Malini's Blog

Confessions of a Supply-Side Liberal: After Crunching Reinhart and Rogoff's Data, We Found No Evidence That High Debt Slows Growth

Thu, 30 May 2013 04:14:10 -0400

Confessions of a Supply-Side Liberal: After Crunching Reinhart and Rogoff's Data, We Found No Evidence That High Debt Slows Growth:

supplysideliberal:

Here is a link to my 24th column on Quartz, “After crunching Reinhart and Rogoff’s data, we’ve concluded that high debt does not slow growth,” coauthored with Yichuan Wang. The title chosen by our editor is too strong, but not so much so that I objected to it; the title of this post is…

Happy 100th Birthday, Big Oil Tax Breaks

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 11:04:35 -0500

Happy 100th Birthday, Big Oil Tax Breaks

Robert Reich: Today, an Anniversary of America's First Progressive Revolution

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 00:52:41 -0500

Robert Reich: Today, an Anniversary of America's First Progressive Revolution:

robertreich:

Exactly a century ago, on February 3, 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, authorizing a federal income tax. Congress turned it into a graduated tax, based on “capacity to pay.”

It was among the signal victories of the progressive movement — the first constitutional…

Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: Climate Change and Rising Sea Levels

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 06:10:54 -0500

Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: Climate Change and Rising Sea Levels:

The New York Times asked “How high could the tide go?” today in its ScienceTimes section. The article, by Justin Gillis, profiles a team researching sea level rise through Earth’s millennia, looking for clues on what we can expect from man-made climate change. The verdict is that as much as three to six feet of sea level rise will likely occur in this century, which would displace millions of people currently living in coastal areas. Gillis talked to Dr. Maureen E. Raymo of Columbia University, one of the leaders on the project:

““I wish I could take people that question the significance of sea level rise out in the field with me,” Dr. Raymo said. “Because you just walk them up 30 or 40 feet in elevation above today’s sea level and show them a fossil beach, with shells the size of a fist eroding out, and they can look at it with their own eyes and say, ‘Wow, you didn’t just make that up.’ ”

If you’re interested in learning more about sea level rise and Dr. Raymo’s work, Pulitzer Center grantee Dan Grossman followed her and her team on a 4,000 mile research trek in Australia and produced Deep Water, a TED eBook available on all eReader platforms. You can also read more of Dan’s work on the local effects of global climate change on the Pulitzer Center website.

Mount Hualcan, about 20,000 feet above sea level. Image by Dan Grossman. Peru, 2011.

Financial Collapse: A 10-Step Recovery Plan

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 06:01:21 -0500

Financial Collapse: A 10-Step Recovery Plan:

Excellent set of 10 Commandments for the financial recovery plan of the United States

COP18 ends with a deal to extend the Kyoto protocol's lifetime for a few yrs

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 03:58:00 -0500

COP18 ends with a deal to extend the Kyoto protocol's lifetime for a few yrs :

Ambitious targets set for 2015 Paris meeting, but few commitments. Most telling, via @guardian : “The next three years of negotiations on the treaty will be the hardest in the 20-year history of climate change talks because the world has changed enormously since 1992…China was classed then as a developing country, and although it still has about 60 million people living in dire poverty, it is now the world’s biggest emitter and will soon overtake the US as the biggest economy”

Bloomberg says climate will lead NYC's rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Sandy

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 03:33:00 -0500

Bloomberg says climate will lead NYC's rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Sandy:

Wish more Mayors of vulnerable cities around the world were as forward-thinking as Bloomberg!

The Second Gilded Age of America

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 06:28:19 -0400

The Second Gilded Age of America:

Inequality in America is being slowly driven up by:

1. Regressive tax system

2. Declining investment in education

3. Increasing wealth of the top 1% by broadening customer base

4. Shift of economic focus into value-subtracting sectors such as health insurance, complex financial instruments..

Hurricane Sandy (Atlantic Ocean)

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 05:16:58 -0400

Hurricane Sandy (Atlantic Ocean):

The super storm expected to hit New York

Confessions of a Supply-Side Liberal: Daniel Dennett's Spirituality

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 10:56:54 -0400

Confessions of a Supply-Side Liberal: Daniel Dennett's Spirituality:

supplysideliberal:

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, p. 303:

What these people have realized is one of the best secrets in life: let your self go. If you can approach the world’s complexities, both its glories and it horrors, with an attitude of humble curiosity, acknowledging that…

Confessions of a Supply-Side Liberal: A New Engine for Discovery in Economics and Other Social Sciences: RAND's American Life Panel

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:41:25 -0400

Confessions of a Supply-Side Liberal: A New Engine for Discovery in Economics and Other Social Sciences: RAND's American Life Panel:

Web Surveys are at least as good as other survey methods, says:

supplysideliberal:

The American Life Panel’s election forecast webpage, updated daily

A few years back, economists and other social scientists and technical experts at RAND and the University of Michigan put together a grant proposal focused on seeing what can be done with web surveys. Thanks to funding…

September 2012 is the hottest month on the planet since...

