News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Life
Culture & Art
Hobbies
News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Culture & Art
Hobbies
Minnen som glömskan inte rår på | LARS P. SYLL
. Marcel Proust hade sin Madeleinekaka. Jag har musiken. Den här låten är för mig alltid förknippad med sommarminnen på 70-talet från Hästveda och Luhrsjön, där jag och kompisen Johan/Jenny brukade spela flipper vid strandcaféet och den här låten gick varm på jukeboxen. Minnen som fortfarande värmer. Minnen som glömskan inte rår på.
The total incompetence of people in charge of the US economy | LARS P. SYLL
. Absolutely gobsmacking! Jared Bernstein -- the chair of the United States Council of Economic Advisers -- obviously needs some good advice about the way monetary systems work. Here's a book he could start his educational tour with:
Ergodicity — a questionable assumption (wonkish) | LARS P. SYLL
. Paul Samuelson once famously claimed that the ‘ergodic hypothesis’ is essential for advancing economics from the realm of history to the realm of science. But is it really tenable to assume — as Samuelson and most other mainstream economists — that ergodicity is essential to economics? Sometimes ergodicity is mistaken for stationarity. But although…
Vägval i finanspolitiken | LARS P. SYLL
I veckans avsnitt av Starta Pressarna fortsätter debatten om det finanspolitiska ramverket och behovet av stora framtida investeringar i infrastruktur, bostäder, försvar och energiomställning. Medverkande i det här avsnittet är -- förutom Daniel Suhonen -- bland annat Lars Calmfors, Elinor Odeberg och Max Jerneck. Som alltid på den här podden -- intressant, slagkraftigt och tankeväckande!
Economics — a dismal and harmful science | LARS P. SYLL
. It’s hard not to agree with DeMartino's critique of mainstream economics -- an unethical, irresponsible, and harmful kind of science where models and procedures become ends in themselves, without consideration of their lack of explanatory value as regards real-world phenomena. Many mainstream economists working in the field of economic theory think that their task…
Susan Neiman on why left is not woke | LARS P. SYLL
. As argued by Susan, the universalist ideas of the Enlightenment are still relevant, despite the numerous criticisms that have been levelled against them. The Enlightenment was characterized by a spirit of exploration that led to new discoveries in both science and culture. Rather than promoting a narrow worldview, it encouraged people to question assumptions…
Nu är det dags ta farväl av reformpedagogiken | LARS P. SYLL
Skolpedagogiska reformimpulser borde så småningom sluta att förlita sig på sjuttiotalets motiv, innebörder och semantik. Annars går det som när en orkester orubbligt fortsätter att spela de gamla välkända melodierna utan att bry sig om att publiken för länge sedan har lämnat salen. Det är på tiden att spela något nytt, man borde våga en…
The non-existence of economic laws | LARS P. SYLL
In mainstream economics, there's -- still -- a lot of talk about 'economic laws.' The crux of these laws — and regularities — that allegedly exist in economics, is that they only hold ceteris paribus. That fundamentally means that these laws/regularities only hold when the right conditions are at hand to give rise to them.…
Immanuel Kant at 300 | LARS P. SYLL
April 22, 2024, marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Immanuel Kant, one of the greatest philosophers in the history of philosophy. Kant's ideas of the Enlightenment are still relevant, despite the numerous criticisms that have been levelled against them. The Enlightenment was characterized by a spirit of exploration that led to new discoveries…
The importance of ‘causal spread’ | LARS P. SYLL
No doubt exists that an entirely different subject has taken over control when it comes to education in scientific methodology in almost the entire field, namely statistics ... The value of the statistical regulatory system should of course not be questioned, but it should not be forgotten that other forms of reflection are also cultivated…
Cutting-edge macroeconomics … | LARS P. SYLL
No sooner had I finished my comment on the irrelevancy of economics but I had confirmation — albeit unwittingly — in this morning’s Financial Times. There on the editorial page was a short column by Soumaya Keynes talking about the rise of Hank. For those of you not on the cutting edge, “Hank” stands for…
California dreaming (personal) | LARS P. SYLL
Although it’s more than forty years now since I was a research student at the University of California, on a rainy day like this, I sure wish I was back in Redondo Beach, Ocean Park, Venice Beach, Berkeley Marina, Tilden Park, Telegraph Avenue, Yosemite, Joshua Tree ..... .
