research
public,
sometimes they don't. Or so I was told.
Ellen Frank
PEN-L list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>Apparently even Penny Hill does not have a comprehensive listing. I
>found a
>number of sites that index various CRS reports. You might try here
>(http://docs.un
"Liberal" Massacusetts has had a Republican governor since Dukakis
embarrassed himself in 1988. People vote for Republicans in part to
rein in the corrupt Democratic machine that controls the state legislature.
One thing worse than a two-party political system is a one-party system.
E
I am once again preparing to teach a one-semester international
economics course and would welcome reading ideas or syllabae from
others. Prereqs are intro courses only, so the readings can't be too
high-level. Thanks.
Ellen Frank
Doug
>wrote:
>
>That's an outrageous policy, of course, but if I were on mainstream
>TV, I wouldn't use "capitalist" or "capitalism" either - I'd opt for
>more acceptable euphemisms. I've found over the years that lots of
>ordinary people are susceptible to Marxist analyses as long as they
>don't k
This reminds me of a question I have long had to
which one of you out there may have an answer.
How did imperial Europe account for trade with
colonies in the 1800s? Was Congolese rubber
sent to Belgium counted as a Belgian import or was
it treated as internal trade within Belgium?
I would think
PEN-L list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>> Ian Murray wrote:
>> >Is acceptance of the crowding out argument a litmus test for econowonks
>in
>> >DC now?
>> Maybe, but Stiggy lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I think
>> he's motivated more by partisanship - Dems good, Reps bad. Dems
>> raise
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Ellen Frank wrote:
>
>> the Bush folks
>
>If this war was only the war of "the Bush folks" it would not be
>occurring.
>Attacks on Bush personally or on "The Bush folks" are,
> I think, mostly
>propaganda for a mila
meone has put together some figures like this!
Thanks for any help.
Ellen Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Ellen Frank did a nice job of handling this question on KPFA about a week
>ago. Maybe she should chime in.
>
I don't recall saying that much on KPFA, but I will chime in nonetheless.
The idea that we are at war to force OPEC to keep pricing in dollars
make
The problem with trying to figure this out is that nobody
can figure out why we want war so badly. What is the
objective? To distract attention from the economy
until Nov, 2004? To get control of Iraq's oil? To assert
US power? To bring democracy to the Middle East?
Certainly, the ruling c
Please circulate widely. Though the ad doesn't say so, ability to
teach History of Economic Thought and to collaborate in
interdisciplinary social science courses will be a big plus.
Feel free to contact me with questions.
Ellen Frank
The Management and Economics Department in
Re the ASSA. I had to arrive late and leave early, so I missed
quite a bit, but looking at the program I was struck by more or
less complete lack of engagement with the real world. Nothing
much on deflation, unemployment, corporate scandals, globalization,
etc. No real big picture stuff at all.
I have to write a short piece on rent control and
remember that the Journal of Economic Perspectives
did an overview of the literature a few years (maybe even
more than a few years) back. Does anyone happen to
know when that was, so I can save myself some
search time? Thanks in advance.
Ellen
Scott Turow, the novelist and lawyer and a self-described
"death penalty agnostic," was a member of Ryan's commission.
He had an excellent article in last week's New Yorker discussing
the commission's findings and why he now opposes the
death penalty.
Ellen
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>>I was wond
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>I loved your quote Ellen, that Doug brought up on his show on Thursday:
>"The rich today don't just want to pay less taxes. They want to be paid
>tribute!"
Thanks, but I was slow on the uptake. I SHOULD have said, they
are paid tribute and, having extracted their pound o
Interesting point.
As for Bush's proposal: the idea that a benefit which replaces (at best)
half the wage and only one third on average will dissuade
people from looking for work -- unless they're pretty sure
they'll be called back from a layoff -- is just ridiculous.
I was listening to Jim Glas
Nomi writes:
>> So much for involuntary unemployment.
>
>Can you explain the details of this part a bit more?
Sorry for my cryptic economics terminology. What I mean
is that ultimately, though they won't really say it because it
doesn't make sense when exposed to the light of reason,
Repubs bel
This idea of eliminating the tax on dividends is outrageous on
so many levels, one hardly knows where to start.
First. Any money that flows to the stock market in search of
tax free dividends will almost certainly be coming from the
bond market, driving up yields.
Second. To the extent that th
Thanks for the post Mat. You couldn't make this stuff up!
