Housing and Fed Fail

Baker would agree investment is as expected - pace Yglesias, but would disagree about housing.

Over at Equitable Growth: Is There Really a Profits-Investment Disconnect?: (Late) Friday Focus for October 24, 2014 by DeLong

As a result of the housing bubble, the mortgage frauds, the attempts at regulatory arbitrage on their balance sheets by the money-center universal banks, the financial crisis, et sequelae, U.S. real GDP today is now 12% below what we back in 2007 expected it to be now. Since the post financial-crisis trough U.S. real economic growth has proceeded at 2.24%/year, compared to the 3.00%/year growth rate we saw between 1990 and 2007.

So far there are no signs anywhere that the gap between today and the pre-2007 trend in levels will be made up. So far there are no signs anywhere that the gap between today and the pre-2007 trend in growth rates will be made up. 

That means that, come 2024 a decade hence, we can now expect a U.S. economy to be 19.5% smaller than the economy we confidently projected as of 2007 we would have. 

And, with a capital-output ratio of roughly 3, that means that between 2007 and 2024 cumulative net investment will be lower than projected back in 2007 by 58.5%-point years of GDP--and cumulative gross investment considerably lower.

The Fed

The Fed and Inequality by Dean Baker

Obama's biggest economic policy mistake by Yglesias

Blame Obama for bad monetary policy, not Republicans by Ygelsias

Federal Reserve resists hawkish signal, continues to view economy as needing their monetary support…and that’s as it should be. by Jared Bernstein

The Fed is out with their statement and the words “considerable time” live to see another day!

Supreme Court, unions, Great Clusterfuck

Supreme Court drastically curtails public sector unions by Yglesias

Robert Samuelson Wants People to Be Unemployed: The Economics of the Economics of the Great Recession by Dean Baker

K21 uber list by date (CHRONOLOGICALIZING A WORK IN PROGRESS)

Should markets clear? by Steve Randy Waldman (5.14.14)

Juncture interview: Thomas Piketty on capital, labour, growth and inequality (Juncture, 5.14.14)

The Top of the World: An ambitious study documents the long-term reign of the 1 percent by Doug Henwood (Bookforum, April/May 2014)

Tax as Policy: Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Heather Boushey (Challenge magazine, May/June 2014)

The Book Every Plutocrat Should Read:  Thomas Piketty’s new tome just might save the super-rich from themselves. by Chrystia Freeland (Politico, 4.20.14)

Why We’re in a New Gilded Age by Paul Krugman (New York Review of Books, May 8, 2014 issue)

The Piketty Panic by Krugman (New York Times, 4.24.14)

The Piketty Phenomenon by David Brooks (New York Times, 4.24.14)

Wealth Over Work by Krugman (New York Times, 3.23.14)

Class, Oligarchy, and the Limits of Cynicism  by Krugman (4.21.14 @ 8:29 a.m.)

Thomas Piketty Is Right: Everything you need to know about 'Capital in the Twenty-First Century' by Robert M. Solow (New Republic, 4.22.14)

THE HONEST BROKER: MR. PIKETTY AND THE “NEOCLASSICISTS”: A SUGGESTED INTERPRETATION: FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 17, 2014 by DeLong (5.22.14)

The Daily Piketty: Thursday Focus: April 24, 2014 by DeLong (4.24.14)

K21 translator Arthur Goldhammer tweets: "@delong plays Hicks to #Piketty: http://equitablegrowth.org/2014/05/07/slides-mr-piketty-neoclassicists-suggested-interpretation-wednesday-focus-may-7-2014/ … smart take, must read" (linked below as well)

OVER AT THE WCEG: SLIDES FOR: MR. PIKETTY AND THE "NEOCLASSICISTS": A SUGGESTED INTERPRETATION: WEDNESDAY FOCUS: MAY 7, 2014 by DeLong (5.7.14)

OVER AT THE WASHINGTON CENTER FOR EQUITABLE GROWTH: NOTES AND FINGER EXERCISES ON THOMAS PIKETTY'S "CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY": THE HONEST BROKER FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 19, 2014 by DeLong (4.12.14)

Studying the Rich: Thomas Piketty and his Critics by Mike Konczal (Boston Review, 4.29.14)

Capital in the 21 Century: Still Mired in the 19th (See correction) by Dean Baker (3.9.14 @ 10:35 p.m.)

Forces of Divergence: Is surging inequality endemic to capitalism? by John Cassidy (The New Yorker, 3.31.14)

PIKETTY’S INEQUALITY STORY IN SIX CHARTS by John Cassidy (The New Yorker, 3.26.14)

THE “PIKETTY BUBBLE” IS MORE THAN HOT AIR by John Cassidy (New Yorker, 5.1.14)

The accidental controversialist: deeper reflections on Thomas Piketty’s “Capital”  by Thomas Palley (4.24.14 @ 1:57 p.m.)

Even Elizabeth Warren doesn't want Piketty's wealth tax by Matthew Yglesias (Vox, 4.28.14 @ 4:40 p.m.)

Lessons from a rock-star economist by Gillian Tett (Financial Times, 4.25.14 @ 11:40 a.m.)

Class warfare justified? by Robert J. Samuelson (Washington Post, 4.20.14)

How We Do Intellectual History at the New York Times by Corey Robin (Crooked Timber, 4.25.14)

dsquared's comment to Robin's Crooked Timber post:
"As far as I can tell, nothing really important in Piketty’s book depends on the capital controversy; it’s actually a book about wealth rather than capital in the technical sense. It’s just a bit irritating for people who happen to know that his use of “capital” and connected marginal concepts is wrong. Like if someone had written a really good book about climate change but kept on referring to “the temperature divided by zero” (4.26.14 @ 11:40 am) and this comment and this comment.

