December 25, 2013

Christmas Econ Punditpalooza

From CNBC:
Rudolph's Ruddy Nose (Wonkish) 
By Paul Krugman, New York Times 
Joe Weisenthal has a terrific take on the growth of unemployment in the North Pole. As is well known, reindeer unemployment has surged. Yet the Very Serious Elves who promised that sleigh austerity would rapidly bring growth back to the Pole have learned nothing.  
But it's not just the elves. Even economists, who should know better, go on insisting that we need to shrink Santa's route now despite high reindeer unemployment. Some continue to insist that there just is a skill mismatch in the Pole economy, so that we have no choice but to allow the diminutive Rudolph resources go unemployed. This truly is the dark age of North Pole economics.
Imagine for a moment that the pole suffered from an immense foggy night. Everyone would agree in that case that we could put Rudolph's red nose to good use. I know it drives people crazy when I mention that a crisis can be good for aggregate demand—but everyone who disagrees with me is already crazy, so who cares?

Santa Claus is inflating away the future of Christmas 
By Niall Ferguson, Financial Times 
In the course of history there have always been those who believed that we could celebrate Christmas in perpetuity. And every time, without fail, the Christmas program has run up against the hard reality of inflation. You just cannot expect that producing all those gifts out of the ether will not diminish the value of all the gifts that have come before and all those that shall come after.

The truth about Christmas and Inflation 
By Josh Barro, Business Insider 
Niall Ferguson writes: "You just cannot expect that producing all those gifts out of the ether will not diminish the value of all the gifts that have come before and all those that shall come after. 
Derp. 
Niall Ferguson is a jerk.
The dirty secret of North Pole's success 
By Steve Sailer, isteve.blogspot.com 
There appears to be a silent rule among pundits—all of whom secretly read me—that we not mention immigration and the North Pole in the same sentence. The truth is that the success of Santa's operation up there demonstrates that the accepted orthodoxy on immigration is 100 percent wrong. For as long as anyone can remember, there's been zero immigration to the North Pole—yet the economy thrives, the elves have a thriving culture and there is very little social strife. All that is supposed to be impossible in a monoculture. 
But, of course, you're not supposed to notice these hate-facts.

Open Borders: Why should they stop at Christmas? 
By Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution 
Every year the American government briefly relaxes its stranglehold on our borders to permit the entrance of Santa Claus and his team of reindeer. If this is a good thing on Christmas, imagine how much better it would be if we made this our year round policy? Have you ever eaten in an Elven restaurant? The candy canes are sublime. 
While there are some who think that competition with elf workers would impoverish American workers, there is not a lot of evidence to support this. In fact, the toy making of the elves would likely be complimentary to native production. What's more, the wealth generated by elven labor would add to economic growth. ...

The Candy Cane Racket 
By Tim Carney, Washington Examiner ...
... As it turns out, Santa's little lobbyists had a hand in writing the Domestic Candy Protection Act of 2010. And the former chief staffer for the Senate Subcommittee on Curved Candy now works for the lobbying firm employed by Santa. ...
Here's what you need to know about this year's big Christmas econ-war 
By Joe Weisenthal, Business Insider 
[Click to view this 28 page slide show on one page]

Read the whole thing there. Thanks to John Carney of CNBC. By the way, how many Carneys are there?

34 comments:

Dave Pinsen said...

Congrats!

I think Tim is John's brother.

Within the same week, Steve Sailer gets mentioned on CNBC and Mark Rippetoe gets posted on HuffPo. End times are nigh.

Auntie Analogue said...


"[H]ow many Carneys are there?"

There used to be Art "Ed Norton" Carney.

Anonymous said...

If there is one lesson I've learned in life, then that is to treat all 'economists', 'economic pundits' or 'forecasters' in exactly the same way an adult treats fairy-tales - and yes that does include Santa Claus, (and sorry I just couldn't resist the temptation to include the big 'R' word, no, not 'racism' - which seems to be the Salem superstition of our day - into the bargain).
Perhaps, in our modern, secular world 'economic forecasters' play the same role as the old-time charlatan or snake-oil salesman. Selling hope on credit, a hope largely pulled out of their own fevered imaginations and nowhere else, and a worldview that accords to nothing like the actual reality of the situation, only in the modern age economic forecasters' are accredited with all sorts of letters after their names, so by another form of ju-ju for the modern man, they are taken seriously, by the credulous - and not mocked like the wild-eyed, long-beared ranting 'holy fool', who believes himself possessed by a god or the gods.
The difference is that the ranting, skin-clad, long-haired, bearded shaman, who initially at, least, earns the contempt of the burghers on the market square, invaraibly talks more sense and has a better grip on reality than the 'economic forecaster'.

Anonymous said...

Any relation to Mark Carney?

PropagandistHacker said...

sailer wrote:
For as long as anyone can remember, there's been zero immigration to the North Pole—yet the economy thrives, the elves have a thriving culture and there is very little social strife.
==================


who cares whether "the economy" thrives? Demand is demand. Demand drives supply. All else is elite propaganda.

"GDP uber alles!" scream the elite via CorpGovMedia.

And everyone else screams "GDP uber alles!" in chorus.

Except me...


The main issue should be whether citizens get a good return on their citizenship investment. And that means how much we get for a certain quantified unit of work. Immigration degrades that ROC (Return On Citizenship).

ROC uber alles! should be the propaganda phrase. But it aint. Cuz Big Money don't want it that way. And so CorpGovMedia don't want it that way. And every one just repeats what CorpGovMedia says. ....'cept little ol' me....

