Monthly Archives: July 2017

Is Illinois the trailer for the debt movie?

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Arnold Kling

I assume you have been following the story. Illinois is now grappling with $15 billion of unpaid bills and an unthinkable quarter-trillion dollars owed to public employees when they retire. This would be the third year in a row that … Continue reading →

Posted in government debt crisis | 15 Comments

Interesting sentences

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Arnold Kling

From a commenter. People in education tend to believe two things: 1) School is America’s great driver of social mobility. School lifts up the poor. Without our education system, we would be a terribly unequal, unjust, “rich get richer and … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics of Education | 16 Comments

Scott Sumner’s macroeconomics: my thoughts

Posted on July 1, 2017 by Arnold Kling

He writes, I’ll use “(e)” to denote a (market) expected value. NGDP(e) is the single most important variable in macro; it should be the centerpiece of modern macro. How can we work with a central concept that is purely mental? … Continue reading →

Posted in Monetary Economics, PSST and Macro, Scott Sumner is Coherent | 13 Comments

Human conflict: a Girardian view

Posted on July 1, 2017 by Arnold Kling

Dan Wang writes, If one is a Girardian, then there is perhaps no greater catastrophe than the growing tendency of the American meritocracy to be incubated in elite colleges. Is it not worth fretting that the people running the country … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, Tyler Cowen is my Favorite Blogger | 11 Comments