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The Dismal Science

Started by Imperator; Last updated Jan 25, 08 7:48 PM CST by Imperator | View history

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"Economics is a subject that does not greatly respect one's wishes." - Nikita Khrushchev

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June 2008
- How Government Can Buy You Happiness
  
  newser | Portfolio | Jun 19, 08 3:30 PM CDT
  
  While the jury's still out on whether money can buy happiness, a higher gross domestic product certainly doesn't. In rich countries, well-being really does depend on non-material things like family stability, a friendly community, and job security—and economists should start incorporating quality-of-life issues into policy, John Cassidy writes in Portfolio. More »
- 10 Who Were Blinded (or Worse) by Science
  
  newser | List Universe | Jun 12, 08 7:45 AM CDT
  
  Knowledge may be power, but finding that knowledge can get you killed. List Universe ranks the top scientists killed or injured by their experiments. Galileo Galilei: The “father of modern physics” refined the telescope by staring at the sun for hours, resulting in near-blindness. Michael Faraday: A nitrogen chloride explosion halted Faraday’s research of the electro-magnetic field and caused chronic suffering from his chemical poisoning. More »
- Labor Blasts Obama's Top Economist
  
  newser | New York Times | Jun 12, 08 7:37 AM CDT
  
  After locking up the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama moved quickly to bring Clinton supporters into his general election tent, including Robert Rubin, President Clinton's treasury secretary. Jason Furman, an economist closely associated with Rubin, was hired as economic policy director, and that's provoked the ire of labor unions, who see him, along with his mentor, as tilting toward Wall Street, writes the New York Times . More »
May 2008
- Clinton Spurns Economists at Her Peril
  
  newser | Salon | May 5, 08 7:10 PM CDT
  
  In dismissing what she called “elite opinion” and embracing the gas tax holiday, Hillary Clinton has adopted a regressive energy policy, Andrew Leonard of Salon writes. Her declaration yesterday—“I’m not going to put my lot in with economists”—smacks of George Bush’s worst moments and ignores the harsh reality that any serious plan to deal with the climate and fuel crises requires that gas prices go up, not down. More »
- McCain Tweaks Friedman Over Gas-Tax Column
  
  newser | Politico | May 1, 08 6:43 PM CDT
  
  John McCain pushed back today against a New York Times op-ed that deemed a gas-tax holiday “shameful pandering,” painting Thomas Friedman as elitist: “I understand in New York City that you don't really drive a long way," he said. "And then maybe you're chauffeured.” His CNN interlocutor even broke in to change the topic, to “interrupt this tirade against Tom Friedman,” Politico reports. More »
- Economists Slam Clinton, McCain Gas-Tax Cut
  
  newser | Washington Post | May 1, 08 1:55 PM CDT
  
  Economists and a leading House Democrat are blasting the gas-tax cut proposed by both John McCain and Hillary Clinton, the Washington Post reports. Economists say most of the savings would flow right to the oil companies' bottom line, rather than into voters’ pockets. That's because the tax vacation would raise demand at a time that demand is already high—which would lead directly to even higher prices. More »
March 2008
- Experts Deride McCain’s Mortgage Crisis Fix
  
  newser | New York Sun | Mar 26, 08 12:52 PM CDT
  
  Economists, and rivals, are scoffing at John McCain’s ideas for countering the nation’s foreclosure crisis, taking aim at the suggestion that top lenders follow the post-9/11 example of General Motors—which offered 0% financing on new cars. But experts note that GM had its own interests in mind—not the country’s—in selling off excess inventory, the New York Sun reports. More »
- 'Perfect Storm' Batters US Economy
  
  newser | New York Times | Mar 14, 08 12:30 PM CDT
  
  A perfect storm of economic maladies has the US economy reeling on the edge of recession and officials struggling to limit the damage it causes, reports the New York Times. But many economists say there isn’t much the government or policy makers can do besides batten down the hatches and, in the words of a Charles Schwab analyst, “let the system wash it out.” More »
February 2008
- Economists Lean Closer to the R-Word
  