Hey, Big Thinker: Thomas Piketty, the Economist Behind ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’ Is the Latest Overnight Intellectual Sensation by Sam Tanenhaus (New York Times, 4.25.14)

How capitalism enriches the few rather than the many  by Harold Meyerson (Washington Post, 4.2.14)

To Have and Have Not by Jedediah Purdy (Los Angeles Review of Books. 4.24.14)

OVER AT THE WASHINGTON CENTER FOR EQUITABLE GROWTH: THE DAILY PIKETTY: SOME MORE REVIEWS OF PIKETTY by Brad DeLong (4.25.14)

Piketty for Dummies by Peter Dorman (4.26.14 @ 3:24 p.m.)

Two followups, in way too many words  by Steve Randy Waldman (2.11.11(!) via DeLong)

Poulos Gets Piketty—and Tocqueville—Wrong by Arthur Goldhammer (Daily Beast, 4.26.14)

Today’s Wonky Elite Is in Love With the Wrong French Intellectual  by James Poulos (Daily Beast, 4.23.14)

A Tocqueville for Today by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson (American Prospect, 3.10.13)

Against U.S. Economic Clichés by Heather Boushey (American Prospect, 3.10.13, scroll down)

Must We Return to “Pre-tamed” Capitalism? by Branko Milanovic (American Prospect, 3.10.13, scroll down)

Capital can’t be measured by Steve Randy Waldman (4.3.10)

Living with Inequality: Has Thomas Piketty really found "the central contradiction of capitalism"? by Garrett Jones (Reason, 4.26.14)

The Power of Piketty's Capital by Eric Alterman (The Nation, 5.12.14)

Thomas Piketty and Millennial Marxists on the Scourge of Inequality by Timothy Shenk (The Nation, 4.14.14)

Kapital for the Twenty-First Century? by James K. Galbraith (Dissent, Spring 2014)

The New Marxism Part I by James Pethokoukis (National Review Online, 3.24.14)

The New Marxism Part II by James Pethokoukis (National Review Online, 3.31.14)

The Most Important Book Ever Is All Wrong by Clive Crook (BloombergView, 4.20.14)

Piketty's Tax Hikes Won't Help the Middle Class  by Megan McArdle (BloombergView, 4.22.14)

Whither The Bottom 90 Percent, Thomas Piketty? by Scott Winship (Forbes, 4.17.14)

Thomas Piketty, Jedediah Purdy And The Leftist Ethic of Resentfulness by Repair Man Jack (Red State, 4.22.14 @ 8:47 pm)

Thomas Piketty Revives Marx for the 21st Century by Daniel Shuchman (Wall Street Journal, 4.21.14 @ 7:18 p.m.)

White House honors French neo-Marxist by Thomas Lifson (American Thinker, 4.20.14)

What’s Wrong with Piketty’s Answer To Inequality by Veronique de Rugy (National Review Online, 4.24.14 @6:57 p.m.)

Capital Punishment: Why a Global Tax on Wealth Won't End Inequality by Tyler Cowen (Foreign Affairs, May/June 2014 issue)

Why I am not persuaded by Thomas Piketty’s argument by Tyler Cowen (4.21.14 @ 2:20 p.m.)

Tyler Cowen is one of Nietzsche’s Marginal Children by Corey Robin (4.22.14)

The Hourly Piketty: Paul Krugman, “Gattopardo Economics”, and Economic Modelling by DeLong (4.24.14 @ 5:23 p.m.)

On Gattopardo Economics by Krugman (4.24.14 @ 9:29 a.m.)

Piketty and Pareto by Krugman (4.25.14 @ 8:20 a.m.)

Frustrations of the Heterodox by Krugman (4.25.14 @ 10:09 a.m.)

The Daily Piketty: Thursday Focus: April 24, 2014 by DeLong (4.24.14 @ 2:47 p.m.)

Notes from Capital in the 21st Century Panel by Suresh Naidu (The Slack Wire, 4.20.14)

What Marx Really Meant by Suresh Naidu (Jacobin, 4.28.14)

‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’, by Thomas Piketty by Martin Wolf (Financial Times, 4.15.14 @ 5:38 p.m.)

The Doom Loop of Oligarchy by Ezra Klein (Vox, 4.11.14 @ 7:36 a.m.)

Dialogue: Eleven (so Far) Worthwhile Reviews of and Reflections on Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”: Wednesday Focus: March 26, 2014 by DeLong (4.25.14 @ 5:48 p.m.)

The short guide to Capital in the 21st Century by Matthew Yglesias (Vox, 4.8.14 @ 10:30 a.m.)

Thomas Piketty doesn’t hate capitalism: He just wants to fix it by Matthew Yglesias (Vox, 4.24.14)

Interview with Piketty by Matthew Yglesias (Vox, 4.24.14)

The return of "patrimonial capitalism": review of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st century by Branko Milanovic (October 2013)

Inequality: Capital in the long run by Ryan Avent (Economist, 1.9.14 @ 13:11)

The Capital Creators, Piketty and Growth Theory by Joshua Gans (Digitopoly, 4.23.14)

OVER AT THE WASHINGTON CENTER FOR EQUITABLE GROWTH: PIKETTY DAY HERE AT BERKELEY: THE HONEST BROKER FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 26, 2014 by DeLong (4.23.14)

WEEKEND READING: PIKETTY’S TRIUMPH by DeLong (3.16.14)

A Good Question Re the Piketty Book by Jared Bernstein (4.26.14 @ 10:26 a.m.)

