more inclusive: Why do we have an...
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