Ellen
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=573&titlenum=&FS=&title=&Mont
Actually I'm trying to write copy for the Heritage foundation and
finally make some real money!
The I might make it too someday element is pretty weak
with my students. As I say, they tend to be left-liberal, but
not politically engaged and lack confidence in their views.
There's another psych
e tax respond unless they are willing to say the
existing distribution of income is fundamentally unjust?
Ellen
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>On Thursday, December 19, 2002 at 09:32:34 (-0500) Ellen Frank writes:
>>But shouldn't living standards be determined by
>>what
But shouldn't living standards be determined by
what people contribute? And shouldn't people who
contribute more get more? Rather than being
penalized for their hard work and success?
Look, my students are mostly liberal-democrats in
their political sympathies and mostly middle to
lower-midd
ng this argument in public? I can't.
It's hard to talk about redistribution without talking about
exploitation.
Ellen Frank
Here in Boston, where prices have nearly tripled over the past 5
years, my impression is that housing demand is coming
mostly from owner- occupiers. This is in contrast to the bubble
of the late 1980s, when absentee-investors were buying, renting,
then flipping condos like crazy. Owner-occupie
Peter - I'm very interested in hearing others suggestions, but
I'll tell you what I'm using in a course co-taught with polisci.
The text is Spero and Hart, The Politics of International
Economic Relations. Its not good on finance stuff -- I mean it
has all the terms, but doesn't explain things we
And could it be just coincident that they
BOTH bear a peculiar resemblance to Jim Devine?
Ellen
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>see the attached file. <>
>
>t would be hard to see them together if they weren't in the same place.
>But i don't know what Krugman looks like anyway.
>
>Gene Coyle
>
>Devi
Thanks for all your responses on polling data. Harris and Roper
used to have most of their reports on the web, but now they
offer all but the most recent surveys to subscribers only. As it
turns out however (once I took the time to surf the web) a website
called pollingreport.com has reams of po
nd, I haven't looked very hard).
Thanks for any help.
Ellen Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>On Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at 16:59:30 (-0700) Ellen Frank writes:
>
>Also, isn't about half or so (more??) of current trade "intrafirm"
>trade?
>Bill
Good point. I think it's around 40%.
Ellen
>
>
intra-empire
trade. When the Dutch took rubber from the Congo or
oil from Indonesia, did this count as trade? Does anyone
know?
Ellen Frank
Thanks Gil!
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Ellen, here you go:
>
>The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are
>right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly
>understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men,
>who
>believe themsel
Anybody have handy the famous Keynes quote about
dead economists?
Ellen
Rodrik's book Making Openess Work is really excellent --
much better than his earlier book, which was kind of all over
the place. Rodrik argues that (a) growth is growth and
can be generated as well through domestic investment
or government investment as through export demand;
(b) there are many
I just got done reading the most recent issue of
Fortune, which features a scathing article on
corporate greed (entitled You Bought. They Sold.),
an eye-opening account of the sleazy role played by
Chase and Citi in the Enron/WorldCom scandals,
and a contempuous look at Bush's economic team
(Th
I happen to be writing something on this very question, so while
I can't speak for Dean, I do think his claim is essentially
(though not necessarily) correct. To the extent that
stock gains are realized, these realizations tend to generate
an upward redistribution of income because:
(1) insider
Last night I was re-reading Friedman's book The Day of Reckoning.
Every chapter starts with a quote from the Old Testament on the
moral hazards of borrowing. He really does seem to be talking more
about the international asset position of the US than about the public
debt, but he never makes that
Does anyone know of a (preferably on-line) source that
compares social programs across countries -- like unemployment,
pensions, health care?
Ellen Frank
There it is! Thanks, Eric.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Check --
>
>http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/colafacts2001.htm
>
>Eric
>>
>> Can anyone tell me the maximum earnings subject to SS tax
>> for 2002? I've searched the SSA website and can't seem to
>> find it. Thanks.
>>
>> Ellen
>>
>>
>
Can anyone tell me the maximum earnings subject to SS tax
for 2002? I've searched the SSA website and can't seem to
find it. Thanks.
Ellen
y critical of the Democrats on this.
Ellen Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>I assume he is opposed to IMF policy, Jim.. I usually find myself in
>agreement with most everything Dean Baker writes. But that is the point
>of my surprise to read his words:
>
>"the increase in the
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>>From the current BUSINESSWEEK --
>
>But, like Japan, Germany is governed by consensus, which
>makes it difficult to enact controversial reforms. "The consensus society
>is
>unlikely to provide the flexibility needed in today's rapidly changing
>business world," says Qui
Does anybody know who coined the term "supply-side economics"
(or who takes credit for it, anyway)?