Piketty’s “Capital,” in a Lot Less than 696 Pages by Justin Fox (Harvard Business Review, 4.24.14 @ 8:00 a.m.)

New French Book Will Become Important When It's In English by Kevin Drum (Mother Jones, 12.16.13 @ 1:15 p.m.)

Drum (above) links to Assorted links by Tyler Cowen (12.16.13 @ 12:46 p.m.)

All men are created unequal: Revisiting an old argument about the impact of capitalism (The Economist, 1.4.14)

The Problem of Distribution by Chris Dillow (4.27.14)

American Economists Are Not Equipped To Digest What Piketty Has Served Them by Rob Wiley (Business Insider, 4.28.14 @5:54)
DeLong expanded his answers:
Over at Business Insider: Five Questions and Answers About Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”: Monday Focus; April 28, 2014 by DeLong (4.28.14 @ 11:42 a.m.)

Capital in partial equilibrium by Ryan Decker (3.25.14 @ 7:54 p.m.)

"From the right" by Ryan Decker (4.28.14 @ 6:14 p.m.)

Discussing 'Capital' in the Nation’s Capital – Piketty to Visit DC in April by Jeffrey Gianattasio (3.25.14 @ 15:57)

What Piketty’s Conservative Critics Get Wrong by Kathleen Geier (The Baffler, 4.28.14)

Taking on the Heiristocracy: History shows that growth alone won’t stop vast economic inequality by Kathleen Geier (Washington Monthly, March/ April/ May 2014)

Physics and the 'marginalist revolution' by Philip Mirowski (via JW Mason)

JW Mason comment on different ways to formalize the Piketty argument (04.29.14)

The Conservative Case For Thomas Piketty by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (Forbes, 4.24.14 @ 9:14)

Minnesota Mafia Challenges Piketty by Barkley Rosser (4.28.14 @ 10:02 p.m.)

What Piketty Leaves Out by Robert Kuttner (4.29.14)

Thomas Piketty's Capital: everything you need to know about the surprise bestseller by Paul Mason (The Guardian, 4.28.14 @14:23)

Len McCluskey on Capital in the Twenty-first Century: 'manna from heaven' (The Guardian, 4.28.14 @14.18)

VC for the people by Steve Randy Waldman (4.16.14)

Piketty on Capital: A Footnote by Henry Farrell (Crooked Timber, 4.5.14)

Philip Pilkington: Misdirection – Galbraith on Thomas Piketty’s New Book on Capital by Yves Smith (Naked Capitalism, 4.3.14)

Trickle-Up Economics by David Cay Johnston (Al Jazeera America, 3.23.14 @ 8:45 a.m.)

The Dead Are Wealthier Than the Living: Capital in the 21st Century by Timothy Noah (Pacific Standard, 3.20.14 @ 11:41 a.m.)

Capitalism vs. Democracy by Thomas Edsall (New York Times, 1.28.14)

Notes on Piketty (Wonkish) by Krugman (3.14.14 @ 7:47 a.m.)

American Patrimony by Krugman (3.24.14 @ 4:23 p.m.)

Tomas Piketty: Capital in the Twenty-First Century/Inequality and Capitalism in the Long Run: The Honest Broker for the Week of December 28, 2013 by DeLong (12.22.13 @ 1:46 p.m.)

Piketty previews Piketty by Cardiff Garcia (Financial Times, 12.17.13 @ 8:21)

Thomas Piketty Has a Grim View of Our Plutocratic Future by Kevin Drum (Mother Jones, 1.29.14 @ 11:51 a.m.)

Q&A: Thomas Piketty on the Wealth Divide by Eduardo Porter (3.11.14 @ 6:21 p.m.)

Adam Smith is not the antidote to Thomas Piketty by Deborah Boucoyannis (Washington Post-The Monkey Cage, 4.22.14 @ 10:14 a.m.)

Why Piketty's Book Is a Bigger Deal in America Than in France by Tyler Cowen and Veronique de Rugy (The Upshot, 4.29.14)

The Most Important Book of the Twenty-First Century by Stephen Marche (Esquire, 4.24.14)

A revue of reviews - everything you could ever want to read about Piketty's Capital by Michael Bird (City A.M., 4.29.14 @ 12:29 p.m.)

Unequal to the Task by Joshua Hendrickson (National Review, 4.22.14 @ 4:00 a.m., May 5 issue)

Piketty and the case for land capital by Karl Smith (FT Alphaville, 2.3.14 @ 15:00)

Why Liberals Have Fallen for Thomas Piketty by Jordan Weissmann (Slate, 4.22.14 @ 6:09 p.m.)

Heather Boushey (and Me) on Thomas Piketty: Tuesday Focus by DeLong (3.11.14 8:15 a.m.)

THOMAS PIKETTY UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTED SMACKDOWN WATCH: I FIND MYSELF DISAPPOINTED BY THE USUALLY-RELIABLE JAMES GALBRAITH AND PETHOKOUKIS by DeLong (4.6.14 @ 10:23 p.m.)

Thinking About Piketty’s “Capital” by Steve Roth (Angry Bear, 4.6.14 @ 12:50)

America risks becoming a Downton Abbey economy by Lawrence Summers (2.16.14 @ 5:28 p.m.)

Against the Meritocratic Theory of Inequality by Ed Kilgore (Washington Monthly @ 3.24.14)

Krugman starts talking about labor share… Have hope middle class by Edward Lambert (Angry Bear 3.14.14 @ 2:17 p.m.)

Dude, Where’s Your Piketty Review??!! by Jared Bernstein (4.19.14 @ 10:01 a.m.)