Tourism — a critical perspective | LARS P. SYLL
It may be noted in passing that essentially the same process, in which participation in an activity changes its form, occurs in tourism ... The fact that some tourists are not in search of something different does not remove the anomaly. For if the increased activity of tourists at large deprives only one of their…
Applied econometrics — a messy business | LARS P. SYLL
Do you believe that 10 to 20% of the decline in crime in the 1990s was caused by an increase in abortions in the 1970s? Or that the murder rate would have increased by 250% since 1974 if the United States had not built so many new prisons? Did you believe predictions that the welfare…
Eurofanatiker försöker köra över folket igen | LARS P. SYLL
Efter att ha misslyckats med att få in Sverige i euron på demokratisk väg försöker nu marknadsliberaler andra metoder. ”Jag ser inget behov av en ny folkomröstning om euron” säger Liberalernas ordförande Johan Pehrson ... Syftet med demokrati är inte att folket alltid vet bäst. Det är att eliter alltid lider av grupptänk och hybris,…
Spekulationsbubblor | LARS P. SYLL
Spekulationsbubblor får konsekvenser för hela samhället. Men hur skapas de? Priserna på finansmarknaden sätts efter en annan logik än varor i vår vardag, säger professor Lars Pålsson Syll. Man köper tillgångar, inte för att använda dem, utan för att sälja dem vidare. Tulpanmanin i Holland på 1600-talet är den först kända spekulationsbubblan. Då drabbades bara…
‘These brothers and sisters of mine’ | LARS P. SYLL
It is now more than six months since the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian terrorist groups started. Six months of unimaginable suffering where families have been torn apart, homes destroyed, and thousands of innocent people have died. This one is for you — all you innocent sons and daughters struggling to survive in…
Förklädd Gud | LARS P. SYLL
I dessa tider -- när ljudrummet dränks i den kommersiella radions pubertalflams -- har man nästan gett upp. Men det finns ljus i mörkret. I programmet Text och musik med Eric Schüldt -- som sänds på söndagsförmiddagarna i P2 -- kan man lyssna på seriös musik och en programledare som verkligen har något att säga…
MMT — coming to an economy near you! | LARS P. SYLL
Överskottsmålet är ett hål i huvudet. Riksbanken kommer inte att nå sitt inflationsmål. Euron är dysfunktionell och eurokrisen kommer tillbaka vid nästa recession. Se där tre bra utgångspunkter för den som vill förstå hur ekonomin kommer att utvecklas det närmaste året. Låter det både stolligt, alarmistiskt och populistiskt? Möjligt, men det finns en röd tråd…
Chicago economics — out of touch with the real world | LARS P. SYLL
Tom Sargent is a bit out of touch with the real world up there in his office ... Certain people have a capacity for ignoring facts which are patenty obvious, but are counter to their view of the world; so they just ignore them ... Sargent is a sort of tinkerer, playing an intellectual game.…
Nationalekonomi — mer fiktion än vetenskap | LARS P. SYLL
Den värld vi lever i är i grunden osäker och kvantifierbara sannolikheter är undantaget snarare än regeln. Om ”Gud inte spelar tärning” som Einstein hävdade, skulle jag tillägga ”inte heller människor.” Världen som vi känner den kan endast i begränsad omfattning förstås utifrån antaganden om säker och fullkomlig kunskap. Dess inneboende och nästan obegränsade komplexitet…
What we do in life echoes in eternity | LARS P. SYLL
In science, courage is to follow the motto of enlightenment and Kant's dictum -- Sapere Aude! To use your own understanding, having the courage to think for yourself and question 'received opinion,' authority or orthodoxy. In our daily lives, courage is a capability to confront fear, as when in front of the powerful and mighty, not…
The Swedish for-profit ‘free’ school disaster | LARS P. SYLL
Neo-liberals and libertarians have always provided a lot of ideologically founded ideas and ‘theories’ to underpin their Panglossian view on markets. But when they are tested against reality they usually turn out to be wrong. The promised results are simply not to be found. And that goes for for-profit private schools too. Sweden introduced a…
Chicago economics — nothing but pseudo-scientific cheating | LARS P. SYLL
Unlike anthropologists ... economists simply invent the primitive societies we study, a practice which frees us from limiting ourselves to societies which can be physically visited as sparing us the discomforts of long stays among savages. This method of society-invention is the source of the utopian character of economics; and of the mix of distrust…
Why the euro has to be abandoned | LARS P. SYLL
The euro has taken away the possibility for national governments to manage their economies in a meaningful way -- and the people have had to pay the true costs of its concomitant misguided austerity policies. The unfolding of the repeated economic crises in Euroland during the last decade has shown beyond any doubt that the…
The man who never wavered — Alan Bates | LARS P. SYLL
In science, courage is to follow the motto of enlightenment and Kant’s dictum — Sapere Aude! To use your understanding, dare to think for yourself and question ‘received opinion,’ authority or orthodoxy. In our daily lives, courage is the capability to confront fear, as when in front of the powerful and mighty, not to step…