Archive for the ‘trade’ Category

Journal Entry

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

Lee at Thinking Reed takes a whack at everyone’s favorite macroeconomic pinata, the awfulness of GDP as a meaningful measure of national well-being, or wealth, or much of anything else. I would add another huge problem: macroeconomics lacks even a primitive form of national balance-sheet accounting. It’s a truism among investors that income statements (”the P&L”) are for suckers: cash flow and the balance sheet - the summary of assets and liabilities - give you a better picture of the real health of a company.

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Posted in economics, environment, trade | 9 Comments »

How Do You Give The Middle Finger In Semaphore?

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

Richard Posner writes:

Expanded drilling in U.S. territory (including our territorial waters) will reduce both U.S. dependence on foreign oil and the wealth of foreign oil-producing countries, many of which are hostile or potentially hostile to the United States. These are important benefits.

A friend of mine tweets, “this is simply untrue…Dependence would not be reduced in any meaningful sense.” He’s correct of course, but there’s more wrong with this claim than just the factual inaccuracy of the idea that offshore drilling can meaningfully reduce our dependence on foreign oil. (more…)

Posted in Foreign Policy, economics, energy policy, environment, free markets, globalization, trade | 6 Comments »