  newser | Associated Press | Feb 25, 08 7:09 PM CST
  
  An panel of US economists leaned closer to predicting recession today after grappling with a slew of scary data, the AP reports. More than half of analysts at the National Association for Business Economics maintained that a downturn is still unlikely, but 45% expected recession in 2008; only a quarter saw a 35% chance of recession in a report last September. More »
- Consumer Sentiment Nosedives
  
  newser | Reuters | Feb 15, 08 11:10 AM CST
  
  The last time consumers were this pessimistic, the country was in the midst of recession. The consumer confidence index is at a level not seen since February 1992, according to Reuters/University of Michigan numbers out today, and "has only been this low during the recessions of the mid 1970s, the early 1980s and the early 1990s," the survey director said. More »
- The Writers' Strike's $3.5B Price
  
  newser | Newsweek | Feb 14, 08 10:28 AM CST
  
  With the writers' strike settled and Hollywood returning to work, Newsweek asks entertainment industry economist Mark Young what toll the strike took on Los Angeles. Based on lost productivity and uncollected taxes, Young pegs the hit at “around $3.5 billion … it's still a little too early to assess what the actual damage is going to be.” More »
- Buffett's Offer Cheers Investors
  
  newser | Wall Street Journal | Feb 12, 08 3:40 PM CST
  
  Stocks ended mixed today, with the Dow up more than 100 points on Warren Buffet's offer to reinsure municipal bonds. "The important thing is that people are thinking we're now close to some kind of broader bailout of the bond insurers," an economist told the Wall Street Journal . The Dow rose 133.40 to 12,373.41, the Nasdaq fell 0.02 to 2,320.04, and the S&P 500 closed up 9.74 at 1,348.86. More »
- Service Sector Records Shocking Contraction
  
  newser | Bloomberg | Feb 5, 08 11:35 AM CST
  
  US service industries took a staggering and unexpected plunge in January, contracting at a pace not seen since the last recession. In today’s non-manufacturing report, which leaked nearly an hour early, the index plummeted from 54.4 to 41.9, far more than the 53 analysts forecast. Stocks fell broadly as a result. More »
- Will That Be Cash or Cash?
  
  newser | New York Times | Feb 5, 08 9:20 AM CST
  
  The collapsing housing market, shaky employment security, and uncertain economic outlook are changing Americans' buying habits: They’re paying with cash. Plastic has become synonymous with debt, helping revive the pay-as-you-go mentality, reports the New York Times . The change could have a major impact on an economy, and a culture, based on consumer credit. More »
- China Exports Inflation to US
  
  newser | New York Times | Feb 1, 08 1:35 PM CST
  
  After years of pumping out cheap consumer goods, China is driving up American price tags, the New York Times reports. As costs rise domestically, prices down the supply chain rise at the same time that recession threatens in the US. “China has been the world’s factory,” said one economist. “But its heyday is over. We’re going to see higher prices.” More »
January 2008
- New Home Sales Hit 12-Year Low
  
  newser | Bloomberg | Jan 28, 08 1:20 PM CST
  
  Sales of new homes fell to a 12-year low in December, making 2007 the worst year on record for home sales. Economists had predicted November's numbers wouldn't get much worse; instead, sales decreased 4.7% to an annual rate of 604,000, reports Bloomberg. "We are in deep recession lows now in terms of new home sales and housing starts," says an economist. More »
- Davos Summit: a Moral Sham?
  
  newser | Guardian (UK) | Jan 25, 08 9:28 PM CST
  
  The Davos summit, an annual retreat “where money comes to find morality and politics comes to meet money,” is the capital of capitalism—yet the world's economic crisis is only spoken of in whispers there, writes Julian Glover in the Guardian . Instead, moguls press the flesh with Middle East oil magnates and Chinese or Russian officials—anyone who can buoy the West's wobbly economy with a nod or a phone call. More »
- Power Brokers Return to Davos
  
  newser | Independent (UK) | Jan 22, 08 12:00 PM CST
  
  The Swiss ski resort of Davos turns into a giant think tank tomorrow as politicians, financiers, and other masters of the universe gather for the World Economic Forum. This year's summit will eschew some of the Hollywood glamor of sessions past, the Independent reports: Emma Thompson will put in an appearance, but the current pessimistic financial mood means Davos 2008 is going back to its roots. More »
- Fed Survey Shows Slowing Economy
  
