Mainstream Economics (Partial) Smackdown

Krugman answers the question "How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?" Well-written, but he does do what he accuses 'freshwater economists' of doing to 'saltwater economists'. The rest of us, who are in neither camp, are left out entirely. Amazingly, in an essay explaining how economists missed the real estate bubble and financial crisis, he doesn't mention Minsky once. Let alone Marxists, who were arguing that capitalism is inherently unstable long before Keynes. Ah, well. Et tu, Paul?

h/t Mankiw

David Frum is a genius . . . oh, wait

In Four simple steps to health care reform, heard on Marketplace last night, David Frum makes the case that what we really need to do is reform individuals, not health care. He makes some good points, and also an excellent point he did not, I think intend. First the good points. Individual actions matter. He is a genius. That must be why he gets paid the big bucks. If people smoked less, ate less, exercised more, etc. blah-blah-blah. You already know all this, right? He does add some useful numbers about savings we could realize if people acted as if they really cared about their health, which I'm too lazy to fact check. Let's concede the point. All right?
Then we can move on to the excellent point:

Our infant morality statistics are awful, worse than Cuba's. It's these infant deaths that pull down American life expectancy overall. Once Americans reach 65, American life expectancy ranks a respectable 9th in the world.

Why so many infant deaths? The shockingly high American incidence of premature birth: about one baby in eight. And the most important causes of premature birth are controllable: smoking during pregnancy, drinking, drugs, maternal overweight, and sexually transmitted diseases.

We all want wider health access and a more rational health-care system. But a big obstacle to a better system is our expectation that doctors, hospitals, and machines will save us from the harms we do to ourselves.

Hmm, if we're so crappy at taking care of our health when we're younger, why do we do so well once we reach that magical age of 65? "Say, isn't that the age at which that socialized health system called Medicare kicks in?" I hear you ask (it's a fair question: not everyone gets this point). The answer of course, is yes, yes it is. Coincidence? Hah-ha. Maybe.

Naturally, correlation does not mean causation, and the fact that seniors do so well in the US, comparatively, could be due in part to other factors. Also, this isn't to say that taking better care of ourselves is a bad idea. I'm just sayin'. Medicare works.

Patrick J. Buchanan Hearts Hitler - it's official

Oh. My. God. Pat Buchanan says Hitler didn't want war. He just wanted to be friends with his neighbors. Poor Adolf. Pushed into a massive mobilization on the Polish border. Pushed (somehow) into making deals with Stalin over who would get what part of Poland “In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish state." Whocouldanode that such a "rearrangement" might come from a German invasion nine days later? Please.
If you want to be fair to Buchanan's argument, go read Did Hitler Want War? Bring your own barfbag.

h/t Volokh Conspiracy

Russian economic catastrophe

Six million Russians fall into poverty in the first three months of 2009.

The Guardian

No kicks on rt 66 these days

Excellent series (so far) at the Guardian: The Grapes of Wrath revisited: "From Oklahoma to California, Chris McGreal re-traces the route of Steinbeck's epic depression era novel." After the first two installments, I can say this is an exceleent piece detailing the impacts of the Great Recession on people, wrapping in health care, deindustrialization and strange politics.

Chef has recipe for economic disaster

Michelle, at Thursday Night Smackdown, has as interesting an economic prediction as I've seen on the Hobo Mondays page. Scroll down and you'll see the following:

The Rules: Since we’re all poor now and our economy is going to keep heading down the shitter until it somehow finds an even bigger shitter down which to hurl itself*, Cheap Ass Mondays (now Tuesdays) seemed like a much better idea for an event.

Then the footnote:

*My prediction: this will continue to happen, with the economy throwing itself down progressively more and more enormous shitters, until we discover a black hole at the center of the universe that is actually a giant toilet. Take that, Hawking.

Brilliant. Why are you not reading this blog?

House Prices Won't Be Rising for Long

James Hamilton, at Econbrowser, notes that he's surprised by the 0.75% increase in average house prices (as measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller Index of twenty cities). He also says he's skeptical because of the backlog of unsold homes, likely increases in foreclosures, and high, rising unemployment, especially since Calculated Risk is, too. I agree that there's reason to be skeptical, especially since this rise in prices is likely to be a surge of people cashing in on the Obama stimulus package's $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, which expires this fall. If prices continue to rise beyond that critical point, I'd say my skepticism (and CR's and Hamilton's) are wrong.