Category Media
Blogging and the iron law of oligarchy
Earlier this year, the New York Times announced (once again) the death of blogging. Immediately, signs of blogging's demise appeared all around me. The Palgrave Econolog, which ranks blogs, went off-line (it's now back). Posts on Worthwhile Canadian Initiative have become less frequent. The latest confirming instance: Scott Sumner is taking a break from blogging.
Does tweeting signal success?
More than one person has suggested that I start tweeting, but I'm afraid to. As my nearest and dearest have observed "Who would follow you on twitter?" It would be mortifying to be on twitter and have no followers. Yet tweeting is like bird song. A bird who sings early, long, and well will typically be […]
Revealed preference for newsprint and the rise of Fox News.
My dog can't talk, but his preferences are revealed by his actions. I know he likes tofu better than chicken because, given a choice between a piece of tofu and a piece of chicken, he will pick the tofu. Choices reveal human preferences too. In January, my parents arranged for me to have a free […]
Wikipedia is dominated by men. So what?
About 15 percent of contributors to Wikipedia are women. Sometimes this shows. The entry for employment equity as of March 5, 2011, ran as follows: Employment equity refers to Canadian policies that require or encourage preferential treatment in employment practices for certain designated groups: women, people with disabilities, Aboriginal peoples, and visible minorities.[1] Employment equity goes beyond mere non-discrimination […]
Some corporate tax talking points I wish people would stop talking about
The issue of corporate taxes is becoming an issue, and it may even be an issue that provokes an election. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the debate has deteriorated even faster than I had feared. Here are five Bad Talking Points that I wish people would stop talking about.
Book review: Dan Gardner’s “Future Babble”
Dan Gardner of the Ottawa Citizen is one of my very favourite journalists. I first came across his work during the 2008 election campaign, in which he distinguished himself by writing what turned out to be the only article on carbon taxes that made no reference to Stéphane Dion's accent. His piece was a beacon […]
The Rise and Fall of Marxism?
My latest time wasting tech toy is Google Ngram Viewer. What's an ngram? A one word phrase, like "Marx" is a one-gram. "Karl Marx" is a two-gram. "K. Marx" is a three-gram (the period counts as a gram too). A phrase of indefinite length is an ngram. The Ngram viewer is based on Google Books. […]
A 21st century misery index
The 20th century misery index was the unemployment rate plus the inflation rate. In 1982, Canada's inflation rate stood at 10.9 percent,while unemployment was at 11.0 percent, for a 21.9 percent misery index. 2009, with inflation of 0.3 percent and unemployment of 8.3 percent, didn't even come close by old-style misery index measures. Yet, as […]
Worthwhile D.I.Y. Macroeconomics?
The New York Times has just published its 2010 "Year in Ideas" issue. One of the trends it identifies: D.I.Y. Macroeconomics. The financial crisis plus the growing availability of on-line data has given rise to "growing army of knowledgeable 'econo-bloggers'." I agree with one of their conclusions: econo-bloggers "offer sophisticated interpretations of economic data […]
Why blogging is hard
Imagine the following question on a PhD comprehensive exam: "Using a macroeconomic model with monopolistically competitive firms, explain how an increase in the expected future price level will cause an increase in the current price level. Also explain whether there is an effect on real output.
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