Economist Receives Rock Star Treatment by Jennifer Schuessler (New York Times, 4.18.14)

JW Mason comment (Crooked Timber, 4.30.14 at 12:46 a.m.)
"Right. Or think about Milton Friedman, whose Monetary History of the United States is about as far from the ahistorical, mathematical abstraction of contemporary economics as you can get. Bob Pollin once told me that that book is the model we radical economists should be trying to emulate. I think he was right."

Why everyone is talking about Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Ryan Cooper (The Week, 3.25.14)

Capital in the 21st Century is the bestselling book on Amazon by Matthew Yglesias (Vox, 4.20.14 @ 10:00 a.m.)

Video of Piketty with Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, and Steven Durlauf participated in a panel moderated by Branko Milanovic.

Here’s an unlikely bestseller: A 700-page book on 21st century economics by Jia Lynn Yang (Wonkblog, 4.22.14 @ 12:35 p.m.)

‘Capital in the Twenty-first Century’ by Thomas Piketty by Steven Pearlstein (Washington Post, 3.28.14)

OVER AT PROJECT SYNDICATE: THE POVERTY OF RIGHT-WING PIKETTY CRITICISM by Delong (4.30.14)

Six Ways Thomas Piketty's 'Capital' Isn't Holding Up to Scrutiny by Kyle Smith (Forbes, 5.1.14 @ 8.12 a.m.)

Thomas Piketty’s Improbable Data by Hunter Lewis (The Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 5.2.14)

Inequality 101: The Picket Fence and the Staircase by John Cassidy (New Yorker, 4.12.12)

Piketty Review Roundup: “Capital in the 21st Century” by Jeff Madrick (Century Foundation, 5.2.14)

An Indictment of the Invisible Hand by Jeffrey Madrick (Moyers.com, 4.18.14)

Inequality Is Not the Problem by Jeff Madrick (New York Review of Books, 4.24.14 @ 5:57 p.m.)

Thomas Piketty Undermines the Hallowed Tenets of the Capitalist Catechism by Jeff Faux (The Nation, 4.18.14)

The Right Needs a New Message on Income Inequality by Benjamin Domenech (Wall Street Journal, 4.28.14 @ 7:31 p.m.)

Tyler Cowen's anti-Piketty crusade by Noah Smith (5.2.14)

Piketty, Doom Loops and Haymarket by Ross Douthat (New York Times, 4.22.14 @ 3:53 p.m.)

Robert Solow on Piketty by Arnold Kling (4.23.14)

For Larry Summers, Inequality A Subject Worthy of Yawns by Ellen Killoran (International Business Times, 5.2.14 @ 12:28 p.m.)

Book review: Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty by Robert Skidelsky (Prospect Magazine, 3.27.14)

How to Write a Marxist Critique of Thomas Piketty Without Actually Reading the Book by Zachary Levenson (Jacobin, 5.2.14)

Hangups of the Heterodox (Vaguely Wonkish) by Krugman (5.1.14 @ 3:41 p.m.)

In What Sense Does Economics Need a “New Paradigm”?: Thursday Focus: May 1, 2014 by Brad DeLong (5.1.14 @ 11:56 p.m.)

Thomas Piketty and the Ghost of Joan Robinson by Dean Baker (5.1.14 @ 20:16)

Wealth Taxes: A Future Battleground by Tyler Cowen (New York Times, 7.20.13)

The Four Biggest Right-Wing Lies About Inequality by Robert Reich (5.5.14)

Why Economists Are Finally Taking Inequality Seriously by Mark Thoma (Fiscal Times, 5.6.14)

The coming boom in inherited wealth by John Quiggin (Crooked Timber, 4.16.12)

Piketty, Oligarchy, and Conservative Evasion by Jonathan Chait (New York Magazine, 4.25.14 @ 3:51 p.m.)

More Matt Rognlie on Piketty by Tyler Cowen (4.10.14)

A Prologomena to Any Future Reading of Piketty by Steven Pressman (Dollars and Sense, 5.5.14)

THE MAGICAL MATHEMATICS OF MR PIKETTY by George Cooper (4.29.14)

THE MAGICAL MATHEMATICS OF MR PIKETTY – PART II by George Cooper (5.5.14)

The Critique of Capital in the Twenty-First Century: In Search of Macroeconomic Foundations of Inequatlity by Guillaume Allègre and Xavier Timbeau

Where do profits come from? by Matthew Yglesias (Vox, 5.8.14)

Obama’s Top Economist Has Some Problems With Piketty’s Book by Neil Irwin (The Upshot, 5.7.14)

Global Lessons for Inclusive Growth by Jason Furman (5.7.14)

Piketty’s Arguments Still Hold Up, After Taxes by Jared Bernstein (The Upshot, 5.9.14)

Jason Furman, POTUS’s Chief Economist, on Inequality, Piketty, and Growth by Jared Bernstein (5.10.14 @ 10:04 a.m.)

Doug Henwood tweets "I am now officially part of the Piketty bubble. pic.twitter.com/pgd9Yat5s9"

The problem with Thomas Piketty: “Capital” destroys right-wing lies, but there’s one solution it forgets by Thomas Frank (Salon, 5.11.14)

Selling Thomas Piketty (Harvard University Press Blog, 5.12.14)

Piketty's Wealth Tax Isn't a Joke by Clive Crook (BloombergView, 5.11.14)

Microfoundations of Inequality and Sabotage by Sandwichman (5.12.14)

Thomas Piketty and His Critics by Thomas Edsall (New York Times, 5.14.14)

The Inequality Puzzle by Lawrence H. Summers (Democracy, Spring 2014)

Summers reviews Piketty by Jared Bernstein (5.14.14)

What Larry Summers Gets Wrong On Piketty's 'Capital' by Matt Bruenig (Demos, 5.15.14)

Demos on Piketty's Capital

The Politics of Income Inequality by Eduardo Porter (New York Times, 5.13.14)

What Piketty's Neoliberal Critics Get Wrong by Kathleen Geier (Baffler, 5.15.14)

The Two Inequalities by Peter Dorman (Econospeak, 5.16.14 @ 1:15 a.m.)

