Yglesias has an odd post today asking: what do widespread cheating scandals within schools captured by the Education Reform Crowd prove? He dedicates most of the post to attacking the idea that cheating scandals provide support for using non-test-based teacher compensation systems, e.g. those based on seniority and degree attainment. I am not sure who… Continue reading Cheating scandals undercut theories of reform success
Author: Matt Bruenig
Policy Shop: The Carbon Tax Is Appropriately Rated
New post at Policy Shop. Having a little fun with this piece at Bloomberg. Excerpt: The bond program also seems to misunderstand the nature of the carbon pollution problem. The bonds are supposed to be sold and redeemed based on estimates of the social cost of a given unit of carbon pollution. But carbon pollution… Continue reading Policy Shop: The Carbon Tax Is Appropriately Rated
Bitcoin + Growth = Deflation
Assume that generally MV=PY, where M is money supply, V is velocity of money, P is the price level, and Y is real GDP. Now assume that we have a bitcoin currency with a fixed money supply (M) and the velocity of money (V) is also constant. If real GDP (Y) increases, the only way… Continue reading Bitcoin + Growth = Deflation
Policy Shop: Job Training Is Not the Answer
New post at Policy Shop. Excerpt: You cannot fix a problem caused by there not being not enough available jobs by training people to do jobs. It won’t work. To be sure, it would help some people get jobs in areas where there not enough workers with the right skills, given that many employers say… Continue reading Policy Shop: Job Training Is Not the Answer
Why I Tend to Disbelieve Employers
So some employers say that they cannot find qualified workers. Maybe that is the case in some situations, but there is a basic problem with the notion that this is holding things back. That basic problem is that if you cannot find qualified workers, you can find unqualified workers and make them qualified. If there… Continue reading Why I Tend to Disbelieve Employers