Thanks in advance.
Ellen Frank
I was - it was a real last minute thing and I had to have my
daughter apply make-up. If only people had wanted me on
TV when I was young and beautiful! I usually turn down
TV requests because I find the grief-to-content ratio too high.
But Donahue is pretty good. He gives ample time to make
This raises a question I have always wondered about. In calculating
the CPI, the BLS uses fixed weights which are updated only every
decade or so, right? Right-wingers claim that this overstates
increases in the cost of living because, in reality, people switch
from high-priced goods to low-pri
Company is just a colloquial term for a business.
Corporation is a legal term for a business owned
by shareholders.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>One of my students asked me yesterday what is the difference between a
>company and a corporation? To my discomfort, I didn't know the answer.
>I'd
>
A while back there was a billboard in Times Square
that tracked the US federal debt minute by minute.
Does anyone happen to know when that was and
who paid for it?
Thanks, Ellen
of neo-liberalism.
Ellen Frank, Dollars and Dinars, New Internationalist, January 2000
Max - I don't beleive Tufts has a heterodox department
(though the university does house the global development
and environment program). Dickinson also does not have
a heterodox dept; Matt is probably thinking of Drew University
in PA -- where Tom Dickins teaches. As long as you're
considering
Really? Is that what "leftist"means? I'm not sure I would
support such a platform, not given the realities of
political corruption in the US and the experience of large-scale state
ownership in Russia. How exactly
would you sell this vision to the American public?
Ellen
[EMAIL PROTECTED] w
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
>The observation that an ordinary income tax is not
>equivalent given different savings behavior is valid,
>as far as it goes. It raises fairness issues, for
>instance. Imagine two twin brothers with equal
>capacities, income, and luck in all respects. If
>one defers
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Dues, library subs to the journal, and fundraising from the
>membership. For an organization to be on the verge of ruin after an
>expenditure of $15,000 is hardly a sign of robust finances, is it?
>
>Doug
Petty point, but URPE, according to the latest newsletter,
has
Can you please tell me the source of this?
Ellen Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Friends,
>
>I cannot help but share this monumental work of political economy
>as well as history with my fellow Penners.
>
>Best,
>Sabri
Absolutely right. That's the whole idea. In thier world-view,
which I think is widely held in America, businessmen (and women!)are the
heroes. Adversity -- like unemployment -- spurs the heroic to action --
to take risks, start businesses. In this way the heroes provide incomes
and opportunity
Doug writes:
>And there's
>
>(3) Excessively tight monetary policy, courtesy of central bankers
>who believe in the discredited notion of the Phillips Curve, when
>they really should set policy by the gold price and other
>market-based measures.
>
>If you're by a TV the morning of the next empl
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>CB: Do supply-siders express an aim to lessen recessions' unemployment
>etc by their tax cuts for capital, or do they say recession is a
>necessary, good thing ?
Real supply-siders believe either
(1) that unemployment is mostly voluntary and the
unemployed should ge
vehemence of
their anti-government (and anti-deficit) views and their
conviction that Keynesian policies are intended, ultimately,
to make the US a socialist economy.
Ellen Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Right Rakesh. But we still have to ask whether working people and the
>poor will be
nearby!
Ellen Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>These penners conducted an excellent session at the Atlanta meetings. I
>wish that they could sumarize their talks for us.
>--
>
>Michael Perelman
>Economics Department
>California State University
>Chico, CA 95929
>
>Te
ace to live, by all accounts, but you wouldn't want to visit there
-- at least not without a car.
Ellen Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Looking at Atlanta the US is currently in a severe recession. At the
>economics meetings there, I stayed at a hotel that was several blocks from
>wh
r D&S last year.
Ellen Frank
>Doug wrote:
>
>Al Gore said during the campaign that if revenues declined in a
>recession, he'd cut spending to preserve the surplus.
>
>Doug
>
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Alan Cibils wrote:
>
>>Democrats must be getting t
away the reality of high real returns on
financial assets.
Ellen Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>[Financial Times]
>A poor defence for share prices
>Many depend on the relationships between bond yi
The Vietnam fiasco and the decison to float the
dollar in 1973 was certainly seen at the time as
the twilight of US hegemony. But I agree with
Yoshie that we have to start thinking of the
ruling class as global rather than national, so
the old nation-state measures may not apply.