Piketty's Old News by Eric Schnurer (U.S. News & World Report, 5.16.14)

Piketty crossing the Delaware by John Quiggin (Crooked Timber, 5.18.14)

Thomas Piketty: I Don't Care for Marx by Isaac Chotiner (New Republic, 5.5.14)

Middle Class Earnings Are Stagnant! (Because Retirees Have No Earnings) by Scott Winship (Forbes, 5.20.14)

Inequality and the Fate of Capitalism by Scott Winship (National Review, 5.13.14)

Arguing Taxes, Transfers, and Market Outcomes by Jared Bernstein (5.22.14)

Ross Douthat Makes Some Good Points (and one bad one) by Jared Bernstein (5.19.14)

Is Piketty All Wrong? by Krugman (5.24.15)

Piketty response to FT data concerns (Financial Times, 5.23.14)

Piketty’s Mistakes, What They Mean for the Message of Cap21, and Other Data Thoughts by Jared Bernstein (5.24.14)

A Piketty problem? by Ryan Avent (The Economist, 5.24.14)

Piketty and U.S. Wealth Inequality by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi (5.24.14)

Mistakes by Simon Wren-Lewis (5.24.14)

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Bang Query by Brad DeLong (5.23.14)

OVER AT WCEG EQUITABLOG: REVIEWING LAWRENCE H. SUMMERS'S REVIEW OF PIKETTY II: THE POST-1980 RISE OF EXTREME INEQUALITY IN AMERICA: FRIDAY FOCUS: MAY 23, 2014 by DeLong

The FT Gets Piketty's Capital Argument Wrong by Mike Konczal (5.24.14)

HOUSING VS FINANCIAL WEALTH by Chris Dillow (5.24.14)

FT: Piketty data "undercut by a series of problems and errors" by Matt Ygelsias (Vox, 5.23.14 @ 2:54 p.m.)

Piketty Debunked? Not So Fast by Jonathan Hopkin (5.24.14)

My view on Piketty's critique by the FT by Branko Milanovic

That Big Financial Times Story on Errors in Piketty's Data is Overrated by Danny Vick (5.23.14)

Criticisms of Piketty by James Hamilton (5.25.14)

More on Piketty by James Hamilton (5.28.14)

Nit-Piketty by Debraj Ray (5.25.14)

Should We Count Out Piketty Due to Sum Math Errors? by Steve Pressman (Dollars and Sense, 5.25.14)

Thomas Piketty's real challenge was to the FT's Rolex types by Paul Mason (Guardian, 5.26.14)

Political Economy is Political by Henry Farrell (Crooked Timber, 5.27.14)

Policy, not capitalism, is to blame for the income divide by James Galbraith (Financial Times, 5.26.14)

The Piketty data controversy by Jérémie Cohen-Setton (Bruegel, 5.26.14)

Piketty’s data deserve better analysis by Carter Price (5.27.14)

Reviewing Lawrence H. Summers’s Review of Piketty IV: Combatting Inequality on Many Fronts: Tuesday Focus: May 27, 2014 by Brad DeLong (28 May 2014)

PARSING PIKETTY: IS WEALTH INEQUALITY RISING IN THE U.S.? by John Cassidy (New Yorker, 5.27.14)

Thomas Piketty and Joseph Schumpeter (and Gerard Debreu) by David Glasner (5.28.14)

Technical appendix of the book « Capital in the twenty-first century»: Appendix to chapter 10. Inequality of Capital Ownership: Addendum: Response to FT by Thomas Piketty, May 28 2014

Thomas Piketty Responds to Criticism of His Data by Neil Irwin (The Upshot, 5.29.14)

Bloomberg video

Piketty versus Hassett: a primer on after-tax income and inequality by Marshall Steinbaum (29 May 2014)

Thomas Doubting Refuted by Krugman (5.30.14)

Morning Must-Read: Daniel Kuehn Reads Howard Reed on Piketty vs. Giles: “It’s All About the Discontinuities” by Brad DeLong (30 May 2014)

The Daily Piketty: May 30, 2014 by Brad DeLong

Capital Eats the World by Suresh Naidu (Jacobin, 5.30.14)

Where I disagree and agree with Debraj Ray’s critique of Piketty’s Capital in the 21s Century. by Branko Milanovic (6.2.14)

This Year's Model by Scott Sumner (6.2.14)

Department of “Huh?!”–I Don’t Understand More and More of Piketty’s Critics: Per Krusell and Tony Smith by Brad DeLong (2 June 2014)

Thomas Piketty’s big book: What do you really need to know? by Heather Boushey (5.14.14)

A Reflection on Piketty’s “Rentiers Always Win” or r > g by Yves Smith (6.3.14)

Reviewing Lawrence H. Summers’s Review of Piketty V: Secular Stagnation and the High-Pressure Economy: Tuesday Focus: June 32014 by DeLong (6.3.14)

Wealth and Capital are Different Things by Dietz Vollrath (6.2.14)

The Daily Piketty: June 2, 2014 By Brad DeLong

Nit-Piketting continued by Branko Milanovic (6.3.14)

