Noahpinion has moved to a new website!
Noahpinion
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3y ago
Well folks, it's been a fun 10-year run at this little website. I'm moving on to a new platform: Substack!  Here's the new Noahpinion: https://noahpinion.substack.com/ Thanks for reading, and hope to see you at the new site ..read more
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Rabbit = Good Friend (or, how to take care of rabbits)
Noahpinion
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4y ago
Rabbits make great friends. Unfortunately, rabbits are not as popular of a pet as they ought to be, thanks to two big misconceptions. Let's start out by busting these myths. Myth #1: Rabbits can't be litter trained. In fact, most rabbits are really easy to litter-train. Just put the litter box next to the hay feeder, and they will train themselves. Here's my setup: There are a few exceptions, just like with cats, but in general this isn't something you have to worry about.  Myth #2: Rabbits aren't affectionate. This really does depend on the rabbit. Some are extremely affectionat ..read more
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Why Kevin Williamson is wrong about poverty and bad behavior
Noahpinion
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5y ago
I recently wrote a post at Bloomberg Opinion arguing that "bad behavior" - drug use, violence, single parenthood, and idleness - is not the main cause of poverty in advanced nations. As evidence, I cited the country of Japan, which has extremely low rates of drug use, violence, single parenthood, and idleness, and yet which has a poverty rate almost as high as that of the U.S., and significantly higher than those of wealthy European countries. Since Japan has so little bad behavior and still has a pretty high poverty rate as advanced nations go, it must be the case that bad behavior, in agg ..read more
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The Middle Eastern Thirty Years War?
Noahpinion
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5y ago
I know sweeping historical analogies are silly, but I've always been partial to the analogy between the Middle East's recent decades of war and the Thirty Years War of early modern Europe. So let's run with that and see where it takes us. The Thirty Years' War In the early 1600s, most of Europe was involved in a gigantic war (which really lasted more than 30 years if you count other associated wars). A good history is C.V. Wedgwood's creatively named classic, The Thirty Years War. Most people think of the war as a Protestant-vs-Catholic fight -- an extension and climax of the Wars of Reli ..read more
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Examining an MMT model in detail
Noahpinion
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5y ago
What is MMT, the heterodox economic theory that has captivated Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, made its way into the Green New Deal discussion, and inspired dozens of thinkpieces and critiques? What does it say? How can we tell if it's a good theory or a bad one? These are incredibly important questions. Thanks to Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal, MMT has very quickly gone from an obscure heterodox idea to one of the most potentially influential and important theories in all of economics.  Formal Models vs. Guru-Based Theories These days, most economic theories are collections of mathematica ..read more
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Where should Americans live if they live abroad?
Noahpinion
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5y ago
I'm a huge fan of living abroad, and I think many more Americans should do it. Living in a big, rich country with relatively few other countries nearby, Americans don't tend to travel overseas much. And of course, a great many don't have the economic opportunity to do so. I think there should be government programs that help young Americans travel and live abroad, and I think more charities, religious organizations, and other nonprofits should focus on helping people go overseas. In a recent Twitter thread, I explained how I think living abroad changes one's perspective. In addition to the o ..read more
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Guest post: Roy Bahat on Uber, Lyft, and the future of work
Noahpinion
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5y ago
Roy Bahat is the head of Bloomberg Beta, a venture capital firm focused on the future of work. In this guest post, he explains what he thinks is wrong with the way the "ride sharing" companies treat their workers. ____________________________________________________________________ AS GOES UBER, SO GOES THE NATIONHOW MIGHT IT LOOK TO NEGOTIATE A “TREATY OF SILICON VALLEY?”Roy Bahat Lyft could go public as soon as this week, with Uber tailgating. For either to succeed, they have to stop the rot at the core of their business: their drivers are suffering. Like a factory worker in a 1950 auto pla ..read more
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DeLong vs. Krugman on globalization
Noahpinion
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6y ago
I'm going to do the inadvisable, and argue with Brad DeLong. Hopefully this will turn out OK, since it's in response to Brad doing the inadvisable and arguing with Paul Krugman (thus breaking at least two of his own rules). The topic is globalization. Krugman has a new essay in which he lays out what seems to be a rapidly crystallizing conventional wisdom on the recent history of globalization. Some excerpts: [D]uring the 1990s a number of economists, myself included...tried to assess the role of Stolper-Samuelson-type effects in rising inequality...[these analyses] generally suggested that ..read more
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The "cackling cartoon villain" defense of DSGE
Noahpinion
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6y ago
I've sworn off macro-bashing. I said what I had to say. And I'm seeing lots of young macro people doing good stuff. And the task of macro-method-criticizing has been taken over by people who are better at it than I am, and who have much better credentials. My macro-bashing days are done. But sometimes I just have to offer macro folks some marketing advice. The new defense of DSGE by Christiano, Eichenbaum, and Trabandt is pretty cringe-inducing. Check this out: People who don’t like dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models are dilettantes. By this we mean they aren’t serious abo ..read more
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