May 2013
24 posts
A House Mystery: Why Does House Construction Go Up... →
May 21st
2 tags
A Minimalist Implementation of Electronic Money
A Minimalist Painting by Piet Mondrian The Politics of Negative Nominal Interest Rates. Concerns about political reactions are an issue for negative nominal interest rates and electronic money. First, even without moving to electronic money, negative nominal interest rates raise political issues. To get a sense of how negative nominal interest rates might play, take a look at this very nice 81...
May 20th
1 tag
How Freedom of Speech for Falsehood Keeps the...
“Truth” decal What John Stuart MIll says on how freedom of speech keeps the truth alive is brilliant. Although he couches his discussion in terms of religious debates, where it clearly applies, it isn’t about religious debates alone. It also applies to scientific, political and philosophical debates. When you finish reading the passage below, compare the picture of...
May 19th
2 notes
Pounds of Carbon Dioxide Produced Per Million... →
Coal (anthracite)  228.6 Coal (bituminous)  205.7 Coal (lignite)  215.4 Coal (subbituminous)  214.3 Diesel fuel & heating oil  161.3 Gasoline  157.2 Propane  139.0 Natural gas  117.0 Thanks to Bert Ramsay for finding this information for me. The title of this post is a link to the reference website.  Kill coal! 
May 18th
3 tags
Quartz 21-->Optimal Monetary Policy: Could the...
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 21st Quartz column, “This economic theory was born in the blogosphere and could save markets from collapse,” now brought home to supplysideliberal.com and given my preferred title. (I am now up-to-date bringing home to supplysideliberal.com all of my columns that are past the 30-day exclusive I give Quartz by contract.)   Even before I...
May 17th
2 tags
A Bit of Personal History of Thought: Zero Lower... →
A Social Media Story storified by Miles Kimball
May 16th
3 tags
QE or Not QE: Even Economists Need Lessons in...
Here is a link to my 23d column on Quartz: “Even economists need lessons in quantitative easing, Bernanke style.”  As I tweeted, My editor @mitrakalita was amazing, supporting me in doing a very serious treatment of QE on Quartz Even so, there are many issues I raise in the column that deserve discussion, but would ideally call for a back-and-forth dialogue with Martin...
May 15th
Joshua Foer on Memory
After reading Joshua Foer’s book Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, I think it is too bad that ancient memory techniques are not routinely taught in our schools.  Wikipedia currently has this to say about Joshua:  Foer sold his first book, Moonwalking with Einstein, to Penguin for publication in March 2011.[2] He received a $1.2 million advance for...
May 14th
4 tags
Why Austerity Budgets Won't Save Your Economy
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 20th Quartz column, Here is a link to my 20th column on Quartz: “Why Austerity Budgets Won’t Save Your Economy.” now brought home to supplysideliberal.com. It was first published on April 1, 2013. Links to all my other columns can be found here. If you want to mirror the content of this post on another site, that is possible for a...
May 13th
1 tag
Should Troubling Arguments Be Kept Away from Those...
Past homepage of the controversial MormonThink website. For Mormonism, the question in my title is the center of an active debate, both among Mormons generally and among high leaders in the Mormon Church. Some Mormon Church leaders have argued “Yes,” while others have argued “No.” Here is John Stuart Mill’s answer to this question, in On Liberty, chapter II:  To...
May 12th
Ritwik Priya's Estimates of the Costs of Paper... →
May 11th
2 tags
Adam Posen, Miles Kimball, Ritwik Priya and Tomas...
Here is the link to the storified tweets.
May 10th
2 tags
Quartz 19-->Four More Years! The US Economy Needs...
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 19th Quartz column, Here is a link to my 19th column on Quartz: “Four More Years: The US economy needs a third term of Ben Bernanke,” now brought home to supplysideliberal.com. It was first published on March 22, 2013. Links to all my other columns can be found here. If you want to mirror the content of this post on another site, that is...
May 9th
2 tags
Eliminating the Zero Lower Bound: An Introduction →
A Social Media Story storified by Miles Kimball
May 8th
1 note
Diana Kimball: What Happens Next →
This is a reblogged post from my daughter Diana. She makes me very proud.   dianakimball: Every now and then, I write a letter about what I’ve learned lately. Today’s letter was a little different. Over the past year, people have often wondered out loud: what will you do next? What happens after you graduate? For a while now, I’ve had a hunch. But now that it’s official, I wanted to share...
May 8th
22 notes
3 tags
Quartz 18-->Show Me the Money!
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 18th Quartz column, “The Stanford economists are so wrong: A tighter budget won’t be accompanied by tighter monetary policy.” I honestly couldn’t think of a good working title of my own before my editor Mitra Kalita gave it the title it has on Quartz. But it finally came to me what I wanted my version of the title to be: the main theme is...
May 7th
1 tag
Top 25 All-Time Posts and All 22 Quartz Columns in...
