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The Conspiracy Letters Saturday, May 17, 2003 KRUGMAN VERSUS MELTZER ON LEHRER Last Wednesday Paul Krugman and Alan Meltzer squared off on the tax cut on PBS's Lehrer News Hour, and the latter did a nice job of countering the disingenuous attempt by Krugman to insinuate Social Security into the debate. You can read it (scroll down) at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/economy/jan-june03/taxes_5-14.html.I wish Meltzer had thought to ding Krugman for his New York Times columns about Social Security that claimed it was good til 2040 at least, and that the bonds in the trust fund are "real assets." If Krugman were correct about the above, then income tax cuts expiring in 2013 would have no effect on Social Security, which will be in surplus til about 2017. This is one of the more subtle dishonesties on the part of Krugman. One of the best comments, though, was Meltzer's pointing out that this tax cut is really only a sure thing for about $50 billion dollars, as there will be two presidential elections and several congressional elections between now and the ten year span of the bills on the table (the Reagan tax cuts of 1986 lasted til 1991). Patrick R. Sullivan Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 4:23 PM |
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Thursday, May 15, 2003 ETHICS? WHAT ETHICS? Krugman's point on a code of ethics ("Cavuto KO's Krugman" 5/13/2003) is really weird. There is no code of ethics in economics or econometrics. There are lots of them in mathematical statistics, here is the latest from the American Statistical Association. As a matter of fact, I've organized a panel at the SF Joint Statistical Meeting in August to ask why the difference.By happenstance, economists don't do history of economics any more... with predictable results. David Levy Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 7:00 AM |
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REASON TO LIVE? I'm a Princetonian who recently attended an event at which Krugman was a panelist. I had always suspected he would be vertically challenged, simply because he writes with a special kind of vitriol reserved for short folks. Not to say all little people are angry, but some have a reservior of bile the size of Lake Erie. Anonymous Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 12:17 AM |
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Tuesday, May 13, 2003 THE BLOGS IN SPAIN Re: "In Blogs We Trust" (5/12/2003). Just a few words to let you know that in Spain the word "blog" has been translated as bitácora (binnacle), i. e. that small chest where the logbook (cuaderno de bitácora)is kept by the captain and where he writes down all whereabouts of the sailing. Ramón Carbajosa Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 1:27 AM |
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