The world is d
.
Best, Ellen Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
>Sounds like a great diss. Did you ever publish an article summarizing it?
>If not, what school did you do it at?
Thanks, Michael. Unfortunately I did not.
>
>> The official dollar role has been over since 1973. The US has run
>> current account deficit in every sin
The mailing address is Dollars and Sense,
740 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02141.
Thanks!
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>I'll send $100 in the mail for a sub.
>
>
Talking about left organizations going bankrupt,
I think pen-lers should know that Dollars and
Sense magazine, a 27-year old publication of
solid progressive economic analysis written
for a general audience, is having financial
difficulties. Nobody is suing us. Its just the
usual problems --
Well, since we're arguing about hypothetical
scenarios, I guess my thinking was that a
Nader victory might send some wealth
high-tailing it to the EU and Japan. On the
other hand, a leftish government in the US
would probably make international financial
reform a top priority , so who knows?
Bu
My major point about the dollar is that nation-state based
Keynesian analysis -- US runs deficit on current account, needs
to attract foreign capital to finance, economy now vulnerable
to capital flight, financing crunch and speculative attack
on currency -- doesn't apply in the case of the US an
where that historical role
>could abruptly change. Things continue on as they have because "there is
>no
>alternative." At some point things can stop continuing on as they have,
>with
>or without an alternative, simply because there is no foundation for the
>way
>
d dollars and the dollar share
of international lending and reserves is increasing.
Ellen Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>People would have to be confident that the fall would be very gradual.
>
>Jim Devine wrote:
>
>> a weaker greenback would be a good thing, if it falls _slowly_.
>>
>
>
, stocks, etc.? Hoping someone
out there can save me some time searching.
Thanks in advance.
Ellen Frank
ainstream economists
who do follow through the policy implications
and publish them and do they get disseminated
beyond the rarified journals and NBER working
papers?
Thanks, Ellen Frank
Jim writes:
>this discussion is interesting, but it's between two admitted ignorami
>(Rob
>& myself). Is there anyone on pen-l who knows -- or has some sort of
>journalism-based knowledge -- of why the U.S. has pursued a "high dollar"
>policy?
Well, I don't know if I qualify, but that won't
Monopolistically competitive industries consist of small firms
facing minimal entry barriers which compete by carving out
distinct market niches (mini-monopolies). Because their
products are - initially - unique, monopolistically competitive
firms can charge higher prices than their perfectly
To Peter's excellent post, I would add one other
point.
The standard development story (like John Henry's
Puerto Rico tale) is all Adam Smith -- low wages
mean high profits,captial accumulation,
rising productivity, cheaper consumer goods
and so -- if only the government will
leave things al
I just had a chance to read this exchange about T-Bills.
The problem with retiring T-Bills is not that it
complicates pricing problems in financial markets,
but that it eliminates a riskless asset. Banks hold
T-bills as "secondary reserves". Pension funds and
annuities hold T-bills to cover out
>
>Postscript:
>
>Q. How many graduate students does it take to screw in a light bulb?
>A. One, but it takes him eight years.
>
Q: How many actors does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: 10.. One to screw in the lightbulb and 9 to stand below and
shout "that should be me up there!"
though I don't want to get into this Nader/Gore
debate, it must be said that Clinton handled these
executive orders in his characteristically cute
and opportunistic way. He waited until the
election was over, so as not to upset donors,
then rushed the ergonomics and forest protection
rules thro
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Ellen Frank wrote:
>
>>First, most of the Japanese banks are insolvent
>>by US standards
>
>So the government should buy their worst loans and hive off the
>less-bad stuff and sell it to vultures. They could do it without
>disturbing the
The question isn't whether banks
liquidating/merging banks disturbs the class
structure, in general. The question is whether
Japanese banks can be liquidated/merged without
disturbing the Japanese class structure.
The Japanese system is very different from the US.
First, mos
orations.
Ellen
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Ellen Frank wrote:
>
>>A bailout like the
>>US S&L bailout would require the liquidation of large banks and with it
>>the loss of status and institutional power of the banks owners.
>
>Large banks?
Doug wrote:
>j
>Japan has been unable to appropriate the serious sums n
>ecessary to
>socialize all that bad debt. Or, put another way, the Japanese ruling
>class has been unable to use the state to bail out Japanese
>capitalism.