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:55:14 -0400

September 2012 is the hottest month on the planet since temperature recording began in 1880. Anomalies include Australia, India, Argentina, Japan, UK, Hungary

I do post non econ items here occasionally, Here’s one...

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 12:10:51 -0400

I do post non econ items here occasionally, Here’s one from my friend ViVi on natural makeup:

http://vivibellydance.com/keeping-it-classy-my-fab-5-day-make-up-items#more-395

"Dani Rodrik: Did Microsoft steal its fonts from the Turkish army? The Turkish court that sentenced..."

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 07:20:18 -0400

“Dani Rodrik: Did Microsoft steal its fonts from the Turkish army? The Turkish court that sentenced more than 300 officers on coup plotting charges in September apparently thinks so: The Turkish military has long set the ground rules for Turkish politics, and this was hailed as a landmark trial. Many saw it as the centerpiece of a democratic, mildly Islamist government’s long overdue reckoning with the army’s misdeeds. If the charges in the case are to be believed, misdeeds there were aplenty. Prosecutors had in hand CDs, apparently from 2003 that contained detailed military plans to destabilize the country and dislodge the newly-elected AKP government from power. According to the documents in the CDs, General Cetin Dogan, then commander of the Istanbul-based 1st Army commander, and his collaborators had prepared horrific operations, including the downing of a Turkish military, the bombing of two mosques, and the targeting of Armenian intellectuals, in order to lay the groundwork for the coup. They had drawn up lists of journalists and politicians to be arrested, selected a new cabinet, and even prepared an economic program for the new government. The trial was marred by irregularities from the very beginning. The CDs were never properly authenticated beyond the date and author information in the metadata. A report that found the documents could not be traced to military computers vanished. Exonerating evidence uncovered by the prosecutors was placed under seal and hid from the defense. The presiding judge, who had ruled previously in favor of some of the defendants’ requests, was replaced two days before the trial opened. The pleas of defendants who proved they were out of the country on the dates they supposedly authored the documents met no response. A growing list of anachronisms and other inconsistencies in the documents was passed over. Meanwhile pro-government and Gulenist media had a field day, spreading rampant disinformation about the case and the defendants. But the real shocker came when the court finally provided digital copies of the incriminating CDs to the defense, nearly two years after they had been delivered to the prosecutors. American, German, and Turkish forensic experts hired by the defense were able to establish conclusively that the CDs had been forged. And here is where Microsoft enters the picture. The centerpiece of the prosecution’s case is a MS Word document, titled “Operation Sledgehammer.” This document, which gives the case its name, describes the rationale for the military takeover and the broad contours of the plan. It carries the date December 2002 and is has General Dogan’s name underneath. On the face of it, there is nothing in the digital file that would contradict this information. The metadata shows a last-saved date of December 2002 and the putative author to be General Dogan’s chief of staff. (Dogan retired from the army in late 2003.) The CD on which it is found was apparently burned in a single session on March 2003. The document is written using the Arial font and was saved in MS Word 1997, both of which were widely in use in 2003. Yet when forensic experts looked more closely at the document with a Hex editor, which shows all the binary information on the file, they made a discovery that revealed that the metadata had been tampered with. In plain sight on the raw file was a reference to “Calibri,” a font that Microsoft introduced with Office 2007 as the new default font for Word, and was first released to the public in mid-2006. The only explanation for this anachronistic reference was that the file had been worked on with Office 2007 before it was ultimately saved in an earlier version of Word. It was clear that “Operation Sledgehammer” could not have been produced and burned onto a CD in 2003.”

- Dani Rodrik’s weblog: Did Microsoft steal its fonts from the Turkish army? (via delong)

Robert Reich: The First Presidential Debate

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 07:19:08 -0400

Robert Reich: The First Presidential Debate:

robertreich:

In Wednesday night’s debate, Romney won on style while Obama won on substance. Romney sounded as if he had conviction, which means he’s either convinced himself that the lies he tells are true or he’s a fabulous actor.

But what struck me most was how much Obama allowed Romney to get away with:…

tpmmedia: The Run On Romney Stock

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 03:22:46 -0400

tpmmedia:

The Run On Romney Stock

'Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises' and other quotes on jumping into conclusions

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 03:22:17 -0400

'Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises' and other quotes on jumping into conclusions

Is this true? The Curse of a Beautiful Woman

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 07:19:20 -0400

Is this true? The Curse of a Beautiful Woman

2012 Sundance Award winning film, on the changing landscapes...

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 22:43:00 -0400

2012 Sundance Award winning film, on the changing landscapes due to ice melt.

More on the Ice Melt, esp in the Arctic (which is projected to have an ice-free summer by 2025)

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2012/sea-ice-minimum

Confessions of a Supply-Side Liberal: Energy Imports and Domestic Natural Resources as a Percentage of GDP

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 22:20:09 -0400

Confessions of a Supply-Side Liberal: Energy Imports and Domestic Natural Resources as a Percentage of GDP:

Natural Resources make only a tiny portion of the GDP

supplysideliberal:

Much is written and said about the impact of energy imports and natural resources on output. But a basic fact makes it hard for energy imports and natural resources to matter as much as people seem to think they do: natural resources account for a small share of GDP—on the order of 1% = .01, and…