Crystal Structure of Quartz The top 25 posts on supplysideliberal.com listed below are based on Google Analytics pageviews from June 3, 2012 through midday, May 5, 2013. The number of pageviews is shown by each post. Not counting Quartz pageviews and pageviews from some forms of subscription, Google Analytics counts 240,923 pageviews during this period but, for example, 79,445 homepage views...
May 6th
1 tag
May 6th
6,452 notes
2 tags
The Ethics of Immigration Policy, Revisited
Link to a review of Crossing Borders by Sergio Troncoso For practical policy debates, the most important ethical principle is that the pain and suffering—and the joy—of each human being is of equal importance, without regard to who that person is.  Treating some human beings and their concerns as being of lesser importance is the root of much evil in the world. For those who cannot manage to...
May 5th
1 tag
In Praise of Tumblr
Photo link via 33arquitectures|infiniteinterior| It’s Not Easy Being Brutalist | The Accidental Cootchie Mama) I have been worrying about how faithful readers will adapt to the imminent demise of Google Reader. Please share your advice for replacements for Google Reader in the comments.  For following this blog, one possibility you might want to consider is following it directly on Tumblr....
May 4th
1 note
2 tags
The Great Sacrifice
Original source here, from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and “Never Forget” version here. Thanks to Unlearning Economics for flagging this funny and moving poster. When I asked him the source, he tweeted:  @mileskimball it’s actually a joke comment but I prefer the never forget version, bleeding heart that I am:...
May 3rd
4 tags
Quartz 17-->How Italy and the UK Can Stimulate...
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 17th Quartz column, “What Paul Krugman Got Wrong About Italy’s Economy,” now brought home to supplysideliberal.com and given my preferred title. It was first published on February 26, 2013. Links to all my other columns can be found here. If you want to mirror the content of this post on another site, that is possible...
May 3rd
2 tags
Twitter Roundtable on Monetary Policy Tools and... →
May 2nd
3 tags
Quartz 16-->Monetary Policy and Financial...
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 16th Quartz column, “Queasy Money: We should stop expecting monetary policy alone to save the US economy” now brought home to supplysideliberal.com and given my preferred title. It was first published on February 22, 2013. Links to all my other columns can be found here. If you want to mirror the content of this post on...
May 1st
1 note
April 2013
31 posts
2 tags
Doubting Tomas: Electronic Money in an Open... →
This Twitter conversation gives my reply to Tomas Hirst’s post “Lingering Doubts Over Negative Rates.”
Apr 30th
3 tags
Quartz 15-->How to Stabilize the Financial System...
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 15th Quartz column, “How to stabilize the financial system and make money for US taxpayers” now brought home to supplysideliberal.com. It was first published on February 8, 2013. Links to all my other columns can be found here. If you want to mirror the content of this post on another site, that is possible for a limited time...
Apr 29th
1 tag
Let the Wrong Come to Me, For They Will Make Me...
My title is a riff on this verse in the Gospel of Luke. The Vogel von Vogelstein painting reproduced above illustrates the scene. Here is a link to this and other paintings of the event. (I don’t see any reason to think that the event described by this Biblical verse is not historical.) In the blogosphere and in academia, the frustration those who are wrong represent for those who are...
Apr 28th
1 note
1 tag
Connections among the Top 500 Economic Influencers... →
This site is a dynamic network graph. When you hover over a name, it shows connections among the top 500 Economic influencers on Twitter. Very cool. I am on line 11.
Apr 27th
1 note
6 tags
Quartz 14-->Off the Rails: How to Get the Recovery...
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 14th Quartz column, “Off the Rails: What the heck is happening to the US Economy? How to get the recovery back on track,” now brought home to supplysideliberal.com. It was first published on February 1, 2013. Links to all my other columns can be found here. If you want to mirror the content of this post on another site, that...
Apr 26th
1 note
2 tags
The Politics of Electronic Money: Take 1 →
Apr 25th
2 tags
Quartz 13-->John Taylor is Wrong: The Fed is Not...
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 13th Quartz column, “John Taylor is Wrong: The Fed is not causing another recession,” now brought home to supplysideliberal.com. It was first published on January 29, 2013. Links to all my other columns can be found here. If you want to mirror the content of this post on another site, that is possible for a limited time if...
Apr 24th
What Is Monetary Policy? →
Apr 23rd
3 tags
An Economist's Mea Culpa: I Relied on Reinhart and...
Here is a link to my 22d column on Quartz: “An economist’s mea culpa: I relied on Reinhart and Rogoff.”  Let me also reprint here from my update to “Noah Smith Joins My Debate with Paul Krugman: Debt, National Lines of Credit and Politics” in the light of recent events: You can see what I have to say in the wake of Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash and Robert...
Apr 22nd
1 tag
The Dark Side of the Human Spirit: Take 1
Broken on the Wheel In my post “A Wish in the Wake of the Boston Marathon Bombings,” I wrote: May the best in the human spirit vanquish the worst in the human spirit. In thinking of the worst in the human spirit, I was reminded of a chapter in Stephen Pinker’s wonderful book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. In chapter 4, “The Humanitarian...
