2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumUncovering the Bad Math (or Logic) of an Economic Analysis Embraced by Bernie Sanders
An academic study that predicted Bernie Sanderss economic platform would cause an enormous economic boom turns out to have been based on faulty math, or bad economic logic.
The analysis produced by Professor Gerald Friedman, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, got a lot of attention when it argued that fully implementing the Sanders program would lead per capita gross domestic product a measure of average income to grow one-third higher in 10 years time than it otherwise would be. In this economic nirvana, jobs would be plentiful, unemployment rare, poverty low, inequality less severe and the budget in surplus. The study is not an official campaign document, but it has been lavishly praised by Mr. Sanderss campaign.
Its such an eye-popping claim that four leading Democratic economists, all former chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers, countered that it cannot be supported by the economic evidence, scolding Mr. Friedman that it makes it that much more difficult to challenge the unrealistic claims made by Republican candidates. And that in turn led to a thousand think pieces, accusations (and denials) of bad faith and an ugly public spat.
The problem is that for all the name-calling, none of Mr. Friedmans critics had figured out what he had gotten wrong.
Until now.
Christina Romer and David Romer, two of the leading macroeconomists of their generation and both professors at the University of California, Berkeley, have just released a careful forensic examination of Mr. Friedmans analysis. (Ms. Romer was one of the four original Democratic economists who had criticized Mr. Friedmans work. And full disclosure: Mr. Romer was for many years my collaborator in editing the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.)
Their excavation uncovered one crucial but buried tidbit, and its basically the whole shebang...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/27/upshot/uncovering-the-bad-math-or-logic-behind-bernie-sanderss-economic-plan.html?_r=0
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)Justin Wolfers is a member of the Peterson Institute for International Economics
http://piie.com/staff/author_bio.cfm?author_id=994
FREE TRADE is GOOD for AMERICA specially when it is controlled by foreign corporations.
These are the folks who negotiated the Free Trade Agreement with South Korea. Remember, South Korea is allowed to import an unlimited number of cars while America is only allowed to import 25000 from each of the Big 3 automakers. Once the treaty was ratified, the following year Korea imported over 400000 cars to US shores
wyldwolf
(43,870 posts)FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)How very telling the Hillary campaign would borrow RATpubliCON talking points
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)Speaking of Voodoo Economics here is a chart showing the severe Upsurge of Income Inequality during Bill Clinton's tenure in office
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/12/a-giant-statistical-round-up-of-the-income-inequality-crisis-in-16-charts/266074/
As you can see the Clintons created Income Inequality even more then Ronald Reagan and George Bush
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)KPN
(15,650 posts)that led to the unsustainable, imbalanced economy we have today. Some folks, including these economists just don't get it. The math is irrelevant. Bernie's not going to be able to wave a magic wand and accomplish all of the economic goals he talks about. But he will stop using the "math" that put us in the place we're in now! And he won't settle for an incremental approach that takes the same 45 years it took to get us here in the first place.
SoLeftIAmRight
(4,883 posts)I love a good joke.
mmonk
(52,589 posts)question everything
(47,534 posts)that the details don't bother them.