Plots and Subplots in Piketty's Capital by Rajiv Sethi (6.3.14)

Educating Brad DeLong by James Hamilton (6.4.14)

OVER AT EQUITABLE GROWTH: TRYING, YET AGAIN, TO COMMUNICATE THE ARITHMETIC SCAFFOLDING OF PIKETTY'S "CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY": THURSDAY FOCUS: JUNE 5, 2014 by DeLong

Don’t believe brokers, the government, or Piketty: Your property values won’t grow faster than your paycheck by Amar Bhide (Quartz, May 31, 2014)

Piketty on Class Structure by masaccio (Firedoglake, 5.11.14)

When Piketty Came to America by Andrea Levere and Ezra Levin (Politco, 4.28.14)

Economist says U.S. inequality reaching "spectacular" heights by Alain Sherter (CBS News Moneywatch, 6.5.14)

Summers’s Review of Piketty: Underestimating the Argument for the Forces Driving Inequality by Dan Kervick (5.14.14)

Inequality: Making the Point by Gary Burtless (6.5.14)

Not Another Piketty Symposium by Mike Beggs (Jacobin)

Piketty fever: Bigger than Marx (Economist, 5.3.14)

Why Is r > g So Significant for Piketty? by Dan Kervick (6.4.14)

Piketty, Marx and the roots of inequality by Benjamin Selwyn (Le Monde Diplomatique, 6.6.14)

Piketty’s Fair-Weather Friends by Seth Ackerman (Jacobin, 5.29.14)

Three Ways of Looking at alpha = r k by JW Mason (6.4.14)

Capital Man: Thomas Piketty is economics’ biggest sensation. He’s also the field’s fiercest critic. By Emily Eakin (Chronicle of Higher Education, 4.17.14)

OVER AT EQUITABLE GROWTH: DEPRECIATION RATES ON WEALTH IN THOMAS PIKETTY'S DATABASE: MONDAY FOCUS: JUNE 9, 2014 by DeLong

OVER AT EQUITABLE GROWTH: DAILY PIKETTY: MATT ROGNLIE HAS A FIRST-RATE CRITIQUE: THURSDAY FOCUS FOR JUNE 12, 2014 by DeLong

Housing in the twenty-first century by Ryan Avent (Economist, 6.17.14)

Inequality in the long run by Thomas Piketty and Emanuel Saez (Science, May 2014)

How Inherited Wealth Helps the Economy by Greg Mankiw (The Upshot, 6.21.14)

THE FOUR BIG VALID ISSUES PEOPLE HAVE WITH THOMAS PIKETTY'S GRAND ARGUMENT: OVER AT EQUITABLE GROWTH: FRIDAY FOCUS FOR JUNE 27, 2014 by DeLong

CAPITAL IN PIKETTY'S 'CAPITAL' by Unlearning Economics (Jun 18th 2014)

Piketty’s laws with investment replacement and depreciation by Ton van Schaik, (6 July 2014, Vox)

Explaining Piketty: inequality and the financial crisis by Frances Coppola (7.8.14)

Sumner on Piketty by Frances Coppola (7.7.14)

When The Rate Of Return And The Rate Of Growth Do Not Matter Much For Piketty by Barkley Rosser (Econospeak, 7.7.14)

Piketty vs. Marx (8.11.14, Bookforum)

Yes, Acemoglu and Robinson's review of Piketty is very strange by Daniel Kuehn (8.26.14)

Understanding Piketty, part 3 by Kenneth Thomas (Angry Bear, 8.21.14)

A White Paper on Piketty’s Theory of Inequality and its Critics by Marshall Steinbaum (9.2.14)

Profits

Where do profits come from? by Yglesias

May Day

It's International Workers' Day, here's the case for higher pay by Yglesias

Queering the Strike by Corey Robin

The fading buds of May by Chris Bertram

The Fed and the Financial Crisis by Yglesias

Piketty

OVER AT THE WASHINGTON CENTER FOR EQUITABLE GROWTH: PIKETTY DAY HERE AT BERKELEY: THE HONEST BROKER FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 26, 2014 by DeLong

Thomas Piketty doesn’t hate capitalism: He just wants to fix it by Yglesias

The accidental controversialist: deeper reflections on Thomas Piketty’s “Capital” by Thomas Palley

The Capital Creators, Piketty and Growth Theory by Joshua Gans (Digitopoly)

Capital Punishment: Why a Global Tax on Wealth Won't End Inequality by Tyler Cowen

Piketty list

Why We’re in a New Gilded Age by Paul Krugman (5.8.14 issue)

The short guide to Capital in the 21st Century by Matt Yglesias (4.8.14)

THOMAS PIKETTY UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTED SMACKDOWN WATCH: I FIND MYSELF DISAPPOINTED BY THE USUALLY-RELIABLE JAMES GALBRAITH AND PETHOKOUKIS by DeLong (4.6.14)

Kapital for the Twenty-First Century? by James K. Galbraith (Spring 2014 issue)

The New Marxism, Part Two  by James Pethokoukis (3.31.14)

Piketty on Capital: A Footnote by Henry Farrell (4.5.14)

Capital in the 21 Century: Still Mired in the 19th (See correction) by Dean Baker (3.9.14 / 4.5.14)

Philip Pilkington: Misdirection – Galbraith on Thomas Piketty’s New Book on Capital (4.3.14)

The Top of the World: An ambitious study documents the long-term reign of the 1 percent by Doug Henwood (April/May 2014 issue)

Forces of Divergence: Is surging inequality endemic to capitalism? by John Cassidy (March 31, 2014)

Piketty's Inequality Story in Six Charts by John Cassidy (March 26, 2014)

Dialogue: Eleven (so Far) Worthwhile Reviews of and Reflections on Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”: Wednesday Focus: March 26, 2014 by DeLong (3.25.14)

Piketty

The short guide to Capital in the 21st Century by Matthew Yglesias

Stop freaking out about debt by Yglesias

my idiosyncrasies

The Five Minutes Hate of Chait by Robert Waldmann

I agree more with Chait. Antiwar lefties were against doing anything about Bosnia.

