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March 08, 2006

The Economy Is Strange

Interesting column in the Washington Post today. The piece is far too short for the subject--that the economy is darned hard to understand right now--but it's a decent primer.

There is also a plethora of data sets that can be used to show that, in reality, we're all still better off than we were 10, 20 or 30 years ago, or, if you wish, that the American Dream is dead and the economy is now run by and for the super-rich. What is almost certain, however, is that fundamental changes in the structure of the labor, product and capital markets are accelerating a long-term trend toward income inequality.

Check it out.

Posted by Eric de Place | Permalink

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Comments

Krugman explained the structure behind this phenomenon of the rich getting richer here:

http://uberdionysus.livejournal.com/298254.html

and here he explains how the middle class is constrained:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/29/opinion/29krugman.html?ex=1141966800&en=215138f17fd5431b&ei=5070

and the poor long-term structure of our economy here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/18/opinion/18krugman.html?ex=1141966800&en=1f93a3581e49a0a0&ei=5070

And the Editor of Foreign Policy magazine explains the inherent social problem with using economics in general for running our lives here:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3389

The economy is a measure of human activity. The complexity of human decision-making and the unequal distribution of information makes prediction in economics problematic at best. The economy is a measure of past activity and has little relation to possible future outcomes.

[enabling HTML in comments good]

Posted by: Dan Staley | Mar 8, 2006 5:47:15 PM

Dan: great links...and great points. Thanks!

Posted by: Clark Williams-Derry | Mar 9, 2006 8:27:35 PM