Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

1. Paul de Grauwe: Quantitative Easing and the Euro Zone: The Sad Consequences of the Fear of QE http://equitablegrowth.org/2015/01/21/morning-must-read-paul-de-grauwe-quantitative-easing-euro-zone-sad-consequences-fear-qe/: QE without régime change--and these days QE is and will be without régime change--is both (a) worth doing and (b) not a big deal; yet the entire German establishment seems to be seeking a ditch to die in over it...
2. Over at Equitable Growth: North Atlantic Bond Markets and the Near-Term Macroeconomic Outlook http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2015/01/over-at-equitable-growth-north-atlantic-bond-markets-and-the-near-term-macroeconomic-outlook.html: full recovery in the North Atlantic looks as far off as ever--and so looks on both sides of the North Atlantic...
3. Ezra Klein: Why Republicans Can't Replace ObamaCare http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2015/01/nighttime-must-read-ezra-klein-why-republicans-cant-replace-obamacare.html: very few Republican politicians care or are willing to sacrifice anything to even put forward a health-care financing plan that adds...
4. DeLong Smackdown Watch: How Do Projected Long-Run Deficits Matter? http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2015/01/delong-smackdown-watch-how-do-projected-long-run-deficits-matter.html: why making "putting our fiscal house in order" one of your top three priorities is to fall victim to a con game...
5. Yet More Right-Wing Grifters Gotta Grift: Ben Carson Edition http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2015/01/yet-more-right-wing-grifters-gotta-grift-ben-carson-edition.html: and Wonkette tells us that National Review IS ON IT!...
6. Delusional Brownback Doubles Down: Live from the Roasterie http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2015/01/delusional-brownback-doubles-down-live-from-the-roasterie.html: at this stage Brownback has to be in on the Kansas tax con, but was he in on it at the beginning--and who was in on the Kansas tax con in the beginning, anyway?...
7. Sokrates and Friends in Davos, or, the SNB and the Berne Whale: The Honest Broker for the Week of January 18, 2014 http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2015/01/sokrates-and-friends-in-davos-or-the-snb-and-the-berne-whale-the-honest-broker-for-the-week-of-january-18-2014.html: what is going on with Switzerland, anyway?...
8. Scene-Setting for the Policy Discussion: The American Economy Stumbles http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2015/01/over-at-equitable-growth-scene-setting-for-the-policy-discussion-the-american-economy-stumbles.html: how bad has the past generation actually been for the American economy?...
9. Tim Worstall: Facebook Explains Why Marc Andreessen And Larry Summers Disagree http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2015/01/afternoon-must-read-tim-worstall-facebook-explains-why-marc-andreessen-and-larry-summers-disagree.html: how Summers is likely right that GDP growth will slow, and Andreessen likely right that improvements in well-being will speed up...
10. Aristokles: Plato's Seventh Letter: Live from the Fortress of Ortygia in Syracuse http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2015/01/platos-seventh-letter-live-from-the-fortress-of-ortygia-in-syracuse.html: Plato or pseudo-Plato on the difficulties of running a think-tank...
11. Thomas Piketty: On the Elasticity of Capital-Labor Substitution http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2015/01/over-at-equitable-growth-thomas-piketty-on-the-elasticity-of-capital-labor-substitution.html: as I have said before, the argument Thomas Piketty ought to be making is a rent-seeking society argument...
12. Plutarch: Liveblogging 301 BC, Fall: The Battle of Ipsus http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2015/01/liveblogging-301-bc-fall-the-battle-of-ipsus.html the death of Antigonos One-Eye, and the birth of the empires of the diadochi...

One interesting thing has entered my consciousness in the past month: You know that "CableWiFi" wireless network you sometimes see? It's being built out rapidly. My machines can connect to it. It's reasonably fast. It's the cable companies getting into the distributed WiFi business. They must see it as a cheap thing they can do with their existing network that adds value to their customers while costing them little...

And the one thing that everybody should be reading this week is Barry Eichengreen's superb Hall of Mirrors... https://www.amazon.com/Hall-Mirrors-Depression-Uses-Misuses-/dp/0199392005