Weekly Digest – June 8, 2014

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Economics

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Animal School

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Once upon a time the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of a “new world” so they organized a school. They had adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming. In fact, better than his instructor. But he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school so nobody worried about that, except the duck.

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Climate Change Digest – June 7, 2014

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Background

Assessment of and Reactions to President Obama’s Climate Plan

Pessimism and Perseverance

 

Dougald Hine, What do you do, after you stop pretending?

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From Dougald Hine, What do you do, after you stop pretending?:

‘Changing the world’ has become an anachronism: the world is changing so fast, the best we can do is to become a little more observant, more agile, better able to move with it or to spot the places where a subtle shift may set something on a less-worse course than it was on. And you know, that’s OK – because what makes life worth living was never striving for, let alone reaching, utopias.

There’s a big difference between the task of trying to sustain “civilisation” in its current form … which is what “sustainability” has largely come to mean, and the task of holding open a space for the things which make life worth living. I’d suggest that it’s this second task, in its many forms, which remains, after we’ve given up on false hopes.

 

Thought for the Day: 3 June 2014

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It’s important to understand that recessions can have many different causes, and the optimal response from policymakers depends critically on the type of recession that occurs. Recessions can be caused by oil price shocks, Fed-induced interest rate spikes, a fall in business and consumer confidence, a drop in productivity, housing bubbles, financial meltdowns and other factors that cause either a reduction in aggregate demand or supply.

And the correct policy response after, say, an oil price shock is very different from the policy needed to respond to fall in business and consumer confidence.

–  Mark Thoma

Weekly Digest – June 1, 2014

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Obamacare, Politics of

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Ezra Klein, Obama’s Management Problem

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Brad DeLong sends us to Ezra Klein, Obama’s Management Problem.  Klein itemizes the issues.  Here are the first four:

1.  It’s good that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned. Shinseki is a great American. But that doesn’t make him a great administrator. As Yuval Levin writes, the interim report of the VA inspector general uncovered “a pattern of exceptionally widespread, systematic, and even criminal deception throughout an agency Shinseki oversees.”

2.  President Obama’s reluctance in accepting Shinseki’s resignation speaks to deep problems in the way this White House views its managers. “I think he is deeply disappointed in the fact that bad news did not get to him, and that the structures weren’t in place for him to identify this problem quickly and fix it,” Obama said. But it’s the boss’ job to build the structures that make sure problems are surfaced and can be fixed. Shinseki wasn’t wronged. He failed.

3.  This is reminiscent of the White House’s reaction after HealthCare.Gov launched. The president often seemed furious on behalf of his senior managers who didn’t know about the problems rather than being furious at his senior managers for not knowing about the problems.

4.  Some of this goes to how the federal government is structured. The various agencies are staffed by civil servants who the president has fairly little power over. But they’re led by political appointees who the president often knows well and trusts deeply. The result can be that rather than blaming political appointees responsible for the failures of the bureaucracies they run White Houses sometimes blame bureaucracies for the failures of their political appointees.

 

Dylan Scott, The Toughest Questions The GOP Should Have To Answer On Obamacare

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Brad DeLong sends us to Dylan Scott, The Toughest Questions The GOP Should Have To Answer On Obamacare.  Scott’s questions follow below.  Read his post for related comments:

Three Questions For Republicans Who Want To Repeal The Affordable Care Act

  1. How would any alternative policy account for the millions of previously uninsured people who have gotten health coverage under Obamacare?
  2. Do you think covering the uninsured should be the goal of federal policy? If so, how would your alternative policy achieve that and keep insurance costs stable without an individual mandate?
  3. You have criticized President Obama for canceled policies under Obamacare. If your alternative policy is intended to expand health coverage, how would it achieve that without causing the same kind of disruption in the market?

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