Assorted Links (11/2/2009)

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

The Economy

Responses to this question are provided by a quartet of academic economists spanning the ideological spectrum, including Simon Johnson (MIT), Mark Thoma (University of Oregon), Russell Roberts (George Mason University, and Jeffrey Miron (Harvard).

  • Stimulus and the Jobless Recovery, by Ed Lazear

“Jobs ‘created or saved’ is meaningless. What matters is net job gain or loss, and that means the unemployment rate.”

Health Care Reform

“Barack Obama is, in many ways, the left’s answer to Ronald Reagan.”  Also see Professor Mankiw’s “Disincentives from Health Reform”, which follows up this New York Times article with a few additional observations!

The author notes that the health-care bill unveiled last Thursday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is being advertised as having an $894 billion price tag over the course of a decade. A more accurate accounting suggests that a more realistic price tag of $1.5 billion.  Similar points are made today in a Wall Street Journal editorial entitled “The Worst Bill Ever”.

Public Policy

  • Hot Air, by Steve Landsburg

Professor Landsburg provides some interesting perspectives related to the controversy that is currently brewing in reaponse to the chapter on global warming which appears in (the recently published) book called SuperFreakonomics.

  • Will the Internet Survive Its 40th?, by Gordon Crovitz

“The net neutrality battle pits broadband builders against content providers.”