Not really so much of an "aside." Climate change is the CULMINATION of a policy regime driven by an intellectual fraud. That policy regime has a misleading name: Potential Pareto Improvement. Sounds like a PPI would mean a "potential improvement," n'est pas? Fooled ya! Lucy snatches the football away and Charlie Brown kicks and tumbles on his Ash.

That's what they want you to do. It keeps you from asking the right questions.

Also whether a change is "efficient" or "equitable" depends on what numeraire you (subjectively) choose. Choose commodity x as the numeraire and policy A is efficient and policy B inefficient. Choose commodity y as the numeraire and policy B is efficient and policy A inefficient. How does one choose between x and y as numeraire? SUBJECTIVELY!

Exactly!

"a growing share of what shows up as manufacturing value added in national statistics is in fact services – either research and design or post-production services..." Could be just a disposition of the national income bean counters to count intermediate production "services" as final consumption "goods". Simon Kuznets would not approve.

You can say that again!

In other words, austerity IS working -- for the one percent of the one percent.

I suspect, though, that these measures are nevertheless benefiting those who they are intended to benefit.

What was the question again?

Their belts or their sphincters?

Yes, indeed, I wrote my master's thesis on the question of how people know exactly what to avert their eyes from to keep from knowing!

Dorning Rasbotham, Esq., was a friend of the poor. Nay, from the bottom of his heart, he was a friend of the poor! He felt tenderly for the poor man and his family. After all, what would become of the rich if there were no poor people to till their fields, pay their rents and manufacture their goods? The Moon Belongs to Everyone: http://econospeak.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-moon-belongs-to-everyone.html

Post hoc ergo propter hoc, eh?

"Unfortunately, as I said, we don’t seem to have learned those lessons. Will we ever?" No. Next question?

Original sin. Case in point, Bryan Caplan who admits, "The minimum wage is far from the most harmful regulation on the books. Why then do I make such a big deal about it? Because it is a symbol of larger evils." http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2013/03/the_vice_of_sel.html#254425 Get it? The "system of natural liberty" is the Garden of Eden. Did you think Adam Smith's first name was a coincidence? Minimum wage is the apple. The Invisible Hand says don't eat it. Satan, the snake, the state -- they all begin with an "s". Did you think that was a coincidence too?

"The academic disagreements are over no job losses or small job losses for highly impacted groups." Wrong. The academic disagreements are theological.

1946?

"a curious absence of full employment as a progressive policy goal..." And since when has "full employment" remained a policy goal of official Keynesianism? 1978?

Ouroboros swallowing its tail or possibly its tail swallowing Ouroboros.

As someone previously not a fan -- hats off to Caroline Baum for an informative interview.

"consumers see that unemployment increases and therefore begin to save more (against the 'rainy day')." I don't suppose that 'rainy day' includes extreme weather events like Sandy.

Testimony of Walter Reuther to the 1955 Joint Congressional Subcommittee Hearings on Automation and Technological Change (p. 124): "Every tool on every operation has a green light, a yellow light, and a red light; and when all the green lights are on, it means that all the tools at each work station are operating up to standard. When a yellow light comes on, on tool No. 38, it means that the tool is still performing, but the tool is becoming fatigued and that is a warning sign, so that the operator sitting there looking at these panels will know that he has to get a replacement tool for tool No. 38. He stands by at that position on the automated machine, and at the point the red light would kick on, on the board, he walks over — the machine automatically stops — he puts the new tool in the place of the tool that is worn out, and automatically the green light comes on and the machine goes on. "When I went through this plant the first time I was told by a top official of the Ford Motor Co.: 'Mr. Reuther, you are going to have trouble collecting union dues from all of these machines.' "And I said: 'You know that is not bothering me. What is bothering me is that you are going to have more trouble selling them automobiles.' That is the real significance. We have mastered the know-how of mass production, and what we need to do is to develop comparable distribution know-how so that we will have markets for the tremendous volume of production that automation now makes possible." That was 1955. We “solved” the distribution know-how problem with something called “credit” a.k.a. debt: credit card debt, mortgage debt, government fiscal policy. How is that distribution know-how solution working out for you? Meanwhile that tremendous volume of cars has contributed to a tremendous volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leading to a tremendous volume of seawater lapping at the NYC and Jersey shores during Sandy. In 1956, Time magazine published a report titled, "One Big Greenhouse" and the Nation published an essay by Kenneth Burke titled "Recipe for Prosperity: 'Borrow. Buy. Waste. Want.'" Those titles speak for themselves http://ecologicalheadstand.blogspot.ca/2013/02/robots.html See also Dorning Rasbotham (1780) "Thoughts on the Use of Machines in the Cotton Manufacture." http://ecologicalheadstand.blogspot.ca/2011/11/moral-philosophers-stone-compleat.html

Happy Days are Here Again!

What's the use of worrying? It never was worth while, so Pack up your troubles in your long-run kit-bag, And smile, smile, smile.

I forgot "Pack Up Your Troubles in your Long-Run Kit Bag!"