I think a betterr way to put it is that the Japanese ruling c
Of course, the Fed could have tried to slow the bubble by
raising margin requirements. It's not clear this would have
worked, but then again, the Fed never tried it.
Jim wrote:
>
>I didn't finish my thought here. The Fed had a hard job in this
>situation,
>which involved a private-sector-led s
Penners -
Can anybody point me to some good historical and
contemporary material on child labor laws?
Thanks, Ellen
Is price discrimination really illegal? If so, why can airlines, hotels,
car rental companies, etc. change their prices from hour to hour,
even minute to minute? A couple of years back, Coca-Cola was
looking into a soft-drink vending machine that monitored outdoor
temperatures and adjusted pri
. In fact, any reading of
history suggests the opposite. Governments of all types precede
markets. Further, the expansion of markets since the 1800s has been
accompanied every step of the way by the expansion of government
activity. Why do you think central banks were created anyway?
Ellen Frank
>
>
ccustomed to
having their noses wiped by the teaching-centered
public schools, are ill-prepared to compete in the big leagues.
Ellen Frank
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Michael Yates wrote:
>
>>Two comments: Most teachers are not
>>very good at
is, but if I'm not, please tell me.
Medicare cuts seem one good example (especially for
the local audience - half the hospitals in this area
are broke). I would appreciate other examples people
can give.
Thanks, Ellen Frank
>Ellen Frank wrote:
>>I think we're using terms differently here. The term
>>hoarding (in Keynes usage) means a preference for
>>liquidity. This is usually broadly interpreted today to
>>mean keeping wealth in near-cash assets like short-term
>>bank depos
I
> wrote:
>
>>Point taken. The key word though, is "may." The grandma
>>may buy Paxil, or she may buy real estate. The bank
>>may lend it to a ball-bearing manufacturer, or they may
>>lend it to a hedge fund, or a margin trader, or a real
>>estate dealer, or a takeover artist.
Doug wrote:
Doug writes:
>Ok, so what gave us the longest expansion in U.S. history, and a 42%
>rise in real GDP?
>
>Doug
>
I really don't know. But the conventional wisdom really
falls apart on close inspection. For example, real
interest rates were high compared with earlier
years (despite assertions t
ht have helped sustain
the boom, as funds moved in from abroad. But I think Clinton
was just lucky. I also think Alan Greenspan has had an
amazing run of luck. But his luck might just be running out.
Ellen Frank
>
>
I was being sort of facetious initially, but I do think there is an
issue here. The supply-siders argue that investment will be
high as long as government doesn't spook businesses with
too much interference in the free-market. Now I understand
the limitations of this and the critique of Say's L
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
B
>ut it's not easy to keep money in a pure hoard. Buy a T-bill, and
>the government may spend it. Buy a stock, and the grandma who sells
>it might use it to buy her Paxil. Put it in the bank and it may
>become working capital.
>
>Doug
>
Point taken. The key word th
Jim writes:
>
>It seems to me that no matter what the rationale -- or rationalization --
>of Bush2's proposed tax cut, it is Keynesian in practice (because
>Keynesian
>theory makes much more sense than supply-side theory does), just as
>Reagan's tax cut was supply-side in theory but was Keynesi
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
>Yeah, but where's it go? And how does an "investor" hoard money?
>Aside from burying it in the backyard, it means buying a T-bill or
>depositing it in a bank, which means that it either enters the stream
>of consumption or gets lent by the bank to a business for wor
Barney Wagman wrote"
>When times gets tough, everybody becomes a Keynesian, apparently even
>GW, who's now selling his tax cut as means of stimulating the economy
If the rationale for Bush's tax cut were demand-side Keynesian, then
the plan would be vulnerable to the obvious critique that virtu
Barkley - It is, of course, depressing how awful the
entire US political establishment has been on this issue.
But there is one thing I think we need to be clear on.
Emissions from highway transportation constitute
less than 20% of US CO2 emissions - and much of that
is from trucks, not passenge
/Gore have declined
to take.
Ellen Frank
None whatsoever. In fact, because benefits are indexed
to inflation rather than to wages, relative living standards of
seniors tends to lag behind the general population. Many
European countries do, however, index pension benefits
to wages.
Ellen
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writ
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>I couldn't open this file.
>Please resend.
>
>And I'm not sure you're a liberal.
>You show some radical tendencies.
Hey Max. Yeah, well I try to pass sometimes. Though I gotta
say, liberals are a tough lot to fool. Generally they hate
radicals more than they hate con
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