Anonymous said...

"What you need to know about this year's Christmas econ war"


... that all of the participants (save our host) are kind of pathetic?

Can't pundits ever stop punditing, even for a couple days, for Christmas?

Anonymous said...

There are as many as the circus of American politics can employ!!

Anonymous said...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101291351

What 'hateful' comment?

At most. it's a bit insensitive, but all humor is.

Dahinda said...

Most of the Carneys I have ever seen were scary people who were missing an eye or several fingers and teeth who ran Tilt-A Whirls and other such things.

Ed said...

Josh Barro has to be the nastiest, unhappiest pundit I've ever come across. His twitter feed is full of invective.

His embrace of homosexuality is leaving him embittered. He needs help.

Anonymous said...

"There appears to be a silent rule among pundits—all of whom secretly read me"

Steve's not only on CNBC, but a fair few of its readers are presumed to be familiar enough with him for a parody to be effective. So this claim appears to be true!

God help us if the iSteve *commenters* become famous personages though...

dsgntd_plyr said...

Lol! Just last week Cheap Chalupas Cowen went after me in his comments section when I pointed out he's conservative wrt Israeli immigration policy, but supports open US borders.

peterike said...

Krugman is just such a tool.

Posted a comment over there. Nicely done Steve.

Anonymous said...

You gotta admit Carney nailed you!

candid_observer said...

He (they?) poke fun at you for claiming that pundits secretly read you.

But isn't this proof that he (they?) secretly read you?

John Carney said...

Merry Christmas!

We Carneys are legion. Tim is my brother. There's a few more of us here and there. No known relation to Jay or Mark.

Anonymous said...

Disparate impact

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/26/federal-authorities-charge-white-knockout-suspect-/

Dennis Dale said...

There, CNBC, that didn't hurt a bit, did it?
If Tyler Cowen is parodying himself that's actually quite clever. But I can't tell. As far as Krugman, he should just wear that pointless Nobel at all times, stopping occasionally to breathe on it and wipe it off with his tie.

Son of Brock Landers said...

Steve, Interesting thing under the radar with regards to housing. Mel Watt is in at the FHFA and Demarco is out. Demarco was actually protecting taxpayers and setting the stage for Fannie/Freddie to wind down, be broken up and privatized. The left hated that for obvious reasons.

http://brucekrasting.com/mel-watt-fannie-freddie-want-go-back-2008/

Looks like the Dems are trying to redo the same policies that created the minority bubble of the mid-00s in housing. Note the first comment that states if this does involve writedowns instead of foreclosures that it could change law so much that eviction becomes near impossible. I doubt they'd let that happen because of the interest of the landlord bloc, but with the massive purchases of foreclosed homes by firms like Blackrock, landlords might be perfectly fine with a minority stooge pushing those policies again. Looks like we may get a year or two of insane lending if the Chinese-Russians-Arabs don't pull the plug.

Anonymous said...

Any relation to the LA hot dog and hamburger restaurants in the trains?

Anonymous said...

Wow, I actually read a Krugman piece without getting nauseated.

sunbeam said...

Auntie Analogue wrote:

"There used to be Art "Ed Norton" Carney."

I wish we could get Edward Norton to play Ed Norton. Hmmm I can see him in that role now, he kind resembles him physically.

ben tillman said...

Wow - great to see you cited in the mainstream again.

Anonymous said...

I was surprised. And to do that little parody he had to know iSteve at least moderately well.

J Wild said...

Congratulations, Steve. Great to see your excellent work acknowledged.

J Wild said...

Congratulations, Steve. Great to see your excellent work acknowledged.

Anonymous said...

So, John Carney of CNBC is not afraid to admit that he reads Steve Sailer blog. That's an encouraging sign!

David said...

>God help us if the iSteve *commenters* become famous personages though...<

Can you see a TV show with some of the wittier of us having at it? LOL

ben tillman said...

This John Carney -- is he the great placekicker?

Anthony said...

Just how do you say "Niall"? Is it "nigh all", or the same as "nail" despite the vowels being reversed, or is it just a fancy way of spelling Neal/Neil?

Serial said...

"...everyone who disagrees with me is already crazy, so who cares?"

-Yeah Krugman, because your predictions have never been wrong

Anonymous said...

There is also Brian Carney, a lifer (so far) at the WSJ. I think there are four brothers in all.

Anonymous said...

Mexico's wages as a proportion of economic output are lower than those in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Hungary, Poland and Brazil, where labor costs have risen dramatically.

Conservatives who think that cheap labor doesn't have a price, well Mexicans would not be flooding the Rio Grande if they were paid about 4 an hr. That's still lowers than US but in some US states like Mississippi can pay 6.00 per hr, no miniumn.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Dems are trying to redo the same policies that created the minority bubble of the mid-00s in housing. Note the first comment that states if this does involve writedowns instead of foreclosures that it could change law so much that eviction becomes near impossible. I doubt they'd let that happen because of the interest of the landlord bloc, but with the massive purchases of foreclosed homes by firms like Blackrock, landlords might be perfectly fine with a minority stooge pushing those policies again. Looks like we may get a year or two of insane lending if the Chinese-Russians-Arabs don't pull the plug.


Personality, I think the left is correct the bad lending was because the right pushed deregulation of financial institutions. Also, the right pushed Mexico to adopt free trade and denationalized their industries which met a lot of folks were laid off and wages in Mexico to stagnant. The right in the US is responsible for millions of Mexicans coming to the US because they had very low wages or no job. The right fought Mexico was another Chile but they were wrong.