If you can compute some numerical measure of an economy or society but it will clearly mislead people rather than inform them, don’t publish that indicator or cite it as evidence of anything. That’s not Ph.D.-level research methodology; it goes…
Are we really in currency wars?
The effects of Federal Reserve and other central banks’ policies on exchange rates are back in the news. A Bloomberg News headline, “Currency wars evolve with goal of avoiding deflation,” is typical. This implies that changing the value of our…
Tirole’s Nobel a sweet surprise
Surprising because although Tirole is well-known among scholars of industrial organization, his area of specialization, he is hardly known to other economists and certainly not to the public. I was barely familiar with his work. His economics is not the…
Analyzing the use of antibiotics in livestock
The FDA has released its latest annual report on use of antibiotics in raising livestock. As expected — at least by those of us with a skeptical bent — use increased over the reported period despite new regulations intended to…