The old rules still apply (What the rest of the profession could learn from Ben Bernanke) by Scott Sumner

I agree more with Sumner and Yglesias than with the supposed lefties who say "loose monetary policy" helps bondholders.

What is at stake in Crimea?

"A key factor behind the Russian aggression is that Putin is strongly determined to make the February revolution in Ukraine a failure. For the second time in less than ten years, Ukrainians have mobilised to oppose corrupt and authoritarian governments. There is a strong determination among a large majority of Ukrainians to live under democratic institutions of high quality, similar to those in the West."

Project X (working title)

Project X (working title) with Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, Dylan Matthews and Melissa Bell.

David Leonhardt tweets about "Vox is our next"

Ezra Klein Is Joining Vox Media as Web Journalism Asserts Itself by David Carr

the blogosphere

Heroes of blogging by Noah Smith

Is growth back?

Did the Last Quarter Finally Bring Growth Back? by Yglesias

The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its latest revision to third quarter gross domestic product numbers and the news is ... really good. It says that the economy's nominal output rose 6.2 percent in the third quarter and that 4.8 of those percentage points were real output.

If true, this is three kinds of good news. The first is that nominal output growth of above 5 percent is the kind of "catch-up" demand that the country needs after a prolonged funk. The second kind of good news is that in the context of that kind of rapid nominal growth, the low inflation number (and therefore the high real growth number) is great news that the economy still has lots of running room. Our workers and our capital goods haven't become useless, there simply hasn't been enough demand for their output. The third piece of good news is that while the previous revision to this figure was basically just a big bump in inventories, today's revision was about final demand so it means the growth is sustainable.

The bad news is ... I'm not entirely persuaded this data is correct. Real gross domestic income, which longtime national accounting fans will recall is an alternative way of estimating the same quantity that RGDP is supposed to measure, rose by a fairly anemic 1.8 percent.

Given enough time, GDP and GDI estimates usually converge ,which is good because GDP=GDI by definition. And in recent years the convergence has usually taken the form of meeting closer to the GDI number than to the GDP number. So this could all be a kind of statistical mirage. I'd say Barack Obama's sagging poll numbers are also an indication that the more pessimistic GDI estimate may be the more accurate one. The conventional wisdom says it's all about the healthcare.gov mishaps, but we all remember from Bill Clinton's second term that robust economic growth leads to a lot of forgiveness. I tend to think that if the economy were really accelerating, we'd see indication of that in a brighter public mood.

Well 7 percent unemployment is much worse than 4 percent.

saltwater in the private sector

Macroeconomic Forecasting and Macroeconomic Methodology: Thursday Focus by DeLong

faster third quarter growth, mostly due to inventory build-up

Smart GDP Pop but a Lot of It Is Noisy Inventories by Jared Bernstein
 
U.S. Growth Faster Than Estimated as Businesses Stock Up

The economy expanded much faster than first thought in the third quarter, as the government on Thursday revised its estimate of growth in the period to a 3.6 percent annual rate from 2.8 percent.

That was significantly better than the 3.1 percent pace economists had been expecting, and it marked the best quarter for growth since the first quarter of 2012, when output jumped by 3.7 percent. It also marked the first time since then that growth had exceeded 3 percent.

Much of the improvement came from additional stocking up on inventory by businesses as well as a slightly improved trade picture.

Inventory changes are notoriously volatile, so while the healthier signals would be welcomed by economists, inventory gains can essentially pull growth forward into the third quarter, causing fourth-quarter gains to slacken.

Indeed, Wall Street was already estimating that the fourth quarter of 2013 would be much weaker than the third quarter, with growth estimated to run at just below 2 percent, according to Bloomberg News.

The anemic pace of fourth-quarter growth also stems from the fallout of the government shutdown in October, as well as the continuing fiscal drag from spending cuts and tax hikes imposed by Congress earlier in 2013.

Still, if the better data on growth from the Commerce Department on Thursday is followed by more robust numbers Friday for the nation’s November job creation and unemployment, it increases the odds the Federal Reserve will soon ease back on stimulus efforts. The jobs data is scheduled to be released by the Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

The labor market data for October was significantly better than expected, despite the government shutdown, and the consensus among economists polled by Bloomberg News is that the economy may have created about 180,000 new jobs in November, while the unemployment rate may have fallen to 7.1 percent from 7.3 percent in October.

Federal Reserve policy makers next meet on Dec. 17 and 18, with an announcement and news conference with the Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, scheduled for the afternoon of Dec. 18.

Investors are eager for signs of stronger economic growth after years of only tepid gains, but they are also nervous about how quickly the Fed will step back from its aggressive stimulus efforts and let long-term interest rates begin to inch back up.

“You can never be unhappy with a 3.6 percent number for gross domestic product,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macreconomics. “But the details are more sobering than the headlines. Apart from the inventory numbers, the revisions are pretty trivial.”

For instance, he said, “Final sales, meaning the demand for goods and services excluding inventories, actually slowed. Either companies thought demand would accelerate and built inventories in anticipation of sales that didn’t happen, or they’re building anticipation of stronger demand in the fourth quarter.”

