The State of Economics and Economics Journalism
Posted: June 6, 2012 Filed under: Macroeconomics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
The State of Economics and Economics Journalism
My old Macro professor goes Medieval on Modern Macro
Posted: October 15, 2010 Filed under: Macroeconomics, Methodology, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
My old Macro professor goes Medieval on Modern Macro
Macroeconomics after the Crisis: Time to Deal with the Pretense-of-Knowledge Syndrome — by Ricardo J. Caballero
Posted: October 11, 2010 Filed under: Knowledge Problems, Macroeconomics, Methodology, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Macroeconomics after the Crisis: Time to Deal with the Pretense-of-Knowledge Syndrome — by Ricardo J. Caballero
The Living Dead: Thoughts on Macro and Depressions
Posted: September 2, 2010 Filed under: Macroeconomics, Regime Uncertainity, Stimulus Leave a comment »“Macro is not my field. One of the reasons it is not my field is that, so far as I can tell, it lacks a theoretical structure as solid or as well supported as price theory—popularly but misleadingly called “Micro.” One result is that a course on the subject is a tour of either a cemetery or a construction site.”
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2010/09/living-dead-thoughts-on-macro-and.html
Jobless Recovery: Or Why Macroeconomics is Bad For the Brain
Posted: August 27, 2010 Filed under: Macroeconomics Leave a comment »Capital as a layer cake: A systems approach to capital and its multi-level structure
Posted: April 1, 2010 Filed under: Capital, Macroeconomics Leave a comment »“Abstract
We elaborate a systems approach to the nature of capital that develops the work of Menger and Lachmann (the “ML trajectory”). We propose a “layer cake” metaphor to capture the kernel of the ML approach and contrast it with the neoclassical metaphor of capital as an amorphous, homogeneous “jelly”. According to the ML approach, capital is combinatorial and is organized structurally and relationally. The approach examines capital as it exists “out there” in the world, as it is actually formed and experienced by entrepreneurs. Capital goods only exist and become productive once they are connected in entrepreneurs’ production plans so that the focus is upon relations of complementarity between heterogeneous capital goods as used in production. Hence, capital has a layered structure: there is a nested hierarchy of capital goods, capital combinations and economy-wide capital structures. Using Bunge’s theory of systems, we investigate how each of these entities is a concrete system at a different layer of economic reality. Both capital combinations and overall capital structure arise in an irreversible, causal-genetic process in real time and capital structure has the added distinction of being an emergent, spontaneous order.”
Shiller: A Crisis of Understanding
Posted: March 15, 2010 Filed under: Macroeconomics, Mathematical Economics, Methodology Leave a comment »“
Indeed, the crisis knows no end to the list of its causes. For, in a complicated economic system that feeds back on itself in many ways, events that start a vicious cycle might be as seemingly trivial as the proverbial butterfly in the Amazon, which, by flapping its wings, sets off a chain of events that eventually results in a far-away hurricane. Chaos theory in mathematics explains such dependency on remote and seemingly trivial initial conditions, and explains why even the extrapolation of apparently precise planetary motion becomes impossible when taken far enough into the future.
Weather forecasters cannot forecast far into the future, either, but at least they have precise mathematical models. Massive parallel computers are programmed to yield numerical solutions of differential equations derived from the theory of fluid dynamics and thermodynamics. Scientists appear to know the mechanism that generates weather, even if it is inherently difficult to extrapolate very far.
The problem for macroeconomics is that the types of causes mentioned for the current crisis are difficult to systematize. The mathematical models that macroeconomists have may resemble weather models in some respects, but their structural integrity is not guaranteed by anything like a solid, immutable theory.”
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/shiller70/English
HT: Mankiw
Economists Have No Clothes – James Buchanan
Posted: February 9, 2010 Filed under: Buchanan, Keynesian Economics, Macroeconomics, Mathematical Economics, Methodology Leave a comment »http://www.rmm-journal.de/downloads/010_buchanan.pdf
HT: Marginal Revolution: http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/02/economists-have-no-clothes.html
