Little Thoughts on Many Things

Not too many deep thoughts on several recent posts, but here goes...

Most recent Krugman post on microfoundations.  I don't know about Krugman's "no significant payoffs since".  While there might not have been a big prediction, the thought process of microfoundations is useful, just as ad hoc analysis is.  You need some big picture, some little picture.  And to be fair, the big microfoundation prediction that Krugman acknowledges is a pretty important conclusion.  I wouldn't consider microfoundations poor economics, I'd just say that the right assumptions have to be made.


Krugman on Reagan vs. Obama in recession times.  As Tolstoy said, "every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way".  These two recessions are different enough, and people's attitudes have changed quite a bit, that you can't really insert Reagan-policy into Obama-recession and jump to too many conclusions.  To quote Chris Rock, "Cause you never know".

Krugman criticizing critics of crowding out.  I agree 100% that nothing is ever really 100%.

Mankiw on Rogoff on Jeremy Lin.  Why people don't complain about athletes making tons of money while CEOs making dolla dolla bills get thrown under the bus.  That's too easy, I'm only a PhD student and I know that one.
1.  CEOs, bankers, etc. can crash the economy; Kobe Bryant, not so much.
2.  Similarly, everyone pays attention to how well the economy is doing.  Mr. Terrell Owen's work outs, not so much.
3.  Actually, people DO complain about athletes making tons of money, which leads us to
4.  People don't complain about CEOs or bankers making cash in general; people aspire to work up to that level.  People have beef wit stupid CEOs and bankers making mad money.  Likewise, if an athlete is hogging cap space and isn't doing much for the team, the fans are furious.
See?  Easy.

Noah Smith on higher education prestige.  It's unfortunate, really.  Universities paying Joe Stiglitz a lot for prestige, rather than past/future output or teaching ability.  Don't get me wrong, Dr. Stiglitz deserves his high salary.  But the obsession with prestige is unfortunate.  The intelligence and creativity that makes Dr. Stiglitz an awesome economist doesn't necessarily make him an awesome teacher.  And at universities, you should emphasize the latter.  UH Manoa doesn't have much prestige, and the few prestigious-er profs aren't so good at teaching.  If (when?) I become a famous economist, it will be because of my profs who taught me well because they weren't obsessed with research and prestige, not because of the prestige of the university.  Unless osmosis really DOES work...