Mr. Shepherdson added: “It’s very likely we’ll see much slower inventory gains in the fourth quarter.” As a result, if demand doesn’t pick up in the final three months of the year, he explained, growth in the fourth quarter will likely be in the range of 1 percent to 2 percent, he Shepherdson estimated.

Today's Good GDP News Is Actually Bad News by Yglesias

I saw a lot of celebratory tweets just now when the Bureau of Economic Analysis revised its estimate of third quarter GDP upwards to 3.6 percent growth. And, indeed, that's a good number and an upside surprise. But the details are actually quite bad:

The acceleration in real GDP growth in the third quarter primarily reflected an acceleration in private inventory investment, a deceleration in imports, and an acceleration in state and local government spending that were partly offset by decelerations in exports, in PCE, and in nonresidential fixed investment. 

The key phrase here is "private inventory investment" which is when businesses build up their stock of goods. Inventory investment tends to swing. If firms build up inventories of unsold goods in one quarter, they typically spend down that inventory in the next quarter. The workhorses of exports (selling stuff to foreigners), PCE (selling stuff to Americans), and nonresidential fixed investment (so companies can make the stuff they sell to foreigners and to Americans) all decelerated.

Relatedly, Gross Domestic Income—an alternative procedure for counting up the same concept that GDP measures—rose only 1.4 percent in this report. The GDI approach is generally more accurate, further underscoring there are a lot of dark clouds to this silver lining.

German current account balance updated linklist

One list to rule them all! (updated)

German Trade Balance Isn't About Hard Work by Yglesias
Nov. 14, 2013

Europe’s (Low) Inflation Problem by Krugman
Nov. 13, 2013 9:15 p.m.

German Economists Exist to Make Economists Elsewhere Look Good by Dean Baker
Nov. 13, 2013 14:59

In a Good World, Would We Have to Deal with “Global Imbalances”? by DeLong
Nov. 13, 2013  7:45 a.m.

Germany’s Neighbors Admonish It Over Surplus
Nov. 13, 2013

Pressure Is on Germany to Narrow Its Trade Gap
Nov. 12, 2013

Germany’s Lack of Reciprocity by Krugman
Nov. 12, 2013 1:26 a.m.

Europe’s Macro Muddle (Wonkish) by Krugman
Nov. 11, 2013

Sadowski on sterilization
Nov. 4 at 1:34 pm

How Do Those Germans Do It and What Does it Mean for the US? by Jared Bernstein
Nov 04, 2013 at 12:12 pm

China and the EU: Beggaring Neighbors by Dean Baker
Sunday, 03 November 2013 16:26

Eureka! Paul Krugman Discovers the Bank of France by David Glasner
November 3, 2013

The real problem with German macroeconomic policy by Simon Wren-Lewis
Sunday, 3 November 2013

Blame Germany, or Frankfurt? by Ryan Avent
Nov 3rd 2013, 21:41

Europe’s Inflation Problem by Krugman
November 4, 2013, 10:20 am 

The Changing Geography of Beggar-thy-Neighbor by Krugman
November 3, 2013, 3:16 pm

German Surpluses: This Time Is Different by Krugman
November 3, 2013, 6:41 am

Those Depressing Germans by Krugman
November 3, 2013

Is the Paradox of Thrift Actually a Paradox? by Henry Farrell
Nov. 2, 2013

France 1930, Germany 2013 by Krugman
November 2, 2013, 6:00 pm

Sin and Unsinn by Krugman
November 2, 2013, 4:35 pm 

Germany's Export Obsession Is Dooming Europe to a Depression by Matt O'Brien
Nov 2 2013, 9:30 am

Defending Germany by Krugman
November 2, 2013, 9:23 am

Fawlty Europe: Will the European Commission dare to utter the unmentionable to the Germans? by Charlemagne (The Economist)
Novemeber 2, 2013

More Notes On Germany by Krugman
November 1, 2013, 4:54 pm

The Harm Germany Does by Krugman
November 1, 2013, 11:41 am

Germany’s Blind Spot by New York Times Editorial Board
October 31, 2013

Raw Nerve: Germany Seethes at US Economic Criticism  By Christopher Alessi (Spiegel Online)
October 31, 2013 – 06:26 PM 

U.S. Accuses Germany of Causing Instability by Sarah Wheaton
October 30, 2013

Semiannual Report on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies by U.S. Treasury
October 30, 2013

Yellen

Three Interesting Points From Janet Yellen's Testimony by Yglesias

Yellen to Back Stimulus Plan in Remarks to Senators by Binyamin Appelbaum

Charles Evans

Yglesias tweet:

Charlie Evans, hero of good sense:  

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/10/18/feds-evans-bad-idea-to-use-monetary-policy-to-burst-bubbles/ …

Fed’s Evans: Bad Idea to Use Monetary Policy to Burst Bubbles by Michael S. Derby 

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said those who would prefer to tighten monetary policy to reduce the threat of new financial bubbles are barking up the wrong tree.

The central banker, who has been a strong supporter of the Fed taking aggressive actions to aid the economy, said that instead of using monetary policy actions to bolster stability in markets, the central bank should use its expanding portfolio of regulatory powers to target imbalances.

“Without adequate safeguards, excessive and persistently low interest rates could lead to excessive risk-taking by some investors,” Mr. Evans said in the text of a speech to be given in Chicago before the Financial Management Association Annual Meeting Luncheon. But those safeguards now exist: “Regulatory efforts can effectively minimize the risks of another crisis and increase the resiliency of the financial system,” the official said.