Category Archives: Economics

ALGORITHMS SENDING TRAFFIC TO BUSY STREETS.

Posted on December 24, 2017 by Philip

ALGORITHMS SENDING TRAFFIC TO BUSY STREETS. Rick Paulas describes here what is happening to traffic all around the country: “All that extra traffic down previously empty streets has created an odd situation in which cities are constantly playing defense against … Continue reading →

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PEDLARS AND HOLY CARDS—A REMINISCENCE.

Posted on December 12, 2017 by Philip

PEDLARS AND HOLY CARDS—A REMINISCENCE. I asked Mary Jane to write up her memories of corsets and holy cards, and here is what she sent me: “I have a childhood memory of the lady who used to go from client … Continue reading →

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PEDLARS AND HOLY CARDS.

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Philip

PEDLARS AND HOLY CARDS. One passage from CELESTINE which Mary Jane read aloud to me involved holy cards. Mary Jane has always characterized the small area of Syracuse where she grew up as like a village in Italy which had … Continue reading →

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THE HISTORY OF PEDLARS—CELESTINE.

Posted on December 10, 2017 by Philip

THE HISTORY OF PEDLARS—CELESTINE. Mary Jane is reading CELESTINE, a favorite book of mine, which I posted about here. CELESTINE is a reconstruction by Gillian Tindall of French rural life in the 19th century. Tindall came into possession of letters … Continue reading →

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RULES FOR MAILING LIVE ANIMALS.

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Philip

RULES FOR MAILING LIVE ANIMALS. In today’s Wall Street Journal, Annupreeta Das has a front page article about the US Postal Service regulations that govern the mailing of live animals. It would never have occurred to me that you can … Continue reading →

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ECONOMICS IS “A COLLECTION OF FUNNY STORIES ABOUT UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES”.

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Philip

ECONOMICS IS “A COLLECTION OF FUNNY STORIES ABOUT UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES”. John Cochrane, at his Grumpy Economist blog, posts a response to the question Russ Roberts asks (what do economists know?). His answer: “Our field is, perhaps, best described as a … Continue reading →

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“WHAT DO ECONOMISTS ACTUALLY KNOW?”

Posted on April 1, 2017 by Philip

“WHAT DO ECONOMISTS ACTUALLY KNOW?” Professor Russ Roberts began his article entitled “What Do Economists Actually Know?” as follows: “A journalist once asked me how many jobs NAFTA had created or destroyed. I told him I had no reliable idea.” … Continue reading →

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SO WHY ARE THEY CALLED “IDENTIFICATION PROBLEMS”?

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Philip

“SO WHY ARE THEY CALLED “IDENTIFICATION PROBLEMS”? I can imagine Annalisa chuckling again over how counterintuitive economic jargon is. (Think of “rent” as an example). Economists have chosen to talk about the problem of determining (measuring) the effect of different … Continue reading →

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IDENTIFICATION PROBLEMS IN ECONOMICS.

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Philip

IDENTIFICATION PROBLEMS IN ECONOMICS. Kids, a rough way of looking at identification problems is to consider the problem of trying to determine the effect of more than one variable in causing something to happen. A good experiment, as explained by … Continue reading →

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IDENTIFICATION PROBLEMS ARE THE REASON “NATURE DOES NOT RUN VERY GOOD EXPERIMENTS.”

Posted on March 29, 2017 by Philip

IDENTIFICATION PROBLEMS ARE THE REASON “NATURE DOES NOT RUN VERY GOOD EXPERIMENTS.” Paul Romer explains what has happened in macroeconomics as the result of economists struggling with the “identification problem”. He begins the second paragraph of his essay: “In the … Continue reading →

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