Thursday Roundup (1/26/2012)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012


New feature, y'all! I've decided to join the ranks of the aggregators, and post a weekly roundup of interesting posts from around the econ blogosphere that I didn't see get discussed very much. Here's this week's list:

1. Paul Krugman reminds us that debt bubbles are much, much worse than equity bubbles. This is relevant for my own research, since debt bubbles are often housing bubbles, and housing investors are often unsophisticated, liquidity-constrained, and prone to various behavioral biases.

2. Matt Yglesias basically reprises my "Great Relocation" idea - economic activity is moving to Asia because Asia has the densest populations. Of course, we both got the idea from Paul Krugman. Update: Ryan Avent, too.

3. Mike Konczal interviews Josh Kosman, who explains how the private equity tax arbitrage scam works.

4. Brad DeLong offers some helpful tips on the difference between behavioral relationships, equilibrium conditions, and accounting identities in economic modeling. Yay Principle #4!

5. Frances Woolley gives an excellent explanation of what econ blogs contribute to the academic discussion. Basically, assumptions are crucial to econ models, and blogs can examine the plausibility of assumptions.

6. Tyler Cowen explains the asymmetric nature of financial bets on volatility, and how a little moral hazard can go a long way.

7. My sources indicate that this email in Tyler Cowen's inbox, complaining about rude bloggers, is about me. Really? Am I really that rude? I guess it's easy to sound harsher on a blog than one intends to be (an effect that is noted in the immediately prior Tyler Cowen post).

8. Tim Duy uses Japan's experience in the 1990s to illustrate how fiscal policy can turn into fiscal capture...

9. Ryan Avent discusses how land use policies hold down real wages in Silicon Valley and transfer wealth from engineers to landholders.

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