  newser | Bloomberg | Jan 16, 08 2:34 PM CST
  
  The Federal Reserve's regional business survey—released today, ahead of chief Ben Bernanke's appearance tomorrow before Congress—shows economic activity increasing more slowly, thanks to "disappointing" holiday sales. Some analysts think the survey—nicknamed the Beige Book—is evidence for a general economic slowdown, reports Bloomberg. "We are pretty much on the knife's edge'' of a recession, says one economist. More »
- Economists Fear It's Too Late to Save Economy
  
  newser | New York Times | Jan 13, 08 7:41 AM CST
  
  It may already be too late to quickly stop the economic tailspin triggered by the implosion of the housing market and booming energy prices, several experts believe, reports the New York Times . Perhaps the best that can be done is to make the crunch hurt a little less. “The question is not whether we will have a recession, but how deep and prolonged it will be,” said one analyst. More »

Stories 1 - 20 of 37

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Images (6)
Videos (3)

Thomas Malthus (Wikipedia)

John Kenneth Galbraith (Archive Photos)

John Maynard Keynes on Cover of Time magazine, December 31, 1965 (Time, Inc.)

Adam Smith (Archive Photos)

US NEWS FRIEDMAN-OBIT 1 SJ (KRT Photos)

Economist Friedman (Archive Photos)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

1/21/08 6am: UNM economist breaks down president's plan (KRQE (YouTube))

Charlie Rose - Economist Milton Friedman. (CharlieRose (YouTube))

Stand-up economist at Caroline's (yorambauman (YouTube))

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Background

Milton Friedman
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Milton Friedman frēd´men , 1912-2006, American economist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Columbia, 1946. Friedman was influential in helping to revive the monetarist school of economic thought (see monetarism ). He was a staff member at the National Bureau of Economic Research (1937-46, ...

Lawrence Henry Summers
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Lawrence Henry Summers 1954-, U.S. economist and government official, b. New Haven, Conn. Educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard, he taught at MIT and in 1983 became the youngest tenured professor in Harvard's history. He served on the President's Council of ...

Thomas Robert Malthus
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Thomas Robert Malthus , 1766-1834, English economist, sociologist, and pioneer in modern population study. In An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798, rev. ed. 1803), he contended that poverty and distress are unavoidable, since population increases by geometrical ratio and the means of ...

John Kenneth Galbraith
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

John Kenneth Galbraith , 1908-2006, American economist and public official, b. Ontario, Canada, grad. Univ. of Toronto (B.S., 1931), Univ. of California, Berkeley (M.S., 1933; Ph.D., 1934). After becoming (1937) a U.S. citizen and teaching economics at Harvard (1934-39) and Princeton (1939-40), he ...

John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton , 1883-1946, English economist and monetary expert, studied at Eton and Cambridge. Early Career and Critique of Versailles Keynes served (1906-08) in the India Office of the civil service, where he was concerned with problems of Indian currency. He ...

Paul A. Samuelson
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Paul A. Samuelson 1915-, American economist, b. Gary, Ind., grad. Univ. of Chicago (B.A., 1935), Harvard (M.A., 1936; Ph.D., 1941). Appointed a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1941, he later (1966) became institute professor, the highest professorial rank at ...

Robert M. Solow
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Robert M. Solow 1924-, American economist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Harvard (B.A. 1947, M.A. 1949, Ph.D. 1951). He began teaching economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949. Solow also held several governmental positions, including those of senior economist for the Council of ...

Joseph E. Stiglitz
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

(born Feb. 9, 1943, Gary, Ind., U.S.) U.S. economist. He received a Ph.D. (1967) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught at several universities, including Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia. From 1997 to 2000 he was the World Bank's chief economist but often disagreed with ...

Adam Smith
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Adam Smith 1723-90, Scottish economist, educated at Glasgow and Oxford. He became professor of moral philosophy at the Univ. of Glasgow in 1752, and while teaching there wrote his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), which gave him the beginnings of an international reputation. He traveled on the ...

economics
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

economics study of how human beings allocate scarce resources to produce various commodities and how those commodities are distributed for consumption among the people in society (see distribution ). The essence of economics lies in the fact that resources are scarce, or at least limited, and ...

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