Apr 21st
Gender Roles, Economics and the Labor Market →
Apr 20th
1 tag
Why the Nominal GDP Target Should Go Up about 1%... →
Don’t miss the discussion further down of sticky prices vs. sticky wages.  
Apr 19th
2 tags
Quartz #12-->Yes, There is an Alternative to...
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 12th Quartz column, “Yes, there is an alternative to austerity vs. spending: Reinvigorate America’s nonprofits,” now brought home to supplysideliberal.com. It was first published on January 15, 2013. Links to all my other columns can be found here. If you want to mirror the content of this post on another site, that is...
Apr 18th
3 tags
Show Me the E-Money
Link to the April 16th, 2013 article on Pieria (pieria.co.uk) Q: Tomas Hirst. A: Miles. ************************************************************** Q: Would negative nominal rates effectively act as a flat tax indiscriminately hitting those who can afford to pay it and those who would struggle to? A: I really think you would see short rates go down but long rates go up because people...
Apr 17th
1 note
3 tags
Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash, Robert Pollin and... →
I thought it important to put this up right away, since I have referenced the correlations in the Carmen Reinhart, Vincent Reinhart and Ken Rogoff paper “Debt Overhangs, Past and Present.” It is likely that the later paper I relied on has some of the same problems as the earlier paper that Mike Konczal discusses based on Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash, and Robert Pollin’s...
Apr 16th
1 note
A Wish in the Wake of the Boston Marathon Bombings
Boston Explosions May the best in the human spirit vanquish the worst in the human spirit.
Apr 16th
2 tags
Optimal Monetary Policy: Could the Next Big Idea...
Here is the link to my 21st Column on Quartz: “This economic theory was born in the blogosphere and could save markets from collapse.” Even before I started blogging, Noah Smith told me I should write a post about NGDP targeting. This is that post. And it is also the post on “Optimal Monetary Policy” that I have been promising for some time. 
Apr 15th
1 tag
What Do You Mean by "Supernatural"?
Q: kentlyon asked: “What Do you Mean by Supernatural?” A: My notion of “natural” comes from what I know of science. Since science progresses, that is a moving target, but I think the idea of regular laws will continue to be central to science. A claimed phenomenon is being treated as “supernatural” if there is no serious attempt to subject it to scientific...
Apr 14th
Luigi Zingales: Pro-Market vs. Pro-Business
From Chrystia Freeland’s book Plutocrats, pp. 261-262: Luigi Zingales, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, frames [a central issue for government policy] as the choice between being promarket and being pro business. Super-elites are often the product of a strong market economy, but, ironically, as their influence grows, they can become its...
Apr 13th
3 notes
1 tag
Electronic Money, Nominal GDP Targeting, and the... →
Apr 12th
3 tags
Quartz #11-->Why the US Needs Its Own Sovereign...
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 11th Quartz column, “Why the US needs its own sovereign wealth fund,” now brought home to supplysideliberal.com. It was first published on January 3, 2013. Links to all my other columns can be found here. If you want to mirror the content of this post on another site, that is possible for a limited time if you read the legal...
Apr 11th
2 tags
We Don't Talk Enough About the Story Outside the...
Tomas Hirst interviewed me for his newly upgraded aggregator website Pieria. The site includes me as one of its “experts.” Here is the link to the interview on Pieria. It appeared yesterday. I highly recommend taking a peek at the new Pieria: here is the homepage. The full text of the interview is below. Q is Tomas, A is Miles. This interview is closely related to Noah...
Apr 10th
1 tag
Margaret Thatcher From Afar
Margaret Thatcher, October 13, 1925—April 8, 2013 Margaret Thatcher preceded Ronald Reagan in heralding a rightward shifts in politics, becoming Prime Minister in 1979. To me as an American, three factors combined to make Margaret Thatcher look good from a distance: ignorance of the substance of criticisms of her, a reflexive respect for all things British, and the fact the she had...
Apr 9th
2 tags
Quartz #10-->Read His Lips: Why Ben Bernanke Had...
Link to the Column on Quartz Here is the full text of my 10th Quartz column, “Read his lips: Why Ben Bernanke had to set firm targets for the economy,” now brought home to supplysideliberal.com. It was first published on December 13, 2012. Links to all my other columns can be found here. If you want to mirror the content of this post on another site, that is possible for a limited...
Apr 8th
1 tag
John Stuart Mill: The Paternalistic Temptation
Raphael’s painting “The School of Athens”  The temptation toward paternalism is one that I feel keenly. And I think  that paternalism can be justified in some situations. So it is in important measure to cause myself to examine my own motives and cause myself second thoughts on that front that I post here what John Stuart Mill writes in the introduction to On Liberty about...
Apr 7th
The Rise of Tape Recording
Bing Crosby played a key financial role in the rise of tape recording because he wanted to spend more time playing golf.  From David Byrne’s book How Music Works, pp. 99-100: Milner tells the curious story of the advent of recording tape—the next medium on which sound would be captured. The sequence of events that led to the adoption of tap is so accidental and convoluted that...
Apr 6th